The Pelagius martyrdom tale allegorized Islam’s conquest as sexual assault of Spain

Evidence

In this religio-political narrative, Pelagius symbolizes the innocence of Christ and the purity of Christianity, and the caliph represents the sinful, deviant, and violent religion of Islam. The story also functions as a political narrative about the “assault” of Spain by the Muslims and the continued subjugation of the Christians living under Muslim rule there. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 135

Categorization

• XREF: The body-as-nation rape metaphor echoes how the reader’s own ‘immodesty as moral panic’ article frames dress panics as class/political signaling.