Real historical Muslims were turned into monsters in imaginary retellings

Evidence

This study includes Muslim monsters that don’t fit Gilmore’s definition. For example, medieval and early modern representations of historical characters are included when they are fantastic and fictionalized forms of the original person. These include representations of Prophet Muhammad as a demon and the image of Saladin with an avatar of Satan flying out of his mouth—seen in Matthew Paris’s Death of Saladin, where a blackbird is shown exiting Saladin’s mouth, “symbolizing his wicked soul” (Figure 1.1). — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 59