Medieval Spanish chronicles linked blackness with diabolical evil in the invaders

Evidence

The same weaving together of sources to produce a new narrative is apparent in the Estoria’s version of the Arab invasion: the dramatic tale of the sins of the Gothic monarchy, its punitive fall to the African invaders, and its slow but steady rebirth. For the Estoria as for Rodrigo, the evil, diabolical nature of the invaders is evident in their appearance: “their faces were as black as pitch, the most handsome among them was as black as a kettle, their eyes shone like candles.” There is a long medieval tradition of associating blackness with devils and of seeing dark-skinned Muslims as semidiabolical creatures. They are “the vile African people who excelled neither through strength nor through goodness, but did all with trickery and cleverness.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 971 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Anxieties surrounding ethnicity and bodily differences were imprinted on non-Christian bodies, in particular, on Jews, Muslims, and Africans. This was a medieval kind of racialization, characterized by Cohen as “a phenomenon of multiple category overlap rather than a distinctly verifiable or measurable ‘thing’… (that is, race has no independent ontology), and race is therefore always written on and produced through the body (race is nonetheless biological).” This medieval “multiple category overlap” echoes Foucault’s argument that human bodies are determined by the “effects of power.” Muslim monsters are punished bodies, often suffering with more than one disease or affliction. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 102 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval Spanish chronicles racialized Muslims as diabolical black Africans — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 971; Blackness itself, not monstrosity, signified Muslim evil in medieval imagery — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 201; The pre-racial character of Iberian persecution rested on the availability of conversion — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 170 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Spanish chronicles racialized Muslims as diabolical black Africans #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 971
• Blackness itself, not monstrosity, signified Muslim evil in medieval imagery #contradicts (1.00) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 201
• Blackness coded Muslim evil in medieval art, linking Muslims to Africans. #corroborates (1.00)
• Medieval racialization imprinted anxieties onto non-Christian bodies as punishment #corroborates (1.00) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 102
• The pre-racial character of Iberian persecution rested on the availability of conversion #complicates (0.90) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 170
• Medieval crusader chronicles fabricated enemy atrocities from martyrdom tropes #complicates (0.80)
• Gothic decay tropes encoded anxieties about racial purity threats #complicates (0.70) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 794
• Classic racisms located race as an external colonial invader threatening European homogeneity #complicates (0.70) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 359