Diplomats and Betrayers: Christian Negotiators and the Confessional Rewriting of Surrender during the Islamic Conquest (634–642 AD)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Combining evidence from Muslim and Christian sources, this paper attempts to offer some plausible readings as to the identity of the mediators who negotiated the submission of the main Byzantine cities in the context of the Arab conquest (mid. 7th. c.). It also explores how later Christian attitudes towards Islamic lordship and the definition of sectarian confessional groups were retrojected into the portrayal of the actors involved in the negotiations. It argues that ecclesiastical hierarchs, supported by local Arab–Christian elites, had to get involved in the negotiations to fill the void left by Constantinopolitan officials as result of Heraclius' foreign policy. It also contends that the involvement of Roman Arab leaders conjured up images of treachery and betrayal in later normative narratives which remodelled them as apostates and collaborators.