Medieval Christians admitted the Qur’an as an authority only where useful to their polemic

Evidence

It is this that explains some cases where Christians insisted that Muslims must mean something which in fact we know they did not mean, for example, that God ‘prayed for’ Muhammad.* The whole scheme of authorities was imperilled by Islamic culture, which recognised relatively few of them; a few, Aristotle for example, which it not only recognised but had actually imparted to the West, could be quoted against it. Here it was specifically Islamic religion which was in opposition and particularly the Qur’an. Thus it was that the Qur’an came to be used itself as an authority, in a Christian interpretation and from within the general consensus of Christian opinion. Authors, Christian and ancient, had been brought to fit into this consensus, and the Qur’an was made to do so too. On the surface, mediaevals thought, it was wholly alien to them, and, on the most sanguine view, must always remain partly so. In so far as it did so, it was rejected. In so far as it could be used to forward the Christian case, it was admitted as an authority. This partly explains the apparently ridiculous interpretation of many of its texts according to arbitrary Christian requirements which no Muslim could recognise. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1408

In so far as it did so, it was rejected. In so far as it could be used to forward the Christian case, it was admitted as an authority. This partly explains the apparently ridiculous interpretation of many of its texts according to arbitrary Christian requirements which no Muslim could recognise. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1408

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault’s existing claims about how ‘Islam’ is epistemically subordinated to Western categories — here via outright textual appropriation rather than threat construction. — connects to: Medieval Christian polemic interpreted Qur’anic texts as nastily as possible
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1408