Reference on Numbers of Saxons

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

On Sat, 2 Dec 2000 00:33:48 EST, JoatSimeon at aol.com wrote:

>In a message dated 12/1/00 10:01:05 PM Mountain Standard Time,
>HSTAHLKE at gw.bsu.edu writes:

><< a Saudi student who is specialized in early Islamic scholarship mentioned
>that Arabic documents dealing with the 8th c. Muslim invasions of the Iberian
>Peninsula mention fighting against Goths.  >>

>-- operating from memory, I seem to recall that a number of Gothic prisoners
>of war were settled in western Anatolia around the time of Justinian, and
>formed a unit in the Byzantine armed forces for some time.

Most likely, the reference was to the conquest of the Visigothic
Kingdom of Spain by the Umayyad Caliphate (711).

(Peninsular) Spaniards are still called "Goths" (Godos) in the Canary
Is. and parts of Spanish America.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl