Twelfth-century authors held monotheism and idolatry beliefs simultaneously

Evidence

Guibert makes clear that Saracens consider Muhammad to be their wholly human prophet, not a god. The other three authors try to accommodate the popular belief that Muslims worshiped Muhammad as their God. … Thus the images of Saracen idolatry examined in chapter 5 could be accommodated with a cursory knowledge of Muhammad’s life. In this way, William of Malmesbury, writing in about 1125, can assert the Saracens are monotheists yet still maintain that they had erected a statue of Muhammad in the temple of Jerusalem. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 791 (#expands, via linked claim)

This sort of confrontation of images of Saracen religion becomes more common as more information about Islam and its prophet reaches Europe. Some authors will even try to accommodate both versions: William of Malmesbury, writing in about 1125, knows that the Saracens are monotheists yet still believes they erected a statue of Muhammad in the temple of Jerusalem. Even King Alfonso VI of León and Castille describes the mosque of Toledo as the “habitation of demons” (though not, indeed, of idols). The twelfth-century Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle, a medieval “bestseller,” has one Saracen explain that Mahoumet is their messenger sent by God but another invokes him as “my God.” The same chronicle tells us that Mauhoumet made an idol of himself in Spain, used his necromancy to fill it with demons, and set it up to protect the Saracens from Christian attack. Hence the reader might believe that Mauhoumet is at the same time a man whom the Saracens accept as their prophet and an idol that this false prophet made of himself. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 723 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

From Manuel’s standpoint, it seems, Muslim converts should be asked only to renounce the errors of Muhammad, not the true, eternal God, who was after all the same as the Christian God. Manuel succeeded in having the formula altered, but only in the face of strong resistance by conservative church members offended at the suggestion that the Muslim god was the same as their own. These Byzantine church leaders need to affirm the religious alterity of Islam in order to keep the boundaries clear between religious truth and error: better to associate Islam with pagan idolatry than to suggest that it venerates the eternal God. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 684 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval authors mixed accurate monotheist knowledge of Islam with fabricated idol worship. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 791; Byzantine churchmen preferred claims of Muslim idolatry over shared monotheism — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 684; A twelfth-century German chronicler accurately described Muslim monotheism against lurid crusader legend — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 604 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Medieval authors mixed accurate monotheist knowledge of Islam with fabricated idol worship. #expands (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 791
• Medieval Christian authors held contradictory views of Saracen religion simultaneously #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 723
• Byzantine churchmen preferred claims of Muslim idolatry over shared monotheism #complicates (0.90) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 684
• Medieval Christian scholars attributed the invention of idolatry to Ishmael or Prometheus #complicates (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 130
• Byzantine polemicists twisted Muslim monotheism into idolatry claims #complicates (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 305
• Monotheistic medieval peoples read military victory as proof of divine favor #complicates (0.70)
• Medieval respect for Muslim monotheism came from lived contact, not scholarship #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 245
• Medieval Christians assumed Muslims shared common ground on monotheism #complicates (0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1135
• Medieval friars ranked monotheists hierarchically by closeness to Christian truth #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1061
• Twelfth-century Christian learning constructed non-Christians as occupying the margins between humanity and animals #complicates (0.70) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 221