The Almuslih Library

Early Non-Muslim Sources

The importance of non-Muslim sources, particularly Syriac sources, for understanding the events of the emergence of the new faith of Islam in the Late Antique world was largely neglected by scholars until the beginning of the current millennium. There is still a need for further collaboration between historians, theologians and linguists to promote this endeavour, and to ensure that the nature of Late Antique monotheistic debate and exchange is distributed more widely than has hitherto been the case. This sub-section of the Almuslih Library is an introductory catalogue intended to provide easy access to works, many of which are difficult to find.

Early non-Muslim sources

Overviews

Collected sourcebooks

Source texts to the year 800 AD

Apocalyptic literature on the conquests

Early apologetics as a historical source

Overviews

Source texts to the year 800 AD

Later apologetics (post-800 AD)

Source texts post 800 AD

Jewish and Christian Polemics in Relation to Early Islam

Early non-Muslim sources

Overviews

Bonner, M (ed): Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times, The Formation of the Classical Islamic World, v. 8, Ashgate Variorum 2004.

Borrut, A and Donner, F (edd.) – Christians and Others in the Umayyad State, Late Antique and Medieval Islamic Near East, vol. 1. Chicago 2016.

Brock, S: Syriac historical writing, a survey of the main sources. The Oriental Institute, Oxford.

Brock, S: Syriac Sources for Seventh-Century History, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Vol 2 (1976), 17-36. Blackwell.

Brock, S: Syriac Views of Emergent Islam in Studies on the First Century of Islam, edited by G. H. A. Juynboll, pp.9-21 and 199-203 (Bibliography). Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982.

Brzozowska, Z, Leszka, M and Wolińska, T: Muhammad and the Origins of Islam in the Byzantine-Slavic Literary Context, A Bibliographical History, Byzantina Lodziensia XLI, Lodz, 2020.

Cameron, A: Patristic studies and the emergence of Islam, in Patristic Studies in the Twenty-first Century: Proceedings of an International Conference to Mark the 50th Anniversary of the International Association of Patristic Studies, 2013 Eds. Brouria Bitton-Askelony, Theodore de Bruyn, Carol Harrison, Oscar Velásquez.

Carrasco, C: La visión inicial del Islam por el Cristianismo oriental. Siglos VII-X in Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Heraicos. Sección Árabe-Islam 61 (2012), pp.61-85.

Cecota, B: Islam, the Arabs and Umayyad Rulers According to Theophanes the Confessor’s Chronography in Studia Ceranea 2, 2012, p. 97–111.

Déroche, V: Polémique Antijudaïque et Émergence de l’Islam, in Dagron, G and Déroche, V, Juifs et Chrétiens en Orient Byzantin, Paris 2010, pp.465-484.

Griffith, S: The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam, Princeton University Press, 2008. Particularly chapter II: Apocalypse and the Arabs: The first Christian Responses to the Challenge of Islam.

Grypeou, E (ed): The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2006.

Howard-Johnston, J: Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Hoyland, R: The Earliest Christian Writings on Muhammad in Motzki, H (ed): The Biography of Muḥammad, The Issue of the Sources, Brill 2000, pp.276-297.

Levy-Rubin, M: Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire: From Surrender to Coexistence, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization, 1, 2011.

Lindstedt, I: Muhammad and his followers in context: The Religious Map of Late Antique Arabia, Brill Leiden and Boston 2023.

Martinez, F: La Literatura Apocalíptica y las Primeras Reacciones Cristianas a la Conquista Islámica en Oriente.Conference paper, Real Academia de la Historia, April 2002.

Maximov, Y (ed): Византийские сочинения об исламе. Том I, (‘Byzantine Writings on Islam’ Vol.1). Texts, translations and commentary. Izdatelʹstvo PSTGU, Moskva, Russia, 2012. Tr. by Y. Maximov and E. Orekhanova.

Mikhail, M: Utilizing Non-Muslim Literary Sources for the Study of Egypt, 500–1000 CE, in Bruning, J and De Jong, J and Sijpesteijn, P (edd.): Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean World From Constantinople to Baghdad, 500-1000 CE,Cambridge University Press 2022, pp.465-492.

Nöldeke, T: Zur Geschichte der Araber im 1. Jahdes. d. H. aus syrischen Quellen, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 29 (1875): 76-98.

Ohlig, K: Die christliche Literatur under arabischer Herrschaft im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert. Inarah.de.

