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SARACEN The word Saracen is an English adapta-
tion of the Greek word sarakenos (easterner). It was used
commonly in medieval and early modern British litera-
ture to refer to any non-Christian, non-Jewish person,
usually from the Middle East but also possibly from
North Africa or even Spain; Arab or Muslim are rough
synonyms. The use of the term is usually pejorative and
indicates an opponent of Christianity. It is seldom
attached to actual cultural knowledge; instead, most lit-
erary depictions of Saracens involve simple behavioral
stereotypes (treachery, greed, cowardice), either for
comic effect or as part pro-Christian propaganda.
Saracens are almost always simple villains in
ROMANCEs, where for the most part Christianity tri-
umphs, and they either die or are converted. However,
there are exceptions to this ethnocentrism. For
instance, in the Charlemagne romance The SULTAN OF
BABYLONE (ca. 1450), the Saracens are more multifac-
eted and thoughtful. As travel and ethnic encounters
increased in the later 15th and 16th centuries, the
word began to be replaced—in literature as well as in
nonliterary texts of many kinds—by more precise cul-
tural nomenclature.
See also BEVIS OF HAMPTON; FLORIS AND BLAUNCHEFLUR;
“MAN OF LAW’S TALE, THE.”

FURTHER READING
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. “On Saracen Enjoyment: Some Fan-
tasies of Race in Late Medieval France and England.” Jour-
nal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31, no. 1 (2001):
113–146.

Neill, Michael. “ ‘Mulattos,’ ‘Blacks,’ and ‘Indian Moors’:

Othello and Early Modern Constructions of Human Differ-

ence.” SQ 49, no. 4 (1998): 361–374.

Fred Porcheddu

SATIRE Satire is a mode of literature that ridicules

vice and folly. The satirist employs humor, irony, and

exaggeration to describe and criticize contemporary

people and mores. The term satire originated with

ancient Roman poets such as Horace (65–8 B.C.E.) and

Juvenal (late fi rst to early second century C.E.), who

attacked Roman corruption and vice. However, satire

was not confi ned to the Greco-Roman world; medieval

Celts believed that the satire of their bards had the

magical power to harm its victims.

No evidence survives of satire in English before the

NORMAN CONQUEST of 1066. While Roman (and possi-

bly Celtic) satire infl uenced the development of Eng-

lish satire, Latin and Old French sources were closer to

hand. From the seventh century onward, churchmen

wrote Latin satires to attack ecclesiastical corruption

and hypocrisy. In the 1100s and 1200s, estates satire

emerged when satirists expanded their targets to

include nobility, tradesmen, peasants, and women.

Estates satire criticized in turn the faults of all THREE

ESTATES, or social classes, of medieval society: clergy,

nobility, and laborers. Sophisticated and celebrated

examples of the genre include works by JOHN GOWER

and especially the GENERAL PROLOGUE TO THE CANTER-

BURY TALES by GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

S