Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

308 IV. Ближний Восток и его соседи In their efforts to show the Arabs different from the Byzantines, the miniaturists of the Menologium of Basil II follow the following: (a) They simply coarsen the features of the Arabs and present themdressed in garments exhibiting exotic styles and fabrics of non-Arab designs, which are not actually Arab but a product of their imagination. (b) In case they are raiding warriors, they present them in horrifying characteristics and occasionally dressed like the Roman executioners. (c) The turbans that wrap the heads of the Arabs in most of the miniatures are undoubtedly Arab. In an illumination in which Blemmyes (a Nubian tribe) appear raiding a Byzantine monastery of Sinai, the painter presents two of the raiders with Negroid features; instead of a turban, the first one’s head is covered with a cap while the second displays curly hair and a flat nose. Obviously, the painter was an eyewitness monk living in Sinai at the time of the raid (ca 4 th –5 th c. AD), and could easily distinguish the African Blemmyes from the Saracens. Since the illustrated Menologium of Basil II was produced in the 10 th century, most probably the painter used a handbook available to the Byzantine painters from an earlier period which reached the 10 th century painter (see Fig. I , not from SkM). To turn to Skylitzes’ manuscript, A. Grabar — M. Manoussakas noticed that while most of the pictures depicting Arabs do not betray painters drawing from eyewitness experience, they acknowledged the existence of a small number of illustrations with realistic representations of the Arabs, but did not proceed to any further research with concrete examples. 1 A. Tselikas undertook a further study of this problem and indicated a concrete number of such illuminations (fol. 178v, 179ra). 2 According to his view, most probably such illuminations were painted by Western painters, who, living in Sicily at the time of their work, had an opportunity to watch Arabs living on the island and study their Μανόλη Χατζηδάκη , vol. 2, Athens 1992, 422–432. There is now a magnificent new edition: El Menologio de Basilio II , Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Gr. 1613, ed. Francesco d’Aiuto, Spanish ed. Inmaculada Perez Martin. Athens: Αποστολική Διακονία της Εκκλησίας της Ελλάδος, 2008. 1 Christides, “Pre-Islamic Arabs in Byzantine Illuminations”, 177–178. 2 Tselikas, op. cit., 141.