ABSTRACT
The Byzantines first encountered Islam because of the Arab conquest in the second and third quarters of the seventh century. The seventh-century Byzantine sources on Byzantine reactions to the Arab conquest are scarce, inconveniently located, and insufficiently. The sermon, is a contemporary record of the deep impression which the very beginnings of the Arab conquest made upon a foremost Byzantine bishop and theologian. Sophronius found many Old Testament parallels to the situation. Sophronius apparently was not cognizant of the Islamic religious springs of this outpouring of Arab marauders. Sebeos, was a Monophysite. He believed, however, that the Arab conquest of the Armenian and Byzantine peoples had occurred because of Christian sins. Thus Sebeos believed that the most reasonable way in which to understand the phenomenon of the Arab conquest was to regard it as the fulfillment of divine prophecy. The Pseudo-Methodius apocalypse proceeded to catalogue and explore, in the most lurid detail, the various horrors which accompanied the Arab conquest.
