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From late 'Abbasid times onwards the word Arab reverts to its earlier meaning of Bedouin or nomad, becoming in effect a social rather than an ethnic term. In many of the Western chronicles of the Crusades it is used only for Bedouin, while the mass of the Muslim population of the Near East are called Saracens. It is certainly in this sense that in the sixteenth century Tasso speaks of 'Altri Arabi poi, che di soggiorno, / certo non sono stabili abitanti;'
Gerusalemme Liberata, XVII 21. (On The Black Plague) | ||
