Europe’s lasting portrayals of Islam were fixed by the twelfth century

Evidence

The Basel municipal council judged that it was dangerous to publish the “fables and heresies” of the Koran. Help came to the embattled humanists in the form of a letter to the council from none other than Martin Luther himself, who declared his support for the project, saying that there was no better way to injure Muhammad and the Turks than to publish their “lies and fables” for all to see. Earlier the same year Luther himself had completed his German translation of Riccoldo’s Contra legem Sarracenorum. When Martin Luther and his contemporaries sought to comprehend Islam and to engage in polemics against it, they turned naturally to translations and texts produced between the twelfth and the early fourteenth centuries. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1355 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

From the eighth century to the twelfth, Eastern Christian polemical views of Islam were imported to Spain, where they were reworked and brought to northern Europe. At the same time, the contrasting image of Islam as pagan idolatry was created by European chroniclers and poets. By the end of the twelfth century, European writers had created the essential portrayals of Islam that would be elaborated upon, reworked, and deployed for different purposes for centuries to come. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 426 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

At a time when the Byzantine Empire was politically and militarily infirm, and was itself the object of Western aggression and Western polemic, when the Muslims were at many points upon the frontiers of Latin Christendom, and shared with Christendom the inland sea, the deformed image of Islam was established in the conscious European mind. It is this deformed image that I hope to delineate, in the process of becoming one of the dogmas of Christian society; not, of course, of the Christian Church as such, but (in variant forms) of most of its members. I wish also to examine some of the reasons that caused this image of Islam to be deformed, rather than reasonably accurate, as it might equally well have been; that led men to prefer, sometimes nonsensical, and often unpleasant and untrue versions of the history of Muhammad and of the tenets and practices of Islam; and that did so even when sound information was available and when better might easily have been obtained. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 78 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Western canon on Islam outlived religious unity and the Reformation itself.; The Western view of Islam was fixed by 1350 and persists today; By 1200 Europe fixed its foundational Islam portrayals for centuries — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 426 (+20 more)

Broader Connections

• By 1200 Europe fixed its foundational Islam portrayals for centuries #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 426
• European intellectual confrontation with Islam began in the twelfth century #qualifies (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 61
• The Western canon of Islam was fixed by the mid-fourteenth century #contradicts (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1535
• Islam has been Europe’s defining other across centuries #qualifies (1.00) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 194
• Medieval Europe held multiple coexisting frameworks for situating Islam #contradicts (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1067
• All enduring European portrayals of Islam were set by 1200 #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 426
• The medieval Christian canon about Islam survived even the breakup of European ideological unity #qualifies (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1509
• Europeans adopted distorted images of Islam even when accurate information existed #qualifies (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 78
• European anti-Muslim polemic images persisted virtually unchanged from medieval to modern eras #qualifies (1.00)
• Islam menaced Europe more in 1600 yet mattered less intellectually than in 1000 #complicates (1.00) — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 71
• Islam served as Europe’s principal civilizational other for centuries. #qualifies (1.00) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 193
• Mid-fifteenth-century European thought on Islam surpassed all earlier and later centuries #qualifies (1.00) — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 562
• Europeans’ sense of superiority over Muslims shifted from religious to cultural grounds across centuries #qualifies (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 56
• Twelfth-century polemics reduced Islam to a carnal cult of lust #qualifies (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 882
• The Reformation polemic against Islam reproduced twelfth-century medieval texts #qualifies (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1355