Francis proposed a fire-ordeal to prove his faith to the sultan.

Evidence

Bonaventure’s Legenda maior, which became the Franciscan order’s official biography of its founder, insists on Francis’s ardent desire for martyrdom. Bonaventure reuses and expands Thomas of Celano’s account of Francis’s thrice-foiled attempts to receive the martyr’s crown at the hands of the Saracens. He embellishes the interview with al-Kâmil, having Francis propose an ordeal in which he and the sultan’s “priests” would enter into a fire; the one who emerged unscathed would be shown to follow God’s true law. When the Saracen priests refuse, Francis urges the sultan to light a fire and let Francis enter it alone; this the sultan also refuses, fearing lest this provoke a revolt among his people. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1118

Categorization

• SEED: The fire ordeal as adjudication between religions — a cross-cultural pattern (compare Biblical, medieval European ordeal, Indian ordeals) that could anchor an essay on ordeal-as-truth-tests.
• XREF: Connects to the ninth-century Cordovan martyrs mentioned in chapter earlier — provocative martyrdom as a deliberate strategy both eras.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1118