Medieval Muslim monster imagery recycled Classical Plinian creatures and placed them in faraway lands

Evidence

Medieval monsters were created along the contours of the Classical imagination, which is why we find early Muslims, often called Saracens, depicted alongside Plinian creatures including Blemmyae, Amazons, Cyclops, Panotii, and Ephiphagus, creatures that often regenerated as new monsters in the modern period. One example is the cynocephalus, a dog-headed man that dates from the Classical period and was identified as a Jewish and Muslim monster in the Middle Ages. … Medieval Muslim monsters were often located in faraway lands, a strategy that helped identify Christians with the lands they themselves occupied and further identified these lands as not controlled by the foreign creatures who dwelled nearby. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 54

Categorization

• XREF: Directly feeds the reader’s core inquiry: the image of the Muslim monster borrowed wholesale from Classical bestiaries — the ‘manufactured’ thesis in concrete form.
• SEED: The cynocephalus as a recycled ‘Jewish and Muslim monster’ is a ready-made exhibit for the reader’s thesis that the image precedes any real contact.
• DEFINE: Defines the figure of the dog-headed cynocephalus and how it was ethnically re-labeled in the medieval period.