Earliest Christian chroniclers saw Arab conquerors as political, not religious, foes

Evidence

For some Christian authors, the Arab invaders were something more than a mere divine chastisement: they were actors in the divine drama of the last days. In other words, the invasions represented the beginning of the end of time, as predicted by the Hebrew prophets, the Gospels, and the Book of Revelation. The author of an anonymous anti-Jewish text, the Doctrine of Jacob Recently Baptized (634), sees the Arab conquests as anything but temporary. He interprets the four beasts described by the prophet Daniel, in the quite standard way, as four successive world empires, the last of which is Rome. Yet for him, the current invasions mark the end: “If the fourth beast, that is, the Roman Empire, is reduced, torn asunder and shattered, as Daniel said, verily there will be no other, except the ten claws and the ten horns of the fourth beast, and afterwards a little horn, completely different, which has knowledge of God. Immediately there will take place the end of the universe and the resurrection of the dead.” The ten claws and ten horns are traditionally seen as a series of persecutors of God’s people; the Doctrine here identified the Arabs as the eleventh, little horn. To receive such an important role in the drama of the final days, the new invaders must have some religious significance. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 308 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Hence it should not be surprising that the earliest Christian commentators on the Muslim conquests have little to say about Islam or its prophet. One searches in vain in these texts for the words “Muslim” or “Islam,” or indeed for any indication that the invaders have religious motives. The earliest Syriac texts, for example, speak of “kings” rather than caliphs, “Arabs” (Tayy) rather than Muslims. Muhammad is mentioned rarely, and primarily as a military and political—rather than a spiritual—leader. Several chroniclers supposed that the new Arab invaders must have been idolaters like the Arab tribesmen of an earlier era. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 293 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Earlier writers associated Arabs with Christological heresies. Eusebius, in his Historia ecclesiastica, portrays Arabia as a hotbed of such heresies; see Shahîd, Rome and the Arabs, 107-8. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1414 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Earliest Christians saw Muslim conquerors as secular Arabs, not religious foes — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 293; Medieval Christian chroniclers had confused accounts of pre-Islamic Arabia — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 456; Early Christians read the Arab conquests as apocalyptic end-times prophecy — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 308 (+16 more)

Broader Connections

• Earliest Christians saw Muslim conquerors as secular Arabs, not religious foes #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 293
• Early Christians read the Arab conquests as apocalyptic end-times prophecy #contradicts (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 308
• Early Christians branded Arabia a breeding ground of Christological heresy before Islam existed #contradicts (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1414
• Early medieval Christians did not automatically view Saracens as enemies #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 432
• Medieval Christian chroniclers had confused accounts of pre-Islamic Arabia #complicates (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 456
• Some medieval Christian conquerors needed no polemic against Islam #complicates (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 919
• Pre-Islamic Arabic kingship carried mostly positive associations #complicates (0.80) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 524
• Early Granadan Muslim-Christian concord rested on exceptional individuals, not institutions #complicates (0.70) — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 168
• Arab Christians form groups neither identical to nor separate from Arab Muslims #complicates (0.70) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 85
• Early Islamic identity was forged in rivalry with Christian Rome #complicates (0.70) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 655
• Early Arabic study in Europe served Christian scripture and ritual #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2456
• Medieval Latin Christians distrusted Arabic Christian sources despite citing them as authoritative #complicates (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1287
• Early chroniclers treated the Muslim conquest of Spain as minor news #complicates (0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 471
• Political factions in early Islam metamorphosed into religious sects #complicates (0.70) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1427
• Arab scholars absorbed conquered peoples’ learning while Christian Rome rejected it #complicates (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 454