Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History

Moslem-Christian Understanding in Mediaeval Times: A Review Article

Author(s): J. Kritzeck
Source: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Apr., 1962), pp. 388-401
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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MOSLEM-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING IN MEDIAEVAL TIMES

A Review Article

During the thirteen centuries of their particular co-existence, Islam and

Christianity have shown astonishingly little intellectual curiosity about one
another. Through the contacts history has afforded them, contacts marked
to be sure by other intellectual achievements, a general state of mutual un-
derstanding seldom better than elementary has persisted. Perhaps no Chris-
tian any longer believes that Mohammed was a renegade cardinal of the
Colonna family and few if any Moslems believe that the Virgin Mary is a
Person of the Christian Trinity; but they have continued to accuse one another
of polytheism, the very last thing of which either is guilty, down to the present
time. Today the Christian living outside the Isamic world who can distin-
guish Sunnite from Shiite is as rare as the Moslem who can distinguish among
Protestant sects (many of them can distinguish Catholic and Orthodox from
Protestant Christianity).
If it actually came to a test, one suspects that the Moslems would probably
do better. Consider for instance one account published a few months ago:

During our first week at the Aramco school on Long Island, questions were
asked of us to ascertain our general knowledge about the Arab world. The
questions "What is Islam?" and "Who was the Prophet Mohammed?"brought
forth some interestinganswers. One of our members thought that Islam was "a
game of chance, similarto bridge."Another said it was "a mysterioussect founded
in the South by the Ku Klux Klan." One gentlemanbelieved it to be "an organi-
zation of American Masons who dress in strange costumes." The Prophet Mo-
hammed was thought to be the man who "wrote the Arabian Nights." Another
said he was "an American Negro minister who was in competition with Father
Divine in New York City." One of the more reasonableanswers came from one
of our men who said, "Mohammedhad something to do with a mountain. He
either went to the mountain,or it came to him." 1
Even supposing these answers to be no more than facetious guesses, they
still reveal an appalling ignorance on the part of American adults of better
than average educational backgrounds - who were, moreover, on their way
to employment in Saudi Arabia.
Such ignorance, if inexcusable, is at least not inexplicable. It has, in fact,
Grant C. Butler, Kings and Camels: An American in Saudi Arabia (New York,
1960), pp. 16-17.

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 MOSLEM-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING 389
a long and fascinatinghistoryof its own reachingback to the beginningsof
contactbetweenIslam and Christendom.Althoughits modernformulations
may lack somethingof the range and piquancywhich characterizedthose of
earlier times, they still reflect to some extent an image of Islam (and to a
great extent an attitudetoward it) which petrifiedin mediaevaltimes and
which few personshave had the knowledgeand intelligenceto recognizefor
what it is and even fewer the courageand patienceto help supplant.

Norman Daniel's Islam and the West: The Making of an Image2 is an ex-
ceptionally learned, beautifully written, and sadly over-due study of the
distortedimage of Islam in mediaevalEurope. It immediatelyoutdatesthe
meager store of books which have treated the subject superficiallyor pe-
ripherallyand suggestsa great many avenuesfor furtherresarch. The plan
of the book - by theological topics - is legitimate enough, but poses
certainproblemsfor the non-specialistreader. Islam and the Westis a long
book, about a quarterof which is devoted to notes and bibliography.The
plan rendersit impossibleto use as a referencework, althoughit is well
indexed. The introductoryparagraphsto the individualchaptersare nothing
short of masterpieces,but the book still must be read from cover to cover;
chapterseight and nine (pp. 229-270) contain the central theses, but they
could not mean very much to anyone who had not read the book in its
entirety. Additional reference works, especially biographicaldictionaries,
will be necessaryfor the non-specialistbecause there is no identificationof
the authorscited and mediaevalChristiansin Europe who concernedthem-
selves seriously with Islam were not, save for a few exceptions, eminent
persons.
Necessarily,then, there is a total lack of historicalcontinuityin the work;
authorsfrom differentperiodsand situationsare cited in arbitraryfashionto
suit the purposesof the topic plan. This is an unfortunatenecessity,for the
historicalbackgroundis extremelyimportantin this matter and some indi-
cations of its importancemight be appropriatehere.8
Soon after Islam had achieved the proportionsof a political state at
Medina, Mohammed instituted what D. S. Margoliouthregarded as his
"chief experimentin constructivepolitics".4 Legal recognitionand rights
withinthe Islamiccommunitywere given to the "followersof Scripture",the

2
Edinburgh, The University Press, 1960. Distributed in the United States by Qua-
drangle Books, Chicago.
3 For a fuller treatment see my article "Jews, Christians, and Moslems", in The
Bridge, ed. John M. Oesterreicher,III (New York, 1958/59) pp. 84-121.
4 The Early Development of Mohammedanism (London, 1926), p. 99.

