Povijesni prilozi, Vol. 22 No. 24, 2003.
Review article
Medieval Perceptions of Islam
Vjeran Kursar
; Zagreb, Republika Hrvatska
Abstract
Encountered by sudden and forceful Islamic expansion, Christianity engaged in the fight not only military, but also spiritual forces, that is to say polemics. Character of the polemics was to a large degree defined by its function. Hence, the largest part of polemic corpus had extremely negative attitude towards Islam, saw Satan’s activity in it, and equaled its prophet Mohammed with Antichrist. In regions where the Christians had opportunity to immediately experience complexity of Islam, attitudes towards it were partly eased, its authenticity rejected, and it was sorted among other heresies. At the end, in reality the exception rather than the rule, more conciliatory attitude towards Islam occurred. It saw in Islam not the enemy any more, but, as a follower of joint Abrahamic monotheistic tradition, a spiritual kin.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
28642
URI
Publication date:
15.10.2003.
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