Medieval Christian writers rarely understood Ramadan’s actual theological rationale

Evidence

Perhaps it is not surprising that the Muslim reason for the institution of the fast was lost sight of, or, more often, never known. Only the Cluniacs, Peter the Venerable, and the Annotator from whom he presumably gained his knowledge, mention that the fast marks the Night of Power, laylat al-qadar, on which the Qur’an descended upon Muhammad; and even they did not know that the Night occurs (once) during the fast, but spoke of the descent of the Qur’an, as occurring throughout the thirty nights of the month. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1234

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• DEFINE: Clarifies that Ramadan’s fast commemorates the Night of Power (laylat al-qadar), the Qur’an’s descent — a fact medieval Christian polemicists almost never grasped.
• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of cross-cultural religious misunderstanding and the work of Peter the Venerable in commissioning the first Latin Qur’an translation (Ketton’s).

Related

• Muslims’ own reason for Ramadan went unknown to nearly all Christian writers. (similarity 0.94)
• Christian commentators systematically ignored Muslim explanations of Islamic practices. (similarity 0.90)
• Only one medieval Latin source correctly identified the purpose of Ramadan (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval Christian writers reproduced Ramadan’s facts accurately when omitting commentary (similarity 0.81)
• Christian commentators framed Ramadan as a polemical parody of Lent. (similarity 0.80)
• Medievals knew the Quran arrived piecemeal via Gabriel during Ramadan. (similarity 0.79)