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390 J. KRITZECK

Jews and Christians.Thoughthe Koranorderedwarfareagainstother non-

Moslems,the "followersof Scripture"were to be treatedas ahl al-dhimmah,
"peopleof the covenant",hence dhimmis,that is, as more or less tolerated
minorities. Since they believed in the true God, althoughnot as Moslems,
they were the least objectionableof "unbelievers". The dhimmis were
obligedto pay a poll tax and a land tax in excess of that levied on Moslems.5
They sufferedcertaindisabilitiesin juridicalproceedings,especiallyin those
against Moslems. Their "covenants"with the Islamic community, often
concludedin writing,guaranteedthem, however, the rights of life, liberty,
and property.
The swiftly spreadingthrustof the Islamic community,which within one
century carried its profession of faith in Allah and his messengerto the
shores of the Atlantic Ocean, the valleys of the TaurusMountains,and the
steppes of Central Asia, seemed to imperil all who would not hear the
Prophet. Still, EdwardGibbon'sview of Mohammed,bearing"the swordin
one hand and the Koranin the other",erecting"his throne on the ruins of
Christianityand of Rome", is regrettablyfacile.6 For some stood to lose
more than othersby the Islamicconquest,and some even stood to gain.
Although Christianswere absorbedin immense numbersas dhimmisby
the Islamic community,the most vital centersof Christianityremainedout-
side it. To be sure, in the ninthcenturyIslamfailed by the breadthof a hair
to subjugateRome as in the seventh it had temporarilyoverpoweredCon-
stantinople,"the second Rome". Tributewas exacted from both. But to-
gether with Greek and Latin Christendom,Islam quickly became one of
three main political and culturalunits west of India in mediaevaltimes.7 It
is exceedinglyimportantto note that easternand westernChristendomstood
apart as two separateentities, challenging,and challengedby, Islam.
Christiansmighthave taken heartfrom at least one koranicpassage:
You will find that the most implacable of men in their enmity to the faithful
(the Moslems) are the Jews and the pagans, and that the nearest in affection to
them are those who say: "We are Christians."That is because there are priests
and monks among them; and because they are free from pride.8
But their initial advantage,if indeedthat is what it was, was short-lived.No
Christian-Moslemsymbiosis was possible so long as the most powerful
resistanceon the frontiersof what the Moslemtermed"the territoryof war-
fare" (dar al-harb;as distinguishedfrom "the territoryof Islam")came from
Christians,and that situationwas not to changein mediaevaltimes. More-

5 See Arthur S. Tritton, The Caliphs and their non-Muslim Subjects (London, 1930),
pp. 197-228, and Daniel C. Dennett, Conversion and the Poll Tax in Early Islam
(Cambridge, 1950).
6 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (New York, n.d.), III, p. 56.
7 Gustave E. von Grunebaum, Medieval Islam (Chicago, 1947), pp. 1-30.
8 Koran 5: 85.

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 UNDERSTANDING
MOSLEM-CHRISTIAN 391

over, the Islamic conquest had been more disastrous to Christendom than,
say, to Judaism, in that enormous numbers of Christians had become Mos-
lems. In fact the lines following the koranic passage just cited suggest that
Christians were viewed more kindly than Jews or pagans because so many of
them apostatized so readily.9 "From one point of view", Richard Bell wrote,
"the triumph of Islam in the East in the seventh century A.D. may be re-
10
garded as the judgement of history upon a degenerate Christianity." It is
certain that eastern Christendom was blighted by a lax priesthood, mush-
rooming heresies, and imperial cruelty alternating with indifference. In many
areas, too, Christian faith and life had never really taken root, and forced
conversions were no real source of solid strength. Christian groups surviving
within the Islamic empire were compelled to exercise extreme caution in
their dealings with their Moslem rulers and even with their fellow subjects,
for waves of anti-Byzantine or anti-European emotion tended to place them
in a situation less stable than that of the Jewish dhimmis. In later times,
doubtless on this account, the Islamic polemics against Christians were more
frequent and bitter than those against Jews.
Nonetheless, the special plight of Christians under Moslem rule can be
exaggerated. The fact is that the status of Christians varied considerably
from place to place, from period to period.
At one moment the dhimmi appears as a persecutedworm who is entirely negli-
gible, and the next complaintis made of his perniciousinfluence on the Muslims
aroundhim. Laws were made, observed for a time, and then forgotten till some-
thing brought them to the remembranceof the authorities.There is no consti-
tutional growth;events move in irregularcurves, not in a straightline."1
Christians also played a part in the Islamic state. For some time they were
the principal civil servants simply because there were no others to be en-
gaged. They spoke and read Arabic, engaged in commerce and trade, rose
to high positions, and generally shared the fortunes and misfortunes of the
Moslems. The translations from Greek and Syriac into Arabic - the most
important single factor in the later development of Moslem thought - were
almost exclusively the work of Christians. Yet there was a clear decline of
Christian literature and art within the Islamic world during the succeeding
centuries. Generally speaking, Christians took a less active part in Islamic
civilization than did Jews. Even in Spain, probably because of her more
violent opposition to Islamic rule, Christians failed to match Jewish achieve-
ment. In sum, it would seem safe to say that "antipathetic symbiosis" - a
tense, partial, and intermittent exchange - best describes the Christian-
Moslem encounter from within.
9 See Laurence E. Browne, The Eclipse of Christianity in Asia (Cambridge, 1933).
10 The Origin of Islam in its Christian Environment (London, 1926), p. 6. See also
Louis Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de l'Eglise (Paris, 1910), III, 323 and thereafter.
11 Tritton, op. cit., p. 229.

