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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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Rocky spring In 1799, something that was very undesirable for Goethe happened: the duke asked him to translate Voltaire's play. When he finally translated it in 1800, he laid bare his discomfort in his letter to the duke: "My prince's desire forced me to translate Voltaire's drama 'Mahomet,' which would be very strange to some. I owe him a lot." It was strange for him to translate Voltaire's play, and he was unwilling because of his reverence and admiration for the prophet. He had written a praiseworthy poem called "Mahomets Gesang" ("Muhammad's Song") when he was just 23 years old. His poem starts with "See the rocky spring/Clear as joy" in reference to Prophet Muhammed. He symbolizes the prophet as a river of joy which takes its source from eternity and says any obstacle could stand against him later on in the poem.