Almohad authorities responded mildly to Franciscans until forced into executing them.

Evidence

Some missionaries seem to have allowed or encouraged ‘preaching’ and ‘disputation’ to degenerate into provocation. … In Seville they tried to break into the Friday mosque, and, when they were driven away by the crowd, as ‘ambassadors of the King of Kings’ they went and abused Muhammad and Islam outside the royal palace instead. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 686 (#expands, via linked claim)

St Francis, before his own journey to Egypt, had already despatched a party to Africa who successfully forced a reluctant Muslim government to martyr them. Before they left Christian territory they announced that God had chosen them to be numbered in the glorious army, Deus nos vult in numero suorum martyrum computare. In Seville they tried to break into the Friday mosque, and, when they were driven away by the crowd, as ‘ambassadors of the King of Kings’ they went and abused Muhammad and Islam outside the royal palace instead. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 686 (#expands, via linked claim)

For many thirteenth-century Latin writers, one of the bright lights of their age was Francis of Assisi. Francis and his followers, the Friars Minor, or Franciscans, sought to rekindle the “apostolic life,” a life of poverty, ascesis, and preaching modeled on that of the apostles. Mission to the infidel (in particular, to Muslims) played a significant role in this apostolic life; Francis himself preached to the Egyptian Sultan al-Kâmil in 1219 … Their goal (the topic of chapter 9) was not merely to live the apostolic life but to die the apostolic death: the apostles, after all, found martyrdom at the hands of infidels, and thirteenth-century Franciscans found that when sufficiently provoked (through public insults to Muhammad and the Koran, for example), many Muslim rulers obligingly conferred the crown of martyrdom upon them. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 73 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Franciscan missionaries deliberately provoked Muslim authorities to secure martyrdom — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 686; Franciscan missionaries deliberately sought execution by abusing Islam publicly — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 686; Franciscan martyrs deliberately provoked Muslims to obtain their own deaths — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1106 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Franciscan missionaries deliberately provoked Muslim authorities to secure martyrdom #expands (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 686
• Franciscan missionaries deliberately sought execution by abusing Islam publicly #expands (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 686
• Medieval Franciscan missionaries deliberately provoked martyrdom by insulting Islam #expands (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 73
• Franciscan friars could deliberately provoke Muslim rulers into martyring them by insulting Muhammad #expands (0.95)
• Franciscan mission to Muslims prioritized seeking martyrdom over conversion #complicates (0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1109
• Franciscan missions aimed at martyrdom, not conversion of Muslims. #complicates (0.85)
• Franciscan mission to Muslims prized martyrdom above actual conversion. #complicates (0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1109
• Christian missionaries deliberately provoked Muslim rulers into martyring them #complicates (0.85)