Medieval missionaries aimed at martyrdom rather than Muslim conversion

Evidence

That is why Ricoldo disputed with learned Muslims only aliquantulum, and why his pages are filled by literary sources, and not by the fruit of personal contact. That is why missionaries gave their attention chiefly to Christians, Latin or Oriental, living under Islamic rule, rather than to the Muslims themselves; and those that turned to the Muslims sought, not the conversion of the infidel, but their own martyrdom. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1465

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: the psychology of missionaries who seek death rather than converts — how a religious mission can invert its own stated goal.
• XREF: connects to: Missionaries sought martyrdom through provoking Muslim violence when war was unavailable; Christian missionaries deliberately provoked Muslim rulers into martyring them; Medieval friars debated whether provoking one’s own martyrdom was suicide