Five Allusions in Hamlet to Islam

ALLUSIONS TO ISLAM IN HAMLET: 
BACKGROUND: Some Protestants like Luther viewed Islam with concern and envy as a false religion but admiring the unity of the Ottoman Empire compared to Christianity. Luther compared discipline in Islam to Catholic admiration for works (not "faith alone") for salvation. Luther aided in the publication of a German translation of the Qur’an. The Ottoman Empire was a geopolitical threat; Turkish pirates in the Mediterranean had captured Christians, and some of these converted to Islam. 

There are three relatively direct references in Hamlet to Islam or its adherents, plus two more indirect references: 

A. Hamlet refers to Termagant [1] in 3.2.14, with Termagant as a fictional god, in Christian propaganda, falsely attributed and used to discredit Islam [2]. 

B. Hamlet’s fortunes may “turn Turk” (3.2.302, may betray him like a Christian converting to Islam); but this may be ironic given Shakespeare’s later play about Othello the Moor, and the “stranger’s case” speech attributed to Shakespeare in Sir Thomas More. 

C. Hamlet calls his uncle Claudius a ‘moor” (3.4.77, possibly implying various meanings [3], including a religious reference to Muslims, apparent enemies of Christians through multiple crusades, and viewed as excluded from Christian salvation. 

To these three references to Islam or its adherents we could add at least two more indirect references, Francisco and Bernardo [4], whose names were famously associated with two saints, both associated with crusades, bringing it to a total of at least five:  

D. Francisco - Francis of Assisi famously met with the Sultan of Egypt during the 5th Crusade [5];
E. Bernardo - Bernard of Clairvaux famously preached in favor of the 2nd Crusade, which failed [6]. 

If one asked people in Shakespeare’s time what top 5 facts they knew about Francis of Assisi and Bernard of Clairvaux, these associations with crusades would likely be among them [7].  

Both were associated with hundreds of English monasteries that were dissolved when Shakespeare’s parents were young. [8]

NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu

[1] “Termagant”: The earliest (now) known mention is in "The Song of Roland" (11th-century work about a Frankish military leader (Paladin) engaged in a battle in AD 778 under Charlemagne). See Whaley, D. (1997). Voices from the Past: A Note on Termagant and Herod. In: Batchelor, J., Cain, T., Lamont, C. (eds) Shakespearean Continuities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26003-4_2.    
- Note also, in King Lear, that Edgar (as Mad Tom o’Bedlam)) says, “Child Rowland to the dark tower came” (3.4.195), so Shakespeare may have had some access to a memory of “The Song of Roland.”

[2] “Termagant” is also used by Falstaff who calls Hotspur a "hot termagant Scot" in Henry IV, Part 1, 5.4. The word was only much later used more often to describe “shrewish” women, but this was not the case in Shakespeare’s lifetime. For more on “Termagant,” see my recent blog post:  What was Termagant to Hamlet - and to Shakespeare? - February 03, 2026: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2026/02/what-was-termagant-to-hamlet-and-to.html

[3] “Moor”: Claudius is compared to a moor in a geographical sense, as compared to Hamlet’s father, who is a fair mountain; 
Hamlet and Shakespeare may also imply that Claudius is a (Thomas) More who (to some) seemed a defender of the “incestuous marriage” of Henry VIII to his first wife;
Claudius may also be a “Moor,” a reference to ethnicity and skin color (as noted by Patricia Parker in 2003). See Parker, Patricia, "Black Hamlet Battening on the Moor," Shakespeare Studies, Vol. 31, 2003. 

