Jews and Muslims shared the dog-headed monster linked to the devil in Christendom

Evidence

Both Jews and Muslims appeared as dog-headed men in a number of medieval texts and paintings that identified them as monsters associated with the devil. The association of dogs with Jews continues to the modern period; and while I do not provide a complete anthropology here, I would like to point to the importance of this particular anti-Semitic hate sign, which contributes to, and is supported by, Muslim dog-headed monsters. … The dog was interpreted as a manifestation of the Devil, especially in medieval times. Christ’s tormentors were referred to as cruel, evil dogs in written and pictorial documents. As a derogatory epithet, “dog” might be applied to any enemy, especially to the Jews, an epithet that began with its use in the New Testament, where “dogs” may be seen metaphorically to refer to the Jews. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 226

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the dog-monster figure as a reusable template applied to successive others — connects to the reader’s framework that each recurring monster carries a specific Western anxiety and that the template precedes any given target group.
• DEFINE: Traces the ‘dog’ epithet to its New Testament metaphorical use for Jews, establishing how the sign was pre-loaded before being applied to Muslims.