Crusade on the 11th century Mediterranean Sea

Long before pope Urban II made his ímpassioned plea at Clerrnont, the Italian cities were fighting the Saracens on land and sea. 

Depicting Saracens in the Middle Ages: sometimes more than monsters

"Representations of Saracens as "the others" abound in (...) the earliest manuscripts of the 13th century to the copies of the early 15th century books. These images reinforce stereotypes of Muslims that depict them as barbarians, berserkers, idol worshipping pagans, and nothing less than the enemies of God and mankind. Highly racial and pejorative depictions of these figures highlight their negative qualities through dark skin and distorted facial features.

Racial changes in depicting Saracens in the Middle Ages

"How were Saracens depicted from 1200-1420, and what can this tell modern scholars about the way that western artists and audiences viewed and depicted Saracens?  

Christian view on the rise of Islam at the end of the 1st Millennium

"When Muslim armies came out of Arabia in the 630s and 640s, Christian writers in the Middle East looked to the Bible for understanding about what this invasion meant." (...) They soon saw this new religion as a sign of the coming Apocalypse.