A forged interreligious text was assembled from earlier chronicles and anti-Muslim polemics.

Evidence

The sources of the Disputation are not only the Koran and Torah but also the chronicles of Lucas de Tuy and Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada and Latin anti-Muslim texts such as those of Ramon Martí. Is this pious fraud meant to be a tool for Dominican missionaries in the line of action? Is it meant to cheer them on in their often daunting and thankless endeavor? Or is it a desperate attempt to justify Dominican mission to a skeptical audience of Parisian theologians? At any rate, Alfonso seemed to like this strategy: he also produced an anti-Jewish text that he claimed was written by a Jewish rabbi and that he also “found” in Morocco. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1276

Categorization

• QUESTION: The author lists competing motives for the forgive (missionary tool, morale booster, or justification to Paris theologians) but does not resolve them.