Peter the Venerable targeted Christian admirers of Arabic learning

Evidence

Peter then responds to one final rhetorical objection to his tract: why compose for Muhammad’s followers a treatise in Latin, a language they do not understand? Here Peter has two justifications. First of all, he hopes that someone may undertake to translate his tract into Arabic; after all, the Fathers frequently translated works useful to the church from Hebrew to Greek, Greek to Latin, Latin to Greek, and so on. Second, Peter says that his tract may prove useful to Christian readers, even if it stays untranslated (which it did). If there are any Christians who have the slightest tendency to respect or admire Islam, Peter hopes his work will quickly dissuade them. “Perhaps this tract will cure the hidden cogitations of some of our people, thoughts by which they could be led into evil if they think that there is some piety in those impious people and think that some truth is to be found with the ministers of lies” (Contra sectam, §20). Who are these Latin Christians who in their “hidden cogitations” might think the Saracens were pious? Peter does not say, but certainly the most likely candidates were the translators and students of Arabic science and philosophy. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 853

Categorization

• XREF: Grounds the vault’s genealogical claim (Anidjar/Aziz/Razack) that anti-Islam polemic was always entangled with Christian anxiety about its own ambiguous attraction to Arabic culture, not just outward hostility.