Christian polemics against Muhammad aimed to reassure Christians, not convert Muslims

Evidence

His work also claims to have been written in his Muslim prison, to fortify local Christians; and, although he must have taught in the presence of Muslims, sufficiently to annoy the ‘ulama’ and earn his martyrdom, the idea that his primary purpose was to encourage Christians in Islamic territory accords exactly with the character of his arguments. His apostrophes of Muhammad are obviously a rhetorical device. What all his careful comparison of Islamic and Christian sources for Muhammad’s biography amounts to is a reassurance that the traditional Christian views are sound at least in outline. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1426

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general literature on polemic as in-group identity reinforcement rather than out-group persuasion — parallels contemporary ‘echo chamber’ research. — connects to: The claim that Muslims refuse to dispute became Christian dogma; Christian anti-Islamic polemic targeted Christian readers, not Muslims — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1469