The dominant vision expressed in medieval Christian writings about Islam's founder is that he was a monster who begot a monstrous race, a sexual monster with impressive powers, including a super-supply of semen—a gift that is magically transferred to all Muslim men, who, according to at least one text, had penises the size of trees. Early Christians often identified Muhammad with Biblical monsters. In one example, Alvarus identifies the Prophet with both Behemoth and Leviathan. Pope Innocent III claimed that Muhammad was the Antichrist: A certain son of perdition, Muhammad the pseudo-prophet, arose.

XREF: Connects to histories of Islamophobia, Orientalism (Said), and how polemical caricatures of religious others persist in contemporary discourse.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 126