Hrotsvitha tied Saracen idolatry to homosexuality and despotic violence to justify resistance
Evidence
What purposes did these medieval Christian constructions of Islam serve? Christians increasingly saw in Islam a formidable threat to Christianity’s claims of superiority and hegemony in Europe and beyond. Faced with the Muslim world’s competing theological claims, impressive military accomplishments, expanding empire, and superior intellectual and scientific advancements, medieval Christian authors responded polemically and aggressively. In the context of the Crusades and the Reconquista, theologians depicted Islam initially as idolatry and ultimately as heresy in order to justify violence and aggression against Muslims. In those circumstances in which Christians lived under Muslim rule, these same depictions were aimed at providing Christian dhimmis with the ideological tools to resist converting to Islam or, in the case of ninth-century Cordoba, to embrace martyrdom. By the end of the Middle Ages, centuries of military aggression, political hostility, and anti-Muslim discourse had taken their toll. Muslims became the feared “Other” in the European Christian imagination. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 139 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Hrotsvitha pioneered the lurid-paganism template later used to justify Crusader killing; Imagined Saracen idolaters justified violence actually aimed at internal Christian enemies; Hrotsvitha recast the Muslim king as a demon-worshiping pagan to justify Christian armed resistance — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 598 (+11 more)
Broader Connections
- Hrotsvitha recast the Muslim king as a demon-worshiping pagan to justify Christian armed resistance
#corroborates(1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 598 - A remarkably uniform anti-Saracen ideology persisted through centuries like a catechism
#expands(1.00) - Medieval depictions of Islam as heresy served to justify violence and resist conversion
#expands(1.00) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 139 - Bede read Saracen defeats as divine punishment for their wickedness
#expands(1.00) - Imagined Saracen idolaters justified violence actually aimed at internal Christian enemies
#complicates(0.95) - Saracen idols structured the dramatic conflicts of medieval liturgical plays
#complicates(0.90) - Medieval European epics invented Saracen idolatry to justify crusader violence
#complicates(0.90) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 589 - Crusade-era writers invented Saracen idolatry to justify their own violence
#complicates(0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 423 - The Fall of Acre inaugurated Christian theodicy crises blaming Saracen ascendancy on Christian sin
#complicates(0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1239 - Bede explained Saracen violence as caused by their religious error
#complicates(0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 445 - Missions to Saracen lands provoke controversy over true preaching versus martyrdom-seeking
#complicates(0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1173 - Saracen denoted religious allegiance, not ethnicity, in medieval usage
#complicates(0.80) - Missionary dogma valued martyrdom at Saracen hands as much as conversion itself
#complicates(0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1099