Chronicle of 754 framed Spain’s conquest as surpassing classical and biblical disasters

Evidence

Leaving aside all of the innumerable disasters from the time of Adam up to the present, which this cruel, unclean world has brought to countless regions and cities—that which, historically, the city of Troy sustained when it fell; that which Jerusalem suffered, as foretold by the eloquence of the prophets; that which Babylon bore, according to the eloquence of the scriptures; that which finally Rome went through, martyrially graced with the nobility of the apostles—all this and more Spain, once so delightful and now rendered so miserable, endured as much to its honor as to its disgrace. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 476

Categorization

• XREF: Direct ancestor of Anidjar’s ‘the West and Islam’ catastrophe lexicon — list parallels Troy, Jerusalem, Babylon, Rome as the canon of civilizational ruin into which Islam’s conquest is inserted.
• QUESTION: This juxtaposition compares Spain’s fall to pre-Islamic ruins (Troy, Babylon) — does the rhetorical frame treat Muslims as just another destroyer among many, rather than a unique eschatological foe?
• ADDENDUM: For the sacrifice/ruin angle — but mainly connects to reader’s genealogical vault claims: this is where the ‘Spain = new Troy’ topos first crystallizes.