Ohlig, K: Evidence of a New Religion in Christian Literature “Under Islamic Rule”? in Ohlig, K (ed): Early Islam, A Critical Reconstruction based on Contemporary Sources, Prometheus Books, 2013, pp.176-250.

Palmer, A: The Seventh Century in West-Syrian Chronicles, (with S. Brock and R. Hoyland), Liverpool university Press, 1993.

Penn, M: Envisioning Islam: Syriac Christians and the Early Muslim World. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.

Penn, M: God’s War and His Warriors: The First Hundred Years of Syriac Accounts of the Islamic Conquests, in Sohail H. Hashemi (ed): Just Wars, Holy Wars, and Jihads: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Encounters and Exchanges, Oxford University Press, 2012. Part One, Section 3: pp.69-88.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015

Qanawātī, J: المسيحية والحضارة العربية (‘Christianity and Arab Culture’)، Al-Muassasa al- ‘Arabiyya lil-Dirāsa wal-Nashr.

Reinink, G: Early Christian Reactions to the Building of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemin Христианский ВостокVol. 2, 2001, pp.227-241.

Reinink, G: From Apocalyptics to Apologetics: Early Syriac Reactions to Islam in Brandes, W and Schmieder, S (edd.): Endzeiten – Eschatologie in den monotheistischen Weltreligionen, De Gruyter 2008, pp.75-87.

Reynolds, G.S: نشوء الإسلام – التقاليد الكلاسيكيّة من منظور معاصر (the opening section of The Emergence of Islam, tr. Saʽd Saʽdī and ‘Abbūd Saʽdī), Beirut, Dar al-Machreq, 2017.

Saadi, A-M: Nascent Islam in the Seventh Century Syriac Sources in The Qur’ān in its Historical Context. Edited by Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Routledge Studies in the Qur’ān. London / New York: Routledge, 2007, pp.217-222.

Sahas, D: The Seventh Century in the Byzantine-Muslim Relations: Characteristics and Forcesin Sahas, D: Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.256-275.

Sahas, D: Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters,. Part 1: Mental and Theological Predispositions for a Relationship, or Conflict; Part 2: Historical Preambles under the Sting of the Arab Conquests; Part 3: Damascenica: Part 4: On or Off the Path of the Damascene. Brill, Leiden.

Segal, Judah Benzion, Syriac Chronicles as Source Material for the History of Islamic Peoples, in Historians of the Middle East. Edited by Lewis, Bernard and Holt, Peter Malcolm. London: Oxford University Press, 1962, pp.246-258.

Shahîd, Irfan, Islam and Oriens Christianus: Makka 610-622 AD, in Grypeou, E (ed): The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2006, pp.9-31.

Shoemaker, S: Syriac Apocalypticism and the Rise of Islam

Shoemaker, S: The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. Philadelphia PA, University of Pennsylvania Press 2018.

Shoemaker, S: ‘The Reign of God Has Come’: Eschatology and Empire in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, Arabica, Volume 61, Issue 5, 2014, pages 514 – 558.

Suermann, H: Early Islam in the Light of Christian and Jewish Sources, in Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai, Michael Marx (edd.), The Qurʾān in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qurʾānic Milieu, Texts and Studies on the Qurʾān 6, Leiden, Boston 2010, pp.135-148.

Tolan, J: Christian reactions to Muslim conquests (1st-3rd centuries AH; 7th-9th centuries AD) in Volkhard Krech & Marion Stienicke, eds, Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe: Encounters, Notions, and Comparative Perspectives (Leiden: Brill, 2012, 191-202 [Proceedings of the conference at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (October 2008)].

Van Breukelen, M: Relations Arabia and Byzantium fifth-ninth century: Muslims, Christians and Jews. Vol.1 History and Historiography, Ridero 2022.

Van Ginkel, J: The Perception and Presentation of the Arab Conquest in Syriac Historiography: How Did the Changing Social Position of the Syrian Orthodox Community Influence the Account of Their Historiographers?,pp.171-184 of Grypeou, E (ed): The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2006.

Wood, P: Christians in the Middle East, 600-1000: Conquest, Competition and Conversion in A. Peacock, B. Da Nicola and S.-N. Yildiz (eds.), The Islamization of Anatolia, c.1100-1500, pp.23-50.

Yadgar, L: Jewish Accounts of Muhammad and His Apostate Informants. Mizan Project.

Collected sourcebooks

Boras, L : “A prophet has appeared coming with the Saracens”: The non-Islamic testimonies on the prophet and the Islamic conquest of Egypt in the 7th-8th centuries. MA Thesis, Radboud University, June 2017.

