Peter the Venerable addressed his anti-Islamic polemic directly to Muslim readers using Koranic logic.

Evidence

Peter himself undertook the task of refuting Islam, writing his Contra sectam siue haeresim Saracenorum (Against the sect or heresy of the Saracens) probably in 1155–56. The work as it survives is composed of a long prologue and two books; it may be that Peter wrote more that was subsequently lost or that he left it incomplete at his death on Christmas day, 1156. Both the structure and the strategy of the Contra sectam siue haeresim Saracenorum are quite different from those of the Summa. In the Summa he lambasted Muhammad from a Christian perspective; in the Contra sectam (after a prologue in which he justifies his polemics to Christian readers) he (in book 1) enjoins his Muslim readers to listen impartially to his arguments and tries to convince them that according to the Koran they should accept Christian scripture. In book 2 he tries to prove that Muhammad is not a prophet, by contrasting his life with those of Old Testament prophets. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 849

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader history of Christian-Muslim polemic and interfaith argumentation strategies in Tolan’s other chapters.