John of Damascus devoted exceptional space to Islam in his heresiology
Evidence
Liber de haeresibus (John of Damascus, Liber de haeresibus, in P. Bonifatius Kotter, ed., Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskos, 5 vols. [Berlin, 1969–81], 4:19–67). In other words, this one chapter comprises 16 percent of the text; it is sixteen times the size of the average chapter. One other chapter is as long, chap. 80, on the Massalianoi. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1515 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: John of Damascus devoted sixteen times the average chapter space to Islam — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1515; The heresy chapter on Islam dominates John of Damascus’s catalogue of heresies; The heresy view of Islam predated the crusades in John of Damascus’ writings — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 128 (+19 more)
Broader Connections
- Islam occupied barely a dozen pages in John of Damascus’s fifteen hundred page corpus
#contradicts(1.00) - John of Damascus devoted sixteen times the average chapter space to Islam
#expands(0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1515 - The heresy chapter on Islam dominates John of Damascus’s catalogue of heresies
#expands(0.95) - John of Damascus and Muslim historians shared the same account of pre-Islamic Arabia
#complicates(0.75) - John of Damascus served Umayyad caliphs while writing Christian theology in Greek.
#complicates(0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 338 - John of Damascus credited an Arian monk, not God, with shaping Islam
#complicates(0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 346 - John of Damascus worried more about Byzantine heresy than about Muslim beliefs
#complicates(0.70) - John of Damascus sexualized Hagar to racialize Muslims as a degraded people
#complicates(0.70) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 156 - A medieval Christian tract presented early Muslim conquests positively using Muslim sources
#complicates(0.70) - Goldziher became convinced he was Muslim in spirit during his Damascus stay
#complicates(0.70) - Islam’s rapid conquests seemed miraculous even to Muslim observers themselves
#complicates(0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 270 - Martyrdom hagiography framed Islam as worldly and Christianity as otherworldly
#complicates(0.70) - Nicholas of Cusa made an intellectually sophisticated comparison of Christian and Islamic belief
#complicates(0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1541 - Medieval Christian accounts idealized Muslim public gravity beyond reality
#complicates(0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1088 - Medieval Christians typologically framed Islam as recapitulating earlier heresies
#complicates(0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 133