Conclusion: Christian Supremacy and Contradictory Non-Christians Beyond Muslims and Iberia

The contradictory representations of Muslims at the service of Christian colonialism do not exist only in Iberian texts, and similar depictions of Muslims and their interactions with Christians can be found in multiple places around the Mediterranean. The ambivalent dynamics of rejecting and incorporating Muslim difference were not confined to the Middle Ages either and it determined the ways in which Portugal, Spain, and later European empires interacted with non-Christians in Africa, Asia, and even the Americas. The conflicting treatment of difference bequeathed by Iberians to other European Christians is still present in the use of contradictory stereotypes by Western Europeans or European descendants to control and exploit Muslims and other groups because of their cultural, religious, racial, or ethnic difference.