Ethnic Identity Although Theodoret makes frequent references, in thePhilotheos Histo-
riaand elsewhere, to ‘‘Saracens’’ or ‘‘Ishmaelites’’ as belonging to an ethnic
group clearly distinct from Greeks orSyroi, so far as I can find he nowhere
refers to them as having a distinctive language, or still less a literature or a
script. It is also striking that Jerome, when he describes how Hilarion en-
counteredSaraceninear Elusa, says that they addressed him in ‘‘the Syrian
language.’’^84 In fact, however, in Jerome and other writers, we do find some
traces of awareness of Arabic as a distinct language. As is well known, Epi-
phanius in hisPanarion, written in the later s, claims that in the pagan
temple at Petra they worshipped a virgin goddess: ‘‘and in theArabikē dialek-
tos[Arabic language] they hymn the maiden, calling herArabisti[in Arabic]
‘chaamou,’ that is ‘girl’ or ‘virgin.’ ’’^85 The report remains entirely isolated,
and we can be certain, from the papyri mentioned above (n. ), that even in
the sixth century the public language of Petra was still Greek. But equally
this reference cannot be dismissed, and Epiphanius’ awareness of Arabic as a
language is significant.
At about the same time Jerome was experimenting with life as a hermit in
the desert of Chalcis in northern Syria, and he described himself as dwelling
in that part of the desert which, while next to Syria, was in contact with the
‘‘Sarraceni’’; or alternatively as being in the part ‘‘which marks out a vast mar-
ginal zone between the Syri and the Sarraceni.’’ But it is either in ‘‘the Syrian
language’’ or in Greek that he jokingly suggests in the letter that he might be
found preaching heresy.^86 So far as I can find, he makes only one reference,
much later, toArabicus sermo,whenhesaysintheprefaceofhisCommentary
on Jobthat he has worked out the sense of some difficult passages ‘‘from the
Hebraeusand theArabicus sermo,andsometimesfromtheSyrus.’’^87 How and
where he would have encounteredArabicus sermois quite obscure; we could
however imagine that he might have heard something of the spoken Arabic
of the ‘‘Saraceni’’ whose terrain, as we have seen, he envisaged as beginning
just south of Bethlehem (text to n. above). The reference can surely not
be to written literary texts in Arabic; for, firstly, we have no reason to think
nologique sur les relations de Rome et de Byzance avec les Arabes avant l’Islam,’’Syria
(): .
. Jerome,Vita Hilarionis, : ‘‘Therefore having heard that St. Hilarion was passing
by, since he had frequently cured many Saracens who were possessed by a demon, they came
before him in crowds with their wives and children, bending their heads and shouting in
Syrian ‘Barech’ which means ‘bless [us?].’ ’’
.Panarion, ; trans. Williams II, p. .
. Jerome,Ep.,;,.Ep.,;seetextton.above.
. Jerome,Praef. in com. in Iob.(PLXXVIII, col. ).