Medieval observers recorded Muslim reverent treatment of written God-names as striking practice

Evidence

The Muslims indeed have the greatest reverence for the name of God, and for prophets and saints and holy places. It is especially their practice to do or say or write nothing important without beginning in the name of the Lord. So in all written matter that they send to each other they reverently write the name of God first, and for this reason they diligently see to it that no written thing is torn up or thrown down on the ground. However, if they do find on the ground a piece of paper that has been written on, they reverently pick it up and put it high up in cracks in walls, lest the name of God be trampled on. Whenever they come across the name of God, either reading or speaking, they never dare to pronounce it alone, but always with some word of praise, such as, ‘God, may He be praised’ or some such. Rather more grudgingly, Lull spoke of the great devotion of Muslim preachers and congregations. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1148 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

There was little curiosity on the Christian side, in spite of a general taste for the fantastic or the scandalous. Much that was known of the details was discoloured by the interpretation of Islam in the light of Christian practices. On subjects like the Friday prayer and the qiblah the real facts were not established, probably because it was taken for granted that there was no significant point by which they might be distinguished from Christian models. There was some invention of ‘facts’, as in the details of the ablution, and the same subject exemplifies forced misinterpretation, in this case, as pseudobaptism. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1204 (#complicates, via linked claim)

These thirteenth-century authors, like those of previous centuries, attempted to place the tumultuous events around them into God’s plan. As always, one of the most difficult things to explain was the complex net of relations between God, his chosen people, and his enemies. What was one to think of Muslims? (Or Mongols, heretics, or Jews?) How to place them in the divinely ordained march of history? — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1090 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Even hostile observers testified to Muslims’ fervent regular prayer in the desert; Gods carry fear’s petrified sound in their very names. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 40; Muslims revere God’s name with practices medieval Europeans observed. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1148 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Muslims revere God’s name with practices medieval Europeans observed. #corroborates (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1148
• Medieval Christians read Muslim ritual through Christian practice rather than observing it #complicates (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1204
• Medieval thinkers strained to fit Muslims into a divinely ordained history #complicates (0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1090