Medieval depictions of Muslim idolatry drew on the biblical golden calf episode

Evidence

The depiction of Muslims as polytheistic idolaters draws not just upon a diffuse tradition of pagan idolatry but, more specifically, upon the prototypical episode of pagan idolatry: the forging of the golden calf at the foot of Sinai while Moses received the laws up above. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 234

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: how the West’s first ‘frame’ for rendering unfamiliar others was scriptural, not empirical — the golden calf as the template for every later accusation of idolatry.