A medieval Christian tract presented early Muslim conquests positively using Muslim sources

Evidence

In the first century of Islam, most of the former Christian Roman Empire, from Syria to Spain, was brought under Muslim control in a conquest of unprecedented proportions. How was God’s apparent abandonment of his Christian Empire to be explained? True, over the course of the Middle Ages Christian states conquered (or “reconquered”) many of the islands of the Mediterranean, all of the Iberian peninsula, and even, for a fleeting eighty-eight years, Jerusalem, Holy City to three religions. Yet at the same time, Islam was expanding across Asia and Africa and (with the rise of the Ottomans in the late fourteenth century) into the heart of Europe. How were Christians to respond? The simplest and obvious choice, for many, was to accept the logic of Muslim expansion; God must indeed prefer Islam; historical destiny and social pressure offered strong arguments in favor of conversion to Islam. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 47 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The Basel municipal council judged that it was dangerous to publish the “fables and heresies” of the Koran. Help came to the embattled humanists in the form of a letter to the council from none other than Martin Luther himself, who declared his support for the project, saying that there was no better way to injure Muhammad and the Turks than to publish their “lies and fables” for all to see. Earlier the same year Luther himself had completed his German translation of Riccoldo’s Contra legem Sarracenorum. When Martin Luther and his contemporaries sought to comprehend Islam and to engage in polemics against it, they turned naturally to translations and texts produced between the twelfth and the early fourteenth centuries. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1355 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islam conquered most of the Christian Roman Empire in its first century; John of Damascus devoted exceptional space to Islam in his heresiology; Muslims read military conquest as divine favor and proof of true faith (+19 more)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Christians read Muslim military success as divine judgment favoring Islam #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 47
• Medieval Christian accounts of Islam’s origins recycled a few basic narrative permutations #complicates (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 481
• Medieval Christians understood Islam through preexisting biblical categories rather than direct encounter #complicates (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 88
• The Reformation polemic against Islam reproduced twelfth-century medieval texts #complicates (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1355
• Medieval epics imagined Islam as a parodic mirror of Christian crusade religion #complicates (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 672
• Medieval Christians interpreted Muslim ritual through Christian sacramental categories #complicates (0.80)
• Medieval Christians typologically framed Islam as recapitulating earlier heresies #complicates (0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 133
• Medieval Christian accounts of Muslim disputants are constructed strawmen #complicates (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 682
• Medieval Christian readers distinguished Qur’anic text from Islamic commentary on the crucifixion #complicates (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 944
• Medieval Christian accounts of Islamic ablution garbled Arabic units and doctrine #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2333
• Medieval Christians chose distorted Islam stories even when accurate sources existed #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 78
• Early Arabic study in Europe served Christian scripture and ritual #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2456