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621: Isidore of Seville on the Origins of the Term “Saracens”

2021-06-23T15:09:56Z

Hiwis-koenig:

{{Chapter LAT-EN|Daniel G. König|Isidorus Hispalensis, ''Etymologiarum libri'', ed. Wallace Martin Lindsay, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987, lib. IX, cap. 2,57, no page numbers. Translation adapted from: Isidore of Seville, ''The Etymologies'', trans. Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J.A. Beach, Oliver Berghof, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 195.|[IX,2,57] ''Saraceni dicti, vel quia ex Sara genitos se praedicent, vel sicut gentiles aiunt, quod ex origine Syrorum sint, quasi Syriginae. Hi peramplam habitant solitudinem. Ipsi sunt et Ismaelitae, ut liber Geneseos docet, quod sint ex Ismaele. Ipsi Cedar a filio Ismaelis. Ipsi Agareni ab Agar; qui, ut diximus, perverso nomine Saraceni vocantur, quia ex Sara se genitos gloriantur.''|The Saracens are so called either because they claim to be descendants of Sara or, as some gentiles say, because they are of Syrian origin, as if the word were ''Syriginae''. They live in a very large deserted region. They are also Ishmaelites, as the Book of Genesis teaches us, because they sprang from Ishmael. The Kedar also stem from a son of Ishmael, the Agarenes, from Hagar. As we have said, they are attributed with the perverse name “Saracens” because they pride themselves in being descendants of Sara.|5===The Author & his/her Work==
[§1] Isidore, archbishop of Sevilla, was born around 560. Thus, before he turned thirty, he witnessed the official conversion of the Visigoths to Catholicism in the reign of Reccared (r. 586–601). Isidore succeeded his brother Leander—a close associate of Reccared also acquainted with Pope Gregory I—as archbishop of Sevilla shortly before his brother’s death. During his tenure, Isidore maintained close ties to the Visigothic king Sisebut (r. 612-621). Isidore’s work ''De natura rerum'' (613) was dedicated to Sisebut, who in turn penned a treatise on lunar eclipses. Isidore replied to Sisebut’s endeavours to force Jews to convert with a treatise entitled “On the Catholic Faith Against the Jews” (''De fide catholica contra Iudaeos''). Aside from the ''Etymologiae'' cited here, his work includes a chronicle as well as a history of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi, whose migrations were relevant to history of the Iberian Peninsula.<ref name="ftn1">Isidore of Seville, ''Etymologies'', trans. Barney et al., pp. 4-9.</ref>

==Content & Context==
[§2] The first version of the Etymologies (''Etymologiae'') was finished in 621.<ref name="ftn2">Fontaine, ''Isidore'', p. 173, 436.</ref> They can be regarded as a kind of early medieval Latin encyclopaedia that compiles and processes the knowledge available in Latin in the late antique Roman Empire. They are made up of twenty volumes, each of which is divided into topical chapters.<ref name="ftn3">Isidore of Seville, ''Etymologies'', trans. Barney et al., pp. 9-16.</ref> The ''Etymologiae ''cover a wide range of subjects ranging from language and medicine to various trades and so forth. In addition, they include passages dealing with astronomy, zoology, and geography, as well as descriptions of certain human activities.

[§3] Isidore mentions numerous toponyms associated with the biblical and ancient Orient, but also the ancient and late antique Roman Middle East. These include the terms for the continents ''Africa ''and ''Asia ''as well as the names of various countries and regions, i.e. ''Aegyptus'', ''Aethiopia'', ''Africa'', ''Arabia'', ''Armenia'', ''Assyria'', ''Babylonia'', ''Chanaan, Coelesyria, Cyrenensis Libya, Erythraea, Galatia, Galilaea, India, Israel, Iudaea, Libya, Libya Cyrenensis, Mauretania, Nabathea regio, Numidia, Palaestina, Parthia, Persia, Phoenicia, Phrygia, Saba, Samaria, Syria'', the city names ''Aelia, Alexandria, Ascalon, Bethleem, Caesarea, Damascus, Edessa, Gaza, Hierosolyma, Hierusalem, Palmira, Thebae, Tripolis, Tyrus'', the names of mountain ranges and bodies of water such as ''Antilibanus mons, Asiaticum mare, Caspium mare, Euphrates, Indus, Indicum mare, Iordanis fluvium, Libanus mons, Libycum mare, Mareotis, Oceanus Aethiopicus, Oceanus Indicus, mare Rubrum, mons Sion, Tigris''. These toponyms show that Isidore had a general idea of the wider geographical area that would eventually give birth to Islam.

