LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

46 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XV
Consequently, Protestant theologians took up the apologetic task and began
to produce polemical works against Islam.
THE BEGINNINGS OF ANTI-ISLAMIC POLEMICS AND APOLOGETICS
The earliest theologian of the reformation really to begin inquiring about
Islam was Luther. Because many lies (ungeschwungen luegen) were
circulating about the Turks and their religion he added an altogether brief
summary of Islamic theology, politics, and culture to his On War against the
Turk (1529). 25 In particular, he discussed Islamic views of Jesus and
Muhammad, their approach to infidel nations, and marriage amongst the
Muslim Turks, but he noted how he would have to stop at this until he could
verify whatever else he had heard with the Qur’ân. The details he learned
thus far were enough for him to offer a substantial critique, though. On the
basis of its rejection of the divine personage and redemptive work of Christ,
its propagation of the faith by the sword, and the allowance of polygamy,
Luther concluded that Islam was a product of the Devil. It destroyed and
sought to supplant what God had ordained in the realm of religion, politics,
and marriage. 26
Following the publication of On War against the Turk and another work
entitled An Army Sermon against the Turk in 1529, Luther received a copy
of a Booklet on the Customs, Manners, and Wickedness of the Turks written
by a 20-year veteran of Turkish captivity. 27 He was apparently pleased to
have received it, for he quickly edited it and had it published both in
Wittenberg and Nürnberg by March 1530. In his attached preface he noted
that he considered it to be a very credible source from which readers could
understand the nature of Islam and Turkish society. 28 Further, he hoped his
25 For his discussion of Islam, see Vom Kriege widder die Türcken, WA 30.2:121-29; AE
46:175-84.
26 These three areas of life make up the content of Luther’s three-estate doctrine. On this,
see Bernard Lohse, Martin Luther’s Theology (Edinburg: T&T Clark, 1999), 322-24 and
Oswald Bayer, “Nature and Institution: Luther’s Doctrine of the Three Orders”, Lutheran
Quarterly 12.2 (1998): 125-59.
27 A critical edition and German translation, with an extensive introduction, has recently
been published. See Georgius de Hungaria, Tractatus de moribus, condictionibus et nequicia
Turcorum – Traktat über die Sitten, die Lebensverhältnisse und die Arglist der Türken, ed.
and trans. Klockow (Köln: Böhlau, 1993).
28 Compare Luther’s appraisal (located in Libellus, 1-2 [see above note 25]; WA 30.2:205-
6) with the remarkably similar contemporary appraisal of J. A. B. Palmer, “Fr. Georgius de
Hungaria, O. P., and the Tractatus de moribus, condictionibus et nequicia Turcorum”,
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 34 (1951-52): 53. The Wittenberg and Nürnberg editions
altered the title from Tractatus de moribus, condictionibus et nequicia Turcorum to Libellus
de ritu et moribus turcorum.