Latins explained the Muslim Friday as the pagan day of Venus

Evidence

Only the superficial facts were understood, and more often they were misunderstood, and even elaborately embroidered. To the Latins the salient point about the Friday prayer was often that Friday was the day once sacred to Venus, and in this view the Muslims had once, before Muhammad, worshipped her, and still now treated her day as holy, or even still worshipped her on that day; or, more simply, it was said that it was appropriate that the religion which chiefly served venery should celebrate the day of Venus. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1184 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

These Spanish and Eastern Christians were hostile to Islam but relatively knowledgeable about it. Such is not the case with many medieval European writers, who (as I show in chapter 5) portray the Saracens as idolaters, praying and sacrificing to the statues of a colorful pantheon: Apollo, Tervagant, Jupiter, and especially Mahoumet (or various other garbled versions of the name Muhammad). Ecclesiastical writers schooled in the Latin classics had a vivid image of pagan worship, an image they transposed to create a portrait of the religious error of the “pagan” Saracens. The chroniclers of the first Crusade used this image to glorify and justify the crusaders’ exploits. Epic poets developed the same images in the Chansons de Geste; fourteenth-century dramatists worked them into their passion plays. For many medieval authors, the Saracens were pagan idolaters. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 69 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Latin Christians explained Friday prayer through Venus-worship and venery — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1184; Medieval polemic linked Muslim ablutions to the Venus cult; Christians commonly labeled Muslims ‘pagans’ and equated the terms in medieval Latin Christendom (+1 more)

Related

• Medieval polemic linked Muslim ablutions to the Venus cult (similarity 0.93)
• Latin Christians explained Friday prayer through Venus-worship and venery (similarity 0.92)
• Christians projected a Venus-cult origin onto the Muslim Friday prayer (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval writers imagined Muslim worship by transposing Roman pagan imagery (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval accounts may have fused Islamic feasts with solar pagan festivals like Nowruz (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Latin Christians explained Friday prayer through Venus-worship and venery #corroborates (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1184
• Medieval writers imagined Muslim worship by transposing Roman pagan imagery #exemplifies (0.90) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 69
• Medieval polemic linked Muslim ablutions to the Venus cult #expands (0.85)
• Christians commonly labeled Muslims ‘pagans’ and equated the terms in medieval Latin Christendom #expands (0.70)