In the history of Western responses to Islam, what is fascinating about Leibniz is that he exemplifies a certain ideological overlap, a peculiar transition between a theological repudiation of Islam (Muslims as enemies of Christ) and an early Enlightenment rejection of the "Mohammedan" (Muslims as enemies of reason and civilization). Sometimes Leibniz's Mohammedan is the Erbfeind or hereditary enemy/ritual foe, other times he is elevated to the status of mere barbarian, whilst on rare occasions he is even grudgingly acknowledged to be the professor of a natural (though still errant) philosophy.

XREF: Connects to broader scholarship on Orientalism (Said) and the Enlightenment's framing of Islam as opposed to reason.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 361