Editing Beard (section)

===Middle Ages===
In [[Middle Ages|Medieval Europe]], a beard displayed a [[knight]]'s virility and honour.
The Castilian knight [[El Cid]] is described in ''[[The Lay of the Cid]]'' as "the one with the flowery beard".
Holding somebody else's beard was a serious offence that had to be righted in a duel.
The punishment for pulling off someone else's beard was the same as for castrating him.<ref name="Larraín">{{cite journal |last1=García Larraín |first1=Federico |title=El Honor En El Poema De Mío Cid |journal=Revista de Humanidades |date=2014 |issue=30 |pages=103 |url=https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=321232867005 |access-date=3 May 2023 |trans-title=Honor in the Lay of the Cid |language=es |format=PDF |issn=0717-0491 |quote=Lacarra nota que el castigo por mesar la barba era equivalente al castigo dado al que castraba a otro}}</ref>

While most noblemen and knights were bearded, the Catholic clergy were generally required to be clean-shaven. This was understood as a symbol of their celibacy.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, Arabian men would apparently shorten their beards and keep big mustachios. Muhammad encouraged his followers to do the opposite, to grow their beards and trim their moustaches, to differ with the non-believers. This style of beard subsequently spread along with Islam during the Muslim expansion in the Middle Ages.