[§4] The pre-Islamic Arabic sphere is dealt with in Books IX (''De linguis, gentibus, regnis, militia, civibus, affinitatibus''), XII (De animalibus), XIV (De terra et partibus), XVI (''De lapidibus et metallis''), XVII (''De rebus rusticis'') and XIX (''De navibus, aedificiis et vestibus'') in particular. Isidore covers the flora and fauna of the Arabian Peninsula—camels, snakes and the phoenix in the animal world (XII,1,35; 4,29; 7,22), and primarily spices and aromatic plants in the plant world (XIV,3,13-26; XVII, 8,1-12; 9,4; 9,11). He also turns his attention to precious gems (XVI,7,9; 7,11; 8,3-5; 13,6). Finally, some passages deal with the habits of groups defined as ''Arabes'': He mentions pierced ears, specific types of clothes, as well as houses built of salt blocks in addition to trade with Egypt (XV,1,35; XVI,2,3; XIX,23,7; 25,6; 26, 10). These specifications clearly do not refer to the conditions in and around the Arabian Peninsula of the late sixth and early seventh century. For the most part, they draw on references to the descendants of Ishmael in the Old Testament. The geographical and ethnographical content, however, is based on ancient Latin treatises.<ref name="ftn4">Philipps, ''Die historisch-geographischen Quellen''.</ref>

==Contextualization, Analysis & Interpretation==
[§5] The quoted excerpt is important in so far as—in a period preceding the emergence of Islam—it classifies Arab groups as part of a biblical genealogy, which accords them the status of barbaric desert dwellers in turn. The reference text is Genesis 16, which deals with Abraham’s descendants from his legitimate wife Sara and his maid Hagar: tension arises between the two women, when Hagar conceives before the much older Sara. After harsh treatment from Sara, Hagar flees, but is stopped by an angel, who instructs her to call her son Ishmael, i.e. “God has hearkened”, and to return to Sara. In regard to Ishmael, the angel makes the following prophecy (Genesis 16,12): “And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” When Isaac is born, Sara demands that Abraham send Ishmael and his mother Hagar away, the latter defined as an Egyptian in this context, asserting that “the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son” (Genesis 21,10). Abraham’s reluctant expulsion of mother and son is approved by God himself, who, however, reassures Abraham, “for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also, of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. (Genesis 21,12-13).“

