Medieval encyclopedists taught that Saracens falsely claimed descent from Sarah

Evidence

Isidore elsewhere gives a fuller entry for Saracens: “Saracens [Saraceni] are so called, either because they claim to be born from Sarah or because (as the pagans say) they are of Syrian origin, like the Syrigenes [Syriginae]. They live in a vast desert. They are also called the Ishmaelites, as Genesis teaches, because they are from Ishmael. Or [they are called] Cedar from the name of Ishmael’s son. They are also called Hagarens [Agareni] from Hagar. They are, as we said, erroneously called Saracens, because they falsely pride themselves on being descendants of Sarah” (Etymologies, 9:2:57). — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1410

Categorization

• XREF: Directly genealogically grounds the modern claim that Islam-West opposition is epistemic/religious misconstruction — connects to Anidjar’s blood/religion argument and the existing vault mapping of Islam as a constructed category.
• DEFINE: Documents the etymology of ‘Saracen’ the early medieval church transmitted — showing the name itself encodes the genealogical-falsification trope.