Medieval Christianity treated Jews and Muslims as interchangeable heretics

Evidence

It may be that medievalists have something to contribute to this painful debate; long before the development of the term anti-Semitism in the late nineteenth century, the image of the Jew and the Muslim were complexly intertwined. Allan and Helen Cutler argued several years ago that “medieval anti-Semitism … was primarily a function of anti-Muslimism,” while Jeremy Cohen has more recently (and more precisely) pointed out that in the medieval “classification of the Jews together with the Muslims,” both are merely “subsets in a larger genus of hermeneutically constructed infideles who undermined the unity of Christian faith.” In canon law, regulations limiting the interactions of Christians with Jews and Muslims treated the latter two as equivalents. Literary texts reflect this interchangeability as well: medieval mystery plays depicting the nativity of Jesus, for example, characterize Herod using the conventions associated with Muslim sultans in the chansons de geste and romances. He is opulently dressed, given to violent rages and, most tellingly, invokes the name of his god, Muhammad (Mahounde). — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 230 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Jews and Muslims played a central role in the medieval social imagination. For the average Christian, “[a] nti-Jewishness was a structural feature of late medieval society.” In plays depicting the Assumption, Jews were often portrayed as Satan or demons, in the same way that Muslims, especially Black Saracens, were represented, creating even more confusion in the minds of the medieval and Renaissance audiences. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 168 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

An archive of Muslim monsters must include their cousins, the Jewish monsters. Jews and Muslims were often confused in the minds of medieval Christians, a result of the myriad ways in which they were co-identified in the theology, literature, and art of the period. The joint vilification of Jews and Muslims in the Middle Ages continued into the Renaissance. Medieval Muslim monsters like the Black Saracen, a Muslim-Ethiopian-Jewish hybrid, and the cynocephalus, which had both Jewish and Muslim incarnations, often exhibited anti-Semitic Jewish characteristics. Typically, the way this was expressed was through the actions of these monsters, who were shown harassing, torturing, and killing Christian saints, and also were depicted as the executioners of Jesus. As early as the 690s, Jews were accused of being in cahoots with the Muslims, referred to as their “Hebrew” brethren by King Egica of Spain. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 162 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval authors mislabelled Islamic Christian and Jewish influences as heretical sects; Cluny’s spiritual economy defined Jews, Muslims, and heretics as its joint enemies; Medieval Christian kings legally compelled Muslim and Jewish subjects to attend missionary sermons (+26 more)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Christianity treated Jews and Muslims as equivalent infideles long before modern anti-Semitism #corroborates (0.95) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 230
• Jews and Muslims were interchangeable demonic figures in the medieval Christian imagination. #corroborates (0.95) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 168
• Medieval Christians co-identified Jews and Muslims as one hybrid enemy #corroborates (0.93) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 162
• Medieval Christian texts distinguished Jews from Muslims rather than equating them #contradicts (0.92)
• Medieval Christians understood Islam as heresy and lumped Muslims with Jews and heretics. #corroborates (0.92) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1360
• Medieval Christians classified Muslims as sharing monotheism with Christians but trinitarian denial with Jews #complicates (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 251
• Medieval Christianity repudiated Muslims at a distance but Jews from within #complicates (0.83) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 228
• Medieval Christians imagined Islam’s closeness to Christianity via shared hatred of Jews #complicates (0.80)