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Saracen
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Saracen was a term used by Europeans in the Middle Ages for Fatimids at first, then later for all who professed the religion of Islam.
term Saracen comes from Greek Sa?a?????, which has often been thought to be derived from the Arabic word sharqiyyin ("easterners"), though the OED (s.v.) calls etymologies from this "not well founded". The term spread into Western Europe through the Byzantines and Crusaders.
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Saracen was a term used by Europeans in the Middle Ages for Fatimids at first, then later for all who professed the religion of Islam.
Etymology
The term Saracen comes from Greek Sa?a?????, which has often been thought to be derived from the Arabic word sharqiyyin ("easterners"), though the OED (s.v.) calls etymologies from this "not well founded". The term spread into Western Europe through the Byzantines and Crusaders. After the rise of Islam, and especially at the time of the Crusades, its usage was extended to refer to all Muslims, including non-Arab Muslims, particularly those in Sicily and southern Italy.
In Christian writing, the name was made to mean "those empty of Sarah" or "not from Sarah," as Arabs were, in Biblical genealogies, descended from Hagar and also called the Hagarenes (??a?????). According to the Arthurian Lancelot-Grail Cycle, the name derives from Sarras, an island important in the Quest for the Holy Grail.
Roman times
The earliest datable reference to Saracens is found in Ptolemy's Geography (2nd century A.D.), which describes "Sarakene" as a region in the Northern Sinai named after the town Saraka located between Egypt and Palestine. Ptolemy also makes mention of a people called the sarakenoi living in north-western Arabia. Eusebius of Caesarea references Saracens in his Eccelastical history, in which he narrates an account wherein Dionysus the Bishop of Alexandria mentions Saracens in a letter while describing the Roman emperor Decius's persecution: "Many were, in the Arabian mountain, enslaved by the barbarous sarkenoi." The Historia Augusta, written in 400 CE also refers to an attack by Saraceni on Pescennius Niger's army in Aegyptus, 193 CE but provides little information on who they might be.
Hippolytus, the book of the laws of countries and Uranius mention three distinct peoples in Arabia during the first half of the third century, the Saraceni, Taeni and Arabes. The Taeni, later identified with the Arab tribe called Tayyi, were located around the Khaybar Oasis all the way up to the eastern Euphrates while the Saracenoi were placed north of them. These Saracens located in the Northern Hejaz appear as people with a certain military ability and opponents of the Roman Empire who are characterized by the Romans as barbaroi. They are described in a Notitia dignitatum dating from the time of Diocletian, during the 3rd century, as comprising distinctive units in the composition of the Roman army distinguishing between Arabs, Iiluturaens and Saracens. The Saracens are described as forming the equites (heavy cavalry) from Phoenicia and Thamud. In a praeteritio, the defeated enemies of Diocletians campaign in the Syrian desert are described as Saracens and other 4th century military reports make no mention of Arabs but refer to groups as far as Mesopotamia, involved in battles on both the Persian as well as Roman sides, as Saracens.
The Historia Augusta carries an account of a letter to the Roman senate, ascribed to Aurelian, that describes the Palmyrian queen Zenobia as:
"I might say such was the fear that this woman inspired in the peoples of the east and also the Egyptians that neither Arabes, nor Saraceni, nor Armenians moved against her." Another early Byzantine source chronicling the Saracens are the 6th century works by Ioannes Malalas. The difference between the two accounts of Saracens is that Malalas saw Palmyrans and all inhabitants of the Syrian desert as Saracens and not Arabs, while the Historia Augusta saw the Saracens as not being subjects of Zenobia and distinct from Palmyrans and Arabs. Writing at the end of the fourth century Ammianus Marcellinus, a historian of Julian the Apostate, notes that the term Saraceni designating "desert-dwellers" of the Syrian desert had replaced Arabes scenitae. After the time of Ammianus the Saracens were known as warriors of the desert. The term Saracen, popular in both Greek and Roman literature, over time came to be associated with Arabs and Assyrians as well, and carried a definitive negative connotation.
In the second and third century the Roman-Arab relations had become confrontational resulting in the annexation of Arab cities resulting to their increased nomadization so that by the end of the Roman period the use of the term Saracen in reference to Arabs had become conventional.
The Middle Persian correspondent terms for Saracens are tazigan and tayyaye; who were located by Stephanus of Byzantium in the 6th century at the Lakhmid capital city of Al-Hirah.
Christian literature
Eusebius and Epiphanius Scholasticus in their Christian histories places Saracens east of the Gulf of Aqaba but beyond the Roman province of Arabia and mention them as Ishmaelites through Kedar; thus, they are outside the promise given to Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and also beyond a privileged place in the family of nations or divine dispensation. They were viewed as pagans and polytheists in ancient times and in later Christian times became associated with cruel tyrants from early Christian history such as: Herod the Great, Herod Antipas and Agrippa I. Christian writings viewed them as heretics who had to be brought into the Orthodox fold by Origen. To the Christian Saint Jerome the Arabs, who were also considered in Christian theology as Ishmaelites, are also by definition Saracens; pagan tent-dwelling raiders of the lands on the eastern fringes of the Roman empire. The term saracen carried the connotation of people living on the fringes of settled society, living off raids on towns and villages and became equated with both the "tent-dwelling" Bedouin as well as sedentary Arabs. Church writers of the period commonly describe Saracen raids on monasteries and their killing of monks. The term and the negative image of Saracens was in popular usage in both the Greek east as well as the Latin west through the Middle Ages. With the rise of Islam in the seventh century and its strong association with Arabs, tied the term closely with not just race and culture, but religion as well. The rise of the Arab Empire and the ensuing hostility with the Byzantine Empire saw itself expressed as conflict between Islam and Christianity and the association of the term with Islam was further accentuated both during and after the Crusades.
See also
Footnotes
Notations
- Retso, Jan. 2003. The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads. Routledge. ISBN 0-700-71679-3
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