Many medieval writers genuinely believed Saracens were idolaters

Evidence

While Daniel is certainly right to point out the element of playful exaggeration in some of these texts, he is wrong in asserting that the writers and readers of these epics knew better. Some writers, indeed, did know better; many, however, did not. Many writers, in Latin as well as the vernacular, in chronicles, legal treatises, plays, and other texts, continued to portray Saracens as pagan devotees of Apollo, Jupiter, Mahomet, and other “demons.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 693

Categorization

• XREF: Challenges the ‘literary convention’ dismissal akin to Norman Daniel; parallels debates about whether hate speech in historical texts was ‘just rhetoric.’
• QUESTION: How would one empirically weight ‘some knew better vs. many did not’ across available medieval sources?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 693