Christian annotators charged the Quran with self-contradiction on points later seen as mere nuance

Evidence

If thou art not a coercer, but a teacher, why dost thou subject men by power, like animals and brute beasts, and not by reasoning, like men? In fact, like the liar you are, you everywhere contradict yourself.’ This early statement, while it emphasised the accusation of self-contradiction which many writers would bring forward, introduced also the assertion, equally popular, that Muhammad did not, and Islam would not, allow rational disputation. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 695 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

San Pedro’s account of the miracles of Christ in the Qur’an suggests an appreciative sense of the marvellous: ‘whatever Jesus Christ said, instantly it was so’ - this ‘Muhammad said, and has written in his Qur’an’; but he strongly attacked the Christology of the Qur’an as inconsistent. It made Jesus out to be a man, and yet not to die; made Him holy and sinless, yet supposed that He would allow another to die in His place; made out, in fact, that He was born by the power of God, only to deceive men by this false crucifixion, in a world already full of deceivers. San Pedro was oppressed by the thought of so many lies, of such great heresies in the Qur’an and in the sayings of Muhammad which his followers had collected (hadith); by the thought of the loss of souls of those who died Muslims. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 950 (#expands, via linked claim)

The Contrarietas has a perversion of the Qur’anic text here. For ‘it is /awful for you … to go unto your wives’ it has ‘estote solicitt ut impregnetis mulzeres’ (Q. 11.183; Cont. 1x). — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2364 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval Christian polemicists built their case on Muhammad’s alleged self-contradiction — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 695; Medieval polemicists distorted Quranic verses to serve anti-Muslim arguments — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2364; Medieval Christian polemicists attacked the Qur’an’s Christology as internally inconsistent — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 950

Related

• Medieval Christian polemicists built their case on Muhammad’s alleged self-contradiction (similarity 0.92)
• Medieval Christian polemicists attacked the Qur’an’s Christology as internally inconsistent (similarity 0.89)
• Medieval Christian polemic interpreted Qur’anic texts as nastily as possible (similarity 0.89)
• Mediaeval Christian polemicists dismissed Quranic metaphors by misreading them as literal physics (similarity 0.88)
• Medieval Christians polemicists routinely conflated the Qur’an with reported sayings of Muhammad (similarity 0.87)
• Christian polemicists charged the Qur’an with asserting and denying the same doctrines. (similarity 0.87)
• Medieval polemicists distorted Quranic verses to serve anti-Muslim arguments (similarity 0.86)
• Christian polemicists distorted Qur’anic verses with small, impactful translation shifts (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval polemicists attacked the Qur’an with pedantic misreadings to prove Muhammad misunderstood truths (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval European conflation of Qur’an and Traditions may have been a deliberate polemic tactic (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval polemicists conflated Qur’an and hadith authorship by Muhammad (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval polemicists quoted Qur’anic praise of Christ chiefly as ammo against Islam (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval polemicists quoted the Qur’an inaccurately without scruple (similarity 0.84)
• Anti-Quran polemics were crafted for Christian audiences rather than actual Muslims (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval annotators traced specific Qur’anic verses to Arian and Nestorian heretical origins (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Christian polemicists built their case on Muhammad’s alleged self-contradiction #corroborates (0.92) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 695
• Medieval Christian polemicists attacked the Qur’an’s Christology as internally inconsistent #expands (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 950
• Medieval polemicists distorted Quranic verses to serve anti-Muslim arguments #expands (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2364