386 Isidore of Seville, Saint
called an Isaurian, though in reality he was from SYRIA.
Nevertheless, the name stuck for his dynasty, a dynasty
closely tied to the era of ICONOCLASMand to a success-
ful struggle with the ARABSin Anatolia. Though vilified
in the ecclesiastical sources for their iconoclasm, the
dynasty produced a series of able soldiers and reformers
of the military, administration of government, economy,
and law, such as Constantine V Kopronymos (r. 741–
775).
See alsoIRENE,EMPRESS.
Further reading:Pavlos E. Niavis, The Reign of the
Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I (AD 802–811)(Athens:
Historical Publications St. D. Basilopoulos, 1987); George
Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State,trans. Joan
Hussey (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1956); Warren Tread-
gold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society(Stan-
ford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997).
Isidore of Seville, Saint (Isidorus Hispalensis)(560/
570–636)Spanish cleric, encyclopedist
Isidore was born between 560 and 570 into a Hispano-
Roman family about the time his father, Severianus,
moved the family from Cartagena to SEVILLE. The move
from Cartagena was probably occasioned by the turmoil
caused in Gothic SPAINwhen the BYZANTINEemperor JUS-
TIANIANsought to restore imperial power there. However,
Visigothic rule survived and flourished. His father died
when Isidore was young, and he was raised and educated
by his older brother, Leander (ca. 540–ca. 600), who
became bishop of Seville and was King RECARED’s chief
adviser during the Third Council of TOLEDOin 589. This
council officially replaced the ARIANISMof the VISIGOTHS
with Roman Catholicism.
The many consequent challenges of ecclesiastical
administration were taken over by Isidore, who in about
599 or 600 succeeded Leander as archbishop of Seville.
Isidore’s main instrument to promote change was the call-
ing of provincial and national church councils, attended
by the Vigigothic king and nobility. Isidore was especially
concerned with religious correctness, a concern that
generated theological textbooks, studies of Christian
numerology, physical geography, a liturgical manual, a
critical study of controversial writings, and his most sig-
nificant and encyclopedic work, the Etymologies.THE ETYMOLOGIES
Isidore labored over the Etymologiesfrom 622 to 633. After
his death in 636, it was edited by a student, Braulion. This
compilation of knowledge was based on Isidore’s preoccu-
pation with the origins of words. Each topics was intro-
duced by an examination of its name. Isidore assumed that
understanding a name was the first step to understanding
the thing named and distinguishing it from other things.
Etymologieswas a digest or dictionary of knowledge gath-
ered over a lifetime of reading and an attempt to record all
Isidore deemed necessary for a Christian education. For
hundreds of years the work had great popularity because
no other source presented such a handy treasure of infor-
mation. Isidore died on April 4, 636.
See alsoSEVEN LIBERAL ARTS.
Further reading:Kenneth Baxter Wolf, trans., Con-
querors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain(Liver-
pool: Liverpool University Press, 1990); Ernest Brehaut,
An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville(New
York: Columbia University Press, 1912); Roger Collins,
Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 400–1000,rev. ed.
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995).Islam (surrender or total submission to God’s will)
Islam is a monotheistic system of beliefs based on
the QURAN. The Arabic root slmmeans “to be at peace,”
“to be safe.” The verb aslama,from which it is derived,
acquired in Muslim Arabic vocabulary the sense of
“to submit to God’s law and thus be safe.” Islam is thus
submission to GODand to his Prophet. The words Islam
and Muslimrefer to ISLAMas a religion. They can also
refer to Islam as a society and a culture. Islam involves
an inner aspect of belief and external practices to
demonstrate that FAITH.
Muslim, related to the Persian musulman, is the
present participle of the verb aslama,which means “one
who submits, who puts him- or herself in the hands of
God.” At the time of MUHAMMAD, this term retained a
certain ambivalence, since the one who became a Muslim
often did no more than recognize Muhamad as a sort ofA fifth-century statue in Barletta, in Southern Italy, perhaps
of Leo I, who recruited large numbers of Isaurians for the
Byzantine Empire (Courtesy Edward English)