A converted Jew supplied the Latin West’s foundational anti-Islamic polemic

Evidence

Guibert in 1109 noted the lack of reliable information and sound theological refutation of Islam; the following year, Petrus Alfonsi purported to provide exactly that: based on his knowledge of Arabic and his familiarity with Arabic Christian polemics against Islam (in particular the Risâlat al- Kindî), he inserted a brief refutation of Islam into his Dialogues against the Jews (Dialogi contra Iudaeos). His polemic soon became one of the most widely read Latin theological texts on Islam. One of its readers was Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, who in 1142–43 traveled to Spain, where he commissioned a Latin translation of the Koran; he subsequently wrote two treatises of learned polemics against Islam, in which he branded Muhammad as a heresiarch. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 734

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the history of interfaith polemic and how converts become the most credentialed critics of their former faiths.

Related

• The first informed Latin anti-Islamic polemic traced heresy to a converted Jew author (similarity 0.95)
• Petrus Alfonsi’s anti-Islamic polemic was medieval Europe’s most influential source on Islam. (similarity 0.82)
• Anti-Muslim polemic migrated from Spanish Mozarabs to northern Europe as a weapon (similarity 0.81)
• Twelfth-century Latin writers reframed Islam from paganism to a heresy (similarity 0.81)
• Polemical borrowing across Latin texts propagated deliberate misrepresentation of Islam (similarity 0.80)
• A converted Jew’s polemic defended Christian-Jewish unity against anti-Semitic readings of the Quran. (similarity 0.80)
• Mozarab authors supplied the rhetorical scripts Latin polemicists later deployed against Islam (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christian polemicists recycled Arabic sources through layered Latin rewritings. (similarity 0.79)
• Western knowledge of Islam was long shaped by forged and pseudonymous polemics (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christian polemics against Islam were written for Christian audiences, not Muslims (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval anti-Islamic polemics aimed to fortify Christians rather than convert Muslims (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christians understood Islam as heresy and lumped Muslims with Jews and heretics. (similarity 0.78)
• A fabricated Christian polemic long served as Western Europe’s main source on Muhammad (similarity 0.78)
• The Latin canon of Islam was built from earlier Eastern Christian polemics. (similarity 0.78)
• Dominicans attacked Judaism and Islam by turning their own scriptures against them (similarity 0.78)