There is a multiplicity of sources available to historians and scholars of Christian-Muslim relations in the field of diplomatic contacts. These texts and documents show us, above all, the variety that exists in contacts of this kind between Muslim and Christian rulers, from the very beginning of Islam: official messages and letters, embassies or treaties, open negotiations and secret dealings, and in Arabic, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian and Persian.[2]

This multiplicity of documents is also important when we consider their nature: narrative as well as n…