Alfonso X chose unreliable sources deliberately to serve his political narrative

Evidence

Alfonso did not invent this ideology, of course; he wove it together of familiar strands: denigration of Islam’s prophet, affirmation of Visigothic Christian rights to rule over Iberia. Over the course of the thirteenth century, the various strands begin to come together. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 908 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

For Norman Daniel, the failure of medieval authors such as Alfonso and his team of scholars to stick with good, reliable, Arabic texts shows that they are unable to distinguish between reliable sources and unreliable ones. On the contrary, it shows a consummate historiographical skill: the ability to shape the past to fit a political agenda. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 970 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The Contrarietas claims to be written by a convert from Islam, but it seems to me to be possible that it is really by a Christian who wished to give it greater authority by such a fictional claim. It is often difficult to imagine that a convert, however much he hated his old religion, could take just the line that the author of this work takes; and the Mecca pilgrimage that he claims to have made is particularly unconvincing. Pedro de Alfonso again and again reminds us by something that he says that he was once a Jew; there is nothing comparable in this other case. On the other hand, this author’s knowledge of the Qur’an was sound and we must suppose him at least to have lived for many years among Muslims on reasonable terms of intimacy. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 92 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Alfonso X’s cultural patronage served his political ideology rather than distracting from it; Choosing unreliable legends was deliberate political historiography, not scholarly incompetence — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 970; Alfonso’s ideology assembled preexisting anti-Islamic polemical strands rather than originating them — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 908 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Choosing unreliable legends was deliberate political historiography, not scholarly incompetence #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 970
• Alfonso’s ideology assembled preexisting anti-Islamic polemical strands rather than originating them #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 908
• Medieval authors fabricated conversion stories to lend polemics spurious authority #complicates (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 92