Latin polemicists escalated earlier Eastern calumnies against Muhammad into Koran-invalidity arguments

Evidence

Where the Risâlat al-Kindî had merely reproduced the Koranic passage referring to the Zaynab affair without comment, Alfonsi wishes to drive his lesson home: Muhammad is not only violent and lustful (and hence he lacks the signs of prophecy) but also does not stoop to falsifying bogus revelations in order to satisfy his basest desires. The Liber denudationis recounts the story in greater detail; the main point, for the anonymous author, is to undermine the validity of the Koran: how could one pretend that God is the author of such debased and self-serving revelations? — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 807

Categorization

• XREF: Documents the escalation pattern (Risalat neutral reproduction -> Alfonsi attack -> Liber denudationis full assault) that exemplifies how an anti-Islamic polemical canon accreted rather than emerged whole.