Dark-skinned Muslims found in medieval psalters, paintings, poetry, and romances are not always monstrous, but their blackness indicates that they are evil. In an image from fourteenth-century France depicting a battle, the Muslim soldiers wear turbans and have dark eyes, but perhaps what is most interesting is the face on their shields—an African man. This is but one indication of how Muslims were related not just to Jews, but also to Africans.

QUESTION: How exactly did medieval artists map skin color onto religious/ethnic identity, and did this vary across regions or centuries?

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 201