Twelfth-century Christians read the Koran’s Jesus as a deliberate diabolical attack
Evidence
Burchard, in the midst of describing a church devoted to Saint John the Baptist, explains that the Saracens revere John as a holy prophet. They also, he continues, believe that Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, is the word of God but not God, “and they say that Machomet was the messenger of God and was sent by God only to them; I read this in the Alchoran, which is their book.” The emphasis here is on the fundamental compatibility of Christian and Muslim doctrine. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1071 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Observation of Muslims praying seems something to have suggested a Christian parallel rather than a Christian contrast, and there was thought to be a connection between the salat and Christian monachism, just as there was between the ordinary dress of Muslims and the monastic habit. San Pedro said that under the secret influence of the monk, his adviser, ‘Muhammad taught his people by what devout and ordered method they should pray, and should most often kneel; all which things the Muslims most punctiliously observe, as though they were monks; in other things, however, they observe monachism very badly indeed …’ It has never come gratefully to Christian minds that in Islam incontinence, and even unchastity, can come together with prayer and devotion. The theme of false monachism was surprisingly widespread. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1189 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
The background of Muhammad’s life, the Arabia into which he was born, his own early life, his call to the prophethood and the circumstances of his death were all presented as demonstrating that he was human, fallible and subject to every discreditable misfortune. Even to have lived in paganism till the age of forty was thought disgraceful. Heretical Christian and Jewish influences explained the content of his teaching; and the manner of revelation alleged of him, and his solution of his immediate, temporary and often personal problems were all thought so suspicious as to amount in themselves to a disproof of the prophetic claim. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1528 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Thirteenth-century Christian pilgrims read the Koran and stressed its affinity with Christian doctrine — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1071; Some medieval Christians read the Quranic Christ sympathetically as humility-erasing error — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 927; Medieval Christians read Muslim victories as divine judgment against Christendom (+16 more)
Broader Connections
- Thirteenth-century Christian pilgrims read the Koran and stressed its affinity with Christian doctrine
#complicates(0.90) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1071 - Medieval Christians read Muslim victories as divine judgment against Christendom
#complicates(0.80) - Medieval Christians interpreted Muslim prayer as corrupted monachism.
#complicates(0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1189 - Medieval Christians read the Qur’an as inadvertent testimony to Christian truth
#complicates(0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1079 - Medieval Christians read Muhammad’s human fallibility itself as disproof of prophecy
#complicates(0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1528 - Medieval Christian accounts of Muslim disputants are constructed strawmen
#complicates(0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 682 - Medieval Christians understood Muslims as revering biblical prophets and Jesus
#complicates(0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 126 - Medieval Christian writers distorted Islam where accuracy served polemic
#complicates(0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1367 - Medieval attacks on the Qur’an obscured its evident piety to unlearned readers
#complicates(0.70)