Medieval writers represented Jewish and Muslim bodies as jointly diseased and degenerate

Evidence

Both Jews and Muslims appeared as dog-headed men in a number of medieval texts and paintings that identified them as monsters associated with the devil. The association of dogs with Jews continues to the modern period; and while I do not provide a complete anthropology here, I would like to point to the importance of this particular anti-Semitic hate sign, which contributes to, and is supported by, Muslim dog-headed monsters. The association of dogs with Satan informs this relationship: The dog was interpreted as a manifestation of the Devil, especially in medieval times. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 226 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The identification of Jews as dogs—ravenous, wild, and cannibalistic—continued for centuries. In the eighteenth century, Jewish dogs were accused of eating children, narratives based on late medieval and Renaissance paintings of Jews and Muslims killing Christian children. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 232 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Rabbinic theological polemics enabled Christian burning of Jewish books — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 2591; Medieval anti-Muslim rhetoric borrowed bodily-debility tropes from anti-Jewish writing; Muslims were ideologically collapsed into heretics, Jews, and the devil by Christian writers. (+15 more)

Related

• Bestiaries transferred Jewish monstrous symbols onto Muslim characters (similarity 0.91)
• Muslims were ideologically collapsed into heretics, Jews, and the devil by Christian writers. (similarity 0.89)
• Jews and Muslims shared a canine monstrous identity in medieval literature (similarity 0.88)
• Medieval art and text conflated Jews and Muslims into a single Saracen body (similarity 0.87)
• Medieval anti-Muslim rhetoric borrowed bodily-debility tropes from anti-Jewish writing (similarity 0.86)
• Dog-headed men served medieval art as both Jew and Muslim monsters of evil (similarity 0.86)
• Jewish and Muslim symbols were deliberately conflated in Renaissance painting (similarity 0.86)
• Blood-libel imagery linked Jews and Muslims eating Christian children. (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval passion plays made Muhammad the god of Christ’s Jewish and Roman tormentors (similarity 0.84)
• Muslim monsters were depicted as cannibals who ate their enemies. (similarity 0.83)
• Christian art associated Jews with barking dogs and cannibal violence (similarity 0.82)
• Jews and Muslims shared the dog-headed monster linked to the devil in Christendom (similarity 0.82)
• Renaissance art showed Muslims and Jews murdering and eating Christian children (similarity 0.81)
• Bestiaries cast both Jews and Muslims as dogs and dog-headed men (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christians inhabited a world where monsters coexisted with humans everywhere (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Medieval art and text conflated Jews and Muslims into a single Saracen body #corroborates (0.90)
• Jews and Muslims shared a canine monstrous identity in medieval literature #corroborates (0.85) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 226
• Dog-headed men served medieval art as both Jew and Muslim monsters of evil #expands (0.80)
• Blood-libel imagery linked Jews and Muslims eating Christian children. #corroborates (0.80) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 232
• Jewish and Muslim symbols were deliberately conflated in Renaissance painting #expands (0.75)
• Bestiaries transferred Jewish monstrous symbols onto Muslim characters #expands (0.70)
• Medieval writers classified Muslim followers as monstrous races and devil minions. #qualifies (0.70)
• Medieval female Muslim monsters fused misogyny and racism #expands (0.70) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 189
• Renaissance painting Orientalized Jews by also turbaning them like Muslims #expands (0.70)
• Fantasy tropes shaped how Orientalism constructed Jewish and Muslim men #expands (0.65)