Often left out in modern histories is the profoundly religious nature of these early encounters. If the Arabs recited the Koran and chanted Islamic slogans, as all Muslim chroniclers report, the Roman camp was all but a Christian procession. After all, “Byzantium’s role as the Christian Empire was central to its morale. Careful religious preparations preceded a battle”—including priests reciting prayers over fighters and parading relics and crosses before the troops—all of “which had a profound impact upon the men’s mind.”12 Roman soldiers are regularly described as raising crucifixes aloft
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