Petrus Alfonsi’s Dialogues shaped medieval Europe’s image of Islam for centuries.

Evidence

From the eighth century to the twelfth, Eastern Christian polemical views of Islam were imported to Spain, where they were reworked and brought to northern Europe. At the same time, the contrasting image of Islam as pagan idolatry was created by European chroniclers and poets. By the end of the twelfth century, European writers had created the essential portrayals of Islam that would be elaborated upon, reworked, and deployed for different purposes for centuries to come. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 426 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Gradually, despite their many internal differences, the countries of western Europe began to conceive of themselves as part of a single family or civilization—“the West.” The challenge from Islam was an important factor in hammering western Europe and the idea of “the West” into shape. Roberts notes that “the word ‘Europeans’ seems to appear for the first time in an eighth-century reference to Charles Martel’s victory [over Islamic forces] at Tours. All collectivities become more self-aware in the presence of an external challenge, and self-awareness promotes cohesiveness” (1985, 122). — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 564 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The most widely read and influential of these texts was the anti-Islamic chapter of Petrus Alfonsi’s Dialogues against the Jews. Alfonsi composed them in 1110 and subsequently immigrated to England and then to France; from there, his Dialogues circulated among monastic readers interested in Old Testament exegesis, Judaism, and Islam. Sixty-three extant manuscripts of the Dialogues (along with another sixteen manuscripts containing adaptations of the text) testify to its popularity. Vincent de Beauvais included an abbreviated version of the text in his Speculum historiale (c. 1250), which survives in more than two hundred medieval manuscripts. Several scribes recopied only the anti-Islamic chapter, and the Dominican Humbert of Romans, in his Tract on the Preaching of the Crusade, recommends it alongside the Latin translation of the Koran as essential reading for understanding the religion of the adversary. Dozens of medieval writers on Islam based their descriptions of Muhammad’s life, of Muslim law, and of the pilgrimage rites at Mecca on Alfonsi’s Dialogues. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 831 (#responds-to, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Petrus Alfonsi’s anti-Islamic polemic was medieval Europe’s most influential source on Islam. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 831; Islam served as Europe’s principal civilizational other for centuries. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 193; Mid-fifteenth-century European thought on Islam surpassed all earlier and later centuries — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 562 (+16 more)

Broader Connections

• Petrus Alfonsi’s anti-Islamic polemic was medieval Europe’s most influential source on Islam. #responds-to (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 831
• Mid-fifteenth-century European thought on Islam surpassed all earlier and later centuries #contradicts (1.00) — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 562
• By 1200 Europe fixed its foundational Islam portrayals for centuries #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 426
• Muslim scholars’ work paved the way for the European Renaissance. #contradicts (1.00) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 56
• Medieval Europeans imagined the East theologically before Muslim stereotypes emerged #complicates (1.00) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 100
• The medieval monster narrative of Islam was cemented by colonialism and Orientalism #complicates (1.00) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 36
• Islam’s challenge helped forge western Europe’s collective identity as the West. #complicates (1.00) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 564
• Medieval epics imagined Islam as a parodic mirror of Christian crusade religion #complicates (0.90) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 672
• Medieval Europe held multiple coexisting frameworks for situating Islam #complicates (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1067
• Medieval Europe’s portrait of Muhammad’s Arabia was largely accurate history #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 482