Byzantine chronicler Theophanes framed Islam as a Jewish-Christian heresy and God’s punishment

Evidence

Theophanes, fully aware of the religious motivations behind the Muslim conquests, characterizes Islam as a heresy composed of a mixture of Jewish and Christian elements; he later refers to Mecca as “the place of their blasphemy.” He is less clear about why God allowed these Muslim heretics to conquer vast territories. At times he blames the corruption and ineptitude of Byzantine officials, such as the eunuch who refuses to pay Arab mercenaries who had been defending Roman Syria from the Muslims; the mercenaries quickly switch sides and act as scouts for the invading Muslims. Yet he also describes divine portents of the impending disasters: an earthquake in Palestine, a sword-shaped sign hanging in the southern sky. When the caliph ‘Umar enters Jerusalem as a conqueror, clad in a dirty camel-hair garment, according to Theophanes, the patriarch Sophronios proclaims: “Verily, this is the abomination of desolation standing in a holy place, as has been spoken through the prophet Daniel.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 410

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows Theophanes’ rhetorical framing of Islam as a heresy blending Jewish and Christian elements, including the polemical reuse of Daniel’s ‘abomination of desolation.’