Detached inquiry about Islam requires confidence of superiority

Evidence

The one thing we cannot expect to find in the Middle Ages is that spirit of detached and academic or humane inquiry which has characterized much of the inquiry about Islam of the last hundred years, whether in the heroic journeys of Doughty or the impassioned prose of Carlyle. This spirit of detachment was a product of superiority and of the conviction that there was nothing to fear. Hence an easy sympathy and regard. For the medieval observer there was too much at stake to permit this indulgence. — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 13

Categorization

• APHORISMS: The claim that sympathy and detached regard only flourish under a felt conviction that nothing is to be feared is a durable insight about intellectual life.
• XREF: Connects to the standing note on how cultural contact narratives shape understanding.