Peter’s polemic survived in one manuscript while the Koran translation survived in eighteen

Evidence

In his description of “the infidelity of the Saracens,” Fidentius gives a largely accurate (if extremely hostile) description of the differences between Muslim and Christian beliefs about Jesus and the Trinity. He, like William of Tripoli and the author of De statu, cites the Koran, in a fairly faithful Latin translation, to illustrate his points. But for De statu the similarities were more important than the differences: they showed that the Saracens “believed in their hearts.” For Fidentius, these differences are crucial and irreparable: he emphasizes their hostility to Christian doctrine and to Christian ritual objects: These very same Saracens greatly abhor images, and they destroy pictures, and trample them, and fling them into filthy places. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1082 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Of the opening of the third strah he said, ‘What could be said more explicitly than that God delivered right ways to men, first the Testament, that is, the Old one, and then the Gospel; or how could either Testament be more explicitly approved?’ These extracts from the Qur’an interested him because he thought that they guaranteed the existing canon of Scripture; but while he was mistaken about that, he must certainly have realised that Islam claimed to be one continuous religion in the many revelations. He knew that it claimed to ‘announce nothing contrary to the past Prophets’. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 144 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The authentic Qur’anic objection to the doctrine of the Trinity does not normally appear in these examples of false-Augustinian temper, but a number of writers did seek to use arguments from the Qur’an which they felt Muslims would be bound to accept; this was done with more sympathy and with less, and both with, and without, the aid of the comparationes. It was held that the Qur’an itself admitted the truth of the Trinity. Oliver of Paderborn sought ground common to the two religions in terms like ‘breath of God’. As God is simple in nature and there is nothing in God which is not God, and (Christ) was conceived by the breath of God, it is evident that He is God; and the breath of God is nothing but the Holy Ghost, and the speech of God nothing else but the Word of God. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 997 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Peter’s anti-Islamic polemic reached few medieval readers though his Koran translation circulated widely. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 873; Medieval polemicists cited an accurate Koran while inverting its emphasis — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1082; Castilian translations of the Koran and Mi’raj served anti-Muslim polemic — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 996 (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Medieval polemicists cited an accurate Koran while inverting its emphasis #complicates (0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1082
• Castilian translations of the Koran and Mi’raj served anti-Muslim polemic #complicates (0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 996
• Peter’s polemics functioned as defensive theology against Arabic philosophy’s appeal #complicates (0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 854
• Peter the Venerable conceived of Islam as the last unanswered Christian heresy #complicates (0.70) — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 205
• Peter judged polemics by whether they matched patristic genre conventions rather than by effectiveness #complicates (0.70)
• Medieval Christian anti-Islamic polemic relied on the Koran’s own text to refute it #complicates (0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1263
• Peter the Venerable catalogued Qur’anic figures he traced to Scripture #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 911
• Christian polemicists argued the Koran proves scripture’s divinity through its own claims #complicates (0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 862
• Christian polemicists distorted Qur’anic verses with small, impactful translation shifts #complicates (0.70)
• Medieval Christian polemic distorted Qur’anic texts with minimal inaccuracy #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 565
• Factual corrections to Christian anti-Islamic polemic only patched a weakened doctrinal structure #complicates (0.70)
• The Qur’an claims to be a culminating continuation of prior revelations #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 144
• A Christian translator doubted the Qur’an’s proof but affirmed its intent #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 246
• Thirteenth-century Christian pilgrims read the Koran and stressed its affinity with Christian doctrine #complicates (0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1071
• Medieval polemicists coerced the Qur’an’s own terms into proofs of the Trinity #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 997