Medieval polemic linked Muslim ablutions to the Venus cult

Evidence

Only the superficial facts were understood, and more often they were misunderstood, and even elaborately embroidered. To the Latins the salient point about the Friday prayer was often that Friday was the day once sacred to Venus, and in this view the Muslims had once, before Muhammad, worshipped her, and still now treated her day as holy, or even still worshipped her on that day; or, more simply, it was said that it was appropriate that the religion which chiefly served venery should celebrate the day of Venus. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1184 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

These Spanish and Eastern Christians were hostile to Islam but relatively knowledgeable about it. Such is not the case with many medieval European writers, who (as I show in chapter 5) portray the Saracens as idolaters, praying and sacrificing to the statues of a colorful pantheon: Apollo, Tervagant, Jupiter, and especially Mahoumet (or various other garbled versions of the name Muhammad). Ecclesiastical writers schooled in the Latin classics had a vivid image of pagan worship, an image they transposed to create a portrait of the religious error of the “pagan” Saracens. The chroniclers of the first Crusade used this image to glorify and justify the crusaders’ exploits. Epic poets developed the same images in the Chansons de Geste; fourteenth-century dramatists worked them into their passion plays. For many medieval authors, the Saracens were pagan idolaters. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 69 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

The Risalah, in this matter faithfully represented both by Peter of Toledo and by Vincent of Beauvais, recognised in the practices of the hajj itself customs that were also known among pagan Indians: there was the circumambulation, lapidation and the howling of the crowd. The whole thing (in this version) was related equally to the paganism of the Old Testament and to that of the Hindus; and in both cases paganism meant the worship of Venus. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1210 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Latins explained the Muslim Friday as the pagan day of Venus; Medieval Christian writers equated Hindu and Old Testament paganism with Venus worship — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1210; Medieval polemic treated Muslim sexuality as a symptom of a deeper spiritual laxity — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 855 (+4 more)

Related

• Latins explained the Muslim Friday as the pagan day of Venus (similarity 0.93)
• Latin Christians explained Friday prayer through Venus-worship and venery (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval Christian writers equated Hindu and Old Testament paganism with Venus worship (similarity 0.84)
• Christians projected a Venus-cult origin onto the Muslim Friday prayer (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christian polemic equated hajj rites with pagan Indian worship (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval writers imagined Muslim worship by transposing Roman pagan imagery (similarity 0.80)
• Twelfth-century polemics reduced Islam to a carnal cult of lust (similarity 0.78)
• Medieval accounts may have fused Islamic feasts with solar pagan festivals like Nowruz (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Latin Christians explained Friday prayer through Venus-worship and venery #exemplifies (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1184
• Medieval writers imagined Muslim worship by transposing Roman pagan imagery #exemplifies (0.90) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 69
• Medieval Christian writers equated Hindu and Old Testament paganism with Venus worship #expands (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1210
• Medieval polemic treated Muslim sexuality as a symptom of a deeper spiritual laxity #expands (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 855
• Medieval Christian polemicists framed Islam as lust-driven heresy rather than separate religion #expands (0.75)
• Twelfth-century polemics reduced Islam to a carnal cult of lust #expands (0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 882