Medieval Christian writers argued Islam was nearly convertible by preaching, not war

Evidence

The optimism is even more marked in the De statu Saracenorum (1273), traditionally attributed to William of Tripoli, but which now appears to be an anonymous compilation that used William’s Notitia de Machometo as its principal source. This text argues that Islam is so close to Christianity that the conversion of Muslims by peaceful means should be an easy task. In order to prove this, the anonymous author presents a largely accurate (through obviously partial) description of Islamic history, doctrine, and ritual. Moreover, he makes a series of predictions of Islam’s imminent demise, claiming that Muhammad himself had predicted the end of Islam when the caliphate was destroyed (which, the author says, it has recently been, in the Mongol sack of Baghdad). He emphasizes similarities between Christian and Muslim beliefs on the virgin birth of Jesus, and the Koran’s praise of Jesus, the Gospels, and Christians. These things, he says, “which the Saracens believe in their heart to be true” show that they “are close to the Christian faith and close to the way of salvation.” While he recognizes the ways in which Muslim belief differs from Christian belief, he maintains that the way to bring them into the Christian fold is through preaching, not war. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1048

Categorization

• XREF: Complicates the Anidjar/Aziz/Razack framing of a single continuous Islamophobic discourse: here conversion-by-persuasion optimism coexists with the polemical-war tradition mapped in the vault.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing whether the peaceful-conversion strand and the annihilationist strand described Tolan’s sources correlate with particular historical moments or authors.
• SEED: An angle on how ‘close to salvation’ readings of Islam (based on the virgin birth, Jesus praise) forecast modern interfaith thinking — and why that strand died out.