Ebrei e Arabi nella Calabria bizantina fra realtà e schemi letterari

Abstract

Jews and Arabs in Byzantine Calabria between reality and literary schemes

This article develops some considerations on the Jewish and Arab presence in Byzantine Calabria. The author’s aim in particular is to verify the reiteration of some anti-Jewish and anti-Islamic topoi in the Italo-Greek sources, especially hagiographic ones, which reflect the persistence of stable relations between Christians, Jews and Arabs, in Calabria as well as throughout all southern Italy. Italo-Greek hagiography had mentioned Jews especially in Sicilian bioi preceding the Arab invasion, with a polemical intent and reference to their conversion. In the Italo-Greek hagiography of the 9^th-10^th centuries, Jews are present in a reduced form, with the sole exception of the bios of St. Neilos. In the 10^th century, in fact, these themes and ‒ perhaps ‒ even the polemical objectives of hagiographic literature undergo a change: the enemies are now the “infidel Agarens”, qualified with a series of topoi on their alleged impiety and other negative attitudes.