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 392 J. KRITZECK

Quite a different situation obtained where Christendomfaced Islam from

without. The reactionof those Christiansto Islam,whetherin the East or in
the West, was ambivalent. On the one hand, there was warfarewith all of
its partisanpropagandaand ill will. The Byzantinearmies,naturally,were
the first to meet the Moslems, and for many centuriesthey were forced to
sporadic warfare against them. Their propagandistsand chroniclersfrom
Theophanesonwardpresenteda badly distortedimage of Mohammedand
Islam. But when well informed,the Byzantines,even an emperorlike Con-
stantinePorphyrogenitus, could not repressadmirationfor Islamic culture.12
Embassiesfrom the Abbasid caliphs were treated well when they visited
Constantinople,and in the Byzantineview the Moslems seem graduallyto
have inheritedthe position occupiedof old by the Persians,that of "worthy
foe". Byzantine citizens were treated to the amazing spectacle of legates
from Caliph al-Ma'mun,Harun al-Rashid'sson, combingtheir lands for the
best manuscriptsof Greek texts. The same caliph even competedfor the
servicesof the best mathematicianof the times,one Leon, who was ultimately
given the archbishopricof Thessalonicaas an inducementto stay with Byzan-
tium.18EmperorTheophilosbuilt a palace at Bryas entirelyin the Islamic
style. Byzantinephysicianssoon realizedthat Moslemswere surpassingthem
in the developmentof their science, and were obliged to learn from them.
There was scholarlycontact between Baghdad and Byzantiumeven at the
time of the invasionof the SeljukTurks,althoughthat invasionwas to mark
the end of this interchange.
The same ambivalencewas shown by the Christiansof the West. Islam's
thrustagainstEurope- checkednone too easily when one recallsthat for
a long time the Pyreneesmarkedthe frontierand that raids were launched
as far north as Poitiers and Tours - had strengthenedEurope'stendency
to look toward the north and west, rather than toward the east. When, in
the eleventhcentury,Europeturnedher attentionagainto the now somewhat
weakened Moslem lands, it was with a bellicose conviction that by their
indocility(howeveruntried)the Moslems had forfeitedany inheritancethey
might have claimedin the householdof the ChristianChurch. The success-
ful reconquestof parts of Spain and the whole of Sicily encouragedan even
more ambitious undertaking. Emperor Alexis' call for help against the
Seljuksin Anatoliain 1094 merelyset in motion a plan whichhad been long
in the makingin Europe:the Crusadeor "holy war",theoreticalaspectsof
whichmay in themselvesreflectIslamicinfluenceupon Europe.14For nearly
two centuriesthe Crusaders'Latin kingdomand principalitieswere enclaves
12 Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, ed. Immanuel Bekker (Bonn, 1840), III, pp. 90-92.
See also Alexander A. Vasiliev, Byzance et les Arabes, 3 vols. (Brussels, 1935-50).
13
Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Immanuel Bekker (Bonn, 1838), pp. 185-192.
14 Americo Castro, The Structure of Spanish History (Princeton, 1954), pp. 219-221.
See also Carl Erdmann, Die Entstehung des Kreuzzugsgedankens (Stuttgart, 1935), and
Majid Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Baltimore, 1955).

