The apostasy myth of Islam derived from memory of lost Christian provinces

Evidence

The fable to the contrary which imagined Islam to be an apostasy from Christianity (often from a recent conversion) was largely literary. This bizarre tale must ultimately derive, in all the ramifications of its different forms, from the idea that Islam was formulated out of Christian dogmatic elements, and from the ever-present memory of those Christian provinces in Syria, Egypt, North Africa and Spain which the Christian world had in fact lost to Islam. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 472

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• DEFINE: Explains the odd literary origins of a claim treated as factual — an useful example of how a territorial grievance becomes a theological narrative.
• SEED: Article angle: how maps of lost territory become theological claims — the apostasy fable as grief over Christian provinces converted to Islam, a pattern that recurs in sectarian historiography today.

Related

• Medieval Christians imagined Islam as apostasy from Christianity, not a pagan-native faith (similarity 0.88)
• Apostasy from Christianity to Islam fueled the gradual Islamisation of Christian provinces (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval Christians imagined Islam as a Christian apostasy born from lost provinces (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christian accounts of Islam’s origins recycled a few basic narrative permutations (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christians under Muslim rule found apostasy tempting for worldly gain (similarity 0.78)