Only one First Crusade chronicler acknowledged Muslim monotheism accurately

Evidence

This is a potent ideological cocktail. The Saracen pagan king, inspired by the demons whose idols he worships, lusts after pure Christian boys and decapitates them when they do not surrender their bodies to him. In fury, he directs his flaming sword against those Christian provinces such as Galicia whose people rebel against the cult of the idols. The interior Christian minority and the exterior Christian enemy are both threatened by this diabolical power. Hrotsvitha makes no call to war, does not urge Christian knights to aid their oppressed Spanish brethren. But it is easy to see how this view of the pagan other could (and would) subsequently be used to justify war against Saracen “pagans”—and against Wendish or Lithuanian pagans closer to Gandersheim. Many earlier authors assumed that the Saracens or Arabs continued to observe the same cults as had their pagan ancestors. Yet Hrotsvitha is the first Latin author to describe this paganism in lurid detail and to use it to justify resistance against Saracen rule. This strategy will become common two centuries later, as the writers on the first Crusade glorify and justify the killing of Saracens by Christian knights. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 600 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Otto of Friesing came across the story and retells it in his Chronicle of Two Cities, but immediately rejects it as impossible: the Saracens would not have asked Thiemo to worship idols since “the Saracens universally are worshipers of one God… . They are cut off from salvation by one thing alone, that they deny that Jesus Christ … is God and the Son of God, and hold in reverence and worship as a great prophet of the Supreme God, Mahomet, a deceiver.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 604 (#expands, via linked claim)

In writings about Islam penned by famous Christians like Jerome and Bede, it is worth remembering that much of the so-called knowledge produced about Islam was based on folk tales about monsters and mythical narratives about the East and its associated mysteries. These early works were nothing but musings and conjecture, written by individuals who had never opened the pages of a Qur’an or met a Muslim. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 143 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A twelfth-century German chronicler accurately described Muslim monotheism against lurid crusader legend — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 604; Early crusade chroniclers felt no need to fact-check a hated subject — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists…, 75; Depicting Muslims as idolaters supplied the first textual justification for crusade — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 600 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• A twelfth-century German chronicler accurately described Muslim monotheism against lurid crusader legend #expands (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 604
• Early crusade chroniclers felt no need to fact-check a hated subject #expands (1.00) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 75
• Depicting Muslims as idolaters supplied the first textual justification for crusade #complicates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 600
• Early Christian accounts of Islam were written without any contact with Muslims #corroborates (1.00) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 143