Medieval Christians imagined Islam as a Christian apostasy born from lost provinces

Evidence

It was natural for Christian thinkers to interpret the unfamiliar and unexpected phenomenon of Islam in terms of what was familiar to them already. Therefore they tended to present Islam to themselves not as a new religion, but rather as the variant of an old heresy. … As Richard Southern has observed: ‘There was only one way in which this chaos (as it must have appeared) of truth and falsehood could be treated by a twelfth-century thinker if it were to be brought within the range of his equipment: it must be treated as a heresy, more mysterious in its operation than other heresies which had appeared in the course of Christian history, but like them a more or less deliberate perversion of the true faith, which required refutation by the ordinary rules of argument.’ — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 48 (#expands, via linked claim)

This is why I begin this survey of Christian perceptions of Islam before the rise of Islam. The point is to show how key Latin Christian authors of the seventh century viewed their world: in particular, how they defined the differences between Christian and non-Christians (Jews, pagans, and heretics) and what they saw as their place in history. For when they first meet Muslims they will try to understand their military successes and their religion in terms familiar to them, to fit Islam into already existing Christian categories by portraying them, variously, as a divinely sent punishment, as pagan idolaters, as Christian heretics, as followers of Satan, or as devotees of Antichrist. When these Christian authors wish to understand Islam, they will turn only rarely to Muslims themselves, normally preferring those time-honored authorities, the Bible and the church fathers. Medieval Christians, with very few exceptions, did not use the words “Muslim” or “Islam”; instead they used ethnic terms such as “Arab,” “Saracen,” “Ishmaelite.” Information about these peoples could be found in the venerable books of old. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 88 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The apostasy myth of Islam derived from memory of lost Christian provinces; Medieval Christians framed Islam as an old heresy rather than a new religion — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists…, 48; Medieval Christians understood Islam through preexisting biblical categories rather than direct encounter — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 88 (+2 more)

Related

• Medieval Christians framed Islam as an old heresy rather than a new religion (similarity 0.90)
• Medieval Christians imagined Islam as apostasy from Christianity, not a pagan-native faith (similarity 0.87)
• Medieval Christians understood Islam through preexisting biblical categories rather than direct encounter (similarity 0.86)
• Medieval Christians understood Islam only as a distorted copy of Christianity (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval Christians interpreted Muslim ritual through Christian sacramental categories (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval Christians understood Islam as heresy and lumped Muslims with Jews and heretics. (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval Christians first classified Islam as heresy within their own taxonomy (similarity 0.83)
• Whether Islam technically counted as heresy was debated among medieval Latin theologians (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christian portrayals of Islam grew from conquered dhimmi anxieties about apostasy (similarity 0.83)
• Christian authors framed Islam using pre-existing biblical categories, not firsthand knowledge (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval Christians weaponized accurate Islamic learning for polemics (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval polemicists called Islam a heresy despite its unbaptised status. (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval theologians classified Islam in multiple overlapping religious frameworks (similarity 0.82)
• Early Christian writers framed Islam as one more heresy, not a new religion (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval Christians read the Antichrist prophecy as prefiguring Islam (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• The apostasy myth of Islam derived from memory of lost Christian provinces #corroborates (0.98)
• Medieval Christians framed Islam as an old heresy rather than a new religion #expands (0.85) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 48
• Medieval Christians understood Islam through preexisting biblical categories rather than direct encounter #expands (0.82) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 88
• Medieval Christian polemicists framed Islam as lust-driven heresy rather than separate religion #expands (0.78)
• Medieval Christian polemic framed Islam alongside heresy and Judaism #expands (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1045