ABSTRACT
The Arabian people wanted to assault the flock of the saint and to devastate, destroy, and burn the monastery. A few Italian texts, however, contain brief information about the Muslims, thus proving that the Christians were not completely ignorant about these dangerous opponents and suggesting that further information about them might have been known. Most of the Christian authors describe events that took place in Italy or in nearby areas; sometimes, their horizons widened to include the rest of the Mediterranean. Several Christian authors mentioned the names of some Muslim leaders that were probably written as they were pronounced. Christian authors usually indicated the Muslim leaders with Latin titles such as rex, princeps, and dux.
