Origin and history of Muhammad

former common English transliteration of Muhammad.

The worst of letting the learned gentry bully us out of our traditional Mahometan & Mahomet ... is this: no sooner have we tried to be good & learnt to say, or at least write, Mohammed than they are fired with zeal to get us a step or two further on the path of truth, which at present seems likely to end in Muhammad with a dot under the h .... [H.W. Fowler, "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage," 1926]

name of the idol which the Templars were accused of worshipping, regarded as a corruption of Mahomet (see Muhammad), "a name which took strange shapes in the Middle Ages" [Century Dictionary]. Related: Baphometic.

a popular form of the name Muhammad (the prophet of Islam) in Middle English, late 14c., via Old French. Other Middle English variants, dating back to c. 1200, include Makomete, macomete, machamete, machamote, mahimet, mahumet macumeth, makamed. In Middle English maumet was "a representation of a pagan deity, an idol" (c. 1200); "a false god" (mid-14c.), from Old French mahumet; hence also maumetrie "worship of pagan deities, idolatry." A curious misunderstanding of a prophet and faith notable for severe monotheism. Related: Mahometan.