Byzantine Polemics against Islam

 In the below from the The Annals of Niketas Choniates, notice an interesting, but somewhat familiar charge:

The listeners were so far from being intimidated by such threats that the archbishop of Thessaloniki, the most learned and eloquent Eustathios, who was filled with indignation by what was read and could not suffer the true God to be called a solid, the fabrication of a demoniacal mind, said, "My brains would be in my feet and I would be wholly unworthy of this garb," pointing to the mantle [mandyas]covering his shoulders, "were I to regard as true God the pederast who was as brutish as a camel and master and teacher of every abominable act." The bishops were nearly struck dumb by what they had heard, for he had shouted out these words, visibly shaken by pious zeal. Dumbfounded, the reader of the document returned to the emperor....He urgently appealed that a judgment be made between him and the archbishop of Thessaloniki, for he said that if he should be absolved of believing in a god who is a pederast and of distorting the faith, then a just punishment should be imposed upon him who belched out blasphemies against the anointed of the Lord.--The Annals of Niketas Choniates, Book 7. Page 122-123

Niketas Choniates lived from 1140-1213. This was said in context of disputes of theology in part caused by Emperor Manuel (8 April 1143 – 24 September 1180), who seemed to want to make transition from Islam easier for converts.

The claim is, however, that the Islamic deity is a deviant as opposed to the religious founder, perhaps because the deity accepted Muhammed and Aisha's relationship (and more).

Contrary to the modern charge that the objections to Islam's views on age of consent are a modern objection, this clearly shows that is not the case. Furthermore, this passage and more show the Byzantines at this point did not consider Muslims to worship the same deity because of what appears to be the charge that Muslims believed in a corporeal deity. This seems to correspond to the Islamic theology of "Mujassima" (corporealist) and "Mushabbiha" (anthropomorphist) like that of Ibn Karram (806-868). This would not become prevalent until after Ibn Taymiyya in the late 13th/early 14th century. There are a number of hadith that seem to show Allah has an actual body with two right hands, however, the fact Ibn Taymiyya was imprisoned for this shows it was not perhaps that prevalent, but then again, his funeral supposedly had around 200,000 attendees, which might show he had a big following.