[§6] Unlike Syriac texts of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, which often employ a name derived from the Arab tribe of the ''Ṭayyiʾ'' and thus refer to the pre-Islamic Arabs and early Muslims as ''Ṭayyāyē ''or (west Syriac) ''Ṭayōyē'',<ref name="ftn5">Shahîd, Ṭayyiʾ, pp. 402-403.</ref> late antique and medieval Greek and Latin texts written by Christians often use the terms Ισμαηλίται / ''Ismaelitae'' or Αγαρηνοί / ''[H]Agareni'' both for the pre-Islamic Arabs and for the Muslims''. ''Deriving'' ''from the names Ishmael and Hagar respectively, these ethnonyms are obviously biblically inspired. Although it is already documented as an adjective in Dioscurides’ ''Materia medica'' in the middle of the first century, the proper ethnonym Σαρακηνοί only made its first appearance around the middle of the second century in Ptolemy’s ''Geographia'',<ref name="ftn6">Retsö, ''Arabs'', pp. 505-506, on the basis of Claudius Ptolemaeus, ''Geographia'', ed. Karl Friedrich August Nobbe, Leipzig: Carl Tauchnitz, 1845, vol. 2, lib. 6, cap. 7.21, p. 102.</ref> only to be used around 200 CE in its Syriac form ''Sarqāyē'' by the Syriac author Bardaiṣān.<ref name="ftn7">Bardaiṣan, ''The Book of the Laws of Countries'', ed./trans. H.J. W. Drijvers, Assen: Van Gorcum, 1965, p. 50, l. 11.</ref> Ammianus Marcellinus (d. ''c''. 400) as well as Jerome (d. ''c''. 420) introduced the Latin variant ''Saraceni'' as a new term for ''Scenitas Arabas''<ref name="ftn8">Ammianus Marcellinus, Res gestae, lib. XXII, cap. 15,2: “Scenitas praetenditur Arabas, quos Sarracenos nunc appellamus“; lib. XXIII, cap. 6,13: "Scenitas Arabas, quos Saracenos posteritas appellavit."</ref> or ''Arabes et Agarenos''<ref name="ftn9">Hieronymus, ep. 129,4, ed. Isidorus Hilberg (CSEL 56), Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1918, pp. 169-170: “Arabes et Agarenos, quos nunc Sarracenos vocant, in vicinia urbis Jerusalem.”</ref> respectively. Most likely, Jerome came across this new term in the works of Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 339-340).<ref name="ftn10">Tolan, A Wild Man, p. 515.</ref> The Christian Jerome already identified the Arabs or Saracens with the descendants of Ishmael that are branded as savage desert tribes in the Old Testament.<ref name="ftn11">Hieronymus, ''Liber quaestionum hebraicarum in Genesim'', ed. Paul de Lagarde (CCL 72), Turnhout: Brepols, 1959, cap. 16, p. 26.</ref> The etymology of the term “Saracens”, which leads this ethnonym back to an act of usurpation that serves to appropriate a form of legitimate descendance from Abraham’s wife Sara, can also be found both in the writings of Jerome<ref name="ftn12">Hieronymus, ''Commentarii in Ezechielem'', ed. François Glorie (CCL 75), Turnhout: Brepols, 1964, lib. 8, cap. 25,1-7, p. 335: “Madianaeos, ismaelitas et agarenos, qui nunc saraceni appellantur, assumentes sibi falso nomen sarae quo scilicet de ingenua et domina uideantur esse generati.”</ref> and the Greek church historian Sozomen (d. ''c.'' 450),<ref name="ftn13">Sozomenos, ''Kirchengeschichte / Historia ecclesiastica'', ed./trans. Günther Christian Hansen (Fontes Christiani 73/3), Turnhout: Brepols, 2004, vol. 3, lib. VI, cap. 38,10-16, pp. 826-830. Also see Esders, Herakleios, p. 274.</ref> but may well have originated in a lost work by Eusebius.<ref name="ftn14">Shahîd, ''Rome and the Arabs'', p. 105, FN 63. Citing Shahīd, Tolan, A Wild Man, p. 518, purports that Jerome may have invented the etymology himself. This would not explain, however, why it was also documented by the church historian Sozomen, who would have copied the etymology from Eusebius rather than from Jerome.</ref> The biblical explanation for the origin of the Saracens was then adopted in the Latin West, not only by Isidore,<ref name="ftn15">On Isidore’s extensive use of Jerome, see Isidore of Seville, ''Etymologies'', trans. Barney et al., pp. 9-16.</ref> but also by the Anglo-Saxon monk Bede the Venerable (d. 735) among others. In the latter’s case, however, the etymology was inserted into a description and evaluation of the Arabic-Islamic expansion to the West: for Bede, the prophecy, that Ishmael’s “hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him” (Genesis 16,12), seemed to have fulfilled itself.<ref name="ftn16">Beda Venerabilis, ''In principium Genesis usque ad natiuitatem Isaac'', ed. C.W. Jones (CCL 118A), Turnhout: Brepols, 1967, lib. IV,16, p. 201; Bede, ''On Genesis'', transl. Calvin B. Kendall, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2008, p. 279; Beckett, ''Anglo-Saxon Perceptions'', p. 128-129; Tolan, A Wild Man, pp. 513-530.</ref> The Latin Middle Ages then continued to adopt this explanation.<ref name="ftn17">Tolan, ''Saracens'', pp. 127-128; Daniel, ''Islam and the West'', p. 100.</ref>

