IN THE WORKS OF THE OTTOMAN AUTHORS SOME EVALUATIONS ON VOLTAIRE'S THEATRICAL WORK MAHOMET THE PROPHET OR FANATICISM IN THE CONTEXT OF ZAYD-ZAYNAB ISSUE

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.