AH challenge: A Muslim European country that considers itself Christian

[Hendryk]

Recently, Chuck Häberl was mentioning on FB that the medieval Christian idea of Islam was so wildly inaccurate, many would probably have been unable to correctly identify the real thing if they came across it. For example, in the seminal Song of Roland:

Twenty thousand and more around him stood,
All of them cursed Carlun and France the Douce.
Then Apollin in's grotto they surround,
And threaten him, and ugly words pronounce:
"Such shame on us, vile god!, why bringest thou?
This is our king; wherefore dost him confound?
Who served thee oft, ill recompense hath found."
Then they take off his sceptre and his crown,
With their hands hang him from a column down,
Among their feet trample him on the ground,
With great cudgels they batter him and trounce.
From Tervagant his carbuncle they impound,
And Mahumet into a ditch fling out,
Where swine and dogs defile him and devour.

So according to one of the most famous texts in medieval Christendom, Islam is an idolatrous polytheistic creed that involves praying to statues of Apollyon, "Tervagant" (sometimes Termagant) and Mohammed. And keep in mind that the final version of the Song is posterior to the First Crusade, so that didn't seem to have done much to set the record straight.

I have discussed the matter further with Chuck, and he thinks it's plausible if at some point in the premodern era, a given European Christian country could have been exposed to Islam and basically embraced it as a form of Christianity, since it bears no resemblance whatsoever to that foreign idolatry they've heard third- or fourth-hand scare stories about. His off-the-cuff suggestion:

Perhaps they could even preserve something like the apocryphal Gospel of Barnabas that supports a specifically Islamic christology
But still insist they're not Muslims because Muslims are idolaters
All it would take is one learned but decidedly unorthodox Sufi imam who believes it's more important for these ignorant peasants to conduct their lives in the proper manner than to get hung up on labels

Any ideas about this?

Muslims praying to a statue of Mohammed, as one does:

 

[SinghSong]

Wasn't this effectively the case in Circassia, under the rule of King Inal the Great? Could Circassia be said to be the closest thing to an example of this IOTL?

 

[Hendryk]

Wasn't this effectively the case in Circassia, under the rule of King Inal the Great? Could Circassia be said to be the closest thing to an example of this IOTL?

That's interesting, could you elaborate? My knowledge of Circassian history is basically nonexistent.