Mahomet the Prophet
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Mahomet the Prophet |
| Original title: | Le fanatisme ou Mahomet le Prophète |
| Genus: | tragedy |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Voltaire |
| Premiere: | April 10, 1741 |
| Place of premiere: | Lille |
| people | |
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Le fanatisme ou Mahomet le Prophète , German Mahomet the Prophet , is a five-act tragedy by the French writer and philosopher Voltaire .
Voltaire's Mahomet is a poetic statement against religious fanaticism and against the hypocrisy and arbitrariness of the powerful, shaped by the ideas of the Enlightenment . The play joins a series of literary works in which Voltaire takes to the field against fanaticism, religious narrow-mindedness and against intellectual intolerance .
Voltaire's image of the prophet Mohammed corresponds to ideas also held by other representatives of the French Enlightenment, such as Pierre Bayle .
history
The tragedy Mahomet premiered in Lille on April 10, 1741 . Only three more performances followed in Paris at the Comédie-Française . Despite the great success with the public, the play was taken off the program on August 13, 1742 by order of the Attorney General Cardinal Joly de Fleury (1718-1802) after violent interventions by the church censor Crébillon and the Jansenists . Fleury was utterly disturbed by the audience's reactions. He justified the censorship with the fact that the play was an outrage full of shamefulness, nefariousness, unbelief and godlessness .
In 1745 Voltaire sent his piece with a dedication to Pope Benedict XIV , who thanked him for two medals with his portrait. Despite this, Mahomet remained banned in France until 1751.
content
Mahomet, banished from Mecca by Sherif Sopir because of an attempted coup , arrived before Mecca after the conquest of almost all of Arabia . Sopir and Mahomet still have bills open: Sopir had killed Mahomet's only son and he had killed Sopir's children. Young Palmire, whom he kidnapped from the house of Sopir and who loves him like a father, lives with Mahomet. She is in love with Séide, a Mahomet's slave.
Sopir negotiates with Omar, an army leader of the Prophet, about the terms of a peace agreement. If Sopir converts to the teachings of Mahomet and follows him, Mahomet wants to share the booty with him, and his slave Séide is to be handed over to him as a hostage. But Sopir refuses.
Mahomet confesses to Omar that he is in love with Palmire and that the love between Séide and Palmire fills him with maddened jealousy. He reveals to Omar that Séide and Palmire are the sherif's children, believed to be dead.
In an open conversation with Sopir Mahomet explains his strategy. He wants to use the popular myths and legends for his goals: Let us confidently endeavor the madness of the earth; I feel destined to be their Lord (II, 4). He sees for himself the historical chance of a world empire according to the laws of the Koran , since all previous empires with their gods have perished. He developed the vision of a new world and felt called to lead Arabia to a new greatness. I overthrow the false gods, new worship, the first stage of my greatness, attracts hearts; My teaching… makes you unshakable, and my law creates heroes. (II, 5).
Sopir rejects Mahomet's offer, whereupon Mahomet makes him a second offer: He will give him back his children, who are still alive, if he switches to Mahomet's side and serves him, the prophet. But for Sopir there is no choice, he will not sacrifice the welfare of his country to his personal wishes.
Mahomet instructs Séide to kill his father, whom he does not know, and promises him to pay Palmire: blindly obey divine commands…. Splattered with an unjust blood, you enter into eternal life splendidly (III, 5). After the fact, Séide, the confidante and rival, is said to be murdered. Séide is thrown into a serious conflict of conscience because he values Sopir and feels drawn to him. He wonders: is that a God who commands hatred? and But my confused mind does not yet understand how this good God, the Father of men, can direct me to assassinate. (IV, 3)
But finally he stabs Sopir to death. He and Palmire must now find out that he killed their father.
Among Mahomet's followers, the sherif's sudden death is initially interpreted as a miracle. But now the fate of the prophet seems to be turning, as the real motives for the murder spread among the people at lightning speed. When Séide tries to stab the Prophet, a poison administered to him begins to work and he is unable to raise his arm against him. He dies from the poison. This, too, is propagated as God's punishment, as a reward for revolt against God's messengers (V, 4). Desperate about the death of his father and his beloved brother, Palmire stabs himself with the words: The world is for tyrants, live! (V, 6)
expenditure
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Mahomet, tragédie by M. de Voltaire. Représentée sur le théatre de la Comedie-Francoise, le 9 aout 1742. À Bruxelles, 1742 (France, unknown printer)
- 8 °; 72 p. (BN No. 1004)
- 8 °; 78 p. (BN No. 1005)
- 8 °; 72 p. (BN No. 1006)
- 8 °; II, 70 p. (Bestermann, 46)
- Mahomet, tragédie by M. de Voltaire. Représentée sur le theater de la Comedie-Francoise, le 9 aout 1742. [Paris] 1742 (France, unknown printer), 8 °; 89 p. (BN No. 1008)
- Mahomet, tragédie by M. de Voltaire. Représentée sur le theater de la Comedie-Francoise, le 9 aout 1742. [Rouen] 1742 (France, unknown printer), 8 °; 89 p. (BN No. 1009)
- Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le prophète, tragédie par M. de Voltaire. À Amsterdam, chez Étienne Ledet et Compagnie, 1743, 8 °; XXII, 112 p. (BN No. 1010)
- Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le prophète, tragédie par M. de Voltaire. À Amsterdam, chez Jaques Désbordes, 1743, 8 °; XXII, 112 pp.
- Mahomet, tragédie by M. de Voltaire. Représentée sur le théatre de la Comedie-Francoise, le 9 aout 1742. À Amsterdam, 1743, 8 °; 76 p. [1]
- Mahomet. Paris 1788
- Mahomet ou le Fanatisme. Le Temps singulier, Nantes 1979 (with a foreword by Emil Cioran )
- German
- Die Schwärmerey, or Mahomet the Prophet. Anonymous translation. Brunswick 1748
- Mahomet the prophet of lies. Anonymous translation. Vienna 1749
- Mahomet the Prophet. Translated by Johann Friedrich Löwen . Leipzig 1768
- Mahomet. Translated and edited by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . Cotta, Tübingen 1802; Reclam, Leipzig 1905
literature
- Ahmad Gunny: Tragedy in the Service of Propaganda. Voltaire's Mahomet. In: Alan Howe & Richard Waller: En marge du classicisme. Essays on the French Theater from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Liverpool University Press, 1987, ISBN 0853231052 , pp. 227-242.
- Peter Müller: Mahomet. In: Kindler's new literary lexicon . Volume 17, p. 264
- Cornelia Klettke: Mythization and modeling of fanaticism in Voltaire's tragedy Mahomet. In: Romance journal for the history of literature. Vol. 27, issue 1/2 (2003), pp. 55-66.
Text online
- Le Fanatisme, ou Mahomet le prophète in French in the Gallica project of the BNF
- Le Fanatisme, ou Mahomet le prophète in French at Wikisource
- Goethe: Mahomet. Tragedy in five acts to Voltaire . Cotta, 1802 ( Goethe's translation in the Google book search).
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