SOURCE: Thomson, Rodney M. “William of Malmesbury and Some Other Western Writers on Islam.” Medievalia et Humanistica: Studies in Medieval & Renaissance Culture n.s. 6 (1975): 179-87.

In the following essay, Thomson examines William's accounts of and interest in the Islamic religion, contending that these passages illustrate the intensity of Malmesbury's interest in the subject, as well as illuminating new sources for the material.

In his book Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages, R. W. Southern distinguished between an “Age of Ignorance,” extending to the early twelfth century, and the “Century of Reason and Hope” which succeeded it.¹ Typical of views popularly current in the earlier period are those expressed in the Song of Roland, in which the Saracens are polytheists and idolaters, Mohammed being one of their several gods.² However, from c. 1120, notable advances were made in western knowledge of the Islamic religion and of its prophet-founder...