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 MOSLEM-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING 393
withinthe Islamicworld. The hostilitywhich they provokedlasted well into
modern times, and was reinforcedby the severe and long-lastingthreat of
OttomanTurkishexpansioninto centralEurope.
Yet Islam captivatedLatin Christiansin many ways. The Normankings
of Sicily,for instance,the "half-heathenkings"of legend,wore Moslemgarb,
maintainedharems, and openly sponsoredMoslem scholars and craftsmen.
Pilgrimsand papal legates to the Holy Land were often dismayedby the
extent to whichthe Latinstherehad adoptedMoslemtastes and ways. Most
important in this connection was the reconqueredland of Spain. Avid
scholarsfrom every part of Europe- Adelardof Bath, Rudolf of Bruges,
Plato of Tivoli, Hermanof Carinthia- rushed to it, eager to acquirethe
riches of science and philosophywhich had been stored there during the
centurieswhen the Moslems had been the most fruitfulbearersof ancient
learning.
A centuryof energetictranslatingactivity began, this time from Arabic
into Latin; Christianswere often assistedin their labors by Jews and in at
least one importantseries of projects by Moslems. Certainlyby the thir-
teenth century there was scarcely a branch of learning, from logic and
psychologyto medicine, astronomy,and navigation,in which the influence
of Moslem achievementswas not perceptible. Christianscholasticism,even
and indeed particularlythe masterfulsummationof ThomasAquinas,would
have been impossiblewithout the philosophicaltexts and commentariesof
ibn-Sina,al-Ghazzali,and ibn-Rushd,known to the West as Avicenna,Al-
gazel, and Averroes. Throughthree great gates, Spain, Sicily, and the Holy
Land, Islamic civilizationpoured in, leaving untouchedneitherthe arts nor
the fabric of daily life. So deep was its force that it later influencedthe
sublimeimageryof Dante and still later that of the Spanishmystics.15
It is evidentthat the historicalbackgroundof the Christianimage of Islam
in'mediaevalEurope, reachingback for its sources into both the Byzantine
and the Islamic civilizations,is complex. But it is also indispensablefor a
thoroughand proper understandingof that image.

There is at the same time an amusingvariety and a boring samenessabout

the scurrilouslegends concerningMohammedwhich circulatedin Europein
mediaeval times. An astoundingnumber of them can be traced back to
15 See Miguel Asin Palacios, La escatologia musulmanaen la Divina Comedia (Madrid,
1943); Enrico Cerulli, II "Libro della Scala" e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole
della Divina Commedia (Vatican City, 1949); Jose Muiioz Sendino, La Escala de
Mahoma (Madrid, 1949); G. Levi Della Vida, "Nuova Luce sulle fonti islamiche della
Divina Commedia", Al-Andalus, XIV (1949), pp. 377-407; Asin Palacios, El Islam
Cristianizado (Madrid, 1931).

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394 J. KRITZECK

Byzantine sources, althoughthe popular Europeanimaginationwas surely

unstintingin providingvariationsand embellishments.They have concerned
Mr. Daniel in Islam and the West,and they will concernus here, scarcelyat
all. But one cannot help feeling that they played a more importantpart in
the "makingof an image"than some lesser viewpointsof small-frytheolo-
gians. Art historiansand studentsof mediaevalLatin literaturewill not find
Islam and the Westas usefulto them, on that account,as it mighthave been.
Also, in conjoining,say, Peter the Venerableand Guibertof Nogent, Mr.
Daniel makes it extremelyhard for the readerto judge the achievement(or
complicityin guilt) of individualswhen such judgementis clearlycalled for.
That in turn suggeststhe most serious criticismwhich can be raised against
the book. Grantedthat all mediaevalChristianwriterson the subjectmay
have contributedto the distortedimage of Islam; yet some did it only to a
very slight extent, others to a large extent; some did it unwittingly,others
deliberately;some had the most sublime,othersthe basest of motives.
In grantingall his mediaevalChristianwriterson Islam whateverspace is
requiredfor an expositionof their views within the topic plan, Mr. Daniel
has failed to detect, or at least to help his readerdetect, a long traditionof
an attitudetoward Islam on the part of some of them which differs from
that of the overwhelmingmajority. Deploringignorance,calling for better
educationand understanding,these few men shunnedprejudiceand favored
an approachto Islam which would be reasoned,sympathetic,and loving. It
seems exceedingly unjust to condemn them, because of certain errors of
informationand interpretationwhichthey all committed,to commonassocia-
tion with men of ignoranceand men blindedby prejudice.
One of the first to express this attitudewas John Damescene,notablyin
his Dialogue between a Christian and a Saracen. There, in a calm and in-
formal discussiona Christiandelicatelyleads a Moslemto the realizationof
certaininconsistenciesin Islamictheologicalformulationsaboutfree will and
creation. "Let us make use of your scriptureas well as mine",the Christian
says in one passage. "Your scripturesays that God cleansedMary before-
hand above all womankind,and that the Spiritand Wordof God came down
to her. And my Gospel says: 'The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and
the power of the Most High shall overshadowthee' (Lk 1: 35). Thus it
seems that the two have one and the same meaning."16 He continuesin the
same fashion.
The same attitudeinspireda discipleof John Damascene,Theodoreabu-
Qurrah,who remindedMoslems that, despite all the differencesseparating
them, both would profit by theologicaldiscussions. This traditionlived on
in later public disputations.In one held before Caliphal-Mahdiin 782, the
patriarchTimothy had kind words for Mohammed:"As all the prophets
16 A Treasury of Early Christianity, ed. Anne Fremantle (New York, 1953); this text
translated by J. Kritzeck, pp. 321-4.

