Even well-informed travel sustained unmodified prejudice against Islam

Evidence

Many travellers genuinely sought to correct misapprehensions; yet even when their approach was academic, as for example with Cotovicus, who allowed his personal experience to feed his theoretic knowledge, or highly individual, as in the case of La Boullaye le Gouz, the general outline of the image of Islam remained the same. Many of the best scholars found — and made good use of — the opportunity to travel in the East; but it long continued to be possible to maintain the ancient prejudice unmodified. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1577

Categorization

• QUESTION: What structural feature kept the image of Islam stable despite first-hand corrective experience? The mechanism — genre constraints, prior theory, audience demand — is not explained here and would be worth chasing.
• XREF: connects to: National Geographic travel journalism was the leading channel imparting anti-Arab racism — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 216