Christians fabricated authoritative-sounding refutations of Islam by forging famous names

Evidence

Even if there is some historical basis for this correspondence (and that is far from certain), Ghevond (or his source) has clearly padded Leo’s letter to make it into a thoroughgoing refutation of Islam. It may well be that a ninthor tenth-century Christian polemicist composed both letters and attached to them two illustrious names: what could be more satisfying to a Christian reader than to see how a famous Byzantine emperor had refuted Islam and bested an early caliph? — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 384

Categorization

• XREF: This genealogically grounds existing vault claims about the constructed nature of the Christian-Muslim opposition — the ‘straw adversary’ technique used to give Christian polemic an air of triumph connects directly to the framework in Anidjar/Aziz on how Islam was invented as Christianity’s foil.