author

John Davenport

1789–1877

A British writer and orientalist from the 19th century, he is best remembered for a book that offered an unusually sympathetic English-language defense of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. His work stands out for pushing back against the harsher religious judgments common in his time.

1 Audiobook

Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction

Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction

by John Davenport

About the author

Born in London on June 8, 1789, John Davenport was a British orientalist and writer. Although not much about his personal life is easy to confirm, reliable catalog and reference sources connect him with language study as well as religious and historical writing.

He is best known for An Apology for Mohammed and the Koran, first published in 1869. In that book, Davenport argued for a fairer reading of Muhammad and the Quran than many Victorian readers would have expected, which helped give the work a lasting place in discussions of how Islam was presented in English.

Library records also attribute to him work on an Italian-English dictionary, showing a broader scholarly interest in languages. He died in 1877, leaving behind a small but distinctive body of work shaped by curiosity about other cultures and traditions.