Alfonsi invented a Talmudic genealogy turning Mecca rites into degraded pagan survivals

Evidence

Alfonsi stops short of calling Muslims pagans, but he implies that their monotheism is sullied by the vestiges of these pagan rites. He associates real elements of the Muslim Mecca cult (lapidation, wearing of seamless garments, the Ka’ba itself) with Talmudic descriptions of the pagan cults of Merqulis (at whose idols devotees threw stones) and Baal-Peor (to whom one bared oneself and defecated); these are linked through the story of Lot’s sons, Amon and Moab, in a twist that seems to be Alfonsi’s own innovation. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 817

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Supports the moral-panic/genealogical thread in existing vault claims: this shows a medieval convert deliberately fabricating a lineage that reads an enemy faith’s real practices as corrupt vestiges — the exact pattern the reader is tracing backward from modern Islamophobia.
• QUESTION: Worth pursuing: does Alfonsi’s Merqulis/Baal-Peor linkage draw on the Talmud directly, or via another Christian intermediary? Tolan calls the Amon-Moab twist ‘seemingly Alfonsi’s own innovation’ — that deserves verification.