The Baghdad caliph banned philosophy out of fear it would undermine the Koran
Evidence
Their wise men began to execrate the perversity of their law. Since this law could be eliminated either through the books of the prophets, by the law of Moses, or even by the veracious books of the philosophers, therefore the Caliph of Baghdad ordered that nothing should be studied in Baghdad except the Koran. For this reason, we find that they know very little about the truth of theology or the subtlety of philosophy. Nevertheless, their wise men put no faith in the sayings of the Koran, but deride it in secret. In public, though, they honor it, on account of their fear of others. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1252
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- SEED: The medieval claim that Muslims privately deride the Koran while publicly honoring it out of fear is a striking pre-modern template for how intolerance is attributed to others — an angle on ‘the other’s religion is only maintained by coercion.’
- XREF: Connects to Riccoldo’s broader pessimism about Muslim conversion in this chapter, and to the general theme of how Christian polemicists explained Muslim persistence.