Medieval polemicists framed Muslim image-abhorrence as savage iconoclasm

Evidence

These very same Saracens greatly abhor images, and they destroy pictures, and trample them, and fling them into filthy places. Indeed I heard that recently, after they captured the city of Tripoli, the Saracens dragged a crucifix on the tail of an ass, and threw all the foul things they could on the images. When indeed the Sultan Bendocar had taken the city and returned toward Damascus after his victory, I went to his army so that I might help out the captive [Christians]. And as I walking amongst the Army some Saracens called me and asked “why do you Christians adore pictures and images?” I responded to them “You are wrong, for Christians do not adore pictures or images, but they adore and venerate the saints who are in heaven, whom the pictures represent.” And they were silent, not knowing what more to say. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1083

Categorization

• XREF: The iconoclasm charge is an early instance of casting Muslims as destroyers of sacred (European) culture — an ancestor of modern tropes connecting Islam to cultural vandalism.