Medieval literature equated Saracens with demons condemned to hell

Evidence

Non-Christian territories were sinister spaces—far more dangerous than Christian territories, whatever monsters dwelled there. Muslim lands were dark and foreboding landscapes separated from the natural world. According to one medieval account, Saracens lived in a land “[w] here the sun does not shine, not any grain grow. There falls no rain or dew. There are no stones that are not all black. Some say devils dwell there.” In a medieval Muslim island referenced in Aliscans, the lost island is so far removed from human society that it lays “outside the known world.” — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 119 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

What purposes did these medieval Christian constructions of Islam serve? Christians increasingly saw in Islam a formidable threat to Christianity’s claims of superiority and hegemony in Europe and beyond. Faced with the Muslim world’s competing theological claims, impressive military accomplishments, expanding empire, and superior intellectual and scientific advancements, medieval Christian authors responded polemically and aggressively. In the context of the Crusades and the Reconquista, theologians depicted Islam initially as idolatry and ultimately as heresy in order to justify violence and aggression against Muslims. In those circumstances in which Christians lived under Muslim rule, these same depictions were aimed at providing Christian dhimmis with the ideological tools to resist converting to Islam or, in the case of ninth-century Cordoba, to embrace martyrdom. By the end of the Middle Ages, centuries of military aggression, political hostility, and anti-Muslim discourse had taken their toll. Muslims became the feared “Other” in the European Christian imagination. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 139 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval writers depicted Saracens as endlessly regenerating and unstoppable; Medieval tales showed Saracens becoming human only by converting and turning white.; Medieval depictions of Islam as heresy served to justify violence and resist conversion — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 139 (+2 more)

Related

• Medieval accounts imagined Muslim lands as sunless devil-haunted spaces (similarity 0.91)
• Muslim monsters were located in distant God-forgotten lands beyond the borders. (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval Christians mapped monsters onto dark wild and borderland places. (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval art and literature literally placed Muslims in hell as demons (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christians classed non-Egyptian Africans with Saracens as monstrous races (similarity 0.82)
• Christians imagined Muslim lands as cursed, sunless wastelands before encountering them (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval tales showed Saracens becoming human only by converting and turning white. (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval art and text conflated Jews and Muslims into a single Saracen body (similarity 0.82)
• Theological explanations blamed Christian corruption and cast Muslims as God’s punishing instrument (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christians imagined demons prowling everywhere, even often disguised as dark-skinned foreigners (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christians saw Islam as salvation by faith without works (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Europeans imagined Muslims as multiple monsters before any real contact (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christian scholars read the Bible as evidence about the Saracens (similarity 0.80)
• Jews and Muslims were interchangeable demonic figures in the medieval Christian imagination. (similarity 0.80)
• Early medieval Christians did not automatically view Saracens as enemies (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Medieval accounts imagined Muslim lands as sunless devil-haunted spaces #corroborates (0.70) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 119
• Medieval writers depicted Saracens as endlessly regenerating and unstoppable #expands (0.60)
• Medieval depictions of Islam as heresy served to justify violence and resist conversion #expands (0.60) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 139
• Medieval tales showed Saracens becoming human only by converting and turning white. #expands (0.55)
• Elizabethan English pub signs depicted Saracens as monstrous, non-human beasts. #corroborates (0.45)