A second question. I seem to remember reading somewhere that these barbs butchered the legends because they had no written language of their own. Having an oral tradition for communication, they didn't see anything wrong with randomly generated symbols to mimic Latin inscriptions since they had no meaning to them anyway. Can anybody confirm that and perhaps direct me somewhere that I can read/learn more on that subject?
The famous coin of the Anglo-Saxon Offa (late 8th c.) might be something to pursue along these lines. Offa's
mint reproduced an
Islamic coin
inscription, perhaps thinking that the Arabic was simply an attractive feature (the Anglo-Saxons loved complex interlace structures). Some have (implausbly, IMO) argued that Offa was a closet Muslim from this
obverse legend.
Of course, the Anglo-Saxons were hardly "barbarians." We have six volumes of vernacular poetry recorded in the 10th century; nothing compares on the Continent at the same time. While these may be older oral poems recorded by the Benedictines, they
still reflect a highly developed culture. There's lots more to A-S poetry than
Beowulf! We also have Asser's story of how Alfred the Great, as a boy, won a book of English poetry from
his mother by memorizing it, and in later years Alfred would translate classical devotional works into Old English from Latin--though he might have done this "in
his head" and dictated the works, and not via reading and
writing.
But I'm rambling. Here's one blurb about Offa and
his coinage:
"He introduced silver coinage in
England, producing the first English silver pennies, as well as a copy of the gold dinar of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur dated 157AH, which differs from the original by adding the
inscription OFFA
REX. Since this coin contains the Arabic profession of faith in Allah, it has been cited by some as proof that Offa
had converted to Islam. However, it is infinitely more likely that the coin was produced in order to trade with
Islamic Spain, and the
king,
his engravers, and officials, simply copied the Arabic coin without any comprehension of what the inscriptions said (particularly considering that "OFFA
REX" is upside down in relation to the Arabic script, and the word "year" is misspelled in Arabic). Offa's coins also sometimes featured the image of Cynethryth." --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OffaTo read an argument that Offa was a Muslim and to view the coin in question, see:
http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/offa.htmlWaes Pu Hael!
Rhetor
