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What boosted Goethe's interest in the Prophet Muhammad

The Age of Enlightenment, which gave rise to the French Revolution, undermined the church's authority in Europe. While the church previously controlled all the information on Islam and Prophet Muhammad, this began to be questioned with the Enlightenment. The details on the prophet, in particular, were investigated once again, which manifested itself in the fields of culture, arts and literature. Anti-Islamism under the control of the church lost influence; however, the hatred took a different form this time. For instance, Voltaire, a prominent French Enlightenment writer, pushed all his humanist ideas to the background and targeted Prophet Muhammad. He prepared a disparaging stage play featuring imputations about him, which formed a basis for many radical secularist plays. Despite all these publications that fueled hatred in Europe, there were also those who praised and defended the prophet. German Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the most prominent writers of world literature, is the poster child of this.

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He showed how the Arabs protected their faith and culture through the miraculous language of the Quran and the deep meaning it contains as an example to him. He also suggested if the Germans, who dominated Europe, had classic books in their own language, Latin would not be dominating the German language. For this reason, Goethe always meticulously prepared his works to contribute to the German language. Indeed, in 1774, his first novel, "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers" ("The Sorrows of Young Werther"), had broad repercussions. Reflecting feelings, thoughts and psychology of youth, the book gained a great reputation worldwide and has been translated into 64 languages so far. It also took him 60 years to write his magnum opus, "Faust," a world classic that he would call "the work of my life." The second part of the book was published posthumously.