Religion, not nationality, anchored identity for Muslims and medieval Christians

Evidence

For Muslims—as also for most medieval but few modern Christians—the core of identity was religion, rather than nation, country, or continent, and the basic divisions of mankind were religiously determined. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1056

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the shift from religious to national identity as a defining modern transformation; connects to Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities. — connects to: Arab ethnicity is defined by language and culture, not religion; Religion is one factor among many, not the defining one, in Muslim-majority societies; Arabian and Muslim identities are distinct categories defined by language, not religion — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 292