Medieval Christians racialized Muslims as black, bestial, and lustful

Evidence

The Ethiopians were another monstrous race connected to Muslims. It is important here to reiterate that in the medieval view, non-Egyptian Africans were often referred to as “Ethiopians.” Like the Saracens, they were considered members of a monstrous non-human race fixated on sex and violence. As one text suggests, “In the East, especially in hot regions, bestial and wanton people… easily embark on the path that leads them to death.” Saracens were often portrayed with black or purple skin, as in the paintings of Black Saracens and in the numerous medieval texts in which Black Muslims are featured. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 160

Categorization

• XREF: The climatic-determinism leap — hot regions produce wanton beings — links to the reader’s interest in how the monstrous figure was manufactured across geography, theology, and art. — connects to: Crusade rhetoric racialized Muslims as a vile and accursed race. — Nasar Meer, Racialization and Religion: Race,…, 12