Bishop de Vitry claimed Christians nearly outnumbered Muslims in the Holy Land
Evidence
- Jacques de Vitry, Lettres, 2:390–94. 19. Jacques de Vitry, Lettres, 2:223–29. 20. Jacques de Vitry, Lettres, 4:173–77. 21. “Credo autem, sicut multorum relatione didici, quod fere tot sunt chrisitiani inter Sarracenos, quot sunt Sarraceni, qui cotidie cum lacrimis dei expectant auxilium et peregrinorum succursum,” Jacques de Vitry, Lettres 2:245–49. Later in the same letter, the number of Christians has increased: “Credo autem quod christiani habitantes plures sunt numero quam Sarraceni,” (2:397–98). In Egypt, too, he says, there are more Christians than Saracens (4:49). — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1845
Categorization
- XREF: Grounds the anti-Saracen narrative claim that crusading preachers themselves knew the ‘enemy’ land was demographically Christian-majority — complicates the clean Muslim-vs-Christian binary in the vault’s Anidjar/Aziz/Razack claims.