Т. 1. «Азия и Африка: Наследие и современность»

18 Азия и Африка: Наследие и современность. Т. 1 Секция I can be easily ignored. Even when such passages can be overwhelming in a source, their sparse (but highly valuable) information should not be overlooked. A typical example is a hagiographical source preserved in its Arabic version: The Narration of the Discovery of the Relics of Saint Valerius, the Bishop, Vincentius, the Deacon, and Eulalia, the Virgin (P. Peeters, Analecta Bollandiana 30.1 (1911), 301–304). It is an Arabic translation of an original Greek work, now lost, written by an unknown Greek author, perhaps the 10 th century author Paul of Monemvasia, who had written similar narrations, as suggested by H. Kalligas 1 . Most probably, it was translated into Arabic by an Arab monk who used a simplistic style of Arabic for the benefit of his fellow Christian monks. The translator was obviously a Christian monk whose native language was Arabic, but according to an exaggerated statement by Peeters, it was semi-barbaric 2 . The theme of the narration is the shipping of the relics of the Spanish saints Vale- rius, Vincentius and Eulalia fromBarcelona of Spain to a Greek island. Transportation of relics was not uncommon in medieval times, but this shipment is of particular importance because it is placed approximately within the chronological frame of the Arab conquest of Crete (ca. 823–825 AD). Barcelona had already been taken by Louis, the son of Charlemagne, king of Aquitaine, in 801/H 185 3; therefore, there was no reason for the Christians to send away the relics of these saints to safeguard them from the Muslims 4 . In addition, as I pointed out 5, the coffin with the relics of St. Eulalia still resides in Spain (Fig. 2). In spite of the fabricated legend concerning the removal of the relics of these saints, I believe that certain information of particular value can be found in the above narration. The author reports that a new situation prevailed in the southern Aegean after the Arab conquest of Crete. The Byzantine naval supremacy was overturned and theArabs of Crete expanded their dominion towards the Greek islands.Although a number of the attacks by the Arabs of the Emirate of Crete on the Greek islands after the Ethiopian Dominance in the 6 th century AD in The Martyrdom of St. Arethas and his Companions and in The Acts of St. Gregentius . P. 678–680. 1 H. Kalligas, Byzantine Monemvasia . The Sources , Monemvasia 1990. P. 55 ff. 2 P. Peeters, Le tréfonds oriental de l’hagiographie byzantine , Bruxelles 1950, p. 187. See theArabic text with an English translation and preliminary commentary, in V. Christides, The Conquest of Crete by the Arabs (ca. 824). A Turning Point in the Struggle between Byzantium and Islam , Appendix C. P. 215–220. 3 É. Lévi-Provençal, Histoire de l’Espagne musulmane , La conqu ê te et l’émirat his- pano-umaiyade (710–912) , vol. I, Paris — Leiden 1950. P. 175. 4 Professor J. P. Monferrer-Sala was kind enough to inform me that Barcelona as late as the year 960 was in the hands of the Christians, specifically in the hands of Borrel II, Count of Barcelona, and that much later, in 985, al-Manṣur sacked this city. 5 V. Christides, “The MaritimeArab-Byzantine Frontier in the SouthernAegean (ca. 824/6– 961): Cythera, Naxos, Paros, Elaphonesos, Dia”, in Η ´ Διεθνές Πανιόνιο Συνέδριο (Κύθηρα, 21–25 Μαΐου 2006), Πρακτικά , vol. III, Cythera 2009. P. 645 and fig. 3 (article: P. 631–652).