Medieval fixation on genital washing mirrored Christian obsession with Islamic sexual sin

Evidence

Within this general theme a variety of different emphases is met. In this context sex has its place only as the chief among several symptoms of an underlying laxity. Peter the Venerable spoke of Islamic institutions as “‘prudentes secundum carnem’ - judicious in a fleshly way, we might almost say - as if to speak so were to make a significant concession to Islamic feeling. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 855 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Islamic rules about witnesses, but not, strangely, to those that disqualified Christians from testifying in court cases that came before the qadi.**® Discrepancy between the Qur’anic and Mosaic laws of witnesses mysteriously irritated Ricoldo, who pointed to it with that triumphant air characteristic of his work whenever he felt that he or his source had unearthed some particular conclusive and self-evident absurdity. What he thought so significant in this now escapes us. There might well have been more attack than there was upon the acceptance of magical practices in Muslim society.®° Little polemic use was made of the Islamic seclusion of women.®! The serious criticism of Islam that it made no provision for restitution in cases of injury was not raised widely.®* None of these points loomed very large in the mediaeval tradition which was always dominated by the consideration of Islamic lubricity. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 848 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Christian polemicists portrayed medieval Muslim sexuality as wholly unregulated; Christians framed Islam as a religion built on sexual licence; Medieval polemic treated Muslim sexuality as a symptom of a deeper spiritual laxity — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 855 (+9 more)

Related

• Christian polemicists portrayed medieval Muslim sexuality as wholly unregulated (similarity 0.92)
• Medieval polemic treated Muslim sexuality as a symptom of a deeper spiritual laxity (similarity 0.88)
• Christians framed Islam as a religion built on sexual licence (similarity 0.88)
• Medieval Christian polemicists fixated on Muslim sexuality over graver legal issues (similarity 0.88)
• Medieval Christian polemicists fixated on Islam’s legal theory while knowing nothing of its practice (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval Christian polemic held Muslim sexuality as a core mark of heresy. (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval attacks on Islam centered on its denial of chastity and reason (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval Christians explained Islamic licentiousness through Arab climate and temperament (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christians attributed Islamic morals to climate and carnal weakness (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval Christian polemic mocked Muslim sexual mores to discredit the Koran (similarity 0.82)
• Christian polemic attributed sexual licentiousness to Islam continuously from medieval to modern times (similarity 0.81)
• Critics linked Islamic sexual laxity to its doctrines of determinism and paradise (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christians misread Islamic concubinage as unregulated promiscuity (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christian polemicists framed Islam as lust-driven heresy rather than separate religion (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christians interpreted Muslim ablutions through their own categories rather than Islam’s (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Medieval polemic treated Muslim sexuality as a symptom of a deeper spiritual laxity #contradicts (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 855
• Medieval Christian polemicists fixated on Muslim sexuality over graver legal issues #corroborates (0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 848
• Medieval Christian polemicists framed Islam as lust-driven heresy rather than separate religion #corroborates (0.90)
• Medieval Christian polemicists sexualized Muhammad into a monstrous hyperfertile pimp #expands (0.85) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 139
• Medieval Christians interpreted Muslim ritual through Christian sacramental categories #expands (0.85)
• Medieval Christians attributed Islamic morals to climate and carnal weakness #complicates (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 815
• Medieval Christians used Islam’s marital norms to claim moral superiority #corroborates (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 67
• Medieval polemic framed Muslim polygamy as a breeding strategy against Christendom #expands (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2185
• Medieval Christian distaste, not ignorance, distorted portrayals of Islam #corroborates (0.75)