Ninth-century Muslim polemic claimed Christians falsified scripture and worshiped images

Evidence

The letter attributed to ‘Umar (in the version that has come down to us) seems in fact to have been written by a Muslim writer of the ninth century. It provides a good example of Muslim polemical views of Christianity as they had by then developed. The author argues that the Christians have falsified their scriptures; that Jesus had never claimed to be God, but rather a messenger sent by God who had foretold the coming of Muhammad; that Jesus taught monotheism and not Trinitarianism. For all these arguments, he cites biblical proof texts (with varying levels of accuracy). He attacks the cult of relics and the cult of the cross and images. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 266

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘scriptures falsified’ (tahrif) and iconoclasm charges here are direct ancestors of later anti-Christian/anti-Western polemical tropes; also parallels the icon controversy in Christian tradition.