The episode of St. George and the Dragon
was a legend brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly
appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance. The earliest known depiction
of the legend is from early 11th-century Cappadocia (in the iconography of the
Eastern Orthodox Church, George had been depicted as a soldier since at least
the seventh century); the earliest known surviving narrative text is an
11th-century Georgian text.
Saint George is somewhat of an exception
among saints and legends, in that he is known and revered by Muslims, while
being venerated by Christians throughout the Middle East, from Egypt to Asia
Minor. His stature in these regions derives from the fact that his figure has
become somewhat of a composite character mixing elements from Biblical,
Quranic, and folkloric sources, at times being the partially contrapositive of Al-Khidr.
He is said to have killed a dragon near the sea in Beirut, for which a Saint
George Bay was built under his name. At the beginning of the 20th century, Arab
Christian women visited his shrine in the area to pray for him.
