Failed missionary efforts produced blame of Muslim irrationality rather than self-criticism

Evidence

Ramon Martí, in particular, sought to deploy the tools of logic and scholastic theology to decimate the rival religions and prove the truth of Christianity. Yet the missionary efforts of Martí and his associates had only limited success, and increasingly, Christian theologians, like Dominican Thomas Aquinas, affirmed that it was impossible to prove the truth of Christianity through reason alone. Yet when missionary Riccoldo da Montecroce failed to convert Muslims of Baghdad, he attributed his failure to the irrationality of the Muslims. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1181

Yet when missionary Riccoldo da Montecroce failed to convert Muslims of Baghdad, he attributed his failure to the irrationality of the Muslims. At the end of the thirteenth century, the hopes of converting the Muslim to Christianity dwindled, and (as in some Franciscan texts), the irrational, oriental Muslims were blamed. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1181

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A gorgeous cognitive double-move: theologians abandon the claim that reason proves Christianity, yet missionaries who fail still blame the other’s irrationality — the standard is held for the opponent while being dropped for oneself.
• SEED: Essay angle: how groups maintain belief by shifting the burden of rationality onto the un-converted — the failure is always the other’s epistemic defect, never the theory’s.
• ADDENDUM: Direct genealogical root for the vault claim that Islam-West opposition is constructed; shows a concrete thirteenth-century origin of the ‘irrational Muslim’ trope when conversion hopes failed.
• XREF: Connects directly to Anidjar/Aziz’s claims about the medieval construction of Islam as the irrational foil to rational Christianity.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1181