[§7] Obviously, scholarship does not have recourse to the explanation that the origins of the term “Saracens” have to be sought in the late antique Arabs’ deficiency of legitimacy and a resulting act of “onomastic usurpation.” However, the origins of the term are still discussed controversially. In principle, it is possible to conceive geographic, ethnic, and linguistic explanations. The geographical explanations attribute the Greek variant of the term “Saracens” to toponyms that are located on the Sinai or in the northern periphery of the Arabian Peninsula and have already been recorded in parts by ancient authors such as the geographer Ptolemy. The ethnic explanations assume that an Arab tribe carrying the ethnonym “Saracens” existed, and claim that the latter was then increasingly applied to other Arab groups during the repeated emergence and collapse of pre-Islamic tribal confederations. Linguistic explanations link the term “Saracens” with Arabic and Aramaic terms. In this vein, Σαρακηνοί / ''Saraceni'' is either derived from ''sāriq / sāriqīn'' (Arabic: “stealing” / “thieves”), from ''šarqī'' / ''šarqīyyūn'' (Arabic: “Eastern”/ “Orientals”), from ''serāq'' (Aramaic: “emptiness” / “wasteland”), and finally from ''šarika(t)'' (Arabic: “association,” here in the sense of “confederation”).<ref name="ftn18">Compare the arguments (always with further literature) in Shahîd, Bosworth, Saracens, p. 27; Shahîd, ''Rome and the Arabs'', pp. 123-141; Graf, Saracens, pp. 14–15; Hoyland, ''Arabia'', p. 235; Retsö, ''Arabs'', pp. 505-520.</ref>

['''Translation: Barbara König''']|6=Isidorus Hispalensis, ''Etymologiarum sive originum libri'', ed. Wallace Martin Lindsay, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987 (reprint of Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911).

Isidore of Seville, ''The Etymologies'', trans. Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J.A. Beach, Oliver Berghof, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.|7=Beckett, K.S.: ''Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of the Arabs, Ismaelites and Saracens'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Daniel, Norman: ''Islam and the West: The Making of an Image'', Oxford: One World, 2009 (ND von 1960).

Esders, Stefan: Herakleios, Dagobert und die "beschnittenen Völker", in: Andreas Goltz, Hartmut Leppin, Heinrich Schlange-Schöningen (eds), ''Jenseits der Grenzen. Beiträge zur spätantiken und frühmittelalterlichen Geschichtsschreibung'', Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009, pp. 239-312.

Fontaine, Jacques: ''Isidore de Seville. Genèse et originalité de la culture hispanique au temps des Wisigoths'', Turnhout: Brepols, 2000.

Graf, David: The Saracens and the Defense of the Arabian Frontier, in: David F. Graf, ''Rome and the Arabian Frontier: from the Nabataeans to the Saracens'', Aldershot 1997, Aufsatz IX, pp. 1–26.

Hoyland, Robert G.: ''Arabia and the Arabs from the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam'', London and New York: 2003.

Philipp, Hans: ''Die historisch-geographischen Quellen in den Etymologiae des Isidorus von Sevilla'', Berlin: Weidmann, 1913.

Retsö, Jan: ''The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads'', London: Routledge, 2003.

Shahîd Irfan; Bosworth, Clifford E.: Saracens, in: ''Encyclopaedia of Islam 2'', vol. 9, Leiden: Brill, 1997, p. 27.

Shahîd, Irfan: ''Rome and the Arabs: A Prolegomenon to the Study of Byzantium and the Arabs'', Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1984.

