Medieval Europeans explained Muslim traits through climate and body rather than theology

Evidence

Medieval Europeans believed that the nature of the eastern and southeastern climates created men who were overemotional, irrational, and given to lascivious behavior; their darker skin and hair were attributed to the heat of the sun. The Oriental body, rather than Islamic theology, increasingly came to be the focus of Western perceptions of the Muslim. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 231

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘immodesty’ essay and to Ibn Khaldun’s asabiyya/climate determinism tradition; also echoes the Hippocratic Airs Waters Places. — connects to: Medieval Christians explained Islamic licentiousness through Arab climate and temperament; Theory outweighed direct observation in medieval European writing about Islam — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1281; Medieval Europeans modeled Muhammad’s Arabia on their own society
• QUESTION: When did the shift from theological to bodily/racial framing of Islam happen, and does it parallel the Jew-to-race shift?