A French satirical magazine, whose offices were fire-bombed after it published cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad last September, has published a 64-page special issue with cartoons on the life of Islam's founder.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo weekly insisted that the publication titled "The Life of Muhammad", which was published on Wednesday, was a properly researched and educational work prepared by a Franco-Tunisian sociologist.

Prior to publication, Stephane Charbonnier, who was also the illustrator of the book, said "I don't think higher Muslim minds could find anything inappropriate".

He told the AFP news agency last week that "It is a biography authorised by Islam since it was edited by Muslims."

On Monday a senior political advisor to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the work as a deliberate provocation.

"To transform the life of the prophet of Islam into a cartoon is in itself a mistake," Ibrahim Kalin wrote on his Twitter account.