Saracen - Early Usage and Origins

Early Usage and Origins

Ptolemy's Geography from the second century CE describes Sarakene as a region in the northern Sinai peninsula. Ptolemy also mentions a people called the Sarakenoi living in north-western Arabia (near neighbor to the Sinai). Eusebius of Caesarea references Saracens in his Ecclesiastical history, in which he narrates an account wherein Dionysus, Bishop of Alexandria mentions Saracens in a letter while describing the Roman emperor Decius' persecution: "Many were, in the Arabian mountain, enslaved by the barbarous sarkenoi." The Historia Augusta also refers to an attack by Saraceni on Pescennius Niger's army in Egypt in 193 CE but provides little information on who they might have been.

Both Hippolytus and Uranius mention three distinct peoples in Arabia during the first half of the third century: the Saraceni, the Taeni and the Arabes. The Taeni, later identified with the Arabic speaking people called Tayy, were located around the Khaybar oasis north of Medina, and also in an area stretching up to the Euphrates river, while the Saraceni were placed north of them. These Saracens located in the northern Hejaz appear as people with a certain military ability who are opponents of the Roman Empire and who were characterized by the Romans as barbarians.

The Saracens are described as forming the equites (heavy cavalry) from Phoenicia and Thamud. In one document the defeated enemies of Diocletian's campaign in the Syrian desert are described as Saracens. Other 4th century military reports make no mention of Arabs but refer to as Saracens groups ranging as far east as Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) that were involved in battles on both the Persian and Roman sides. They are described in the Roman administrative document Notitia dignitatum—dating from the time of Theodosius I in the 4th century—as comprising distinctive units in the composition of the Roman army and they are distinguished in the document from Arabs and Iiluturaens.