02 March 2023

A tale of two synods: Adomnan of Iona and Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan

Online talk by Dr Alex Woolf

Organised by Groam House Museum. Tickets (£6 for non-members) available from Groam House website.

Adomnán of Iona is best known as the author of The Life of Saint Columba but his other extensive work ‘On the Holy Place’ was also widely read in the Middle Ages. It purports to be an account of the Holy Land and Constantinople given him by a Gallic bishop Arculf. This book contains the earliest surviving textual account of Mu’awiya, the fifth caliph of Islam, whose activities take up a chapter of the work. In this talk I suggest why Adomnán was interested in Mu’awiya and what use he put him to.