title: 121The influence of late antique religious polemical discourse on early Byzantine perceptions of the first Muslim victories
abstract: The influence of late antique religious polemical discourse on early Byzantine perceptions of the first Muslim victoriesAnd while the Church at that time was being troubled thus by emperors and impious priests, Amalek rose up in the desert, smiting us, the people of Christ. 1Greek Christian texts contain some of the earliest references to Muslim incursions into the Roman Empire and to life during the first decades under their administration.Stemming from the mid-seventh century or more often fro