Thirteenth-century missionaries split between martyrdom-seeking Franciscans and debate-based Dominicans

Evidence

These Franciscans in general showed little knowledge of Islam or of the Arabic language, and for many of them the principal goal was to receive the palm of martyrdom from the Saracen adversaries, not to convert them. The Dominican order adopted a quite different strategy (see chapter 10). Dominican friars studied Arabic, pored over Koran and Hadîth, engaged Muslim scholars in theological debate, and preached to captive Muslim audiences in the mosques of the Crown of Aragon; the hope was that such argumentation would be able to prove the superiority of Christianity to the Muslim interlocutors, though by the end of the century the failure of this strategy became manifest. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 897

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader history of interfaith polemic and how missionary strategy tracks institutional incentives. — connects to: Medieval friars debated whether provoking one’s own martyrdom was suicide