Polemical categories like adultery fail when applied to another religion’s marriage law

Evidence

Martí’s fourth fruit of prophecy is that the prophet bring a good and holy law; here he tries to show that Muslim law goes against both divine law (as mandated by Scripture) and natural law (as mandated by reason). Of the eleven precepts that Martí here condemns as transgressions of divine and natural law, seven involve sex and marriage: polygamy is “against divine mandate, against natural law and against reason.” He similarly condemns what he presents as Muslim law regarding divorce, nonvaginal intercourse, concubinage, coitus interruptus, and homosexuality. Acknowledging that homosexuality is in fact illegal in Islam, he nonetheless claims that since four witnesses are needed to convict homosexuals, Muhammad thus “gave cause and opportunity to his followers so that many of them perpetrate this shameful act almost without shame and fear.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1202 (#expands, via linked claim)

Islamic rules about witnesses, but not, strangely, to those that disqualified Christians from testifying in court cases that came before the qadi.**® Discrepancy between the Qur’anic and Mosaic laws of witnesses mysteriously irritated Ricoldo, who pointed to it with that triumphant air characteristic of his work whenever he felt that he or his source had unearthed some particular conclusive and self-evident absurdity. What he thought so significant in this now escapes us. There might well have been more attack than there was upon the acceptance of magical practices in Muslim society.®° Little polemic use was made of the Islamic seclusion of women.®! The serious criticism of Islam that it made no provision for restitution in cases of injury was not raised widely.®* None of these points loomed very large in the mediaeval tradition which was always dominated by the consideration of Islamic lubricity. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 848 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Jewish marriage law absorbed surrounding Christian and Muslim norms — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 327; Refusal of Christian truth could legally count as fornication justifying marriage annulment; Medieval polemicists attacked Islam mainly through its marriage and sexuality laws — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1202 (+3 more)

Related

• Medieval polemicists attacked Islam mainly through its marriage and sexuality laws (similarity 0.88)
• Medieval attacks on Islam centered on its denial of chastity and reason (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval Christian polemicists fixated on Muslim sexuality over graver legal issues (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christian polemicists fixated on Islam’s legal theory while knowing nothing of its practice (similarity 0.80)
• Christian polemicists portrayed medieval Muslim sexuality as wholly unregulated (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval fixation on genital washing mirrored Christian obsession with Islamic sexual sin (similarity 0.78)
• One medieval writer read polygamy as Islamic law’s cure for covetousness (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Refusal of Christian truth could legally count as fornication justifying marriage annulment #exemplifies (0.85)
• Medieval polemicists attacked Islam mainly through its marriage and sexuality laws #expands (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1202
• Jewish marriage law absorbed surrounding Christian and Muslim norms #exemplifies (0.75) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 327
• Medieval polemic framed Muslim polygamy as a breeding strategy against Christendom #exemplifies (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2185
• Medieval Christian polemicists fixated on Muslim sexuality over graver legal issues #complicates (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 848
• Adultery is judged more seriously for women under patriarchal tradition #expands (0.75)