In Son of the Sheik, two characters cross over to the monstrous—Ghabah the Moor and an unnamed Arab dwarf. Ghabah the Moor is a hideous and sinister criminal whose “crimes outnumber the sands.” He and the dwarf take great pleasure in threatening to rape Yasmin, as well as in torturing Ahmed by beating him and burning his feet. Ghabah and the dwarf behave like monsters; Ghabah grimaces and makes faces at the camera and the dwarf prances around like a ghoulish troll. These are the authentic Muslim monsters of the first Sheik film.

XREF: Connects to broader patterns of racial caricature in early film representations of non-Western peoples.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 615