Medieval refutations of Islam refused Arab interpretation of the Qur’an

Evidence

Ricoldo’s attitude seems to represent that of his contemporaries in an extreme form. From all the polemic that he inherited, both the books and the living tradition, he constructed an encyclopaedic refutation of Islam from which nothing he had ever heard was omitted, and this is specially noticeable in his treatment of the present theme. The literalism of his attack, which often he owed to the Contrarietas, went beyond reason; for example, over the supposed Qur’anic absurdity that God prays for Muhammad. If the Qur’an appeared to say such a silly thing, it must really say it; Arabs could not be allowed to explain what the Arabic meant. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 373

Categorization

• XREF: The refusal to let Arabs explain their own Arabic resembles Said’s orientalist claim about the West denying the Orient interpretive authority over itself.