Why no Saracens?

[Mord]

Too early? Covered under another name? I looked through the various lists and couldn't find any mention of them.



Mord.

[stockwellpete]

Too early? Covered under another name? I looked through the various lists and couldn't find any mention of them.



Mord.

Saracen just means "muslim" , doesn't it? As far as hostile European medieval writers were concerned anyway.

[Mord]

Saracen just means "muslim" , doesn't it? As far as hostile European medieval writers were concerned anyway.

I don't know. I always thought they were a culture.

Well, that's embarrassing!

Mord.

[Ray552]

Too early? Covered under another name? I looked through the various lists and couldn't find any mention of them.

Mord.

Saracen just means "muslim" , doesn't it? As far as hostile European medieval writers were concerned anyway.

+1

Saracen - Wikipedia

If you look in the Italo-Norman 1072-1154 and all three Sicilian lists, the Arab or Muslim ("Saracen") units in them were from Southern Italy and Sicily.

[Mord]

Light has been shined on another corner of my ignorance. Funny I was under that assumption all these years.
The saying that you learn something new everyday gets truer and truer the older I get. Thanks for the enlightenment.


Mord.

[Ray552]

A Google Books link to a chapter from Joseph Birk's Norman Kings of Sicily and the Rise of the Anti-Islamic Critique: Baptized Sultans

"Chapter 2: Saracen Soldiers: Muslim Participation in Norman Military Expeditions"

And on the flip side, there were Christian mercenaries (farfanes) in Muslim service, the most well-known being El Cid.