Franciscan martyr accounts re-framed Muslim rulers as Roman-style persecutors of apostles

Evidence

These texts about the Franciscan martyrs have little to say about Islam. The polemical biography of Muhammad is indeed important, for it is by insulting the Prophet and his message that these friars obtain the death they so fervently desire. Yet the hagiographers do not report exactly what the martyrs said about Muhammad; what matters to them is that their heroes denounced anti-Christian error just as the apostles had before. The Muslim “judges” and “kings” are presented in the familiar guise of the apostles’ ancient Roman persecutors: blindly killing Christ’s preachers in a paroxysm of rage. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1123