While serving as the French Consul General in Jeddah in 2012, Louis Blin began compiling an encyclopedia of French literature that referenced the city. To his surprise, he discovered that one of the poems, The Legend of the Ages, penned by the renowned French poet and author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, mentioned Jeddah. Upon further research, Blin found that mentions of the Prophet Muhammad and the Holy Quran appeared over a hundred times in his works.
In Victor Hugo and Islam, Blin reveals that his chief motivation for writing the book was to counter the rising Islamophobia that was sweeping through Europe. This was reflected in the fact that the book was turned down by 67 French publishing houses before Erick Bonnier finally put it out.
Given his global stature, Hugo's interest in Islam is particularly significant. In interviews and articles, Blin explains that Hugo was not just a passive observer but an admirer of Muslim culture and Islam's influence on human civilisation. But he was not always that way. In his youth, Hugo harboured racism towards Islam, and it wasn't until personal tragedy hit him at the age of 56 when his daughter tragically died that he embarked on a spiritual journey.
From 1853 to 1856, he wrote The Legend of the Ages, an epic that includes The Ninth Year of the Hijra—a poem focused on the life of Prophet Muhammad. The poem delves into various aspects of the Prophet’s life, ending with his death, and is rich in Islamic references.
Although some Muslims have cited this work as evidence of Hugo’s conversion to Islam—with some even making the claim that he referred to himself as "Abu Bakr Hugo"—Blin says there is no credible evidence to back it up and that Hugo’s relationship with religion was more mystical than doctrinal.
Disillusioned by Catholicism’s political entanglements, Hugo turned toward spirituality and admired Prophet Muhammad as an exemplary figure. His poem about the Prophet reflects this admiration, much like his work The Cedar, which draws on the Quranic reference to “Sidrat al-Muntaha.” Hugo wrote The Cedar between 20 and 24 October 1858, shortly after the assassination of the French consul, the British vice-consul, and 24 others in Jeddah, then under Ottoman rule.