Shahîd, Irfan: Ṭayyiʾ, in: ''Encyclopaedia of Islam 2'', vol. 10, Leiden: Brill, 2000, pp. 402-403.

Tolan, John: „A Wild Man, Whose Hand Will Be Against All“: Saracens and Ishmaelites in Latin Ethnographical Traditions, from Jerome to Bede, in: Walter Pohl, Clemens Gantner, Richard Payne (eds), ''Visions of Community in the post-Roman World'', Farnham: Ashgate, 2012, pp. 513-530.

Tolan, John: ''Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination'', New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

Tolan, John: ''Sons of Ishmael: Muslims through European Eyes in the Middle Ages'', Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2008.|8=Abraham, Agarenes, Arabs, bible, etymology, geography, Hagar, Ishmael, Ishmaelites, polemics, pre-Islamic Arabs, Saracens, terminology}}

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575: A Hispano-Roman Visitor from the Visigoth Kingdom Observes Arab-Byzantine Relations

2021-06-23T15:08:18Z

Hiwis-koenig:

{{Chapter LAT-EN|Daniel G. König|Iohannes abbas Biclarensis, ''Chronica'', ed. Theodor Mommsen (MGH AA 11), Berlin: Weidmann, 1894, a. 575,3, p. 214, trans. Daniel G. König.|''Aramundarus Sarracenorum rex Constantinopolim venit et cum stemmate suo Tiberio principi cum donis barbariae occurrit. qui a Tiberio benigne susceptus et donis optimis adornatus ad patriam abire permissus est.|Al-Munḏir, the king of the Saracens, came to Constantinople and appeared with his wreath (''cum stemmate suo'') before the prince Tiberios with gifts from the barbarian sphere (''barbariae''). He was received favourably by Tiberios and, having been provided with better gifts, was allowed to return home.|5===The Author & his/her Work==
[§1] Born in Santarém/Lusitania around 540, John of Biclaro spent the years around 570-577 in Constantinople. On his return to the Iberian Peninsula, he came into conflict with the Visigoth king Leovigild (r. 569-586) and was exiled to Barcelona around 580. There he was apparently harassed by adherents to the Arian compromise dogma propagated by Leovigild until, probably after Leovigild’s death, he founded a monastery at Biclar, an unidentifiable place in present-day Catalonia, of which he became abbot. Around 590-591 he became bishop of Girona and died around 620. Of his works, only a chronicle survives. It continues the work of the North African bishop Victor of Tunnuna, which John probably brought to the Iberian Peninsula from Constantinople. Based on John's own experiences, his chronicle provides information on both Byzantium and the Visigothic kingdom for the years 567-590.<ref name="ftn1">Alonso-Núñez, Johannes, col. 557; Collins, John of Biclaro, p. 445.</ref>

==Content & Context==
[§2] John of Biclaro’s entry provides only a brief notice of a diplomatic meeting between the Byzantine emperor Tiberios (r. 574-578 as co-regent, 578-582 as sole ruler) and the Ghassanid prince al-Munḏir (r. 569-582), which is not contextualised otherwise. Neither before nor after this passage does the chronicler discuss Arab groups again, even though he continues to report on Byzantine affairs, including Persian-Byzantine relations, for example. The visit of al-Munḏir is dated to the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Justin II. (r. 565-578) and the seventh year of the Visigoth king Leovigild (r. 569-586) and is consequently placed in the year 575 by the editor Theodor Mommsen.

