The desert environment was used to explain Muslim backwardness and villainy.

Evidence

The concept of environmental determinism, the idea that one’s natural surroundings determined his or her entire being, also played a significant role in the formation of Orientalist Muslim characters. The static, backward Muslim was often seen a product of the desert environment, a mysterious and frightening landscape. In the genre of romantic Orientalism, this was illustrated in the wild, unrestrained behavior exhibited by Muslim villains, characters who often resembled their monstrous relatives of the past. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 43

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines environmental determinism as the analytical category used to explain the romantic-Orientalist Muslim villain.
• XREF: Connects to Said’s Orientalism and the desert-as-wasteland trope the reader is already mapping. — connects to: Even hostile observers testified to Muslims’ fervent regular prayer in the desert