The Gévaudan beast was theorized as an Eastern monster linked to Jews

Evidence

European monsters were also situated in anxieties outside of gender. One famous example is the tales of beasts that roamed the Massif Central region of France, an area known as Gévaudan. Like many other monsters of the late eighteenth century, these beasts (probably wolves that attacked women and children tending sheep) were explained as a consequence of Divine unrest. Beliefs in witches and fairies, satyrs, and other hybrids (including dog-men) were accompanied by stories of supernatural animals that could create sickness or death by glancing at their victim. One theory of the Gévaudan monster(s) was that it came from the East—a monstrous Simian from Malaysia. It was also identified as a hyena, a beast long associated, as we have seen, with Jews. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 355

Categorization

• XREF: The hyena-as-Jew link and the attribution of the French beast to an Eastern (Malaysian) origin both feed the reader’s fear-without-object thesis within Europe itself — monsters need no actual Muslim contact. — connects to: The hyena’s canine kinship inspired the Jewish dog-headed men of medieval lore; Jews and Muslims shared a canine monstrous identity in medieval literature — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 226; Dog-headed men served medieval art as both Jew and Muslim monsters of evil (+4 more)
• QUESTION: The book says ‘as we have seen’ re hyena-Jews but this chapter doesn’t show it — worth chasing the earlier treatment of the hyena as a Jewish-coded beast.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 355

Broader Connections

• Orientalist monsters could migrate across religious and ethnic targets at will #expands (0.85)
• Dog-headed men served medieval art as both Jew and Muslim monsters of evil #expands (0.75)
• Bestiaries transferred Jewish monstrous symbols onto Muslim characters #expands (0.70)
• Medieval Muslim-monster imagery persists today through Gothic horror and Orientalism #exemplifies (0.65)
• Fantasy tropes shaped how Orientalism constructed Jewish and Muslim men #expands (0.60)