Constructing a Self-Image in the Image of the Other
Constructing a Self-Image in the Image of the Other

Pope Pius II’s Letter to Sultan Mehmed II

Author(s): F. Özden Mercan
Subject(s): Middle Ages
Published by: Central European University Press
Keywords: middle ages;muslim;christianity;Pope Pius II; Sultan Mehmed II
Summary/Abstract: An examination of the letter itself from various aspects has shown that Pope Pius, in his discussion of Islam, emphasized similar points as medieval Christian polemicists had. He too regarded Islam as a heresy founded on pleasure and force; he questioned the prophecy of Mohammed, the originality of the Koran as the Word of God, and the rationality of the Muslim faith. While doing so, he followed al-Kindi, Peter the Venerable, Riccoldo deMontecroce, and other medieval polemicists. Since the Middle Ages, Christian polemicists tried to refute Islam in all possible ways by looking for the most damaging arguments and by formulating the harshest, most black-and-white claims. In this way they hoped to convince the Christians that Islam as a heresy of Mohammed aimed to destroy Christianity, the only true faith, even if the motivations behind this attitude changed according to the political and social needs of the time. In general, however, these represented, as Tolan pointed out, “the desire to justify a war against a Muslim state, an attempt to dissuade Christians from converting to Islam, or a need to justify the rule of Christian princes over Muslim subjects.”

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