Vincent’s anti-Islamic method was data-driven rather than argumentative

Evidence

It is curious that Peter the Venerable’s own polemic was not associated with the main corpus in the manuscripts, or, consequently, by Bibliander; this may be the result of accident, but it suggests, as did Vincent’s treatment of Peter of Toledo’s Risalah text, that the European public was more interested in facts about Muhammad and Islam than in argued polemic. It seems probable that in some writers’ eyes the great polemic lay in the selection, arrangement and presentation of supposedly factual material, rather than in such argumentation as Peter the Venerable, for example, based upon it. Ratiocination might be superfluous, even distracting, when a selection of facts — allegations — could be relied on to induce the desired reaction in the mind of the reader. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1302 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

There was always a Muslim ‘reader over the shoulder’; not a real one, of course, but one whom the Christian imagination created. He was unreal because he never objected to what was asserted against him. There was a remarkably wide use of the logical dilemma as a dialectical device, almost as a literary form, and there was more than a suggestion of the atmosphere of public challenge and debate. The mediaeval Latins seem always to be defending a public dissertation before favourable judges, judges whose approval has been assured in advance. It is a nightmare reversed: it is the opponent who cannot answer, except in words set in his mouth; it is a race in which the jockey on the rival horse is a dummy. Much of the literature about Islam seems to consist of debating points triumphantly enunciated and, of course, never answered, because the opponent is absent; and it is this which gives an air of unreality to so much of it. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1420 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval anti-Islamic polemic worked through fact curation rather than argument — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1302; Anti-Quran polemics were crafted for Christian audiences rather than actual Muslims; Accurate knowledge of Islam did not soften early Christian hostility toward it — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 132 (+6 more)

Related

• Medieval anti-Islamic polemic worked through fact curation rather than argument (similarity 0.91)
• Medieval audiences preferred Islam accounts easier to ridicule over accurate ones (similarity 0.88)
• Curating facts functions as polemic more effectively than explicit argumentation (similarity 0.88)
• Medieval anti-Islamic polemic circulated as a living shared tradition (similarity 0.88)
• Medieval disputation records were largely constructed strawman debates (similarity 0.87)
• Factual corrections to Christian anti-Islamic polemic only patched a weakened doctrinal structure (similarity 0.86)
• Medieval polemicists ignored known facts to fabricate Muslim heretical intent (similarity 0.86)
• Medieval polemicists recycled general accusations of Muslim vice without personal knowledge (similarity 0.85)
• False statements about Islam persisted for centuries because community good seemed to require them (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval anti-Islamic polemics aimed to fortify Christians rather than convert Muslims (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval anti-Islam polemic staged debates no Muslim could answer (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval Christians weaponized accurate Islamic learning for polemics (similarity 0.84)
• Polemical scholars adopted textual accuracy only as a tactical weapon against Islam (similarity 0.84)
• Vituperative anti-Islamic polemic persisted into the 1780s and 1790s. (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval polemicists quietly dropped claims lacking cross-tradition confirmation (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Medieval anti-Islamic polemic worked through fact curation rather than argument #corroborates (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1302
• People chose distorted versions of Islam even when accurate information was at hand #corroborates (0.85)
• Medieval anti-Islam polemic staged debates no Muslim could answer #exemplifies (0.82) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1420
• Accurate knowledge of Islam did not soften early Christian hostility toward it #expands (0.80) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 132
• Representations of Islam ignored Muslim self-understanding and resisted factual correction #corroborates (0.80) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 166
• Direct exposure during the Crusades did not reduce anti-Muslim mythmaking #corroborates (0.80) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 175
• Medieval European conflation of Qur’an and Traditions may have been a deliberate polemic tactic #expands (0.78)
• Factual corrections to Christian anti-Islamic polemic only patched a weakened doctrinal structure #expands (0.78)
• Anti-Quran polemics were crafted for Christian audiences rather than actual Muslims #qualifies (0.75)