Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 77 h The Odyssey of the Andalusian Conquerors of Crete... at the port of Alexandria as if they were dropped from the sky. For exam- ple Ṭabari (d. 923) reports that “several of the people of Egypt related to me that some ships approached the Mediterranean Sea [ Baḥr al-Rūm ] from the direction of Andalus, carrying a large number of men…” 67 Nothing is said about the itinerary they followed starting most probably from Almería, following the long coastline of North Africa, occupied at that time by the Arab-Islamic states of the Idrīsids (789–985) and the Aghlabids (800–902) (see Maps). The most frequent references to the Andalusian conquerors of Crete by mo- dern authors are either “the Andalusian sailors” or “the Andalusian pirates”. 68 The question naturally posed is how the Andalusian town dwellers (garde- ners, small trade merchants and artisans) of Cordoba, living in the picturesque suburb of Rabaḍ, far from the coast, could suddenly be transformed into sailors and ruthless pirates and/or corsairs. To start with the term “corsairs”: modern scholars usually consider the corsairs as privateers who apply ‘state-sanctioned maritime violence’ against ships and coastal communities, in contrast to the pirates who apply such actions independently. 69 While this distinction is somewhat arbitrary, it should be noted that the persecuted Cordoban refugees acted without any authorization by Ḥakam, the chief of the Andalusian state. Actually, the re- lations between Byzantium and the emirate of Cordoba at that time were friendly. A few years later, at the time of the emir ‘Abd al-Raḥman II (822– 852), when the Andalusian-Byzantine relations had been strengthened, the emir apologized for the Andalusians’ conquest of Crete, reiterating that it was not accomplished by the official emirate but by some Andalusian ex- patriots. 70 In fact, at the most crucial period of the emirate of Crete, when the Byzantine general Nicephorus Phocas was successfully engaged in the reconquest of Crete in 960–961, the Andalusian caliphs exchanged friendly 67 C. E. Bosworth, trans., The History of al-Ṭabari (Ṭabari, Tar’rīkh al-Rusul wa’l Mulūk), 164. 68 Even in Ph. K. Hitti’s well written book, History of the Arabs , 10th rev. ed., New York 2002, 453, they are reported as “Muslim pirates of Crete”. 69 Christides, “Piracy, Privateering and Maritime Violent actions: Maritime Violent Activities of the Taifa of Denia in Spain (11 th c.) vs. the Arab Maritime Jihād in the Eastern Mediterranean from the Middle of the 7 th to the 11 th Century”, Proceedings of the International Congress “En- dangered Connectivity: Piracy in the Mediterranean in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Modern Period ”, May 5–7 2011, Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Seeraub im Mittelmeerraum , ed. N. Jasper and S. Kolditz, Paderborn 2013, 199–208. It is worth noticing that the Arabs had concrete legislation concerning proper naval warfare; see H. S. Khalilieh, Islamic Maritime Law. An Introduction , Leiden–Boston–Köln 1998. 70 E. Lévi-Provençal, “Un échange d’ambassades entre Cordove et Byzance au IXe siècle”, Byzantion 12 (1937), 1–24.