Arestis single-handedly fights a Saracen army after crossing the Euphrates with an angel’s help in one of these works, the Song of Armouris. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this genre of Byzantine chivalric romances centered on the exploits of namesake border guards during the Arab–Byzantine Wars. One of these songs about Basil “Digenes” is considered the starting point of Modern Greek literature.
ANSWER: acritic songs [or akritiká traghúdhia; accept acritic literature; accept akríte or akrítis or acrites; accept Digenes Akritas or Dhiyenís Akrítas]
[10e] Heraclius refuses to convert to Islam during the Arab–Byzantine Wars in the Utend̠i wa Tambuka, an early poem in this East African language, which also includes ushairi poetry.
ANSWER: Swahili [or Kiswahili]
[10m] This author provided an Arab perspective on conflicts between Arabs and Western Christians in his book The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. This Lebanese-French author fictionalized the loss of the Rubaiyat manuscript in the Titanic in his novel Samarkand.
ANSWER: Amin Maalouf
<AMS, World Literature>