Barbary captivity narratives framed Muslims as monsters of darkness tied to Africa
Evidence
The Barbary Muslims are associated with the Barbary Coast of North Africa and piracy. Captivity stories, like the tales of American Indian kidnappings of white settlers, “emphasized the victimization of the Christian and the inhumanity of the non-Christian.” Muslims were described in these stories as the “Monsters of Africa” that were associated with the “powers of Darkness.” After appearing in literary narratives, these monsters quickly entered other fields of cultural production, eventually becoming popular villains in dime store novels and later, theme parks and films: In addition to the published historical accounts of slavery in North Africa, the Barbary captivity topos appeared in at least four early American novels, nine early plays, ten dime novels, and almost a dozen Hollywood movies. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 591
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: The captivity narrative genre parallels the American Indian captivity tales mentioned in the same passage — a shared structural template for manufacturing the monstrous Other.
- DEFINE: Introduces ‘Barbary Muslim’ as a category whose monstrousness is established in literature before any other medium picks it up.
Related
- Barbary captivity stories framed Muslims as inhuman monsters of darkness in American culture (similarity 0.97)
- Barbary captivity narratives denounced white slavery while ignoring American slavery (similarity 0.87)
- Barbary captivity narratives doubled as Native American captivity stories (similarity 0.83)
- Barbary captivity tropes saturated American pop culture across many media (similarity 0.82)
- Barbary captivity tales denounced white slavery while US chattel slavery rose. (similarity 0.81)
- Dark-skinned Muslim monsters carried African anxieties into modern imaginaries (similarity 0.79)
- Barbary pirates were recast as monsters linking Islam to anti-African hatred (similarity 0.78)