Medieval textual authority trumped sensory evidence when they conflicted

Evidence

Few medieval authors embody the search for truth via dependence on authority better than Isidore of Seville, contemporary of Muhammad. Isidore not only compiles florilegia of earlier authorities but also becomes an authority who will be quoted throughout the Middle Ages. Both in the content and the method of his work, he illustrates the intellectual filtering common to many medieval authors. Authoritative explanations of the world around one are to be found in revered books. These books are timeless, never out of date; if the reality one sees around oneself does not seem to correspond to the models described on parchment, it is the evidence of the senses that must be questioned, not the authorities. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 89

Categorization

• XREF: Illuminates the deeper Western pattern behind the vault’s genealogical claims: a book-supremacy epistemology that long predates and enables Islamophobic categorization.