Muslims could seek baptism as magic rather than as conversion
Evidence
Vitry understood what was happening; Muslims, he said, had their children baptised, not from faith, but in superstitious hope of longer life or of cure from illness. Caesarius, in contrast, tells the story of how the Bishop of Beauvais, in his captivity after Damietta, baptised a young man, a sick Muslim, who had dreamed that baptism would cure him. He was cured, and the smiles of the Muslims standing around turned to wonder. The author piously, and rather pathetically, hoped that the youth persevered in his new faith. The purely superstitious significance which, without intending any sacrilege, a Muslim would see in the ceremony can never have occurred to him. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1134 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Muslims requested baptism seeking magical cure, not religious conversion — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1134; Forcible mass baptism was used as an economic weapon against Muslim competitors; Islamic ablution and prayer times were forced into Christian templates like baptism. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1205 (+2 more)
Related
- Muslims requested baptism seeking magical cure, not religious conversion (similarity 0.93)
- Islamic ablution and prayer times were forced into Christian templates like baptism. (similarity 0.86)
- Medieval Christians understood Muslim rites through the template of their own sacraments. (similarity 0.81)
- Medieval Christians interpreted Muslim ritual through Christian sacramental categories (similarity 0.80)
- Medieval claims of mass Muslim conversion to Christianity strain credulity (similarity 0.80)
- Medieval Muslims could accept Christian scripture as true yet decline to convert. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Muslims requested baptism seeking magical cure, not religious conversion
#corroborates(1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1134 - Forcible mass baptism was used as an economic weapon against Muslim competitors
#complicates(0.80) - Medieval Christians interpreted Muslim ritual through Christian sacramental categories
#expands(0.80) - Islamic ablution and prayer times were forced into Christian templates like baptism.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1205 - Medieval Muslims could accept Christian scripture as true yet decline to convert.
#qualifies(0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1139