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 MOSLEM-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING 395
turnedmen away from wickednessand sins, and led them to integrityand
virtue, so Mohammedturnedthe childrenof his people away from wicked-
ness and led them to integrityand virtue." Yet the patriarchpresenteda
strongcase for Christianity,based largelyupon the miraclesof the Old and
New Testamentsand upon the messianicprophecies.17The Apology of al-
Kindi, said to have been presentedto Caliph al-Ma'mun,praisedthe Mos-
lems for permittinghim not only to speak in defense of the Christianfaith,
but even to challengethe authenticityof certainpassagesof the Koran. If
we can trust the account,al-Kindiand his Moslempartneral-Hashimiwere
the closest of friends.18 But Moslem rule lasted. Christianswithin the
Islamic world grew weary of the demandsof an approachto Islam so sym-
pathetic and patient. Byzantinepolemics, unfortunately,were almost uni-
formlylackingin true informationand implacablyhostile.19
At the time of the Crusadespreposteroustracts againstIslam were com-
mon in the West. Some fabricatedoutrageouslies aboutMohammed;others,
less malicious,made him a conventionalheresiarch.Some saw the Moslems
as godless heathen;others thoughtthem polytheistswho worshippeda blas-
phemous trinity of gods; still others thought they worshippedMohammed
himself. In the twelfth century Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, felt
ashamedof such ignoranceand aligned himself with the traditionof sym-
pathy and understanding.He sparedno expense in hiringscholarsin Spain
to producea seriesof translations,includingthe firsttranslationof the Koran.
Havingfailed to interestBernardof Clairvaux(who was busy preachingthe
Second Crusade)in the project,Peter concludedit himselfwith two original
works,a clear and accuratehandbookof Islamicbeliefs and a lengthytreatise
addressedto the Moslems. "I attackyou", he wrote in the latterwork, "not,
as some of us often do, by arms, but by words; not with force, but with
reason; not in hatred, but in love ... I love you; loving, I write to you;
writing,I invite you to salvation." He had resolvedthat he would not speak
unkindly of Mohammed,but would only examine the plausibilityof his
claims in the light of the Koranand the Bible. He praisedthe Moslemsfor
their attainmentsin philosophyand the sciences, and urged them to apply
their well-trainedintellects to the case he was presentingfor the Christian
faith. Peter'scollectionof translationsand handbookof Islamicbeliefs were
to remain the basis for intelligentChristianstudy of Islam for almost five
hundredyears.20

17
Alphonse Mingana, "The Apology of Timothy the Patriarch before the Caliph
Mahdi", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, XII (1928), pp. 137-298.
18 William Muir, The Apology of Al-Kindy (London, 1882).
19 Erdman Fritsch, Islam und Christentum im Mittelalter (Breslau, 1930), and Wolf-
gang Eichner, "Die Nachrichten iiber den Islam bei den Byzantinern", Der Islam,
XXIII (1936), pp. 133-162, 197-244.
20 James Kritzeck, "Peter the Venerable and the Toledan Collection", Petrus Vener-
abilis, ed. Giles Constable and James Kritzeck (Rome, 1956), pp. 176-201.

