Twelfth-century Western images of Islam were born amidst triumphal storytelling

Evidence

The picture of the Prophet and nature of Islam formed in Europe during the first forty years or so of the twelfth century was born in triumph. It was pieced together in northern France, stimulated perhaps by the fireside stories of returning warriors and clerks far behind the line of battle; in schools and monasteries it was given a form congenial to Western minds. The result was a popular image of astonishing tenacity which outlived the rise and fall of many better systems. — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 165

Related

• All enduring European portrayals of Islam were set by 1200 (similarity 0.83)
• By 1200 Europe fixed its foundational Islam portrayals for centuries (similarity 0.82)
• Mid-fifteenth-century European thought on Islam surpassed all earlier and later centuries (similarity 0.81)
• The Western canon of Islam was fixed by the mid-fourteenth century (similarity 0.81)
• Islam’s intellectual peak came within four centuries, far faster than the medieval West’s (similarity 0.80)
• European intellectual confrontation with Islam began in the twelfth century (similarity 0.79)
• The Western canon of Islam was fixed by 1350 and endured for centuries. (similarity 0.79)
• The Western view of Islam was fixed by 1350 and persists today (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christians read Islam’s rise as the predicted ferocity of Ismael (similarity 0.78)