The panel, Crusade, Orientalism, Islamophobia: Medieval and Modern Intersections, organized by Tamar Boyadjian and hosted by Muslim Studies, co-sponsored by the English Department at MSU, was a huge success. The four panelists spoke on topics that spanned centuries and the extended Mediterranean regions, yet they spoke coherently about how current populist ideas and determinants of “us vs. them” have their origins in the Medieval periods.

My presentation was about the way that the adaptions of Sir Bevis of Hampton feature a sidekick whose specific transformations can reveal a lot about the cultural significance of the Saracen and otherness.

By the time the character Pelukan, half-man half-dog, appears in the Early Yiddish version, Elye Bokher’s  Bove dantona, he is not only sympathetic, he speaks out about the way he is mistreated for his “otherness.”

One interesting lacuna in the research that I hope to fill: While scholars have examined Pelukan in terms of the way he represents Jewish difference vis-a-vis a Christian majority, no one has looked at Jewish self-identification with Saracens through the use of this figure.

Thanks, Mohammed, Tamar, Adnan, and Salah and CAL.