Medieval Christian polemic against Islam was ineffective self-consolation since Muslims never engaged it

Evidence

It is not usually fair to mock at the outmoded science of a past age; but in the present case it must be said that if some of these arguments now seem particularly ridiculous, their authors were to blame for using ‘reason’ so lightly and almost irresponsibly. They should have known that reason is no basis to attack faith, and that ridicule is dangerous. There does not, however, seem to be the slightest sign that Muslims heard and understood such arguments as these; if they had Ricoldo would have been bound to mention the sort of reaction they provoked. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2419

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: what were the actual Muslim receptions or silences regarding Latin anti-Islamic polemics? Did any Muslim scholars engage with or even know of Ricoldo, Lull, Tripoli?
• SEED: An essay angle on how contest-winning arguments against an adversary operate when the adversary never shows up — polemic as entirely self-referential theater.