Riccoldo da Montecroce

…area; he and his colleague Riccoldo di Monte Croce both wrote perceptive treatises on Islamic faith and law. Other missionaries usually failed, and many suffered martyrdom. In the 14th century the Franciscans were finally permitted to reside in Palestine as caretakers for the holy places but not as missionaries.

…polemicists like the Dominican monk Riccoldo da Montecroce (died 1320) condemned Muhammad as a deliberate imposter and a downright diabolical figure. Stock motifs in such polemics were Muhammad’s recourse to violence, the number of his wives, and the alleged indebtedness of his religious message to a Christian heretic. This attitude…