European intellectual confrontation with Islam began in the twelfth century

Evidence

Why conclude this study with the thirteenth century? Because in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Latin Europe first came to terms with and tried to confront the world of Islam. That confrontation was in part military: crusade and Spanish reconquista. But it was also intellectual: European scholars studied philosophy and science in Arabic treatises, many of which they translated into Latin. Theologians attempted to prove, through preaching and rational argumentation, Christian truth to Muslims (as well as to Jews and heretics); this movement was a dismal failure, as writers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries increasingly admitted. At the same time, Christian authors tried to define and limit the place of Muslims in Christian society (through legislation) and in Christian history (through chronicles and theological tracts). — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 61