ABSTRACT
When Recemund, a christian official at the Cordoban court, was chosento lead a delegation from 'Abd al-Rahma n II I to Otto I, he earned him self both a bishopric and a leading role in the history of the christians of al-Anda lus. There are many references in the Arabic sources to christian members of embassies from Cordoba to Europe and Byzantium," but the Arabic historians supply little more tha n the names of these men, sometimes adding that they acted as interpreters. Recemund's career is mu ch better documented . Recemund's embassy to Otto was part of the story of an earlier mission which Otto had sent to Cordoba, led by J ohn of Gorze. Recemund met Liudprand, lat er bishop of Crem ona, who dedicated a work of history, the Antapodosis, to him. In the nineteenth century, when the Calendar if Cordoba was rediscovered , Recemund was identified as its author and as the bishop Ibn Zatd , who composed a calenda r for al-H akam II. Recemund's services to 'Abd al-Rahman III make it perfectly plausible that he could have composed a calendar for his son. Yet the components of this reading are two different versions of a calenda r and a number of references scatte red through the Arabic sources to bishops who wrote calenda rs or went on embassies, none of them nam ed as Recemund. Recemund was identified as the author of the Calendar if Cordoba as a result of two erro rs which characterise modern historiography of al-Anda lus. The first was a failure to take any acco unt of the tran smission of the Calendar. The second was the ruthless appli cation of O ccam 's razor to dispar ate pieces of evidence, rend er ing them into a
composite Recemund. Depending on how many inconsistencies one is prepared to skate over, some of the steps in the argument are plausible but the conclusion is full of holes. The aim of this chapter is to reconsider the evidence for Recemund, in order to assess the importance both of the man and of the Calendar for the history of al-Andalus,
The Life ofJohn of GOTze The main evidence for Recemund is the Life ifJohn if Gorze/ a daughter house of Metz in Lorraine. It survives in one tenth-century copy from Metz, which was probably written by John of St-Arnulf in Metz, who succeeded his namesake as abbot of Gorze. In his preface, the author said that he began to write on the day after the saint's death . The first part, which describes John's origins and education before he became abbot of Gorze, was finished by 978 . It is followed by portraits of some of the monks at Gorze and ofJohn himself. The final section is a long account of his journey to Cordoba. The author did not give the information aboutJohn's abbacy which he had promised in his introduction and the work seems to have been unfinished rather than curtailed in transmission, since it breaks off in the middle of a page. The Life is detailed and imm ediate and the outline ofJohn of Gorze's embassy to Hispania is corroborated by other sources .
