The king met with four Saracens, who were black and blue as lead. . . . Never before that hour did anyone see so horribly shaped a creature. Their black hue was marvelous, and their mouths were in their breasts. . . . Their mouths were so broad, their eyes so large, that it made their faces repulsive. In their foreheads stood their eyes. . . [They say], "We are loathsome, but loathsome also are the soul and body both of a wicked man. . . ." David held [the rods] out to them to kiss; and they kneeled and kissed them. Immediately their skin became as white as milk, and they took on the hue of high blood, and all their appearance was made new.

QUESTION: How does this text engage or complicate modern debates about race and medieval literature? The medieval notion of 'race' here seems moral/theological rather than biological. DEFINE: Shows a medieval framework where 'blackness' is allegorically tied to sin and whiteness to salvation, distinct from modern racial categories.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 108