Hoyland, R: Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam. Vol. 13 Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1997.

Hoyland, R: الإسلام كما رآه الآخرون – مسح وتقييم للكتابات المسيحية واليهودية والزردشتية عن الإسلام المبكر (Arabic translation of Seeing Islam as Others Saw It), tr. Hilāl Muḥammad al-Jihād, Maktabat al-‘Awlaqī, Yemen 2024.

Kirby, P: External References to Islam (excerpts from Hoyland: Seeing Islam as Others Saw It).

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015.

Penn, M: حين التقى المسيحيون بالمسلمين أول مرة (Arabic translation of When Christians First Met Muslims, tr. ‘Abd al-Maqṣūd ‘Abd al-Karīm).

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021.

Thomas, D (ed): The Bloomsbury Reader in Christian-Muslim Relations, 600-1500, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.

Source Texts to the year 800 AD

< 634

The Teaching of Jacob Διδασκαλία Ίακώβου Νεοβαπτίστου

John Moschus Λειμών

< 637

Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem Epistula Synodica – Εις τα θεια του Σωτηρος Γενεθλια – Εις το Αγιον βαπτισμα

Fragment on the nomads’ conquests

Stephen of Alexandria Ἀποτελεσματικὴ Πραγματεία πρὸς Τιμόθεον

< 640

Chronicle (Thomas the Presbyter) ܡܟܬܒ ܙܒܵܢܐ

Maximus the Confessor Ἐπιστολή Δογματική

< 650

St Ephrem’s Homily on the End-Times ܥܠ ܚܪܬܐ ܕܦܣܝܩܬܐ

An Armenian Chronicle Պատմութիւն Սեբէոսի

Coptic Apocalypse of Pseudo-Shenute. نبوة ابينا القديس انبا شنودا

Fredegar Chronicorum Liber Quartus

< 660

Letters of Isho’yahb III of Adiabene ܟܬܒܐ ܕܐܓܪܵܬܐ

The Secrets of Rabbi Shim‘ōn ben Yoḥai נסתרות רבי שמעון בן יוחאי

The Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer פִּרְקֵי דְּרַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר

The Panegyric of the Three Holy Children of Babylon Ⲡⲉⲣⲫⲙⲉⲩⲓ ⲛ̄ⲡⲓⲅ̄ ⲛⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲉⲧϧⲉⲛ ⲃⲁⲃⲩⲗⲱⲛ

< 670

The Khuzistan Chronicle ܫܪܵܒܐ ܡܕܡ ܡܢ ܬܫܥܝܵܬܐ ܥܕܬܢܝܵܬܐ

The Maronite Chronicle ܡܟܬܒ ܙܒܵܢܐ ܕܣܝܡ ܠܐܢܫ ܕܡܢ ܒܝܬ ܡܪܘܢ

Theophilus of Alexandria’s Homily ميمر قاله انبا تاوفيلس من اجل بطرس وبولس

< 690

Anastasius of Sinai Οδηγος – Ερωτησεις και Αποκρισεις

Adomnán De Locis Sanctis

Jacob of Edessa Letters to John the Stylite

The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu

Theophilus of Edessa Chronicle source

John Bar Penkaye ܟܬܒܐ ܕܪܝܫ ܡܠܐ

< 700

Syriac Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius ܡܐܡܪܐ ܥܠ ܝܘܒܠܐ ܕܡܿܠܟܐ̈ ܘܥܠ ܚܪܬ ܙܒ̈ܢܐ

Edessene fragment of Pseudo-Methodius

< 710

Coptic Apocalypse of Pseudo-Athanasius ⲟⲩⲗⲟⲅⲟⲥ ⲉⲁϥⲧⲁⲟⲩⲟϥ ⲡⲉⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲥ

Apocalypse of John the Little ܓܠܝܢܐ ܕܝܘܚܢܢ ܙܥܘܪܐ

Greek Daniel (First Vision) Διήγησις περὶ τῶν ἡμερῶν τοῦ ἀντιχρίστου τὸ πῶς μέλλει γενέσθαι

< 780

Ps.-Methodius, Greek addendum Περὶ τοῦ ἀφανισμοῦ τῶν Σαρακηνῶν καὶ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου συντελείας

