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Palestine in the Aftermath of the Arab Conquest: the Earliest Latin Account
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Written, probably, in the early 680s on lona, Adomnán’s De locis sanctis has excited interest, and been used as a quarry for facts about the Holy Land, ever since. It purports to report the pilgrim experiences of a ‘bishop of the Gaulish race’ (prooemium, I), Arculf, who, when later on Iona, told of what he had seen in Palestine, Alexandria, and Constantinople. Realising his ‘scoop’, Adomnán set the details down in a permanent record. Within twenty years this formed the basis of a more concise account by Bede, who added a few details of his own about Arculf which have become standard elements of the latter’s biography: the pilgrim, returning home, was blown by a gale on to the western shores of Britain, and thence he travelled to Iona where he told his story. However, while Arculf - through either Adomnán’s or Bede’s account - is the focus of attention in scholarship using these works as evidence, Bede recognized the expertise of Adomnán in the work, and did not reduce him to the status of an amanuensis.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 36: The Holy Land, Holy Lands, and Christian History , 2000 , pp. 78 - 89
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2000
References
1 The text followed is that by Bieler, L. in Adamnan’s De locis Sanctis, ed. Meehan,, D. Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, 3 (Dublin, 1958)Google Scholar.
2 E.g. Gil,, M. A History of Palestine 634-1099, tr.Broido, E. (Cambridge, 1992), nn.103, 311, 352, 664-8, 673-4, 719 Google Scholar.
3 For an analysis, see my The view from lona: Adomnán’s mental maps’, Peritia, 10 (1996), pp. 98-122.
4 See my ‘Adomnán the Illustrious’, InR, 46 (1995), pp. 1-14.
5 See my ‘Adomnán and Arculf: the case of an expert witness’, Journal of Medieval Latin, 7 (1997), pp. 127-46.
6 See n.2 above.
7 See my ‘The exegetical purpose of Adomnán’s De locis Sanctis’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 24 (1992), pp. 37-53.
8 It is seemingly plausible as the shipwreck story works best on a T-O map; see my The view from lona’.
9 The principal studies are noted in Gil, Palestine.
10 Equally, all the people venerate a cloth woven by the Virgin Mary (I, x, 1); crowds kiss the sudarium Domini (I, ix, 14), see below, while the church at Gilgal is reverenced by the people of the region (II, xv, 5), which assumes that the whole region is Christian.
11 cf.Cutler, A. and Kazhdan, A. ‘True Cross’, in Kazhdan, A. P. et al, eds, Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 3 vols (New York and Oxford, 1991), 3, pp. 2125–6 Google Scholar.
12 On these divisions at the time of the Arab conquest, cf. Gil, Palestine, n.661.
13 On their attitude to the these cities with reference to their own location, cf.
14 Gil, Palestine, n.664.
15 In his translation Meehan, possibly influenced by the Shroud of Turin, used the word ‘shroud’; however, this more properly refers to ‘the winding sheet’ (sindon) mentioned in Matt. 27.59, Mark 15.46, and Luke 23.53, or to ‘the linen cloths’ mentioned in Luke 24.12 or John 20.5, 7 (linteamina) or John 19.40 (lintea); the mention of the sudarium in John 20.7 is made in contradistinction to these cloths and so ‘shroud’ is inappropriate. However, there is confusion in Adomnán who says the cloth is about ‘eight feet long’ (I, ix, 16) which might suggest the linteamina (John)/sindon (Matt, et al.) rather than the sudarium. At I, ix, 11 Adomnán refers to it as a linteolum (a word not used in the Vulgate) but which if taken as a diminutive of linteamen preserves the Johannine distinction.
16 We cannot examine Adomnán ‘s theology of relics here, but clearly he believes that they are vehicles of divine favour in the same way as the sacraments, i.e. their effect does not depend on the pre-disposed worthiness of the recipient, and thus they can be said to bestow grace ex opere operato.
17 See my ‘The view from Iona’.
18 This usage fits with the description of the Jewish (Hebrew) and Greek Christians mentioned in Acts 6.1.
19 See my The library of Iona in the late seventh century: the evidence from Adomnán’s De locis Sanctis’, Ériu, 45 (1994), pp. 33-52.
20 See Katz,, S. The Jews in the Visigothic Kingdoms of Spain and Gaul (Cambridge, MA, 1937)Google Scholar for an overview.
21 See Gil, Palestine, n.92.
22 This incident picks up the story of Josh. 6 (especially v.25) and should be seen in the context of the New Testament references to Rahab as an example of righteousness: Heb. 11.31 and Jas. 2.25 (and cf. Matt. 1.5).
23 See Gil, Palestine, n.103.
24 Isa. 56.7; I Macc. 7.37; Matt. 21.13 (citing Isa. 56.7); and parallels: Mark 11.17, Luke 19.46.
25 See Hinds,, M. ‘Muc-awiya IM’, in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn, 7 (Leiden, 1993), pp. 263–8 Google Scholar.
26 Compare I, ix, 13 with John 20.7.
27 Commentarium in Hiezechielem, XXV, 1-3 (PL 25, col. 244).
28 Hehraicae quaestiones in Genesim, 16.12, in 5. Hieronymi preshyteri Opera, pars I: Opera exegetica, I, ed. de Lagarde,, P. Morin,, G. and Adriaen,, M. CChr.SL, 72 (Turnhout, 1958), p. 21 Google Scholar.
29 See Southern,, R. W. Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages(Cambridge, MA, 1962), pp. 14–17 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and cf. Gil, Palestine, n.21.
30 In his experience in Ireland-Scotland Adomnán saw many changes in the ruling dynasty over areas of land, but never one which involved a ruler with a new religion.
31 What is said in Ezekiel about Jerusalem being the centre of the earth is true also geographically in that the sun leaves no shadow there at the summer solstice (I, xi). See my The exegetical purpose of Adomnán’s De locis Sanctis’.
32 For Bede’s views, see Plummer’s, C. edition of the Historia ecclesiastica, 2 vols (Oxford, 1896), 2, pp. 338–9 Google Scholar; and Southern, Western Views of Islam, p. 16.
33 I would like to thank my colleague, Dr Dawoud El-Alami (Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Wales Lampeter), for many helpful suggestions in writing this paper; however, the positions taken and any errors it contains are solely my own.