Son Dönem Osmanlı Müelliflerinin Çalışmalarında Zeyd-Zeyneb Hadisesi Bağlamında Voltaire’in “Fanatizm veya Peygamber Muhammed’in Bağnazlığı” Adlı Tiyatro Eseri Üzerine Bazı Değerlendirmeler

Abstract

Abstract As it is known, shortly after its appearance on the stage of Islam, Islam has become the target of other religious circles, who regard this new religion as their greatest rival. As a result of the spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula to China and from the Middle East to Europe, the non-Muslim world, especially Christianity, entered into a struggle against Islam. This struggle began to manifest itself in the scientific and cultural spheres as well as in the political and military spheres, and not only against the religion itself, but also against the Prophet Muhammad. The rapid progress of Islam in the East and the West in a short period of time drew the attention of Western society to this new religion and led them to research on Islam and Islamic sciences. However, this interest of Europeans was not due to their admiration of Islam, but because they wanted to harm both Islam and Muslims by getting to know the religion closely. In this direction, the Western world tried to defame the Prophet Muhammad with unfair accusations and wrote many works for this. The subject they used most was the family life of the Prophet Muhammad. The polygamy of the Prophet Muhammad and especially his marriage with Zaynab bint Jahsh, who had been divorced by his adopted son Zayd b. Harithah, was described by Western writers and it was used to criticize Muhammad and Islam and even to attack Islam. In this way, one of the authors who distorted the truth about the Prophet Muhammad and Islam is the French writer Voltaire. Voltaire’s play Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le Prophete Tragedie / Mahomet the Prophet or Fanaticism, which has been staged several times in European theaters, has aroused great indignation in Islamic society, especially in the Ottoman public. In this research, the rumors and comments about the subject were tried to be evaluated. Summary Shortly after its appearance on the World stage, Islam became the target of other religious circles, who regarded this new religion as their greatest rival. As a result of the spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula to China and from the Middle East to Europe, the non-Muslim world, especially Christianity, entered into a struggle against Islam. This struggle began to manifest itself in the scientific and cultural spheres as well as in the political and military spheres and was targeted not only against the religion itself but also against the Prophet Muhammad. The rapid progress of Islam in the East and the West in a short period of time drew the attention of Western society to this new religion and led them to research Islam and Islamic sciences. However, this interest of the Europeans was not due to their admiration of Islam, but it was because they wanted to harm both Islam and Muslims by getting to know the religion closely. This way, the Western world tried to defame the Prophet Mohammad with unfair accusations and produced many works on this subject. The subject they used most was the family life of the Prophet Muhammad. The polygamy of the Prophet Muhammad and especially his marriage with Zaynab bint Jahsh, who had been divorced by his adopted son Zayd b. Harithah was described by Western writers and it was used to criticize Muhammad and Islam and even to attack Islam. One of the authors who distorted the truth about Muhammad and Islam in this regard is the French writer Voltaire. Voltaire’s play Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le Prophete Tragedie / Mahomet the Prophet or Fanaticism, which has been staged several times in European theaters, has aroused great indignation in Islamic society, especially in the Ottoman public. Zaynab bint Jahsh is the daughter of Prophet Muhammad ’s aunt. Whereas Zayd b. Harithah is Mohammed’s freed slave. After his release from slavery, Mohammed adopted him. Prophet Muhammad married Zayd to Zaynab. But this marriage didn’t last long and Zayd and Zaynab got divorced. A few months later, Prophet Muhammad received a revelation from Allah that ordered him to marry Zaynab. In this verse, the Quran aims to eliminate the situation which it is forbidden to marry the adopted son’s divorced wife in ancient Arab traditions. Muhammad married Zaynab after Allah’s command and this Arabic tradition has disappeared. The marriage of Mohammed and Zaynab was to be much discussed by the orientalists in the following centuries. Orientalists manipulated this issue to attack Islam. It was often claimed that the permission to marry an adopted son’s divorced wife was only declared because Muhammad wanted to marry Zaynab. But this is a definite slander of the orientalists. Because, if Muhammad’s real wish was to marry Zaynab he would have done this a long time ago. Many orientalists made false claims about Muhammad’s marriage to Zaynab. The French writer Voltaire also wrote a play about this event. Voltaire wrote this theater play about Prophet Muhammad , his adopted son Zayd and Zayd’s divorced wife Zaynab who married the Prophet Muhammad after being divorced by Zayd. It was written based on the marriage of the Prophet and Zaynab. This work of Voltaire, which continued to be discussed both in his own period and in the later years, in set in an exotic land, with false identities, that describes an illegal play of love, long-lost fathers and children find each other and all are described as a complex tale that leads to murder or suicide. In this work, Voltaire described Muhammad in very humiliating terms. In the West, the idea of Prophet Muhammad was already negative. Voltaire’s play seems to have increased the negativity of Muhammad’s perception much further. Therefore, there have been great reactions and objections to this theater play in Islamic society.