The Zuqnīn Chronicle ܡܟܬܒܢܘܬܐ ܕܬܫܥܝܬܐ ܕܙܒ̈ܢܐ

Baḫirā (‘Sergius the Monk’) ܬܫܝܬܐ ܕܪܒܢ ܣܪܓܝܣ ܕܡܬܩܪܐ ܒܚܝܪܐ

The Coptic Apocalypse of Daniel ϯⲡⲣⲟⲫⲏⲧⲓⲁ ⲛ̄ⲇⲁⲛⲓⲏⲗ ⲡⲓⲡⲣⲟⲫⲏⲧⲏⲥ

Ghewond’s History Պատմութիւն Ղեւոնդեայ

The Ehnesh Inscription

Later visionary / apocalyptic works

The Apocalypse of Ps. Ezra ܫܐܠܬܐ ܕܫܐܠ ܥܙܪܐ ܥܠ ܥܬܝܵܕܬܐ ܕܒܐܚܪܝܬ ܙܒܢܐ̈

The Apocalypse of Peter كتاب المجال– جليان بطرس

Later non-Muslim historical texts

Theophanes the Confessor Χρονογραφια

Agapius (Maḥbūb) كتاب العنوان

Michael the Syrian ܡܟܬܒܢܘܬ ܙܒ̈ܢܐ

< 634

The Teaching of Jacob Διδασκαλία Ίακώβου Νεοβαπτίστου

The Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati or Teaching of Jacob newly baptized (dated to July 634 AD) is a series of debates that took place among the Jews of North Africa in response to their forced baptism under Heraclius in 632. One of the discussions mentions in passing a letter that one had recently sent his brother from Palestine, mentioning the recent arrival of the Saracens who had entered the Holy Land under the leadership of a new unnamed prophet who was proclaiming the imminent arrival of the Messiah. Individuals who had met this prophet had said that he was false, ‘for the prophets do not come armed with a sword and a war chariot’ – μὴ γὰρ οἱ προφὴται μετὰ ξίφους καὶ ἂρματος ἔρχονται – and that ‘there was no truth to be found in the so-called prophet, only the shedding of men’s blood. He says also that he has the keys of paradise, which is incredible’. The text implies that the Prophet was still alive and leading his followers as they first entered the Byzantine lands, and that the prophet’s message was eschatological, preaching the end of times when Christ will return. The Greek original of the text has been preserved in a direct but acephalous version and in an abbreviated version, so the main text has to be taken from later Arabic, Ethiopic and Slavic translations. The work remains a subject of controversy, with scholars disagreeing on whether the unnamed prophet, in an age awash of apocalyptic preachers, refers to Muḥammad, or whether it comes from a later date and dependent upon subsequent messianic writings.

Anthony, S: Muhammad, the Keys to Paradise, and the Doctrina Jacobi: A Late Antique Puzzle. Der Islam 2014; 91(2): 243–265.

Dagron, G and Déroche, V: Juifs et Chrétiens dans l’Orient du VIIe Siècle, in Dagron, G and Déroche, V, Juifs et Chrétiens en Orient Byzantin, Paris 2010, pp.47-273. Greek text, French translation and commentary.

Hoyland Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam. p.55-61.

Jacobs, A: Teaching of Jacob Newly Baptized. English translation of the text.

Nau, F: La Didascalie de Jacob, Première Assemblée, in Patrologia Orientalis, Vol. VIII, Paris 1912, pp.711-780 (Greek text pp.745-780).

Shaddel, M: Doctrina Iacobi and the Rise of Islam (in Nadine Viermann and Johannes Wienand, Reading the Late Roman Monarchy).

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. pp.37-45.

Van der Horst, P: A Short Note on the Doctrina Jacobi Nuper Baptizati. Brill, Leiden 2009.

Von Sivers, P: Dating the Doctrina Iacobi, an Anti-Jewish Text of Late Antiquity, Inarah Publications, 2022. Dating the “Doctrina Iacobi” and “The Nistarot of Rabbi Simon b. Yohai,” hitherto assumed to have been composed in the 630s, to the end of the seventh century.

John Moschus Λειμών

The Byzantine monk John Moschus (c.550-619) includes among his 300 or so anecdotes on the feats and achievements of holy men in his Pratum Spirituale (Λειμων) some mentions of ‘Saracens’ as predatory creatures whose attacks are foiled by appeals to God or helped by holy men. The accounts give an indication of the worsening conditions that preceded the conquest of Palestine. An appendix to the Georgian version includes a detailed description of the Saracens’ entry into Jerusalem and their immediate construction of a miżgit’a on the Temple Mount.

