SARASINS, or Saracens. This Name is not found in the Bible; but we often meet with the Arabians there, the Hagarens, and the Ishmaelites, who are confounded with the Sarasins. These were not begun to be talk’d of ‘till about the fifth Century. The Criticks are not agreed about the Etymology of their Name. Some derive it Sozom. & alii nonnulli.from Sarah the Wife of Abraham; as if these People, who were descended from Hagar and Ishmael, had been ashamed of their Original, and had taken the Name of Sarasins, or Children of Sarah, instead of Hagarens, or Children of Hagar. But what overthrows this Etymology, is this, that the Antients call’d them Sara-kenoi, and not Sarænoi, or simply Sarasenoi, as they must have been call’d, if their Name had been derived from Sarah.
Scaliger derives the Name Sarakeni from the Arabic Word Sarack, which signifies to שארקsharak, furari, prædari.steal, or plunder. Others fetch their Name from the City Sharakah, or Sharakiah, in Arabia. However this Matter be, as to the Etymology of their Name, ‘tis known that they embraced Christianity in the seventh Century; a Prince of theirs, call’d Terebon, having been miraculously cured of a Distemper, by the Name of Jesus Christ. But they soon forsook the true Religion, to follow Mahomet, and they were the first that follow’d him. Their Habitation was in Arabia Fœlix, on the Borders of Arabia Petrea: Satrippa, now Medina, was their Capital. At present there is no Nation known by the Name of Sarasins; they are not distinguish’d from the Turks and Arabs.