Under Muslim rule, Jerusalem Christians saw Jews, not Saracens, as the enemy

Evidence

Bede tells of a miracle that Arculf recounted involving a group of Jews and a group of Christians who supposedly fought over the ownership of the shroud that had covered Jesus’ head at his burial. The “Saracen king Mavias” intervened by casting the cloth into a fire and proclaiming “now let Christ the Savior of the world, who suffered for the human race, who had this shroud (which I now hold in my arms) placed on his Head in the sepulcher, judge by the flame of the fire between you who contend for this cloth.” The cloth rose unharmed from the fire and floated to the Christian group. Not only does God intervene to produce a miracle to defend the Christian community against the claims of the Jews, the good Saracen king calls up the miracle and professes his belief in Christ’s roles as savior and miracle worker. In Muslim Jerusalem, under the shadow of the new mosque, it is the Jews who are perceived as the threatening enemy, and the Saracen king as ally. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 436

Categorization

• CANDY: The image of a ‘good Saracen king’ holding the shroud in his arms and urging Christ to judge by fire is vivid and surprising enough for a dinner-table anecdote.
• XREF: Connects to the book’s recurring point that early medieval Christian writers could ally with Muslims against Jews, pre-dating the later Crusade-era binary.