==Contextualization, Analysis & Interpretation==
[§3] Between 569 and 590, al-Munḏir led the dynasty of the Ǧafnids, which is often equated with the so-called Ghassanids in older research. In 569-570, he had successfully fought against another Arab group subject to the Persian Sassanids. This group was led by the Naṣrid dynasty, often equated with the so-called Laḫmids in older research.<ref name="ftn2">On the problem of equating Ǧafnids and Ġassānids as well as Naṣrīds and Laḫmids, see Fisher, Between Empires, pp. 3-7, 95-99.</ref> Following this conflict, al-Munḏir had demanded support from Constantinople for his losses. When he became victim of a failed assassination plot commissioned by the Byzantine emperor Justin II (r. 565-578), al-Munḏīr ceased to fulfil his mission to protect Byzantium militarily, and allowed Laḫmid and Sassanid looting in the province of ''Oriens'' between about 572 and 575. In the cited source excerpt, John of Biclaro reports that a reconciliation between al-Munḏir and the Byzantine emperor took place in 575 during his visit to Justin’s II co-regent and successor Tiberios. According to the interpretation of Ekkehard Rotter and Irfan Shahîd, this visit entailed a kind of coronation, i.e. an official elevation of al-Munḏir’s status. According to their view, this elevation of status is not only manifest in the fact that the emperor endowed the Ǧafnid prince with “better gifts” (''donis optimis''), but also in the fact that al-Munḏir appeared before the emperor carrying a wreath (''stemma''), which both of them regard as a crown. Although there is no mention of a crown, as opposed to a wreath (''stemma''). Since al-Munḏir did not receive the ''stemma'' from the emperor during this visit, but seems to have brought it along himself, this interpretation may be exaggerated, since the Ǧafnid prince could also have used this official visit of reconciliation to symbolically assert his independence. While Rotter and Shahîd assume on the basis of the ecclesiastical history of John of Ephesus that al-Munḏir visited Constantinople again in 580, other scholars only acknowledge one single visit in 580. Greg Fisher, for example, ignores the report of John of Biclaro, which - if one trusts the reconstructed dates of his life - could not have been written after 577, since John was already back in the Visigothic Kingdom at that time. The consensus among scholars is that al-Munḏir was actually crowned in 580, i.e. that his wreath (''stemma'') was replaced with a more dignified sign of rule. All in all, al-Munḏir’s visit or visits to the imperial centre do not seem to have resolved the tensions arising from mutual distrust between the Ǧafnids and the Byzantine imperial centre. In the same year, i.e. 580, al-Munḏir was placed under house arrest in Constantinople. When, in 582, Emperor Maurikios (r. 582-602) came to power, al-Munḏir was exiled to Sicily, from where he did not return until around 602, probably thanks to an intercession by Pope Gregory the Great.<ref name="ftn3">Nöldeke, ''Die Ghassânischen Fürsten'', pp. 24-25, 27-30; Shahîd, ''Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century'', vol. I,1, pp. 339, 386-389, 403, 602-605, 618; Fisher, ''Between Empires'', pp. 72, 99, 121-124, 174-178.</ref>

[§4] The fact that a Hispano-Roman chronicler from the Iberian Peninsula collected information about Arab groups in the vicinity of Constantinople and carried it back to the Visigoth King, sheds light on the relations between the Latin and Arab spheres before the beginning of the Arab-Islamic expansion. As is demonstrated in the later commentaries on ''Arabes'', ''Saraceni'', etc. in the ''Etymologiae'' of Isidore of Seville (d. 636),<ref name="ftn4">[https://wiki.uni-konstanz.de/transmed-en/index.php/621:_Isidore_of_Seville_on_the_Origins_of_the_Term_%E2%80%9CSaracens%E2%80%9D 621: Isidore of Seville on the Origins of the Term “Saracens”].</ref> Arab groups were not entirely unknown in the western Mediterranean in the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Nevertheless, exchanges were too sporadic for reporters in the Latin West to have gained a truly deep insight into Arab-Byzantine relations.<ref name="ftn5">Rotter, ''Abendland und Sarazenen'', pp. 135-138; Valenzuela, „Ritu“, pp. 137-138; König, ''Arabic-Islamic Views'', pp. 32-33, 151.</ref> Only the papacy in Rome might constitute an exception: it had very good sources of information due to its manifold relations with Byzantine and ecclesiastical authorities in Italy and the eastern Mediterranean. To a certain extent, it was thus even able to intervene actively in Byzantine-Arab relations in the pre-Islamic period.<ref name="ftn6">See [[600: Pope Gregory the Great Intervenes in Favour of the Exiled Ǧafnid Prince al-Munḏir b. al-Ḥāriṯ]] and [https://wiki.uni-konstanz.de/transmed-de/index.php/653:_Papst_Martin_I._leugnet_in_einem_Brief_die_Kollaboration_mit_den_expandierenden_Sarazenen 653: Papst Martin I. leugnet in einem Brief die Kollaboration mit den expandierenden Sarazenen].</ref> According to Rotter, “the Western reader is unlikely to learn much more from the note in John of Biclaro than that friendly relations also existed between Byzantines and Saracens [...]; from the ‘foreign gifts’ (''dona barbariae'') presented to Tiberios by al-Munḏir, he may infer a (considerable) distance between the Eastern Roman cultural sphere and the world of the Saracens.” Rotter denies the chronicler the ability to distinguish between different Arab groups.<ref name="ftn7">Rotter, ''Abendland und Sarazenen'', p. 138.</ref> It is clear, in any case, that John establishes a clear hierarchy between the Byzantine imperial leadership and the barbarian visitor.|6=Iohannes abbas Biclarensis, ''Chronica'', ed. Theodor Mommsen (MGH AA 11), Berlin: Weidmann, 1894, pp. 211-222.

