Medieval Christian polemicists recycled Arabic sources through layered Latin rewritings.

Evidence

Peter fills in Anastasius’s account with information gleaned from Risâlat al-Kindî and Petrus Alfonsi’s Dialogi (it is not always clear which, since Petrus Alfonsi himself relies heavily on the Arabic text of the Risâla). Peter’s account of Muhammad’s life and teachings is much briefer than those of either of these sources, but he adds a clear sense of where the prophet and his followers fit in the history of error: the devil works behind and through Muhammad, leading a third of the world’s population into error. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 841

Categorization

• XREF: A concrete case of textual transmission chains — connects with the Milgrom law-merchant material about how reputation/information flows through layered intermediaries. — connects to: Polemical borrowing across Latin texts propagated deliberate misrepresentation of Islam