Medieval Usage
Usage of the term in the Latin West changed as the Middle Ages progressed, but its connotation remained negative and its exact definition continued to be unclear. In an 8th century polemical work, John of Damascus criticized the Saracens as followers of a false prophet and "forerunner to the Antichrist." Two centuries later, Europeans perceived Saracens as poor, uneducated idolaters belonging to a group wholly separate from the Arabs who brought Aristotle to the Latin West and the Moors and Berbers fighting Christians in Spain; someone who got all of his or her information on Islam from medieval sources would not conclude the three groups represented one continuous culture.
Read more about this topic: Saracen
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