The Mirage of the Saracen. Christians and Nomads in the Sinai Peninsula in Late Antiquity by Walter D. Ward (review)

Following in the footsteps of Daniel F. Caner's disclosure (History and Hagiography from the Late Antique Sinai, 2010) of some of the most important sources for our understanding of the history of the late antique Sinai, Walter Ward has now written a synthesis on the topic. The book, which is a revised version of a 2008 thesis, focuses on the interactions between nomads and Christians in the area, in particular how the negative portrayal of these nomads in some of the sources contributed to Christian identity formation. As such it belongs to a growing number of studies on the Arabs before the rise of Islam (see e.g., J. H. F. Dijkstra, G. Fisher, eds., Inside and Out. Interactions between Rome and the Peoples on the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers in Late Antiquity, 2014; G. Fisher, ed., Arabs and Empires before the Rise of Islam, 2015).

In the Introduction, Ward situates his investigation within postcolonial theory. Chapter One discusses the terminology used for nomads in the Near East, especially "Saracen," and the way in which the literary sources often characterize them as uncivilized, "pagan," even violent, despite the fact that the situation must have been more complex. Chapter Two charts the rise of Christianity in the Sinai. The first monks arrived in the course of the fourth century, soon followed by pilgrims (most famously Egeria) in search of biblical places. In the fifth and sixth centuries, Christianity expanded on the peninsula, culminating in the fortified monastery that Justinian built around the Burning Bush, known today as St Catherine's. Chapter Three demonstrates how Christians appropriated the landscape of the Sinai by associating sites with biblical events and locations. There was not always agreement, however, on the exact location of sites, as is evinced by Egeria and the Piacenza pilgrim, who situate Elim between Clysma and Mount Sinai, whereas Ammonius and Cosmas locate it on the coast at Rhaithou. In Chapter Four Ward turns to the martyrdom accounts, mainly Pseudo-Nilus's Narrations and Ammonius's Report, which describe nomadic attacks on monks, sometimes in graphic detail. Chapter Five argues that these accounts, even if highly rhetorical, had the effect that the "Saracens" were seen as a threat to security and caused a direct response from the imperial authorities. This is witnessed, according to Ward, in a growing number of military installations, especially in the sixth century, and the construction of Justinian's monastery itself. Taking a wider perspective, Chapter Six shows how the image of the "Saracen" was transferred to Muslims after the Islamic conquest and thus how pre-Islamic conceptions shaped later Christian views of the Muslim "other."

This is a clear and pleasantly written book that is full of interesting and original ideas. It should be noted, however, that there is not a whole lot that is new in the interpretation of the texts compared with Caner's book. For instance, for an in-depth discussion of the Sinai martyr inscription found at St Catherine's (100–102), one should rather turn to Caner (51–52, 60–63). Strikingly absent is any mention of the Syriac History of the Great Deeds of Bishop Paul of Qenṭos and Priest John of Edessa, which describes the holy men's capture by Arabs on their way to Mount Sinai (ed. and trans. by H. Arneson, E. Fiano, C. Luckritz Marquis, K. Smith, 2010). Caner (48n207) mentions this text but could not yet make use of the edition. Introductions of general topics, such as that of monasticism (45), are not always fully satisfactory. Most importantly, even though Ward in other cases makes some illuminating comparisons across space and time, the comparison between the situation in the Sinai and that after 9/11 is off the mark, as too many different factors are at stake in each case...