Sahas, D: Saracens and Arabs in the Leimon of John Moschosin Sahas, D: Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.203-217.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. pp.73-80.

Wortley, J: The Spiritual Meadow (Pratum Spirituale), Introduction, Translation and Notes, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1992. The attacks of the ‘Saracens’ are featured in sections 21, 99, 107, 133, 155.

Migne, J: Patrologia Graeca, Pratum Spirituale, Λειμων, Vol. 87, pp.2844-3116. Greek text with Latin translation. Extracted sections 21, 99, 107, 133, 155.

< 637

Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem Epistula Synodica – Εις τα θεια του Σωτηρος Γενεθλια – Εις το Αγιον βαπτισμα

Sophronius was the Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. c.639), who witnessed the first wave of Arab attacks which he recorded in his letters and sermons. He was tasked with collaborating with the invaders and surrendering Jerusalem to ‘Umar. His works significant for early Islam include his Synodical Letter (late 634) in which he refers to the invaders’ ‘wanton acts, full of madness’, who ‘on account of our sins they have now unexpectedly risen up against us and are seizing everything as booty with cruel and savage intent and godless and impious boldness’. In his Homily on the Nativity (25 December 634) he laments the Christians’ inability to travel to Bethlehem due to ‘the sword of the savage and barbaric Saracens which, filled with every diabolical cruelty, striking fear and bringing murder to light, keeps us banished … and threaten slaughter and destruction if we should go forth.’ In his Homily on Epiphany (6 Jan 636 or 637) Sophronius wonders ‘Why is there endless shedding of human blood? Why are the birds of the sky devouring human flesh? Why have the churches been torn down? Why is the cross mocked? Why is Christ, the giver of every good thing and the provider of this our great joy, blasphemed by mouths of heathens?’ They ‘plunder cities, mow down fields, burn villages with fire, set flame to the holy churches, overturn the sacred monasteries … they mock us and increase their blasphemies against Christ and the church and speak iniquitous blasphemies against God. And these adversaries of God boast of conquering the entire world, unrestrainably imitating their general the Devil with great zeal, and emulating his delusion’ – τον στρατηγον αυτων ασχετως Διαβολον μετα πασης σπουδης εκμιμουμενοι. Sophronius ascribes the triumph of these ‘Ishmaelites’ and ‘Hagarenes’ to the sins of Christians, and sees no hope for rescue other than through increased piety.

Allen, P: Sophronius of Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy, The Synodical Letter and other Documents, Oxford Early Christian Texts, 2009, pp.152-155. Parallel Greek text and translation.

Migne, J: Sancti Sophronii Hierosolymitani Epistula Synodica ad Sergium Patriarcham Constantinopolitanum, in Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 87, pp.3147-3200. Greek text and Latin translation of the Synodical Letter, extracted section.

Migne, J: Sancti Sophronii Hierosolymitani Orationes – In Christi Servatoris Natalitia, in Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 87, pp.3201-3212. Latin translation.

Sahas, J: The face to face encounter between Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem and the Caliph ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb: Friends or Foes? in Grypeou, E (ed): The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, pp.33-44. Also in Sahas, D: Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.141-152.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.45-54.

Usener, H: Weihnachtspredigt des heiligen Sophronius in Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 41 (1886), pp.500-16. Greek text on The Nativity. Mentions of the Saracen threat: pp.506-7, 508, 515.

Papadopoulos-Kerameus, A (ed.): Του εν Αγιοις Πατρος ημων Σωφρονιου Αρχιεπισκοπου Λογος εις το Αγιονβαπτισμα, in Αναλεκτα Ιεροσολομιτικης Σταχυολογιας Vol. 5, St Petersburg 1898, pp.151-168. Greek text on The Epiphany / Holy Baptism. The passage on the Saracens begins at Section 10 (p.166).

Fragment on the nomads’ conquests

Some notes were written around the year 637 AD on the front blank pages of a sixth-century Syriac manuscript of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. These notes referenced the attacks by the ‘nomads’ (ṭayyāyē) and gave the first explicit reference to Muḥammad (ܡܘܚܡܕ mūḫmd) by name in history. They mention how ‘many towns were destroyed in the slaughter by [the nomads of] Mūḫmd and many people were slain and taken prisoner … about fifty thousand’ and also intriguingly suggest that Muḥammad was still alive in 636 at the battle of Yarmouk (‘Gabitha’ in the text), contradicting the traditional Muslim accounts of the date of his death.

Brooks, E: Chronica Minora II, p.75 (Syriac text).

