Medieval Christians showed no curiosity about pagan invaders’ religions
Evidence
In a Europe continually ravaged by war and invasions, the Saracens were one among a number of non-Christian interlopers. Christian European writers showed little curiosity about the religion of these invaders, be they Saracens, Vikings, or Magyars. They all seemed to be part of the terrible tribulations through which God was putting his people; none provoked (it seems) the slightest suggestion that its religious beliefs and practices could be worth investigating—much less imbued with the slightest legitimacy. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 446
Categorization
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
- XREF: Connects to the pattern of how otherness is denied interiority before it is demonized — echoes Edward Said’s orientalism framing and also the trader reputation chapter’s finding that unknown groups are treated by generic template rather than investigated.
Related
- Early medieval Christians showed no curiosity about Saracen religion (similarity 0.89)
- Even learned medieval polemicists had to correct the pagan view of Saracens. (similarity 0.82)
- Muslim conquests seemed unremarkable to contemporaries who had seen many (similarity 0.81)
- Earliest Christian accounts ignored Islam’s religious dimension entirely (similarity 0.79)
- Christians understood Saracens through biblical and patristic categories (similarity 0.79)
- Medieval Christians collapsed Muslims, Vikings, and Picts into one undifferentiated pagan scourge. (similarity 0.79)
- Christian depictions of Islam emerged from literary mythology, not lived contact (similarity 0.78)
- Christians interpreted Muslim invaders through biblical and patristic categories (similarity 0.78)