Without any doubt, the perception of the Islamic Prophet, Muhammad, in Western culture is one of the most complicated themes to explain and investigate. In medieval times, he appears in Dante’s (1265–1321) well-known work, The Divine Comedy, in Canto “XXVIII of Hell,” among the “sowers of discord and schism,” along with his son-in-law and cousin ‘Ali.

The punishment to which he is subjected is mutilation, having been conceived and perceived as bringing division to the Christian religion during his lifetime. This scene, evidently so impactful, also had its own artistic reproduction in the church of San Petronio in Bologna. Indeed, in the Chapel of the Three Kings, there is a fresco, attributed to Giovanni da Modena (1379?–1455?), depicting this scene. Certainly, this image must be placed in a precise historical moment and within a precise framework of relations between the Christian West and the Muslim East.

Since the writing of Dante’s work, history has moved on and a return of Islam has been witnessed in Italy through migratory flows. Starting from this specific geographical, historical, and sociological framework, the present proposal aims to investigate the vision of Muhammad through contemporary Italian historiography, with a careful eye on Muslim-Christian relations, as well as on the now structural presence of Muslim students in Italian schools.