Christian reconquest overlapped with the Muslim advance from the start

Evidence

Sophronios looks forward to the imminent destruction of the Saracens, whose role in the divine scheme of history he limits to a brief cameo appearance as divine chastisement, an unpleasant but necessary interlude in the reign of the Christian Roman empire. Over the next several years, the Muslim invaders showed no signs of going away. Sophronios himself had to surrender Jerusalem to the caliph ‘Umar; in the last of his sermons to come down to us, he bewails the desolation wreaked by the Saracens and predicted by the prophets; the Saracens, he complains, boast that they are subduing the whole world. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 298 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Crusading ended a prior era of routine Christian-Muslim negotiation — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 656; Christian-Muslim coexistence tensions pre-existed martyrdom and recur wherever the faiths meet; Christians expected a brief divine chastisement that instead became permanent Muslim rule — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 298 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Christians expected a brief divine chastisement that instead became permanent Muslim rule #complicates (0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 298