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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.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-invention-of-race-in-the-european-middle-ages-geraldine-heng-a-study-of-medieval-racial-thinking/159872/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-invention-of-race-in-the-european-middle-ages-geraldine-heng-a-study-of-medieval-racial-thinking/159872.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Finn","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-20","2026-08-29",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",25,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What does the book argue about when race and racism began?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"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.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"Which groups and regions does the author examine in medieval Europe?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"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.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"How does religion contribute to the formation of racial differences in the book’s analysis?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"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.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},159872,1788039409,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},34359740700684,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/1f400023980c374ae676?_k=1777273430885731487","THE INVENTION OF RACE IN THE EUROPEAN  \nMIDDLE AGES  \nIn 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.  \nGeraldine 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) .  \nOriginally 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  \n[the Global Middle Ages Project: www.globalmiddleages.org](the Global Middle Ages Project: www.globalmiddleages.org).  \nTHE INVENTION OF RACE IN THE EUROPEAN  \nMIDDLE AGES  \nGERALDINE HENG  \nUniversity Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, ny 10006, USA  \n477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vic 3207, Australia  \n314 321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi 110025, India  \n79 Anson Road, \\#06 04/06, Singapore 079906  \nCambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.  \nIt furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.  \n[www.cambridge.org](www.cambridge.org)  \nInformation 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  \n© Geraldine Heng 2018  \nThis 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.  \nFirst published 2018  \nPrinted in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Inc. A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.  \nisbn 978 1 108 42278 9 Hardback  \nCambridge 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.  \nTo Leah Marcus, David Theo Goldberg, and Susan Noakes compagnons de route  \nContents  \nList of Illustrations page ix Acknowledgments xi  \nBeginnings 1  \nRacial Worlds, Medieval Worlds: Why This Book, and How to Read  \na Book on Medieval Race  \nNotes, 13  \nchapter 1 􀀁 Inventions/Reinventions 15  \nRace Studies, Modernity, and the Middle Ages  \nRace Theory and Its Fictio","cbCaijB7DXI5BzmP","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijB7DXI5BzmP","pdf",3681063,507,"English","# Beginnings\n## Racial Worlds, Medieval Worlds: Why This Book, and How to Read a Book on Medieval Race\n# Notes\n## chapter 1 - Inventions/Reinventions\n## Race Studies, Modernity, and the Middle Ages\n## Race Theory and Its Fictions\n## Premodernists Write Back\n## Religious Race, Medieval Race\n## Architectures of Racial Formation\n## Cartographic Race\n## Politics of the Neighbor\n## Politics of the Epidermis\n## Notes\n## chapter 2 - State/Nation\n## A Case Study of the Racial State\n## Living Figures of Absolute Difference\n## Economies of the Racial State\n## A Medieval Panoption\n## Church and State Partners\n## Conversion as Racial Passing\n## England’s Dead Boys\n## Notes\n## chapter 3 - War/Empire\n## Race Figures in the International Contest\n## Holy War Redux\n## Sex, Lies, and Paradise\n## A Man for All Seasons\n## Saracens, Inc\n## Notes\n## chapter 4 - Color\n## Epidermal Race, Fantasmatic Race","[{\"question\":\"What does the book argue about when race and racism began?\",\"answer\":\"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.\"},{\"question\":\"Which groups and regions does the author examine in medieval Europe?\",\"answer\":\"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.\"},{\"question\":\"How does religion contribute to the formation of racial differences in the book’s analysis?\",\"answer\":\"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.\"}]","The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages - Geraldine Heng - A Study of Medieval Racial Thinking | PDF",1278]