Thomas the Presbyter

Thomas the Presbyter was a 7th-century Middle Eastern Jacobite author whose manuscripsts are preserved in the British library of Syriac Manuscripts.

The writings provide an eye witness account to the Islamic conquest in the mid-7th century:

In the year 945, indiction 7, on Friday 4 February (634) at the ninth hour, there was a battle between the Romans and the Arabs of Muhmd in Palestine twelve miles east of Gaza. The Romans fled, leaving behind the patrician bryrdn, whom the Arabs killed. Some 4000 poor villagers of Palestine were killed there, Christians, Jews and Samaritans. The Arabs ravaged the whole region.

In the year 947 (635-36), indiction 9, the Arabs invaded the whole of Syria and went down to Persia and conquered

it. The Arabs climbed the mountain of Mardin and killed many monks there in [the monasteries of] Qedar and Bnata. There died the blessed man Simon, doorkeeper of Qedar, brother of Thomas the priest.

See also

• Fragment on the Arab Conquests

References

• Robert G. Hoyland: Seeing Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam)