Medieval Christian biographers of Muhammad sought what they considered authentic sources

Evidence

Varagine and Higden, loc. cit.; Humbert, de pred. S.C., capp. 29-43; for Vitry, see also appendix A. The author of the Vita set out explicitly to correct error about Muhammad. If by modern standards he showed no discrimination in judging his authorities, he may well have sought what he thought authentic sources. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2387

Categorization

• XREF: Complicates the vault’s picture of Christian anti-Islam polemic as pure fabrication — medieval authors did hunt for authentic sources, relevant to how ‘Islam’ gets constructed as the West’s constitutive outside.