[4] See my series on Francisco and Bernardo (index here): 
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/04/index-of-posts-on-francisco-bernardo.html

[5] Francis was famous for 
- having renounced his abusive merchant father and all wealth and material goods; 
- having kissed a leper, and for nonviolence, even toward robbers who beat him; 
- for having tamed the “Wolf of Gubbio”;
- for having met with the Sultan of Egypt during the 5th crusade (something not unlike Jane Fonda meeting with the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War). 
- for having received the stigmata;
- Franciscans were considered very favorably by Henry VIII before his divorce. 
- A Franciscan, John Forest, was confessor to Henry’s first wife Katherine, and opposed the divorce, for which John Forest was burned at the stake. 
- Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1292) was a Franciscan (“greyfriar”), a famous English philosopher and scientist at Oxford.

[6] Bernard of Clairvaux’s writings were held in high esteem by both Martin Luther and John Jewell (who wrote some of the official Elizabethan homilies);
Bernard was also famous for 
- his vision or dream in which he drank milk from the breast of the Virgin Mary.
- his disagreements with Abelard (of Helouise fame), and for conspiring to have Abelard’s teaching declared heretical without a fair trial, but later reconciling with him; 
- for helping to convince a king of England (Henry I, Henry Beauclerc) to shift his support from Antipope Anacletus II to Pope Innocent II (1130–1131); 
- for having one of the monks under his supervision later become pope and ask him to preach in favor of the Second Crusade, which later failed, and which Bernard blamed then on the sins of the crusaders.
- Henry Carey, 1st Lord Hunsdon, the patron of Shakespeare's playing company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, had been educated at a Cistercian monastery through the patronage of his aunt, Anne Boleyn. St. Bernard would have been held in high esteem by the Cistercians, as he reformed and in a sense re-founded the order. 

[7] Shakespeare’s older sister was baptized Catholic under Mary I, and Will was baptized in the English church under Elizabeth I. The English reformation did not instantly erase all memory of Catholic saints, especially since many were still revered by Protestants. 
- Both Francis and Bernard are associated with transcendent (heavenly) adoptive parentage: 
When Francis famously renounced his abusive biological father before the bishop, he allegedly told the bishop, “I have a Father in heaven.” This is thematically related to Bernard’s vision in which he drank milk from the breast of the Virgin Mary. Both involve transcendent parentage.
- This may be an important theme in Hamlet, where Yorick is Hamlet’s transcendent/surrogate parent “of infinite jest.” 

[8] Consider the proximity of Franciscan and Cistercian monasteries within 20 miles of Stratford Upon Avon, and others in (present-day) London, or on the way:
Franciscan:
Coventry Greyfriars, 19 mi NE
Oxford Greyfriars (en route to London)
In/near London:
Aldgate Abbey
Greenwich Greyfriars
Newgate Greyfriars
Richmond Greyfriars
Abbey of the Minoresses

Cistercian:
Stoneleigh Abbey, 14 mi NE
Bordesley Abbey, 16 mi NW
Coombe Abbey, 23 mi NE
In/near London:
Eastminster Abbey
Stratford Langthorne Abbey
 

IMAGES: 
Top Right: St Francis before Al-Malik al-Kamil Nasir ad-Din Muhammad (c. 1177 – 6 March 1238). 1452. Benozzo Gozzoli (1420–1497).
Museum Complex of San Francesco (Montefalco).
Public domain via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benozzo_Gozzoli_-_Scenes_from_the_Life_of_St_Francis_(Scene_10,_north_wall)_-_WGA10241.jpg 

Bottom Left: Nureddin, Sultan of Damascus (when Bernard of Clairvaux preached the 2nd Crusade). 
Unknown, c. 1232 - 1261. 
British Library, London. 
Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nur_ad-Din_Zangi.jpg

Bottom Right: Selim I., Sultan earlier in the lifetime of Martin Luther (succeeded by Suleiman II). 
16th century. Library of the Topkapi Palace Museum, Hazine, Nr. 1562.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nakka%C5%9F_Selim.jpg

Top left: Sultan Suleiman II. (1495/1496-1566) (Anon.).
Second leader of the Ottoman Empire during the lifetime of Martin Luther. 
1530s. 
Kunsthistorisches Museum.    
Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nakka%C5%9F_Selim.jpg 

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