Muslim monsters were located in distant God-forgotten lands beyond the borders.

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Pre-modern monsters were geographically bounded to the edges of the known world.; Medieval Saracen monsters were placed geographically at Christian territory’s edges; Muslim monsters occupied map edges alongside other monstrous races. (+5 more)

Related

• Medieval Christians mapped monsters onto dark wild and borderland places. (similarity 0.95)
• Medieval accounts imagined Muslim lands as sunless devil-haunted spaces (similarity 0.92)
• Muslim monsters occupied map edges alongside other monstrous races. (similarity 0.90)
• Medieval theologically-oriented maps placed monstrous races farthest from Jerusalem. (similarity 0.89)
• Pre-modern monsters were geographically contained while Saracens inhabited sunless evil lands (similarity 0.89)
• Saracens were mapped at the edges of known Christian space as boundary monsters (similarity 0.87)
• Christians imagined Muslim lands as cursed, sunless wastelands before encountering them (similarity 0.86)
• Gothic literature resurrected medieval geography of Muslim monsters (similarity 0.86)
• Medieval maps placed Saracens at the territorial edges as boundary monsters (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval literature equated Saracens with demons condemned to hell (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval Muslim monsters inherited Classical categories and predated real encounters. (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval Christian identity defined itself as normative humanity with all else monstrous (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval maps situated Muslim monsters among alienated non-human races at world’s edges (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christians imagined demons prowling everywhere, even often disguised as dark-skinned foreigners (similarity 0.83)
• Orientalist monsters could migrate across religious and ethnic targets at will (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Muslim monsters occupied map edges alongside other monstrous races. #corroborates (0.80)
• Medieval Christians mapped monsters onto dark wild and borderland places. #corroborates (0.75)
• Gothic Muslim monsters distinguish themselves by crossing borders into Christian Europe #complicates (0.70) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 426
• Medieval accounts imagined Muslim lands as sunless devil-haunted spaces #expands (0.70) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 119
• Medieval Muslim monsters inherited Classical categories and predated real encounters. #expands (0.60)
• Medieval Christians inhabited a world where monsters coexisted with humans everywhere #complicates (0.55)