Medieval art painted Christ’s tormentors as dark-skinned Saracen monsters

Evidence

In medieval art, the Black Saracen is often shown harassing Christ or murdering a Christian saint. One of the most striking examples of this visual narrative is found in the Luttrell Psalter’s Execution of St. John the Baptist, where a purple-skinned figure is shown beheading the saint. The Chichester Psalter (13th c.) includes several images of Black Saracens surrounding, harassing, or harming Christ. In the first image, “The Betrayal” (Figure 2.4), Christ is surrounded by a number of figures, including Black Saracens, identified by their dark skin and turbans. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 206

Categorization

• XREF: This is a visual, non-textual route by which the manufactured Muslim monster entered late-medieval Christian imagination, complementing the literary and theological evidence the reader is gathering.