ABSTRACT
The innovative history of the First Crusade published by Professor John France in 1994 may be fitting to offer him a short essay that apparently throws light on a very early Muslim reaction. Von Grnebaum went on to publish an edition of the versified Arabic texts of the Byzantine letter and the Muslim rejoinder, followed by their painstakingly annotated translations into German. For Runciman, the letter presented the emperor as the Christian champion who threatened to march on Mecca. For Joshua Prawer, it expressed a religious fervour to combat the infidel and a wish to destroy Islam. Runciman and Prawer relied on a translation of the emperor's letter that Gustave Schlumberger published in 1890, and they accepted his dating of the text to 964. For the present purpose, it is important to observe that the poet who writes on behalf of Nicephorus Phocas exults at the recent Byzantine victories and foresees still more spectacular triumphs in the future.
