Ricoldo privately respected Muslim piety despite publicly attacking the faith

Evidence

Within his own experience, however, Ricoldo was impressed as he travelled by the Muslim reverence for the name of God.1% Always conscious, and often resentful, of the Islamic expression of the doctrine of the unity of God, he does not seem to have doubted the doctrine itself. The desperate length to which he sometimes pursued his objections suggests that he felt against his wish that the religions were here in agreement. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 261

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the pattern in Hilaire Belloc or in modern interfaith encounter narratives where firsthand exposure softens polemic — and contrasts with The Reluctant Fundamentalist’s inversion of encounter dynamics.