Early Western scholars preserved fabricated Islamic legends despite correction

Evidence

Pocock, despite his enormous respect for the latter’s Occidental learning, taxed him with having referred to the supposed dove who spoke to Muhammad, although he had found it in no Islamic source. Grotius did not remove the offending phrase in the next edition (the interview took place in the winter of 1640-41 and the third edition of de veritate was in 1650). — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2455

Categorization

• XREF: Corroborates the vault’s claims about how Western ‘expertise’ on Islam is constructed — fabricated detail persisted because it served Christian polemic, echoing Anidjar’s genealogy of the Jew/Arab enemy figure.