Circumcision status served as a marker separating Egyptians and Turks from Christians

Evidence

The aged Avernus went so far as to have himself circumcised, surrendering his old, tough foreskin to the surgeon’s knife. This is accommodation gone too far: for Samson it is a prelude to apostasy; for Alvarus it was the mark of the Antichrist. Other court Christians went so far as to denounce churches whose altars illegally housed relics of the recent martyrs. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 546 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Four, the classifications of mankind were systematically multiplied as the possibilities of designation and derivation were refined beyond the categories of what Vico called gentile and sacred nations; race, color, origin, temperament, character, and types overwhelmed the distinction between Christians and everyone else. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 330 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A Christian courtier’s voluntary circumcision was read as apostasy’s threshold; Medieval Jewish polemic framed Muslim circumcision as shared Abrahamic inheritance — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 226; Freud connected Moses and the Turk through Egyptian circumcision — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 1183 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Christian courtiers adopted bodily markers of Muslim identity to gain favor #complicates (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 546
• Arabic-speaking Egyptians were considered Turks in the Sudan context #complicates (0.75)
• Multiplying human classifications overwhelmed the Christian-versus-other distinction #complicates (0.74) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 330