A mere resemblance of names drove medieval scholars to invent false historical connections

Evidence

The Essenes were known in the medieval West from the accounts of their way of life and history by Josephus, and featured in Latin patristic literature as the precursors of, and even exemplars for, the first monks. Did Jacques imagine that Essene communities still existed in the Judaean desert? Or, more likely, was he applying a defunct label to contemporary rural communities of Jews, in much the same way as some medieval chroniclers demonised the Turks and other perceived enemies of Christendom by giving them biblical labels such as ‘Philistines’? … Although they had no connection with Jews or Judaism, the similarity of nomenclature (Esseie–Assassini) led the author of the Tractatus to assume a historical connection, and appears also to have led Jacques de Vitry to the false assumption that the Essenes were still, under the name Assassins, an active subgroup within the Jewish community. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 210 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Names carry empirical historical traces that nominalist theory must confront — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 1158; Medieval writers invented false etymologies to explain the term Saracen; Medieval etymologies tied the Saracen name to false claims of Sarah’s descent (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Sound-alike names (Esseie and Assassini) created a false medieval link between Essenes and Nizari #exemplifies (0.95) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 210