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Saracen
Saracen was a generic term for Muslims widely used among Christian writers in Europe during the later medieval era. The term's meaning evolved during its history. In the early centuries CE, Greek and Latin writings used this term to refer to the people who lived in desert areas in and near the Roman province of Arabia. They were distinguished as a people from others known as Arabs.〔Daniel, p. 53.〕〔Retso, pp. 505-506.〕 In Europe during the Early Medieval era, the term came to be associated with Arab tribes as well.〔("Saracen," ''Encyclopædia Britannica.'' 2012 ). Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 27 April 2012.〕 By the 12th century, "Saracen" had become synonymous with "Muslim" in Medieval Latin literature. Such expansion in the meaning of the term had begun centuries earlier among the Byzantine Romans, as evidenced in documents from the 8th century.〔〔Kahf, p. 181.〕〔Retsö, p. 96〕 In the Western languages before the 16th century, "Saracen" was commonly used to refer to Muslim Arabs, and the words "Muslim" and "Islam" were generally not used (with a few isolated exceptions).〔(''Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination'' ), by John V. Tolan, year 2002, p. xv.〕
==Early usage and origins==
Ptolemy's ''Geography'' (2nd 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 refers to Saracens in his ''Ecclesiastical history'', in which he narrates an account wherein Dionysus, Bishop of Alexandria, mentions Saracens in a letter while describing the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Decius: "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, but provides little information as to identifying them.〔Retsö p. 457.〕
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. The "Saraceni" were placed north of them.〔 These Saracens, located in the northern Hejaz, were described as people with a certain military ability who were opponents of the Roman Empire and who were classified 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.〔〔Retsö, p. 517.〕 The Saracens were named in the Roman administrative document ''Notitia dignitatum''—dating from the time of Theodosius I in the 4th century—as comprising distinctive units in the Roman army. They were distinguished in the document from Arabs and Iiluturaens.〔Retsö, pp. 464–466.〕
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