Medieval Christian identity defined itself as normative humanity with all else monstrous

Evidence

Ideas about geography, race, morphology, and morality determined the monsters of the age, in part by limiting the human universe to a small territory such as the environs of Jerusalem, Rome, or another municipality, and in part by formulating a vision of identity that might be determined by anything from a hairstyle to skin color, as well as by viewing Christianity as determinative of normative humanity, while everything else existed as strange, foreign, and monstrous. … Islam emerged at a time of uncertainty, doubt, and superstition, factors that contributed to the various mythologies about Muslims (often called Saracens) covered in this chapter, from narratives about Prophet Muhammad as an agent of the devil to tales of Arabs as a monstrous race from beyond the borders of the natural world. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 29

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s core thesis in chapter 1 about Christian epistemology defining Muslims as monsters — this is the mechanism by which that happens.
• DEFINE: Establishes the analytical categories: geography, race, morphology, morality as the four determinants of monstrosity.