Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 78 h Vassilios Christides embassies with the Byzantines. The caliphs received from them both pre- cious Greek manuscripts and Byzantine technicians specialized in the con- struction of mosaics. 71 While the theory that the Andalusian fugitives from Cordoba were cor- sairs who were sent to harass the Byzantines can easily be rejected, another accusation that they had become pirates roaming the Mediterranean needs to be examined. Obviously these Andalusians, who are called “fugitives” or “ex- patriots” in the Arabic sources, 72 coming, as it has already been said, from the interior of Andalusia, were certainly not sailors and would have been totally unfamiliar with navigation. It should also be taken into account that these refu- gees were obliged to travel with their wives and children since their houses had been leveled to the ground and no inhabitants had been left behind. Under these conditions we can expect that they would have been eager to reach and settle in Alexandria. 73 We also cannot accept A. Huici Miranda’s statement that “some [of the re- bels of Rabaḍ] immigrated to Fez, others joined the Levantine pirates and their wanderings led them to Alexandria and Crete”. 74 One wonders how, accom- panied by wives and children, they could sail aimlessly around as some sort 71 See J. Signes Codoñer, “La diplomacia del libro en Bizancio. Algunas reflexiones en torno a la posible entrega de libros griegos a los árabes en los siglos VIII-X”, Scrittura et civiltá , 20 (1996), 153–187; idem, “Bizancio y al-Ándalus en los siglos IX y X”, in Inmaculada Pérez Martín and P. Bádenas de la Peña, eds., Bizancio y la peninsula ibérica. De la antigüedad tardía a la edad moderna , Madrid 2004, 231 (article: 177–245); F. Valdés Fernández, “De embajadas y regales entre califas y emperadores”, Awraq 7 (2013), 33–34 (article: 25–41), where an embassy in the year 961–962 is reported. 72 Prof. J. P. Monferrer-Sala was kind enough to send me the corresponding expression in Arabic, “ wa tafarraqa min Qurṭuba… ” (split Cordoban partisans), as it appears in Ibn Ḥayyān’s Muqtabis II, Anales de los emires de Córdoba Alhaquén I (180–206H. / 796–822 J.C. y Abder- ramán II (206–232 / 822–847), edición facsimil de un manuscrito árabe de la Real Academia de la Historia (Legado E. García Gómez) al cuidado de J. Vallvé Bermejo, Madrid 1999, p. 34, fol. 104v. 73 It should be noted here that in trying to explain the conflicting reports concerning the Anda- lusians who, on the one hand, are portrayed as pirates and on the other as persecuted citizens of Cordoba trying to resettle, a number of modern Arab historians have expressed the view that there were two groups of Andalusian fugitives, one composed of pirates who had reached Alexandria earlier, in 813, before the destruction of Rabaḍ (ca 818), and another group after it. This view can- not be accepted; see I. Ghunaimi, Al-Imbaraṭūrīyah al-Bīzantīyah wa Qrit al-Islāmīyah , Jeddah 1977, 37 ff.; A. Abbadi and A. Salem, Ta’rīkh al-Islamiyya fī al-Maghrib wal-Andalus , Beirut 1969. Likewise, an Arabic tradition ( ḥadīth) , according to which certain Andalusian pirates went to Alexandria before their islamization, is obviously unfounded; see J. Aguade, “Algunos hadices sobre la ocupación de Alejandria por un grupo de Hispano-Musulmanes”, Boletin de la Asso- ciación Española de Orientalistas , 12 (1976), 174 (article: 159–180). 74 A. Huici Miranda, “Ḥakam”, in EI 2 , III (1971), 73–74.