Physical contact with Muslims forced medieval authors toward greater accuracy

Evidence

We cannot just excuse them as ignorant. Admittedly there was less misrepresentation and less indulgence in fancy, generally speaking, by authors whose lives brought them close to Muslim sources. These were forced, by their contact with Muslims, or by a study of Arabic material, or simply by a climate of opinion formed by intercourse between Christians and Muslims, to discard some absurd stories that remained popular among more remote or less serious authors. In such circumstances there was no alternative but to admit a greater degree of what we should now recognise as truth, and to base polemic on data which Muslims might accept, and would at any rate recognise. Even so, whenever a choice between stories, or between interpretations of stories, occurred, well-informed and ignorant authors alike often accepted those which were quite untrue in the judgement of modern scholarship, and which, indeed, must have seemed to them highly improbable, had they been alleged of Christians in the world familiar to themselves. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1285 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

This brings out forcibly the contrast between what was observed and what was inferred; between what was accepted on evidence and what was believed even without an adequate authority. At the beginning of this chapter it was said that both modification and confirmation of theory were found in practice. What is really remarkable is that this did not happen more. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1281 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

THERE is a widespread impression to-day that the general mediaeval belief was that Muslims were idolators. This is probably because most people know the Middle Ages best in its literature, and, although this was emphatically not the belief of educated men, there was indeed a literary convention to that effect. The derivation of the English word ‘mommet’ is well known, and the poets are full of the Saracens’ worship of idols, Mahomet, Tervagan, Apolin and Jupiter. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1752 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Contact with Muslims forced medieval Christians to drop absurd anti-Islamic stories — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1285; Theory outweighed direct observation in medieval European writing about Islam — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1281; Peaceful interreligious contact produced positive medieval portrayals of Muslims — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 151 (+2 more)

Related

• Contact with Muslims forced medieval Christians to drop absurd anti-Islamic stories (similarity 0.90)
• Theory outweighed direct observation in medieval European writing about Islam (similarity 0.90)
• Medieval educated opinion did not regard Muslims as idolaters (similarity 0.87)
• Educated medieval people knew Muslims were not idolaters despite literary convention (similarity 0.86)
• Even well-informed medieval authors chose implausible stories when framing Muslims (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval Christian distaste, not ignorance, distorted portrayals of Islam (similarity 0.84)
• The social character of Islamic practice went unrecognized by medieval Christian writers (similarity 0.84)
• Distance from the Islamic border allowed increasingly extravagant anti-Islamic claims to be accepted (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christians saw Islam as salvation by faith without works (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval audiences preferred Islam accounts easier to ridicule over accurate ones (similarity 0.83)
• Peaceful interreligious contact produced positive medieval portrayals of Muslims (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval Christians understood Islam only as a distorted copy of Christianity (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval European literati did not believe Islam was idolatrous (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval writers ignored Islamic ritual because praising it served no polemic purpose (similarity 0.81)
• Mediaeval authors often deliberately chose the worst accounts of Muhammad. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Contact with Muslims forced medieval Christians to drop absurd anti-Islamic stories #corroborates (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1285
• Theory outweighed direct observation in medieval European writing about Islam #contradicts (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1281
• Educated medieval people knew Muslims were not idolaters despite literary convention #corroborates (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1752
• Peaceful interreligious contact produced positive medieval portrayals of Muslims #expands (0.75) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 151
• Some medieval clerics already rejected hostile caricatures of Muslims as inaccurate #corroborates (0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 604