Nöldeke, T: Zur Geschichte der Araber im 1. Jahrh. d. H. aus syrischen Quellen, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 29 (1875): pp.77-82 (Syriac text and translation).

Palmer, A: The Seventh Century in West-Syrian Chronicles, (with S. Brock and R. Hoyland), Liverpool university Press, 1993, pp.2-4.

Palmer, A : Une chronique syriaque contemporaine de la conquête arabe: essai d’interprétation théologique et politique,in La Syrie de Byzance a l’Islam, VIIe–VIIIe siècles. Actes du Colloque international, Lyon–Maison de l’Orient Méditerranéen, Paris – Institut du Monde Arabe, 11–15 Septembre 1990. Edited by Canivet, Pierre and Rey-Coquais, Jean-Paul. Publications de l’Institut français de Damas 137. Damascus: Institut Français de Damas, 1992, pp.31-46.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.21-24.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.55-56.

Stephen of Alexandria Ἀποτελεσματικὴ Πραγματεία πρὸς Τιμόθεον

Stephanos Alexandreus (c.580 – c.640) was a Byzantine Greek philosopher who also wrote works on alchemy and astrology. In his Definitive Treatise addressed to his disciple Timotheos he mentions the emergence of a ‘new and godless lawgiving of Muḥammad’ (νεοφανῆ καὶ ἄθεον νομοθεσίαν τοῦ Μωάμεδ) and relates an intriguing anecdote told by a guest, an Arab merchant who had called in on him on the 3rd day of the month Thoth. This visitor mentioned how ‘In the desert of Ethrib there had appeared a certain man from the so-called tribe of Quraysh (Κορασιανων),of the genealogy of Ishmael, whose name was Muḥammad and who said he was a prophet … He has brought a new expression and a strange teaching (καινοφωνιας και διδαχην εξηλλαγμενην), promising to those who accept him victories in wars, domination over enemies and delights in paradise.’ At the request of the merchant, Stephen then casts a horoscope concerning this self-proclaimed prophet and his followers, and divines the length of future Arab domination to be ‘12 revolutions of Saturn’. The horoscope gives astrological details of the character of 21 Arab sovereigns and the events of their reigns, ending with Al-Mahdī (r.775-785), indicating that if the anecdote of the Arab merchant dates from the lifetime of Stephen, the text of the astrological prediction is a later interpolation. The horoscope concludes with a warning to ‘keep it to yourself, due to the changeability of the times and the cruelty of those in power’.

Papathanassiou, M: Stephanos of Alexandria: A Famous Byzantine Scholar, Alchemist and Astrologer, 2016.

Papathanassiou, M: Stephanos Von Alexandreia und Sein Alchemistisches Werk, Critical Edition, Athens, 2017.

Usener, H: De Stephano Alexandrino, 17-31 repr. in Usener, H: Kleine Schriften, III, Berlin 1914, pp.266-87. Greek text (the account of the Arab merchant appears on p.272 and the horoscope of the Arab kings: pp.279-286).

< 640

Chronicle (Thomas the Presbyter) ܡܟܬܒ ܙܒ̈ܢܐ

Part of a collection of historical texts compiled by an anti-Chalcedonian priest named Thomas, soon after Muḥammad’s followers invaded Mesopotamia in 639-640. One of the entries also gives one of the first explicit mentions of the name Muḥammad (ܡܿܚܡܛ maḫmṭ) when it states that ‘there was a battle between the Romans and the nomads of Muhammad in Palestine near Gaza …. Four thousand poor peasants of Palestine were killed .. and the nomads devastated the entire region’ and the work appears to reference the same incursions mentioned in the Doctrina Jacobi.

Brooks, E: Chronica Minora II, pp.147-8 (Syriac text).

Palmer, A: The Seventh Century in West-Syrian Chronicles, (with S. Brock and R. Hoyland), Liverpool university Press, 1993, pp.5-12.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.25-28.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.60-61.

Maximus the Confessor Ἐπιστολή Δογματική

In a letter dated between 634 and 640 Peter the governor of Numidia, the theologian Maximus indicates the importance of prayer (writing between 634 and 640), and in passing refers to grave unfolding events, as people are seeing ‘this barbarous people from the desert overrunning another’s lands as if they were their own’ as civilisation is being ‘ravaged by wild and untamed beasts whose form alone is human’. The Arab incursions are seen as part of the eschatological drama in which the Jews are accused as occupying the leading role.

