La représentation de l’islam dans l’Historia orientalis. Jacques de Vitry historien
Jean Donnadieu
Jacques de Vitry (circa 1170-1240) was Bishop of Acre from 1216 to 1227 and in that
capacity lived in the East. During this period he wrote the “Historia Orientalis” in
which, among other things, he paints a picture of the people living in the area. Thus
he devotes some time to Islam and to its founder in long passages that rely on highly
polemical discourse – often completely misrepresentative and legendary – in the
tradition of Byzantine theologians. Yet, from under these extremely virulent statements, an argument emerges that was fairly original for the beginning of the 13th
Century. The Christian world’s lack of success after the failure of the last crusades
leads the author to ponder the reasons for this impotence. Accordingly, he does not
follow systematically the doctrinal arguments of many of his predecessors, but rather
attempts to assess the situation in the Near East in the 1220s from a human and religious point of view. Implicitly this leads him to sketch the outline of a Near-Eastern
identity entirely resistant to models imported from the West.Keywords :
the East, history, Islam, portrayal, identity.
• 1. La place de l’Historia orientalis
dans la littérature chrétienne sur la représentation
de l’islam (VIIe-XIIIe siècle)
— a. Survol de la tradition
— b. Les sources de l’Historia orientalis
• 2. Position de la question. Le chapitre 4
— a. Présentation du personnage
— b. Un sentiment d’impuissance
• 3. Carrière de Mahomet : portrait
• 4. La doctrine et ses développements