Saracen

For other uses, see Saracen (disambiguation).
Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens

Saracen (/ˈsærəsən/ SARR-ə-sən) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Petraea and Arabia Deserta.[1][2][3] The term's meaning evolved during its history of usage. During the Early Middle Ages, the term came to be associated with the tribes of Arabia.[4]

The oldest known source mentioning "Saracens" in relation to Islam dates back to the 7th century, in the Greek-language Christian tract Doctrina Jacobi. Among other major events, the tract discusses the Muslim conquest of the Levant, which occurred after the rise of the Rashidun Caliphate following the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[5] The Roman Catholic Church and European Christian leaders used the term during the Middle Ages to refer to Muslims.

By the 12th century, "Saracen" developed various overlapping definitions, generally conflating peoples and cultures associated with Islam, the Near East and the Abbasid Caliphate. Such an expansion in the meaning of the term had begun centuries earlier among the Byzantine Greeks, as evidenced in documents from the 8th century where "Saracen" is synonymous with "Muslim".[1][6][7] Before the 16th century, "Saracen" was commonly used in Western languages to refer to Muslims, and the terms "Muslim" and "Islam" were generally not used, with a few isolated exceptions.[8]

The term gradually became obsolete in favor of "Muslim" following the Age of Discovery.

  1. ^ a b Daniel 1979, p. 53.
  2. ^ Retsö 2003, p. 505.
  3. ^ Retsö 2003, p. 506.
  4. ^ "Saracen". Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Cambridge University Press. 2012. Archived from the original on 16 July 2015. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  5. ^ Déroche, Vincent; Dagron, Gilbert (1991). Doctrina Jacobi nuper Baptizati, 'Juifs et chrétiens dans l'Orient du VIIe siècle' (Edition of the Greek text with French translation ed.). pp. 17–248.; Kirby, Peter. "External references to Islam". External References to Islam. Archived from the original on 29 April 2006. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  6. ^ Kahf 1999, p. 181.
  7. ^ Retsö 2003, p. 96.
  8. ^ Tolan, John V. (2002). Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination. Columbia University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-231-50646-5.