Medieval literature includes other types of female Muslim characters, many of whom figure prominently in conversion narratives. Saracen females who convert to Christianity are usually represented as white, a reversal of the dark-skinned or Black Saracen male monster. White Muslim females do not represent “a realistic portrayal of the medieval French view of the Saracen body but illustrate desire on the part of the white male authors of the text.” These characters are not realistic portrayals, but rather expressions of desire for the exotic Other, which was often situated in fantasies about racial and sexual difference.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 200