The Image of the Saracen as Heretic in the Sermons of Ademar of Chabannes

Abstract

Richard Southern once noted that the “existence of Islam was the most far-reaching problem in medieval Christendom.”1 From the birth of Islam to ca. 1100, however, Southern observes that Western Christians did not demonstrate the preoccupations with nor the burning hostility toward the Saracen that their Byzantine contemporaries and Western successors would.2 It was not until about 1100 that the Western attitude toward the Saracen became more belligerent.3 This transition to a more hostile attitude was not so sudden or dramatic as it may at first appear. Indeed, as R. I. Moore has recently demonstrated, the system of classification of the “other,” that existed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, emerged first at the time of the millennium.4KeywordsMuslim WorldCatholic FaithWestern ViewCatholic TeachingWestern AttitudeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.