On relics and mausoleums. The death of the Prophet Muhammad between history and legend in the Mediterranean context

This contribution analyses some motifs related to the death, relics, and tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in some of his medieval Latin legendary biographies, namely the dismemberment of his body, the keeping of his relics in the Ka'ba, and his suspended reliquary-sepulchre. It argues that these motifs, rather than resulting from a bi-polar dialectical approach to the life of the Prophet (Muhammad vs. Jesus; Mecca vs. Jerusalem; Islamic way of life vs. Christian way of life) for polemical purposes, originate from a reflection on Arabic terms, Islamic practices, and recent history.