Imperi e fedi a confronto: la corrispondenza fra Leone III e 'Umar II (VIII secolo).

The purported correspondence on faith between Emperor Leo III and Caliph Umar II, conserved in the work of an Armenian historian and in two recently discovered manuscripts, has long drawn the attention of scholars. While most of the modern debate has developed around the authenticity of the letter exchange and around the contents of the religious controversy, the issue of how the two writers address each other in the extant texts can shed some light on how two major religious and political alterities, Byzantium and the Caliphate, conceived the position of their opponent, as well as their own. The paper will briefly discuss the various positions on the authenticity and date of the letters, and will move on to analyse how each of the two powers in the debate represents the other, especially in political terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]