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396 J. KRITZECK

Other translations of the Koran, those of Mark of Toledo and John of

Segovia, continued the attempt to inform Christians. William of Tyre is said
to have written an important book on Islam, but it has not survived. The
Dominican William of Tripoli, who had converted many Moslems to Chris-
tianity "by the simple word of God, without philosophical arguments or
military weapons", penned a careful sketch of Islamic history and doctrine,
emphasizing the praise given to Christ and to the Virgin Mary by the
Koran.21 The Summa contra Gentiles of Thomas Aquinas ought to be placed
in the same tradition, although it sought to refute philosophical views which
had ceased to be very influential in the development of Islamic theology. A
Dominican missionary, Ricoldo da Montecroce, travelled as far as Baghdad
and educated himself thoroughly in matters Islamic. In the account of his
travels he gave long and careful scrutiny to the theology of the Koran and
produced a minute analysis of it which was both pacific and powerful.22
By far the greatest figure in this tradition was Ramon Lull, the amazingly
gifted Catalan who, in the second half of the thirteenth century, wrote on
many subjects and in many styles and languages. The promotion of a
reasonable attitude toward Islam became the ruling passion of his long life.
He spent many years learning Arabic and, like Peter the Venerable before
him, found the Moslems more open than the Jews to the Christian faith. He
wrote of their conquests without bitterness; he dwelt on their love of justice
and mercy with unconcealed admiration; he praised their steadfast belief in
the unity of God, even to the point of seeing in it an example to Christians.
Lull was impatient only with the refusal of Moslems to examine their own
religion more critically and to weigh the arguments against it. He was
scandalized by the Crusades, which had never included the conversion of
Moslems among their goals, and regarded the spirit of the Crusades as the
chief obstacle to a fruitful dialogue. "Since the Christians are not at peace
with the Saracens", he wrote, "they dare not hold discussions upon the faith
with them when they are among them. But were they at peace together, they
could dispute with each other peacefully concerning the faith, and then it
would be possible for the Christians to direct and enlighten the Saracens in
the way of truth, through the grace of the Holy Spirit."23 Among Lull's
works are many imaginary conversations with Moslems, placid yet exciting
expressions of his fondest wish. For decades he wandered over Europe,
tirelessly begging prelates to found schools for the study of oriental languages,
but his voice went unheeded. He is said to have made converts in Tunis and
to have enjoyed the protection of the mufti, or chief lawyer, there. At eighty

21 Hans Prutz, Kulturgeschichte der

Kreuzziige (Berlin, 1883), pp. 573-98.
22
Ugo Monneret de Villard, II Libro della Peregrinazione nelle Parti d'Oriente di
Frate Ricoldo da Montecroce (Rome, 1948).
23 Book of Contemplation, chap. 204, quoted in E. Allison Peers, Ramon Lull (Lon-
don, 1929), p. 73.

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 MOSLEM-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING 397

years of age he traveledwest from Tunis to Bugia, wheretraditionhas it he

was stoned to death while preaching.
In the fifteenth century two men as eminent as Nicholas of Cusa and
Denis the Carthusianwere assaying the wealth of Peter the Venerable's
collection and urgingtheologiansto resumethe abandonedtask. Owing to
the vitality of the Ottomanempire, however,the Islamic world was almost
totally excludedfrom the similarlyenlightenedChristianefforts which pro-
duced a Matteo Ricci in China and a Roberto de' Nobili in India in the
sixteenthand seventeenthcenturies. Only in Persia, by means of the papal
mission to the Safavid shahs, was the noble traditionpartially continued.
ShahAbbas the Greatplayedhost to religiousdiscussionswith the Discalced
Carmelitefriarsand some Protestantson severaloccasions,takingpart him-
self with curiosityand perspicacity.24In more recenttimes there have been
many signs that the traditionof John Damascene,Peter the Venerable,and
Ramon Lull is not dead and that its future may be greaterthan its past.25
No scholar could fail to praise the care and brillianceof Mr. Daniel's
research, and only the few specialistsin this field of study are likely to
quibblewith details in his results. The rapid ramblefrom 1350 to 1950 in
the tenth chapteris very unsatisfying,but the authorhas disarmedthe criti-
cism in advance. Most of the mediaevalauthorsare thoroughlystudiedand
adequatelyrepresented. William of Tripoli in particularcuts a fine figure,
and a new editionof his workis surelydesirablein the light of Ugo Monneret
de Villard'smanuscriptdiscoveries,which Mr. Daniel does not mention.26
Ricoldo da Montecroce,long the darlingof writerson the subject,deservedly
comes out, at last, less well. Ramon Lull's complicated(but hardly"clown-
ish") personalityis not fully elucidated. It is personallygratifyingthat the
annotatorof MS. 1162 of the Bibliothequede l'Arsenal in Paris, whose
identityhas baffledthis reviewerfor eleven years, emergesfrom Mr. Daniel's
findingsas such an influentialfigure. It is strange,however,that Mr. Daniel,
relying as he does so heavily upon Marie-Theresed'Alvemy'swork on the
Toledan Collection, should still have doubts that the Arsenal manuscript
representsthe originalof that collection.
Perhaps the least satisfactorytreatmentis that accorded to Peter the
Venerable. Mr. Daniel might have made profitableuse of certainstudiesin
Giles Constableand James Kritzeck,Petrus Venerabilis(Rome, 1956); he
mightthen have been moved to distinguisha little more sharplybetweenthe
self-blindinghostilityof many of his authorsand the remarkableintelligence
and sympathyof the men in Peter'stradition.The sheerimportanceof Peter's
achievement,illustratedplainlyenoughin the notes and,for that matter,even
24 A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia, 2 vols. (London, 1939), especially I, pp.
237-241.
25 See the references in
Kritzeck, op. cit., pp. 118-121.
26 Lo Studio dell'Islam in
Europa nel xii e nel xiii secolo (Vatican City 1944), p. 70.

