Islam spread by violence, since it lacked reason and miracles to convince

Evidence

Since neither reason nor miracles are on the Saracens’s side, continues Riccoldo, they have had to spread their law by the sword: “Sixth and final point: it should be known that the law of the Saracens is violent and that it was introduced through violence. Hence they themselves know quite well that this law will last only as long among them as their victories by the sword.” Every Friday, he continues, the Saracens assemble for prayer; the preacher begins by unsheathing a sword and placing it where all can see it; this is the sign that their law began by the sword and will finish by the sword. (In his Contra legem Sarracenorum he repeats this charge, contrasting the Saracen preacher raising his sword with the Christian preacher raising the cross). — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1255

Categorization

• XREF: Direct ancestor of the modern claim (Razack, Anidjar vault material) that Islam is inherently violent and spread by the sword — here’s the 13th-century Latin Christian origin with its invented Friday sword ritual.
• ADDENDUM: Supports the vault’s genealogy of the ‘Islam = violence’ trope, a close relative of the immodesty and sacrifice moral panics as medieval Christian constructions of the Muslim other.