History of Christian-Muslim Relations – serie

The apologetical writings of the Jacobite Christian, Abū Rā’iṭah al-Takrītī († c. 835) have remained relatively unknown in Western scholarship. Yet his engagement with Muslim questions about Christianity provides a significant insight into the theological debate between the two communities in the early ʿAbbāsid period.Abū Rā’iṭah’s treatises take up many of the topics that become standard for Christian-Muslim apologetics: proofs of the true religion, the Trinity, the Incarnation, and Christian practices. In each case, he provides his reader with complex arguments in defense of Christian doctrines that can be used to convince both Muslims and wavering Christians of the truth of Christianity.This new Arabic edition and English translation seeks to contextualize Abū Rā’iṭah’s important writings and to make the original texts available to modern scholars interested in all aspects of the early development of Muslim-Christian relations.

The theme of this book is the early encounters between Christianity and Islam in the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire and in Persia from the beginnings of Islam in Mecca to the time of the Abbasids in Bagdad. The contributions in this volume deal with crucial subjects of political and theological dialogue and controversy that characterized the varying responses of the Christian communities in the Byzantine Eastern provinces to the Islamic conquest and its subsequent impact on Byzantine society and history.This volume opens up new research perspectives surrounding the confrontation of Christianity with the early theological and political development of Islam. The present publication emphasizes the importance of the study of the beginnings and the foundations of the relations between the two religions.

The contributions to this volume, which come from the Fifth Mingana Symposium, survey the use of the Bible and attitudes towards it in the early and classical Islamic periods. The authors explore such themes as early Christian translations of the Bible into Arabic, the use of verses from it to defend the truth of Christianity, to interpret the significance of Islam and to prove its error, Muslim accusations of corruption of the Bible, and the influences that affected production of Bibles in Muslims lands. The volume illustrates the centrality of the Bible to Arab Christians as a source of authority and information about their experiences under Islam, and the importance of upholding its authenticity in the face of Muslim criticisms.Contributors include: Samir Arbache, Mark Beaumont, Emmanouela Grypeou, Lucy-Anne Hunt, Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala, Said Gabriel Reynolds, Barbara Roggema, Harald Suermann and Mark Swanson.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) lived at an important juncture during the long and tortuous history of the conflict between Islam and Europe. Scholars have long focused on his apocalyptic interpretation of the rise of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, but only a few have probed deeper into his thought on Islam. As a result, one of the most influential thinkers in the western intellectual tradition has received very little attention in the history of Christian perceptions of and responses to Islam. Drawing upon a vast array of the Reformer’s writings while also examining several key texts, this book reveals an often-overlooked aspect of Luther's thought, and thereby provides fresh insight into his place in the history of Christian-Muslim relations.

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.

The Muslim accusation of the corruption or deliberate falsification of pre-Qur'ānic scriptures has been a major component of interfaith polemic for a millenium or more. The accusation has frequently sought attestation from a series of "tampering" verses in the Qur'ān. Investigation of the interpretation of these verses in the earliest commentaries on the Qur'ān, however, reveals a discrepancy between the confident polemical accusation and the tentative understandings of the first Muslims. Of greater interest to early commentators was a story of deception and obstinacy by the "People of the Book" in response to the truth claims of Islam. Focusing on the eighth-century commentary of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān and the great exegetical compendium of al-Ṭabarī (d. 923), this book sketches the outlines of the earliest Muslim approach to pre-Qur'ānic scriptures. The resulting discoveries provide a rare opportunity to peek behind the curtain of doctrinaire claim and polemical debate.

The patristic, ecclesiological, and liturgical revival in the Orthodox Church has had a profound impact on world Orthodoxy and the ecumenical movement. Orthodox leaders have also contributed to the movement’s efforts in inter-religious dialogue, especially with Muslims. Yet this book is the first comprehensive attempt to assess an Orthodox ‘position’ on Islam. It explains why, despite being neighbors for centuries, relations between Orthodox Christians and Muslims have become increasingly complex as internal and external forces challenge their ability to understand each other and live in peace. It demonstrates how a growing number of Orthodox scholars and leaders have reframed the discussion on Islam, while endorsing and participating in dialogue with Muslims. It shows how a positive relationship with Muslims (and Islam in a general sense) is an essential aspect of Orthodox Christians’ historical past, present identity, and future aspirations.

Lebanon is a significant region of encounter between Muslims and Christians in the Middle East. This book examines how Christian-Muslim dialogue is envisioned by four present-day Lebanese thinkers: Great Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah and Doctor Mahmoud Ayoub from the Shiite tradition, and Metropolitan Georges Khodr and Doctor, Father Mouchir Basile Aoun from the Eastern Christian Antiochian tradition. The study seeks to bring the four thinkers into dialogue on a number of topics, including doctrinal themes, ethical principles and the issue of political power-sharing in Lebanon. All four thinkers make several suggestions for facilitating mutual understanding and transcending old debates. The concept of God and the principle of neighbourly love seem to have particular potential as fruitful bases for further dialogue.

Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī’s (d. 716/1316) extraordinary commentary on the Christian scriptures has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. Illustrating the way in which the Bible was read, interpreted and used as a proof-text in the construction of early 14th century Muslim views of Christianity, his al-Ta‘līq ‘alā al-Anājīl al-arba‘a wa-al-ta‘līq ‘alā al-Tawrāh wa-‘alā ghayrihā min kutub al-anbiyā’ (Critical Commentary on the Four Gospels, the Torah and other Books of the Prophets) is an invaluable treasure for the study of Muslim-Christian dialogue and its history. In Muslim Exegesis of the Bible in Medieval Cairo, Lejla Demiri makes this important and unusual work available for the first time in a scholarly edition and English translation, with a full introduction that places Ṭūfī in his intellectual context.

The Character of Christian-Muslim Encounter is a Festschrift in honour of David Thomas, Professor of Christianity and Islam, and Nadir Dinshaw Professor of Inter Religious Relations, at the University of Birmingham, UK. The Editors have put together a collection of over 30 contributions from colleagues of Professor Thomas that commences with a biographical sketch and representative tribute provided by a former doctoral student, and comprises a series of wide-ranging academic papers arranged to broadly reflect three dimensions of David Thomas’ academic and professional work – studies in and of Islam; Christian-Muslim relations; the Church and interreligious engagement. These are set in the context of a focussed theme – the character of Christian-Muslim encounters – and cast within a broad chronological framework. Contributors, excluding the editors, are: Clare Amos, John Azumah, Mark Beaumont, David Cheetham, Rifaat Ebied, Stanisław Grodź SVD, Alan Guenther, Damian Howard SJ, Michael Ipgrave, Muammer İskenderoğlu, Risto Jukko, Alex Mallett, Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, Lucinda Mosher, Gordon Nickel, Jørgen Nielsen, Claire Norton, Emilio Platti, Luis Bernabé Pons, Peniel Rajkumar, Peter Riddell, Umar Ryad, Andrew Sharp, Sigvard von Sicard, Richard Sudworth, Mark Swanson, Charles Tieszen, John Tolan, Davide Tacchini, Herman Teule, Albert Walters.

Early Christian-Muslim Debate on the Unity of God examines the writings of three of the earliest known Christian theologians to write comprehensive theological works in Arabic. Theodore Abū Qurra, Abū Rā’iṭa and ‘Ammār al-Baṣrī provide valuable insight into early Christian-Muslim debate shortly after the rise of the Islamic empire. Through close examination of their writings on the doctrine of the Trinity, Sara Husseini demonstrates the creativity of these theologians, who make use of language, style and argumentation characteristic of Islamic theological thought (kalām), in order to help articulate their long-established religious truths. Husseini offers close analysis of the authors individually and comparatively, exploring their engagement with Islamic theology and their role in this fascinating period.

This study examines the history of an Arabic Bible translation of American missionaries in late Ottoman Syria. Comparing the history of this project as recorded by the American missionaries with private correspondence and the manuscripts of the translation, The Contested Origins of the 1865 Arabic Bible provides new evidence for the Bible’s compilation, including the seminal role of Syrian Christians and Muslims. This research also places the project within the wider social-political framework of a transforming Ottoman Empire, where the rise of a literate class in Beirut served as a catalyst for the Arabic literary renaissance (Nahḍa), and within the international field of New Testament textual studies.

al-Radd al-jamīl attributed to al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) is the most extensive and detailed refutation of the divinity of Jesus by a Muslim author in the classical period of Islam. Since the discovery of the manuscript in the 1930’s scholars have debated whether the great Muslim theologian al-Ghazālī was really the author.This is a new critical edition of the Arabic text and the first complete English translation. The introduction situates this work in the history of Muslim anti-Christian polemical writing. Mark Beaumont and Maha El Kaisy-Friemuth argue that this refutation comes from an admirer of al-Ghazālī who sought to advance some of his key ideas for an Egyptian audience.

The Gospel According to Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) offers an annotated translation of Tabyīn al-kalām (Part 3), a commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew (Chapters 1-5) by one of South Asia’s most innovative public thinkers. Broadly known for his modernist interpretation of Islam, Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) appears here as a contemplative mystic who is determined to show the interrelated nature of the Bible and Qur’ān, and the affinity of Christian and Muslim scriptural exegesis. Uncommon in the history of Christian-Muslim relations, Sayyid Ahmad Khan presents what can only be described as a serious reading of the Gospel. The work includes an extensive introduction to the early Church in general, and the development of the Trinitarian doctrine in particular. Never before presented in English, the text sheds important new light upon the spiritual and intellectual journey of this leading modern interpreter.

Antonia Bosanquet’s Minding Their Place is the first full-length study of Ibn al-Qayyim’s (d. 751/1350) collection of rulings relating to non-Muslim subjects, Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma. It offers a detailed study of the structure, content and authorial method of the work, arguing that it represents the author’s personal composition rather than a synthesis of medieval rulings, as it has often been understood. On this basis, Antonia Bosanquet analyses how Ibn al-Qayyim’s presentation of rulings in Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma uses space to convey his view of religious hierarchy. She considers his answer to the question of whether non-Muslims have a place in the Abode of Islam, how this is defined and how his definition contributes to Ibn al-Qayyim’s broader theological world-view.