Benevich, G: Christological Polemics of Maximus the Confessor and the Emergence of Islam onto the World Stage in Theological Studies, 2011.

Brock, S: An Early Syriac Life of Maximus the Confessor, in Analecta Bollandiana, Revue critique d’hagiographie, Vol. 1, Bruxelles, 1973, pp.299-346. Syriac text and English translation.

Maximus, Epistula 14, Πρός Πέτρον ἰλλούστριον ἐπιστολή δογματική in Migne Patrologia Graeca 91, 537-540. Extract from the Greek text.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.62-68.

Sahas, D: The Demonizing Force of the Arab Conquests: The Case of Maximus (ca. 580–662) as a Political “Confessor” in Sahas, D: Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.236-255. (Ἐπιστολή Δογματική pp.241-243).

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.57-59.

< 650

St Ephrem’s Homily on the End-Times ܥܠ ܚܪܬܐ ܕܦܣܝܩܬܐ

This memrã or verse homily, falsely attributed to St Ephrem (306-373), dates from the mid-640s, and the last historical events to which the apocalypse refers are the Near Eastern invasions by Muhammad’s followers in which ‘a people will emerge from the wilderness, the progeny of Hagar, the handmaid of Sara’. It is one of the first examples of an apocalyptic interpretation of the events of this period, by which Jerusalem features as the pivotal point of a divinely chosen, imminent eschatological empire that would subdue the world and hand over authority to God. Borrowing the imperial eschatology themes of the triumph of Christianity over Rome in the 4th century, the vision depicts the defeat of Persia by the Romans, to be followed by the victory of the descendants of Hagar (the Ishmaelites) who will drive the Romans from the Holy Land – a theme to be incorporated later in the Qur’ān (sūra XXX – ‘al-Rūm’ – verses 2-4).

Alexander, P and Abrahamse, D (edd): The Byzantine apocalyptic tradition, University of California Press1985, pp.136-147.

Beck, E (ed.): Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Sermones III (CSCO 320; Louvain: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1972), 60-71. English translation: Ephrem: A Discourse (memra).

Lamy, T ed.,: Sermo II – Mar Ephraemi de fine extremo in Sancti Ephraem Syri Hymni et Sermones, Mechliniae: H. Dessain, 1882-1902, Vol. 3: pp.187-212. Syriac text and Latin translation.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.37-47.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.80-93.

An Armenian Chronicle Պատմութիւն Սեբէոսի

An anonymous chronicle, traditionally attributed to a Bishop Sebeos and which relates events in the mid-650s, concluding with al-Mu‘āwiya’s victory in the First Civil War. The chronicle gives valuable information on the rise of the new believers, most probably relying on an earlier source dating from the 640s. It speaks of the rise of a preacher from the sons of Ishmael, and couches the narrative in Biblical references. It narrates how the preacher called for ‘fulfilling the promise to Abraham’, legislated laws (but without any mention of a ‘scripture’) and how ‘all the remnants of the people of the children of Israel assembled, they joined together, and they became a large army’ – indicating what appears to be an interconfessional community of the Believers. But it also speaks subsequently of ‘the plots of the seditious Jews, who when they secured an alliance with the Hagarenes for a little while, devised a plan to rebuild the Temple of Solomon … and when the Ishmaelites became envious of them, they drove them out from that place and called the same house of prayer their own.’

Abgaryan, G: Պատմութիւն Սեբէոսի, Erevan 1979. The critical Armenian edition.

Howard-Johnston, J: The History of Khosrov in Howard-Johnston, J: Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp.70-102 (‘History of Khosrov’).

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.62-72.

Thomson, R and Howard-Johnston, J: The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos, Liverpool, 1999.

Thomson, R: Muhammad and the Origin of Islam in Armenian Literary Tradition, in Armenian Studies in Memoriam Haig Berberian, Dickran Kouymjian, (ed) Lisbon 1986, pp.829-858.

