By 1220 Christians projected apocalyptic victory onto real Mongol conquests

Evidence

The capture of Mecca and the scattering of Muhammad’s bones (erroneously believed to lie in Mecca) will mark, it is hoped, the decisive victory of Christianity over Islam. … Oliver and Jacques pinned their hopes on conquests of Georgian Christians and of the mythic Eastern Christian king David, son of Prester John, whose reported exploits were based on those of Jenghiz Khan. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1028

Categorization

• XREF: Grounds the vault’s genealogy of Christian apocalyptic framing of Islam — the West reading Eastern geopolitics through prophetic texts rather than facts, parallel to Anidjar’s account of how Christian categories projected onto Islam.