Juan de Biclaro, ''Obispo de Gerona. Su vida y su obra. Introduccion, texto critico y comentarios'', ed. Julio Campos, Madrid: CSIC, 1960, pp. 77-100.

John of Biclaro, Chronicle, in: Kenneth Baxter Wolf, ''Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain'', Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999, pp. 61-80.

Iohannes Biclarensis, Chronicon, in: Carmen Cardelle de Hartmann (ed.), ''Victoris Tvnnvnensis Chronicon cum reliquiis ex Consvlaribvs Caesaravgvstanis et Iohannis Biclarensis Chronicon'' (CCL 173A), Turnhout: Brepols, 2003.

Iohannis Biclarensis Chronicon, ed. Francisco María Fernández Jiménez, El “Chronicon” de Juan de Bíclaro. La crónica del rey Leovigildo y del III Concilio de Toledo. Estudio y traducción, in: ''Toletana'' 16 (2007), pp. 29-66.|7=Alonso-Núñez, J. M.: Johannes, 68. J. v. Biclaro, in: ''Lexikon des Mittelalters'', 10 vols, Stuttgart: Metzler, 1977-1999, vol. 5, col. 557.

Collins, Roger: John of Biclaro, in: E. Michael Gerli (ed.), ''Medieval Iberia. An Encyclopedia'', New York: Routledge, 2013, p. 445.

Ferreiro, Alberto: Johannes Biclarensis, bishop, in: ''International Encyclopaedia for the Middle Ages-Online'', Turnhout: Brepols, 2005.

Fisher, Greg: ''Between Empires. Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

König, Daniel: ''Arabic-Islamic Views of the Latin West. Tracing the Emergence of Medieval Europe'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Nöldeke, Theodor: ''Die Ghassânischen Fürsten aus dem Haus Gafnas'', Berlin: Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1887.

Rotter, Ekkehard: ''Abendland und Sarazenen'', Berlin: de Gruyter, 1986.

Shahîd, Irfan: ''Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 1, Part 1: Political and Military History'', Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, 1995.

Valenzuela, Claudia: „Ritu Mamentiano“. Auf der Suche nach den christlichen Wahrnehmungen vom Islam in der frühmittelalterlichen Historiographie Nordspaniens, in: Anna Aurast, Hans-Werner Goetz (eds), ''Die Wahrnehmung anderer Religionen im früheren Mittelalter. Terminologische Probleme und methodische Ansätze'', Münster: Lit, 2012, pp. 121-168.|8=Arabs, al-Munḏir, Byzantium, diplomatic relations, Ǧafnids, John of Biclaro, Visigothic Kingdom}}

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