The Origins of Islam Agraioihad been listed among the peoples of the Arabian peninsula. Pliny
in hisNatural Historynotes them also, as does Ptolemy in hisGeography.^62
But Ptolemy also lists, as oneethnosamong others, theThamudēnoi(text to
n. above), and also theSarakēnoi, who thus make their first appearance in
Graeco-Roman literature.Sarakēnoi,orinLatinSaraceni,comesbythefourth
century to be the standard term for any unsettled desert peoples living along
the fringes of the Fertile Crescent, in the Negev and Sinai and in the moun-
tainous Eastern Desert of Egypt. As such, the term is used by pagans, for in-
stance, Ammianus Marcellinus, as well as by Christians, and normally has no
religious or genealogical implications.^63 But with this extension of the term
Saracens to all the unsettled peoples of the marginal steppe or desert zones
there also went, but in Christian writers only, the attachment to it of the de-
scription Ishmaelites. It should be emphasised thatSarakēnoihad at one point,
as Ptolemy’s usage makes clear, been the name of one specific group, among
others. ButIshmaelitesnever was; it had never been used by pagan writers,
and was an appellation or characterisation whose meaning was derived from
an interpretation of Genesis. Thus, for instance, in Jerome’s vividly novelis-
ticLife of Malchus, travellers on the road between Beroea and Edessa, where
‘‘Saracens’’ are described as roaming, are attacked (at a dramatic date around
the middle of the fourth century) by a wild band ofIshmaelites. The two terms
are clearly intended as synonymous.^64
It was however still possible in the late fourth century to argue that the
practice of circumcision by these peoples should be seen as a mere fact, with
no religious significance. This is indeed firmly asserted by Epiphanius. ‘‘What
have the Ebionites to boast of in practising circumcision, when idolaters and
the priests of the Egyptians observe it? But so also do the ‘Sarakēnoi,’ who
are also called ‘Ismaēlitai,’ observe it, as do the Samaritans and Jews and Idu-
maeans and ‘Homēritai.’ But of these most do not practise this as a matter of
the Law, but by a sort of unreflecting custom.’’^65
However, just about the time that Epiphanius was completing this work,
in the later s, the first clearly attested collective conversion of a ‘‘Sara-
. Strabo,Geog. , , (); Pliny,NH, ; ; Ptolemy,Geog. , , ; see n.
above.
. A few examples may be given, without any attempt at exhaustiveness: Eusebius,HE
, , ;Pan. Lat. (), , ; (), , ; Ammianus , , ; , ; , , ; , , ; , ;
, , , etc.; Julian,Ep. Hertlein Bidez-Cumont Loeb (D).
. Jerome,V. Malchi.
. Epiphanius,Panarion, . See F. Stummer, s.v. ‘‘Beschneidung,’’RACII (),
on .