How was Europe defined in the Middle Ages? Even when Europeans have been pressed in recent years to define their borders, numerous answers have emerged, from a Europe that excludes the Eastern regions to a Europe that is situated in "the nineteenth century, an age that combined the romantic political philosophies of Rousseau and Hegel with 'scientific' history and Indo-European philology to produce ethnic nationalism." Medieval Europeans did not identify as belonging to a large community. People living in a monastery or village did not think of themselves as European. Identity was situated in smaller spaces—the town, city, or district. In other words, it was localized.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 77