Gentle friars and Muslims deliberately avoided religious controversy

Evidence

(Itin. xxvii) refused to eat when food was prepared for them in the houses of Muslims in which they were guests, it is implied, not only that the Latins rejected overtures of friendship, but that their talk with Muslims was never acrimonious enough to cause bad feeling, as it certainly would have, if a fraction of the Disputatio had been repeated. … The Christians did not claim that this was a dispute. As far as the Muslims were concerned, the friars were working, with permission, for charitable objects. It is likely to have been an occasion when both sides wished to avoid controversy, and spoke of things they expected to agree about. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2134

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islamic refusal to dispute likely stemmed from caution, not fear of reason