Barbara Roggema – författare

The Christian communities of the Middle East distinguish themselves through their unique languages, their ethnic identities and their doctrinal stances. Whereas the history of doctrinal disputes has been a topic of old in Western scholarship, it is only in more recent times that scholars have begun to investigate how the Christian communities of the Nile-to-Oxus region perceived themselves and how they asserted their distinct identities vis-a-vis their neighbours and maintained a sense of communal integrity in response to cultural change and foreign domination. This volume brings together a number of key studies, many specially translated into English for this volume, which deal with this question of Eastern Christian self-definition. In the introduction Barbara Roggema reviews a number of themes which serve as tools to dissect aspects of Christian identity in the Coptic, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian and Georgian communities: labeling of the self and others, the invention of historical and Biblical roots, linguistic pride, the role of doctrine in community formation, and the assertion of superiority vis-a-vis other religions, especially Islam.Included in the volume is an extensive bibliography on the topic of Eastern Christian self-understanding.

From the eighth century onwards, Christians living under Islam have produced numerous apologetic and polemical works, aimed at proving the continuing validity of Christianity. Among these is the Legend of Sergius Baḥīrā, which survives in two Syriac and two Arabic versions, and appears here in edition and translation. Being a counterhistory of Islam, it reshapes early Muslim traditions about a monk recognizing Muḥammad as the final Prophet by turning this monk into Muhammad’s tutor and co-author of the Qur’an. In response to Muslim triumphalist propaganda, it portrays Islam’s political power as predestined but finite and unrelated to its religious message. This feature sets the legend apart from similar Christian accounts of the origin of Islam, East and West, which are reviewed in this study as well.

Christian-Muslim Relations, a Bibliographical History 1 (CMR1) is the first part of a general history of relations between the faiths from the seventh century to the present. It covers the period from 600 to 1500, when encounters took place through the extended Mediterranean basin and are recorded in Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin and other languages. It comprises introductory essays on the treatment of Christians in the Qur'an, Qur'an commentaries, biographies of the Prophet, Hadith and Sunni law, and of Muslims in canon law, and the main body of more than two hundred detailed entries on all the works recorded, whether surviving or lost. These entries provide biographical details of the authors where known, descriptions and assessments of the works themselves, and complete accounts of manuscripts, editions, translations and studies. The result of collaboration between leading scholars, CMR1 is intended as a basic tool for research in Christian-Muslim relations.