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398 J. KRITZECK

in the plan of Mr. Daniel'sbook, should really have been emphasizedmore

strongly. Yet Mr. Daniel has himself contributedas much as any of the
authorshe cites, and more than most, to an understandingof the differences
between Christianityand Islam and of the historicalprocesseswhich have
served to distortthose differences. His only major disadvantageconsistsin
his being first with the most. In this respect he is exactly like Peter the
Venerable,and this reviewercould pay him no highercompliment.

1m

Islamand the Westnaturallyinvitesa comparisonwith the imageof Christian

Europe in mediaevalIslamic civilization. A study of the same scope and
magnitudeas Mr. Daniel'sown wouldbe requiredto do justiceto the subject,
and such a studyis highlydesirable. Only a braveyoungman shouldunder-
take it, however,becausethere are far too many unchartedregionsof space
and time in the scholarshipon mediaevalIslam to make an easy task of it.
Until such a studyis attemptedwe shall have to be contentwith fragmentary
evidence and a good measureof conjecture.
To all appearances,mediaevalMoslemsgenerallyknew paltrylittle about
ChristianEurope and probablycared even less. The factor of concernis a
most importantone in this connection,because a great deal of information
about Europecould have been assembledand preservedby Moslemsif there
had been sufficient incentive for its acquisition. Yet Moslems inhabited
some part of the Iberianpeninsulafor close to eight centuries. They held
Mediterraneanislands and, thoughfor very much shorterperiodsof time, a
footholdin Itatly and a toeholdin Greece. For two hundredyears they had
Europeancolonists in their midst in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. In and
duringmost of these places and times some Moslemsat least musthave been
in daily contactwith Europeans.
But the two main directionsof the military and cultural expansion of
mediaeval Islam were the coastline of North Africa and the trade-routes
towardthe east throughCentralAsia and the Hindu Kush. Consequently,
the stationaryMoslem peoples came to hear much more about Africa and
Asia than they ever did aboutEurope. Whatinformationis containedin the
writingsof Moslem geographersseems to have been garneredmainly from
merchants. There were certainlycommercialconnectionsbetweenthe Mos-
lems and the Volga Bulgars,since Arabiccoins have been found in abundant
quantitiesin Russia and Scandanavia.According to ibn-Khurdadhbah,it
was possible to travelfrom westernEuropethroughGermanyand the lands
of the Slavs to Atil, the capital of the Khazars,and from there to Trans-

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 MOSLEM-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING 399
oxiana and China. It is likely that some Arab merchantsknew and followed
this route.27
There is also some evidenceof diplomaticcontacts,in particularbetween
Charlemagneand Harun al-Rashid (althoughMoslem authorssay nothing
about it)28 and their common rivals in Constantinopleand Cordova.29
Throughoutthe Crusades,of course, such contacts were frequent,and the
sultansSalah-al-Dinand Kamil,for example,certainlyhad opportunitiesto
learn much about Europe.
Unfortunatelywe know very little of what the Arab merchantsor diplo-
mats may have learned about the countriesof Europe. The only Christian
landsknownreallywell to the Arabswere those withinthe Byzantineempire.
Thus ibn-Khurdadhbah,in his Al-Masalik w-al-Mamalik,shows a quite
extraordinaryknowledgeof the political and administrativedivisionsof the
Byzantineempire. Ibn-Rustahin the tenth centuryrepeatedibn-Khurdadh-
bah's informationand added descriptionsof Constantinopleand Rome on
the basis of an accountby a prisonerof war.
Disregardingthe city of Rome, however,we find that Arab geographers
before al-Idrisiknew hardlymore than a few geographicalnamesin western
Europe. Such is the case with the works of al-Ya'qubi,ibn-al-Faqih,ibn-
Hawqal, etc., and al-Maqdisieven declaresthat he sees no use in speaking
about non-Islamiccountries! Al-Idrisi, in the twelfthcentury,was the first
Arab to describe the west in any detail. He had of course the immense
advantageof living in Sicily, which, under King Roger I (a patron of Arab
learning),was a place where many trade-routescrossed and many stories of
distantlands could be learnedfrom authenticreportswithoutthe necessity
of actualtravel.30
About easternEurope and the Russiansteppesthe Arabshad more direct
reports. The most famous of them was the Risalah of ibn-Fadlan,who was
sent to the Volga Bulgars by Caliph al-Muqtadir,probably as a kind of
authorityon religion to collaboratewith the actual ambassador.His work
was used in geographicaltexts as early as the tenth centuryand its echoes
appearhere and there in later sources.31Ibn-Ya'qubgave anotherreportof
the lands of the Slavs;but the most valuableaccountwas that of Abu-Hamid
al-Andalusi,who spent a considerabletime in eastern Europe and was a
diligent observer and reporter. During his sojournwith the Bulgars Abu-
27 See Wilhelm V. Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels im Mittelalter (Stuttgart,
1879), p. 87; on commercial contacts generally, see pp. 65-77.
28 See F. W.
Buckler, Harunu'l-Rashidand Charles the Great (Cambridge, 1931).
29 See G. Levi Della Vida, "La Traduzione Araba delle Storie di Orosio", Al-Andalus,
XIX (1954), pp. 257-293.
30 The work of al-Idrisi has never been presented as an integral whole, but certain
sections of it have been well edited and annotated and can be found by way of the
standard bibliographies.
31 See Robert P. Blake and Richard N. Frye, "Notes on the Risala of Ibn-Fadlan",
Byzantina Metabyzantina,I (1949), pp. 7-37.

