Savary’s Prophet biography approximated Muslim accounts despite factual lapses

Evidence

I have criticised Savary for his anxiety to prove a particular case at the expense of exactitude, and I should do him less than justice if I did not recognise that he helped greatly, by the presentation of much of the life of the Prophet in the terms used by Islamic historians, to present to the world a picture that would be more nearly recognisable to Muslims than so many Christian attempts had been. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1685

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Raises a genuinely hard question: whether fidelity to the represented culture’s own self-understanding matters more than narrow factual accuracy — and whether they can be weighed against each other.