Crusade chroniclers cast Muslims as pagan idolaters to justify retaking Jerusalem

Evidence

Only one of the chroniclers of the first Crusade, Guibert of Nogent, acknowledged that the Saracens were monotheists and Muhammad their prophet not their God (I examine Guibert’s portrayal of Muhammad in chapter 6). For the rest, it is pagan idolaters that the crusaders went off to fight, in order to take Jerusalem back from them and to wreak vengeance on them for the Crucifixion—as well as for their subsequent blasphemies against Christ. Time and again, the chroniclers of the first Crusade cite the eradication of paganism as one of the key motives behind the Crusade. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 612

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of how a religious enemy gets reframed as something categorically other (pagan) to enable violence — parallels the Ottoman/medieval framing tropes in other readings. — connects to: The medieval Muslim-idol legend originated as Crusade war propaganda
• SEED: Angle: ‘The propaganda weapon of mislabeling’ — how classifying an enemy as pagan/atheist/lesser-than licenses atrocities, from the Crusades to modern wars.