Early Christian anti-Islamic polemics focused on polygamy, divorce, and Muhammad’s marriage to Zaynab

Evidence

Having provided these key defensive arguments to parry the most common Muslim thrusts against Christianity, he goes on to try to discredit the Koran in the eyes of his Christian readers. He dwells on the Koranic laws involving polygamy and divorce and on the marriage between Muhammad and Zaynab. After a brief description of Muslim laws on circumcision and the prohibition on drinking, the De haeresibus ends abruptly; if John ever wrote a conclusion to the text, it has not survived. He makes no effort to synthesize at the end of his description of one hundred heresies. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 357

Categorization

• XREF: The focus on Muhammad’s marriage to Zaynab presages later European-Islamic polemic; connects thematically to debates over polygamy as civilizational marker. — connects to: Christian horror at Muslim divorce masked an unspoken fear of polyandry; The carnal Paradise was the central symbol of Christian anti-Islam polemic