An Italian poem from the end of 7th CE about Muḥammad’s biography. Maometto, legislatore degli Arabi e fondatore dell’impero musulmano, by Alberto Baccanti

Abstract

This paper presents and analyzes the content of a little known Italian poem about the biography of the Prophet Muhammad. This work, entitled ‘Maometto legislatore degli Arabi e fondatore dell' impero musulmano’, was composed in the late eighteenth century by Alberto Baccanti, canon from Casalmaggiore. In addition to offering a comprehensive summary of the plot, we identify the main sources, in particular, the biography of Muḥammad published in 1748 by Jean Gagnier, and we discuss other issues, such as the literary context in which it appears, the adaptation of biographical material to formal codes of epic poetry and the ideological treatment of the Prophet Muhammad’s biography.