Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

349 Dimitrios G. Letsios. Leo VI the Wise and the Saracens... around 900, 1 as a whole were perceived as a replacement of the Strategikon ; 2 thus it keeps the latter’s geographical division, with adjustments to the reality of the time. Of course, Leo is aware that the “Saracens” 3 are at present the major threat for the Byzantine Empire. But in fact they are portrayed along the same lines as the previous rival, the Persians, as equally determined and ferocious; in a traditional manner, which was patterned in the Strategikon , the Arabs are examined upon following query: “What are they really like? What weapons do they make use of in military campaigns? What are their practices? How does one arm himself and campaign against them and thus carry out operations against them?” 4 As G. Theotokis properly stresses, this is a structural analysis which follows the main elements, determined by the Strategikon , in order to specify military strategy and tactics. 5 As an introduction to this topic, Leo gives some elements defining the racial origin and the starting point of the Arab/Saracen expansion: “The Saracens… are Arabs by race, who formerly lived near the entrance to Blessed Arabia, but in time came to be scattered about toward Syria and Palestine…WhenMuhammad founded their super- stition, they took possession of those provinces by force of arms…. Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the other lands at that time, when the devastation of the Roman land by the Persians allowed them to occupy those lands”. 6 For Byzantines, as well as the Persians, there was a distinction between Arabs and Saracens, on the basis of their habitat customs. The Arab nomads were designated as Saracens, while as proper Arabs were 1 “Composed early in the tenth century”, Haldon, ACritical Commentary , 3. Cf. above, p. 342, footnote 2, on the various proposal for the date of the compendium and the possible two versions of the Taktika . 2 G. T. Dennis and E. Gamillscheg, Das Strategikon des Maurikios (CFHB 17), Wien 1981. 3 V. Christides, “The names Αραβες, Σαρακηνοι etc. and their false Byzantine etymologies”, BZ 65 (1972) 329–333. 4 Taktika 18, 103, 495–500 (p. 474f.). 5 Theotokis, Byzantine Military Tactics , 110. 6 Taktika , 18, 104, 501–507 (p. 474f.).