Spanish Christians under Muslim rule forged anti-Islam polemics for the same reasons
Evidence
The thirteenth century saw a flourishing of different strategies to grapple with the “problem” of Islam: crusade, theological refutation, mission, martyrdom. Part 3 is devoted to exploring the complex and varied approaches to Islam in the thirteenth-century Latin West; the focus is on the development of the polemical images of Islam analyzed in part 2 and their deployment for specific ideological purposes: justification of conquest and subjugation of Muslims, elaboration of strategies to convert Muslims, and so on. Chapter 7 examines the use of anti-Muslim images in some of the chronicles and legal texts of thirteenth-century Spain. These polemical ideas, in particular the hostile biography of Muhammad, were used to deny any political legitimacy to Muslim rule in Spain and to justify the social and political subjugation of Muslim subjects of Spanish Christian rulers. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 71 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
The Christian canon of Muslim behaviour, that is, the received Christian opinion as to what Muslims actually did, was partly formed by the tendency of misconceptions to snowball, and to confirm as well as to add to one another. Mere repetition is enough to bring unshakable conviction; and once it had been asserted that Islamic teaching was sexually lax, every example of laxity would be noticed from that moment, and, once notified, attributed to the doctrine. … If we suppose that there were an equal number of similar offences committed by Christians and by Muslims in any given time, in the former case they would be seen as having occurred in spite of doctrine, so that each individual case would be an exception, and in the latter it would be assumed that doctrine was the cause of whatever happened. Moreover, if it were not a matter of seeking examples to prove a thesis, each particular episode would be less likely to be noticed in the first place. … More often the polemic purpose guided the selection of facts, and there were few cases indeed where mistakes were made that showed Islam in a less disadvantageous light than was necessary. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1362 (
#exemplifies, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Medieval Spanish rulers used anti-Islam polemic to justify rule over subject Muslims; Anti-Muslim polemic justified the subjugation of Spanish Muslims and denied their rule legitimacy — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 71; Christians under Muslim rule in Spain shifted from martyr-seeking to pragmatic accommodation — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 552 (+21 more)
Broader Connections
- Medieval Spanish rulers used anti-Islam polemic to justify rule over subject Muslims
#corroborates(1.00) - Anti-Muslim polemic justified the subjugation of Spanish Muslims and denied their rule legitimacy
#corroborates(1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 71 - Christians under Muslim rule in Spain shifted from martyr-seeking to pragmatic accommodation
#complicates(0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 552 - Anti-Muslim polemics legitimated Christian subjugation of Spanish Muslims
#corroborates(0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 71 - Christian Spain’s self-definition required Islam to remain a monstrous external opposite
#corroborates(0.95) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 136 - Christian polemicists derived universal Muslim depravity from one Spanish legal school
#corroborates(0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 783 - Medieval anti-Islamic polemics aimed to fortify Christians rather than convert Muslims
#corroborates(0.95) - Muslim rulers of Spain courted bishops because most subjects were Christian
#responds-to(0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 490 - Anti-Quran polemics were crafted for Christian audiences rather than actual Muslims
#corroborates(0.95) - Anti-Islam polemics made identical Christian behavior an exception and Muslim behavior a doctrinal proof
#exemplifies(0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1362 - Systematic theological anti-Islam polemic emerged only under Muslim rule
#corroborates(0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 461 - Rapid Muslim conquest produced violent Christian anticolonial backlash in Spain
#complicates(0.90) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 504 - Anti-Islamic polemic was shaped to repel Christians, not Muslims
#complicates(0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1471 - Spanish Christians under Muslim rule became culturally and linguistically Arabized.
#complicates(0.80)