Mahound

alternative Mahoun · alternative Mahoune

1. archaicMuhammad, believed by medieval Europeans to be a demon or god that Muslims worshipped.First known use 13th c.

   But, when he to himselfe returnd againe, / All full of rage he gan to curse and sweare, / And vow by Mahoune that he should be slaine.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   For nations tvvaine inhabite there and dvvell / Of ſundry faith, together in that tovvne [Jerusalem], / The leſſer part on Chriſt beleeued vvell, / On Termagant the more, and on Mahovvne.

   1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The First Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC, stanza 84, page 18

   "Now, in faith," said Wamba, "I cannot see that the worshippers of Mahound and Termagaunt have so greatly the advantage over the people once chosen of Heaven."

   1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter VII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 82

2. IrelandScotlandarchaicThe Devil.First known use 14th c.

   And there were vessels that are wrought by magic of Mahound out of seasand and the air by a warlock with his breath that he blares into them like to bubbles.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

3. obsoleteA generic pagan god or idol believed by medieval Europeans to be worshipped by various villains such as Herod I.First known use 13th–16th c.