Copying an assertion does not imply a writer’s assent to it

Evidence

In these two cases neither assent to, nor rejection of, what is stated is implied; it is simply copied in. This sort of collecting and copying of all sorts of contradictory opinions probably nowhere denotes an author’s convinced opinion. On the contrary, he is more likely to hold the views expressed in a long passage than those stated or implied in a brief reference; and still we cannot be sure that positively he assented to any of the ideas he republished by copying. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1755

Categorization

• DEFINE: A methodological caution for source reading: compilers of contradictory traditions (here medieval historians, but applicable across the vault’s genealogical sources) need not be presumed to endorse what they transmit.