The end of the Middle Ages, rather than resulting in a reduction in monsters, opened the door to all kinds of “scientific” studies of miraculous creatures living on newly discovered islands and continents. Fantasies about giants, Amazons, and others were fairly common, and while these subjects will be examined more fully in the subsequent chapters, it is important to say something here about the new opportunities for monster-making. When Europeans encountered these new territories, their imaginations went into overdrive; thus during the Age of Exploration numerous monsters were purportedly observed in the Americas, the South Pacific, and other colonial spaces.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 236