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From Late LatinSaracenus, from Ancient GreekΣαρακηνός(Sarakēnós) - *Saraka + -ινος. The source of the Greek has long been debated. In the 17th-19th century the most widely accepted theory derived it from Arabicشَرْقِيِّين(šarqiyyin, “easterners”). Since the Sarakenoi lived to the east of most Semitic peoples of the time. Some authors in the 15th-17th centuries dervied it from Arabicسَارِقُون(plunderers) (sariqun), as mentioned in wikipedia Saracen. A yet older theory from the 4th century CE (e.g. Eusebius), connected it to biblical Sarah, claiming that the progeny of Hagar had chosen that name to imitate the nobler roots of Israelites. This is probably the source of the pejorative use of the term, and its wide currency Two theories based on place-names point at Saraka in Arabia, or Sarakēnē in Arabia Petrea. The latter, apparently in Sinai, and may be related to the Bedouin tribe Sawārke/Sawārika. According to this theory this was the first Arabic group with whom the Greek writers from Alexandria would have sustained contacts, and it served as a type that was later generalized to all Arabic groups.[1][2]