Jastrzębie, onagry pustyni, wilki Arabii. Sąsiedzi cesarstwa wschodniorzymskiego z Półwyspu Arabskiego i ich wizerunek w źródłach. Okres przedislamski
Hawks, Desert Onagers, Arabian Wolves. Neighbours of the Eastern Roman Empire from the Arabian Peninsula and Their Image in Sources. Pre–Islamic Period

Author(s): Teresa Wolińska
Subject(s): History, Ancient World
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Arabs; stereotypes; image; Roman Empire; Byzantium; historiography
Summary/Abstract: The book is dedicated to creating and evolution of the image of inhabitants of Arabia in ancient and early medieval sources. At the beginning the author attempts to answer the questions, which area in the discussed period was treated as Arabia, which ethnoi were considered Arab and what names were used to name them. The second part begins with the chapter devoted to the sources of knowledge of the Greeks and the Romans about Arabia and its inhabitants. The author then presents the lands and tribes considered “Arabic” (rightly or not) by ancient writers, as well as their opinion about the people of the Arabian Peninsula. She tries to explain with which tribal groups and in what circumstances the Greeks and the Romans maintained relations and how it influenced the perception of their Arab neighbours. The above findings have become the foundations for the third part, devoted to the image of the Arabs in late antique and early Byzantine sources. Having presented the fluctuations of geopolitical situation in the early years of current era, the author presents the process of forging a new network of alliances of the two powers: the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire and the Persian Empire with Arab tribes. Much attention has been paid to religious issues, pointing to the cohabitation of pagan beliefs, Judaism and different currents of Christianity in the Peninsula before Islam. The vast chapter discusses the image of the inhabitants in the texts written in a variety of languages by Byzantine authors. It points to the persistence of some, not infrequently stereotypical opinions, spread by the Byzantines, who thus followed the ancient writers, but also to different points of view on the Arab neighbours, resulting from the fact that many of them became Christians. The book is supplemented by the biographies of selected Arab leaders.

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