The Muslim monster image first emerged in eighth-century Christian polemics about Muhammad

Evidence

In this study I look at the medieval period from the eighth century to the beginning of the Renaissance. I have chosen this periodization because early Christian reactions to Islam are situated in the eighth and ninth centuries, when we first see the emergence of Muslim monsters in the Christian imagination. Christian polemics, which often focused on Prophet Muhammad as the progenitor of a monstrous race of Saracens, among other things, are an important foundational source for later Muslim monsters. Most medieval Muslim monsters are of the Arab (Saracen), African, and Jewish variety, including the giant, man-eating Saracens of medieval romances and the Black Saracens, often shown in medieval art executing saints, harassing and killing Jesus, and murdering other Christian innocents. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 73

Categorization

• QUESTION: Dates this image’s emergence to the 8th-9th century Christian polemics — worth verifying whether any anti-Muslim image precedes this in Byzantine or earlier Syriac sources.