The martyr party branded Islam a heresy and collaboration with Muslim rulers as diabolical.
Evidence
These twelfth-century authors, like their predecessors, do not see Islam as an independent phenomenon, a distinct religion. Rather, they see the law of the Saracens as part of a panoply of diabolically inspired error that threatens the souls of Christians and the hierarchy of the church. Faced with this perceived threat (from Saracens, Waldensians, Cathars, Jews, or others), many twelfth-century authors responded with hateful slander, not refuting their adversaries but vilifying them, denigrating them so that their readers could not take them seriously. There were other twelfth-century Christians, however, who attempted a more serious rebuttal of Islamic doctrine. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 794 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
With these more complex statements we may contrast Sigebert’s brief assertion that Muhammad taught that he who killed or was killed by the enemy of Islam went to Paradise. This was part of that small body of information that reached even the less wellinformed. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 693 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Martyrdom served as political violence to sever Muslim-Christian collaboration — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 509; Christian missionaries deliberately provoked Muslim rulers into martyring them; Twelfth-century Christian polemicists framed Islam as lust-ridden heresy. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 801 (+17 more)
Broader Connections
- Twelfth-century Christians subsumed Islam under generic diabolical heresy rather than treating it distinctly.
#corroborates(1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 794 - Twelfth-century Christian polemicists framed Islam as lust-ridden heresy.
#corroborates(0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 801 - A simple martyrdom claim about Islam reached even poorly informed medieval readers
#corroborates(0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 693 - Medieval Christian polemicists framed Islam as lust-driven heresy rather than separate religion
#corroborates(0.95) - Christian missionaries deliberately provoked Muslim rulers into martyring them
#complicates(0.90) - Crusade rhetoric racialized Muslims as a vile and accursed race.
#complicates(0.85) — Nasar Meer, Racialization and Religion, 12 - Martyr apologists attacked cooperating Christians more fiercely than Muslims
#complicates(0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 541 - Casting Islam as paganism let crusaders frame their war as revived martyrdom.
#complicates(0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 664 - Crusading ideology cast Islam as aggressor that robbed Christendom of its provinces
#complicates(0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 625 - Crusade chroniclers cast Muslims as pagan Romans to claim martyrdom.
#complicates(0.80) - Medieval martyrs deliberately provoked Muslim execution by insulting Muhammad
#complicates(0.80) - Medieval contempt for Islamic philosophy coexisted with massive intellectual debt to it.
#complicates(0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1995 - Crusade epics show Muslims themselves destroying their own powerless idols.
#complicates(0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 671 - Medieval Christian chroniclers racialized dark-skinned Muslims as diabolical and deceptive.
#complicates(0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 971 - Counter-terrorism policy forced Muslim groups into complicity or exclusion.
#complicates(0.75) — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 145