Fanaticism, or Mohammed the prophet

Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet (Le Fanatisme, ou Mahomet le prophète), first staged in 1741, is a dramatic tragedy that uses the figure of Muhammad—here portrayed as Mahomet—as a vehicle to examine religious extremism, manipulation, and ambition under the guise of spiritual authority. The play is set during the conquest of Mecca and portrays Mahomet as a shrewd, unscrupulous leader who uses divine pretensions to consolidate power and justify assassination. Central to the plot is Mahomet’s coercion of the noble Seid into murdering his own father, demonstrating how doctrinal fervor can corrupt moral judgment. The play draws sharp distinctions between spiritual sincerity and institutionalized dogma, depicting religious authority as a mask for tyranny and personal gain. Despite being framed as a tragedy, the structure is didactic and relentlessly polemical, with characters embodying abstract ideas more than individual psychologies.

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The play was first performed in Lille in April 1741,before being staged in Paris in August of the same year. It was controversial from the start. Voltaire had long admired classical tragedy but turned to contemporary themes with biting political resonance, and in Mahomet he chose a subject that could neither be dismissed as irrelevant nor easily defended. French censors allowed it to run under the guise of historical drama, though its anticlerical overtones were unmistakable. Voltaire, cautious but unrepentant, claimed that he intended the work as an attack on religious fanaticism in general, not Islam in particular, and even dedicated the printed version to Pope Benedict XIV, a gesture more tactical than sincere. Nevertheless, it quickly became one of the clearest expressions of Enlightenment hostility to the abuse of religious authority. Banned in Geneva and elsewhere, it nevertheless found admirers in circles that saw it as a critique not only of ancient religious excess but also of contemporary political manipulation under theological pretense.