The word ‘Saracen’ came to mean ‘pagan’ for medieval writers

Evidence

So much is the Saracen associated with the pagan for medieval writers, that the very word “Saracen” (in its Latin and Romance vernacular cognates) or “Moro” (the Castilian Spanish equivalent) are used to mean “pagan”—even when referring to pagans of antiquity. Thus the twelfthcentury epic Floovant refers to the Frankish king Clovis as a “Saracen” before his conversion to Christianity. Another Chanson de Geste, Gormont et Isembart describes Danish marauders as “Sarrazins” devoted to the god Apollin; their leader, Gormont, “li Arabis” is called both “Antecrist” and “Satenas.” Fourteenth-century writers refer to the pagan Lithuanians as “Saracens.” Even learned legal scholars of the thirteenth century refer to Saracens as pagans; for the decretalist Azo, Saracens “worship and adore innumerable gods, goddesses, and demons.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 697

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Said’s Orientalism and to ADDENDUM article on immodesty moral panics, both about how medieval/early modern Europeans projected their own categories onto the Other. — connects to: Saracen denoted religious allegiance, not ethnicity, in medieval usage
• DEFINE: Clarifies that in medieval usage ‘Saracen’ functioned as a synonym for ‘pagan,’ including pagans of antiquity and non-Muslims like Lithuanians.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 697