Medieval Christian polemic read Islam’s spread as force, not miracle

Evidence

In connection with miracles there was yet another association of ideas: the place of miracles was supplied by force of arms, said Marti; not successfully, he pointed out, at Uhud.§* The first spread of Islam, the conversion of the world to Christianity, were contrasted under this aspect. There was pleasure in the Prophet’s wounds at Uhud, because they disproved the claim that angels guarded him. … Muslims’ claim that he did work miracles was an admission that they were necessary, and al-Farabi openly admitted this. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 430

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault’s construction-of-Islam-as-Wests-outside theme: Christian polemicists definitionally excluded Islam from the miraculous by attributing its spread to violence.