The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages - Geraldine Heng - A Study of Medieval Racial Thinking

Aug 29, 2026

Uploaded by Finn

The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages challenges the belief that race and racism emerged only in the modern era by tracing how racial thinking, racial law, and racial practices operated in Europe from the twelfth through fifteenth centuries. Drawing on diverse sources—stories, maps, art, architecture, saints’ lives, religious commentary, laws, and institutions—Geraldine Heng argues that religion enabled essentialist distinctions that supported racialized treatment. The study also explains how race shaped the emergence of homo europaeus and Western Europe’s identity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages507

Reading Time21 h 18 min

AccessFree to download

Beginnings

Racial Worlds, Medieval Worlds: Why This Book, and How to Read a Book on Medieval Race

Notes

chapter 1 - Inventions/Reinventions

Race Studies, Modernity, and the Middle Ages

Race Theory and Its Fictions

Premodernists Write Back

Religious Race, Medieval Race

Architectures of Racial Formation

Cartographic Race

Politics of the Neighbor

Politics of the Epidermis

Notes

chapter 2 - State/Nation

A Case Study of the Racial State

Living Figures of Absolute Difference

Economies of the Racial State

A Medieval Panoption

Church and State Partners

Conversion as Racial Passing

England’s Dead Boys

Notes

chapter 3 - War/Empire

Race Figures in the International Contest

Holy War Redux

Sex, Lies, and Paradise

A Man for All Seasons

Saracens, Inc

Notes

chapter 4 - Color

Epidermal Race, Fantasmatic Race

THE INVENTION OF RACE IN THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES In The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages, Geraldine Heng questions the common assumption that race and racisms only began in the modern era. Examining Europe’s encounters with Jews, Muslims, Africans, Native Americans, Mongols, and the Romani (“Gypsies”) from the twelfth through ﬁfteenth centuries, she shows how racial thinking, racial law, racial practices, and racial phenomena existed in medieval Europe before a recognizable vocabulary of race emerged in the West. Analyzing sources in a variety of media, including stories, maps, statuary, illustrations, architectural features, history, saints’ lives, religious commentary, laws, political and social institutions, and literature, she argues that religion – so much in play again today – enabled the positing of fundamental differences among humans that created strategic essentialisms to mark off human groups and populations for racialized treatment. Her groundbreaking study also shows how race ﬁgured in the emergence of homo europaeus and the identity of Western Europe in this time. Geraldine Heng is Perceval Fellow and Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Middle Eastern Studies, and Women’s Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. She is the author of Empire of Magic: Medieval Romance and the Politics of Cultural Fantasy (2003, 2004, 2012) and England and the Jews: How Religion and Violence Created the First Racial State in the West (Cambridge University Press 2018) . Originally from Singapore, Heng has held the Winton Chair (for “paradigm-shifting scholarship”) at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She has received a number of fellowships and grants, and currently holds an ACLS fellowship to begin a new book, Early Globalities: The Interconnected World, 500–1500 CE. Heng is also the founder and director of [the Global Middle Ages Project: www.globalmiddleages.org](the Global Middle Ages Project: www.globalmiddleages.org). THE INVENTION OF RACE IN THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES GERALDINE HENG University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, ny 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vic 3207, Australia 314 321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi 110025, India 79 Anson Road, \#06 04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. [www.cambridge.org](www.cambridge.org) Information on this [title: www.cambridge.org/](title: www.cambridge.org/9781108422789)[9781108422789](title: www.cambridge.org/9781108422789)[ ](title: www.cambridge.org/9781108422789)doi: 10.1017/9781108381710 © Geraldine Heng 2018 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2018 Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Inc. A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. isbn 978 1 108 42278 9 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. To Leah Marcus, David Theo Goldberg, and Susan Noakes compagnons de route Contents List of Illustrations page ix Acknowledgments xi Beginnings 1 Racial Worlds, Medieval Worlds: Why This Book, and How to Read a Book on Medieval Race Notes, 13 chapter 1 􀀁 Inventions/Reinventions 15 Race Studies, Modernity, and the Middle Ages Race Theory and Its Fictio

FAQs

What does the book argue about when race and racism began?

The book argues that racial thinking, racial law, and racial practices were present in medieval Europe well before a recognizable Western vocabulary of “race” emerged.

Which groups and regions does the author examine in medieval Europe?

The author examines Europe’s encounters with Jews, Muslims, Africans, Native Americans, Mongols, and the Romani (often referred to as “Gypsies”) from the twelfth through fifteenth centuries.

How does religion contribute to the formation of racial differences in the book’s analysis?

The author contends that religion, central in the period, enabled positing fundamental human differences and produced strategic essentialisms used to mark groups for racialized treatment.

Aug 29, 2026

Uploaded by Finn