Madam, - In seeking to correct me, Fr Joseph O'Leary (September 23rd) has fallen into my trap.
In my letter of September 21st, I deliberately chose the Muslim execution of bishop Sophronius of Jerusalem in 640 as an example of the violence which accompanied the expansion of Islam because those who succumb to the myth of a golden age of a tolerant Islam love to cite the alleged surrender of Jerusalem by Sophronius to the caliph Umar, and the respect which Umar allegedly showed to him, as an example of this tolerance.
First, my paper proving the Muslim execution of Sophronius was published in a refereed journal (ARAM) by a reputable academic publisher (Peeters of Louvain) in 2003. It was almost immediately republished in a collection of essays edited by Prof M. Bonner entitled "Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times" as part of an important new series, The Formation of the Classical Islamic World, by Ashgate Publishing. Hence I like to think that my argument has convinced a few other specialists in this area.
Second, the famous story of how the caliph Umar met Sophronius and accepted a gift of clean clothing from him at the time of the surrender of Jerusalem is nonsense. All the surviving accounts of this story derive from a common source written about 750, where the author of this source misinterpreted a Muslim story concerning a meeting between Umar and the bishop of Aila, on the Red Sea, in reference to the bishop of Aelia, as Jerusalem was also known, instead. There is no reliable evidence that Sophronius and Umar ever met.
My purpose in setting the trap into which Fr O'Leary so kindly fell was to highlight the fact that too many people are willing to pontificate on the subject of Muslim-Christian relations, past or present, without any genuine knowledge.
This issue is far too serious to be left to amateurs, especially those who have some other axe to grind, as is the case with Vincent Browne and Fr O'Leary. - Yours, etc,
Dr DAVID WOODS, Acting Head, Department of Classics, University College Cork.
Madam, - Vincent Browne in a thrácht (20ú Meán Fómhair) faoi léacht Pope Benedict; ar fheabhas. Míle buíochas dó agus díobh féin a d'foillsigh é. - Is mise,
ÁINE NÍ IONNGHAILE, Radharc Bhinn Éadair, Cill Fhiontáin, Báile Átha Cliath 13.
Madam, - Rev Joseph O'Leary (September 23rd) does not deal clearly with one of the the most infamous massacres of the 16th century in Ireland.
In 1580, troops sent by Pope Gregory and commanded by Sebastiano di San Guisseppi landed at Smerwick in Kerry. After a three-day siege, San Giuseppe surrendered on October 10th, 1580 to Arthur Grey, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (then called the Lord Deputy). Grey ordered a massacre. Italian, Spanish and Irish men - and Irish women - were beheaded and their bodies thrown into the sea.
According to folklore, the English spent two days decapitating their victims (see the monument at Dún an Óir). The war that followed soon afterwards, Cogadh na Naoi mBliana, has no parallel in Irish or British history.
Mr O'Leary is not correct if he suggests that Grey and Walter Raleigh (a participant) acted according to the normal practice of the time. Even by the standards of their own day, these men were war criminals. - Yours, etc,
LEO ENRIGHT, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.