Apocalyptic narratives framed Muslim conquest as just one prelude to Antichrist

Evidence

Yet the victory over the Ishmaelites and the subsequent peace are merely the prelude to harsher invasions: the barbarians of the North, Gog and Magog—wild men who eat scorpions, kittens, miscarried fetuses, and human flesh—will pour out of the mountains and wreak havoc for “a week of calamity” until God sends one of his angels to destroy them, and the king of the Greeks will rule in Jerusalem for ten and a half years. Yet even this is but a prologue to the real drama of the end: it is at this time that the Antichrist is born. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 331

Categorization

• QUESTION: The vivid list of what Gog and Magog eat (scorpions, kittens, miscarried fetuses, human flesh) is remarkably specific — worth comparing to the biblical Ezekiel Gog/Magog source to see how the Christian apocalyptic genre escalated its horror imagery.