Medieval Perceptions of Islam

Muslimanska osvajanja izazvala su osim vojnih reakcija, i duhovne reakcije kršćana. U članku autor preispituje obilježja tih reakcija, i svrstava ih u tri osnovna tipa: prvi odnos bio je potpuno neprijateljski, a u islamu je vidio djelovanje Sotone; drugi, nešto pomirljiviji stav, islam je svrstao među hereze; i naposljetku treći tip reakcije, koji je u islamu vidio duhovnog srodnika.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