Medieval Christian polemicists deliberately mistranslated Muslim sources to defame Muhammad

Evidence

Peter of Toledo may reflect the malice of Mozarab advisers, but the highly reliable reprobatio and San Pedro are at fault in another equally distasteful matter; conceivably they also were indebted to local Arabic-speaking Christian advice. According to the reprobatio, ‘*A’ishah said, “I and the Prophet washed ourselves from the same jar, and we were polluted, and he told me to cover myself with a cloth, et sic iacebat mecum seu contingebat me, et eram menstruata.”’ It is clear from the immediate source, Bukhari, that these words cannot bear the objectionable sense imputed to them; ‘lie beside or touch’ is meant literally, and not as a euphemism for sexual intercourse. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 583

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the chapter’s broader theme of how interfaith polemic manufactures scandal from neutral or innocent sources — parallels Western misreadings in colonial encounters.
• QUESTION: Were medieval Christian Arabic-speaking advisors (Mozarabs) shaping these polemics through cultural translation, and could that pattern recur in modern mutual misreadings between faiths?