[1] Eugolius, "Mem. Sanct." i. sec. 9; and Alvar, Ind. Lum.
sec. 5.

[2] So Eulogius, 1. 1., and Dozy, ii., 129. Alvar's account (1.
1.) is not very intelligible: "Parvipendens nostrum prophetam,
semper eius nomen in derisione frequentas, et mendacium tuum
per iuramenta nostrae religionis, ut tibi videtur, falsa
auribus te ignorantium Christianum esse semper confirmas."

[3] Or, according to Eulogius, 500.

So far we have had cases, where the charge of persecution, brought by
the apologists of the martyrs against the Moslems, can be more or less
sustained, but the next instance is of a different character. Isaac,[1]
a monk of Tabanos, and descended from noble and wealthy ancestors, was
born in 824, and by his knowledge of Arabic, attained in early life to
the position of an exceptor, or scribe,[2] but gave up his appointment
at the age of twenty, in order to enter the monastery of Tabanos, which
his uncle and aunt, Jeremiah and Elizabeth, had founded near Cordova.

[1] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," ii. ch. ii. sec. 1, also Pref.,
secs. 2 ff. After his death Isaac was credited with having
performed miracles from his earliest years. He was said to have
spoken three times in his mother's womb (cp. a similar fable
about Jesus in the Koran, c. iii. verse 40), and when a child,
to have embraced, unhurt, a globe of fire from Heaven.

[2] Not, as Florez, a tax-gatherer.

Roused by the tale of Perfectus' death and John's sufferings, he