Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes (1862 – 1957) was a French Arabist, a specialist in Islam and the history of religions. Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes was a professor at the École nationale des langues orientales vivantes (INALCO). His best known works are his historical and religious studies on Hajj and Muslim institutions.
Maurice Gaudefroy said:
“Muhammad was a prophet, not a theologian, a fact so evident that one is loath to state it.
The men who surrounded him and constituted the influential elite of the primate Muslim community, contented themselves with obeying the law that he had proclaimed in the name of Allah and with following his teaching and example”.1
1. Encyclopadeia of Seerah, Afzalur Rehman