The heresy chapter on Islam dominates John of Damascus’s catalogue of heresies

Evidence

Liber de haeresibus (John of Damascus, Liber de haeresibus, in P. Bonifatius Kotter, ed., Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskos, 5 vols. [Berlin, 1969–81], 4:19–67). In other words, this one chapter comprises 16 percent of the text; it is sixteen times the size of the average chapter. One other chapter is as long, chap. 80, on the Massalianoi. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1515 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

John occupied a key—and at times awkward—position at the intersection of the Christian and Muslim worlds. Yet in his works, which run to more than fifteen hundred pages in the modern edition, barely a dozen pages deal directly with Islam: a short chapter of his Fount of Knowledge and the brief Disputation Between a Saracen and a Christian. If page count is a reliable gauge, iconoclasm is a much larger preoccupation for John than is Islam. Yet his dozen pages on Islam provide a key glimpse at the formation of an apologetic Christian response to Islam, and they were to be read and reread by scores of later Christian writers as they attempted to come to terms with Islam. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 342 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: John of Damascus devoted exceptional space to Islam in his heresiology; John of Damascus worried more about Byzantine heresy than about Muslim beliefs; The heresy view of Islam predated the crusades in John of Damascus’ writings — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 128 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Islam occupied barely a dozen pages in John of Damascus’s fifteen hundred page corpus #contradicts (0.95)
• John of Damascus devoted sixteen times the average chapter space to Islam #corroborates (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1515
• John of Damascus wrote barely a dozen pages on Islam despite his position. #contradicts (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 342