ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the image of the Saracen/Ishmaelite in three Latin authors: Jerome, Isidore and Bede. It argues that the image of fierce marauding Saracens found in Jerome was still quite operative in Bede and that the rise of Islam had not fundamentally altered it. The chapter briefly explores the two strands that early Christian authors will unite, beginning with the term /Saracenus from classical ethnographic tradition. It examines passages where Jerome, Isidore and Bede discuss the Saracens and place them in the context of biblically informed geography and history. The chapter looks first at biblical commentaries of the three authors, to see how they understand the role of the Saracens as part of the biblical narrative. It also looks at geographical and ethnographical texts dealing with Saracens as well as hagiographical texts in which they appear.