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400 J. KRITZECK

Hamid also met some Nordic peoples and describes,for instance, a special
type of ski of which they told him.32 EasternEurope remainedthe better
known and more frequentlyvisited portion of the continentfor the Arabs.
In the fourteenthcenturyibn-Battutah,the greatestof the Arab travellers,
says he visited the area, althoughmany scholarsbelieve that his accountof
that particularvisit is a fabricationbased on earlieraccounts.
Beside religiouspolemics (and few enough of them), there is little trace
of culturalcontacts between the world of Islam and the West which were
deemedimportantby the former. The Crusadeswere of enormouscultural
importanceto Europe; but, as has often been demonstratedby Islamic
historians,they had only the slightestinfluenceon Islamic civilization. The
opinion of the sophisticatedUsamah ibn-Munqidhin the twelfth centuryis
probablytypical:"TheFranksare like animals,possessingvirtuesof courage
andfighting,but nothingelse; just as animalshave only the virtuesof strength
and carryingloads ... Everyonewho is a fresh emigrantfrom the Frankish
lands is ruderin characterthan those who have been acclimatizedand have
held long associationwith the Moslems."33
The most intense area of culturalcontact between the two civilizations
was that of religion. But whereas some EuropeanChristianslike Peter the
Venerablewere ultimatelyobliged to admit to themselvesthat they knew
nothing reliable about Islam and to take steps to correct that situation,
mediaevalMoslems had no such feelings. This was not only or even pri-
marily because they had always lived together with Christians,but rather
because they believed that the Koran told them all that was really worth
knowing about Christianity. Referencesto the name of Christ abound in
the Koran,but few of his utterancesare quoted, and those that are quoted
frequentlydeviate markedlyfrom the New Testament. To the end Mo-
hammedregardedthe Gospel- in the singular- as a book whichhad been
revealed to Christ. Many of the stories concerningChrist echo Christian
apocryphalwritings known to have existed in Coptic, Syriac, and Arabic
translations,and there seem to be a few specificallyNestorianinfluences.34
There was, it is true, a Moslem polemicalliteratureagainst Christianity,
but it was of no great magnitudeand few of the works exhibit much depth
or learning; in general the Moslems developed no stomach for carrying
mattersbeyond the superficial. A notable exception is the Kitab al-Fisal
fi-al-Milalw-al-Nihalof ibn-Hazmof Cordova(d. 1064), which shows an
32 C. E. Dubler, Abu Hamid el Granadino y su relacion de viaje por tierras Eurasid-
ticas (Madrid, 1953).
33 Philip K. Hitti, An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior (New York, 1929), pp.
161, 163.
34 See Johann Fiick, "Die Originalitit des arabischen Propheten", Zeitschrift der
Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, N.F., XV (1936), pp. 509-25, and Julian
Obermann, "Islamic Origins: A Study in Background and Foundation", The Arab
Heritage, ed. Nabih A. Faris (Princeton, 1946), pp. 58-120.

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 MOSLEM-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING 401

amazingknowledgeof the Bible as a whole and particularlyof the Synoptic

problemin the New Testament. It is probable,however,that ibn-Hazmhad
Christianforebears.35
Mediaeval Islam, in sum, appears to have paid ChristianEurope the
supremeinsult of a virtuallytotal disinterest. Distortedimages (no single
one, surely)there were, and informationwas scanty, alwaysinadequate,and
often false. But the Moslems lived in a complacent,ideologicallysealed
world which was simply incurious about Europe. Proximity,rather than
familiarity,bred contempt. Centurieslater, after the strugglesand storms
whose effects are still felt in the Islamicworld, they were forced to change.
The parallelsbetweentheir mediaevalsituationand one which confrontsand
disturbsall of humanitytoday are, to say the least, striking. It is unfortunate
that historyhere seems to suggestno solution.

J. KRITZECK
Princeton University

85 Asin Palacios, Abenhdzam de Cordova y su Historia critica de las ideas religiosas

(Madrid, 1927-32).

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