Today many think Islam is more demanding than Christianity: Muslims have rules for dress, personal hygiene, fasting on Ramadan etc. In the medieval period - the OPPOSITE was the case. Christians & Muslims generally agreed that Chr was more demanding. Here an unnamed Muslim
In brief, two things: 1. the Isl idea (according to Manuel) that relations with women are about a man's sexual satisfaction - thus Islam allows for polygamy & unconditional divorce (by the man) and new marriages, whereas Chr views marriage as a sacred bond of love, analogous to
imho (which is usually right 😅) it was Chr that changed in terms of "rules" (Isl has changed too of course, but not as dramatically) - between the reformation, & "enlightenment" etc Chrs began to think Christ basically had no law at all (everything is grace). Even Catholics went
Greek edition & Fr translation of Manuel's "Meeting with a Muslim" (a whole story can be told too about this treatise - the dialogues took place when the emperor was being held captive in an Ottoman camp - but that's a story for another day).