Coptic Apocalypse of Pseudo-Shenute. نبوة ابينا القديس انبا شنودا

A short historical apocalypse, most likely composed about the year 644 by a Coptic miaphysite author in Shenute’s ‘White Monastery’ in Middle Egypt, and preserved as part of an Arabic and an Ethiopic version of the Life of Shenute. It consists of a prophecy of Christ to the Coptic saint Shenute (d. 464) about the end of time. The prophecy includes references to the Sasanian occupation of Egypt (619-29), the rule of Cyrus al-Muqawqis (631-42), and the Arab conquests. In addition, an historical passage gives a brief account of Muslim rule, mentioning harassment of the population, the wrongful gathering of possessions, and people abandoning Christ’s church owing to oppression. The text gives the impression of having been written to counter the threat of conversion to Islam, implicitly comparing the Muslim rulers with the Antichrist. The text states that after the trials of the Persian occupation (619-628) ‘the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Esau will arise, and they will pursue the Christians. And the rest of them will want to rule over the entire world and dominate it, and they will build the Temple in Jerusalem. When that happens, know that the end of time approaches and has drawn near. And the Jews will expect the Antichrist and will be ahead of the peoples at his arrival’ after which they will see ‘the [abomination of] desolation of which the prophet Daniel spoke standing in the holy place, [know that] they are those who deny the pains which I received upon the cross and who move freely about my church, fearing nothing at all’. The construction of a sanctuary on the Temple Mount, with the Jews taking the lead, and its interpretation as the fulfilment of the Gospel prophecy on the ‘Abomination of Desolation’ (Matthew 24:15-16), something ’set up’ on the Temple Mount, is a common topos in Apocalyptic literature but is here linked with the new construction by the new Believers taking place on the Temple Mount. The ‘Sons of Esau’ here in alliance with the sones of Ishmael reflects early accounts of there being among the Arab invaders some Christian contingents (here understood as ‘heretical Byzantine Diophysites’ persecuting the ‘true Miaphysite Christians’ of Egypt), supporting the hypothesis that the Arab invaders’ community of the Believers predated the formation of a new distinct ‘religion’.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.171-184.

Van Lent, J: The Apocalypse of Shenute, in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History 1, 600-900, ed. D. Thomas and B. Roggema, (History of Christian Muslim Relations 11), Leiden and Boston 2009, pp.182-185.

Van Lent, J: The Prophecies and Exhortations of Pseudo-Shenute in Thomas, D and Mallett, A: Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History 5, 1350-1500, Brill 2013, pp.278-286.

Fredegar Chronicorum Liber Quartus

An anonymous Frankish chronicle latterly attributed to one Fredegar, begins with the creation of the world and ends in AD 642. It reproduces the echoes of the cataclysmic defeat of the Byzantines, most probably the Battle of Yarmuk in 636, at the hands of the Saracens – ‘a race that had grown so numerous that at last they took up arms and threw themselves upon the provinces of the Emperor Heraclius’. Following the Byzantines’ defeat as a result of being ‘smitten by the sword of God’, it tells of how the Saracens ‘proceeded – as was their habit – to lay waste the provinces of the empire that had fallen to them. Heraclius felt himself impotent to resist their assault and in his desolation was a prey to inconsolable grief.’

Wallace-Hadrill, J: Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar with its continuations. Latin text and English translation. See pp.54-55.

< 660

Letters of Isho’yahb III of Adiabene ܟܬܒܐ ܕܐܓܪ̈ܬܐ

Patriarch Ishoʻyahb III (d. 659) was a high-ranking cleric in Mesopotamia. Of his 106 letters three in particular are important for references to the new believers, even though in these his primary interest was the doctrinal probity of his bishops and flock. Letter 48b includes the first mention of the term Hagarenes ( ܡܗܓܪܝܐ mhaggrãyē) indicating a specific group of Arabs, most probably the community of muhājirūn, ‘emigrants’ that had undertaken a hijra to the Roman and Persian lands, with the term only later coming to refer to Muḥammad’s hijra from Makka to Madina.. Letter 14c speaks of ‘Arabs to whom at this time God has given control over the world’, and laments the shortcomings of Christians whom ‘the Sheol of apostasy has suddenly swallowed’ particularly since the Arabs are ‘not only no enemy to Christianity, but they are even praisers of our faith, honourers of our Lord’s priests and holy ones, and supporters of churches and monasteries.’ Ishoʻyahb notes that the inducement to apostasy was to avoid the Arabs’ demands on their possessions and the imposition of a poll tax.

Bcheiry, I: An Early Christian Reaction to Islam: Išū‘yahb III and the Muslim Arabs, Gorgias Press, 2019. Excerpts in Syriac and English.

Duval, R: Išō‘yahb Patriarchae III Liber Epistularum, in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Scriptores Syri, Series Secunda, Tomus LXIV, Textus Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1904. The Syriac texts.

Ioan, O – Muslime und Araber bei Īšōʻjahb III (649-659), Harrassowitz, Göttinger Orientforschungen, Reihe 1, Syriaca, Vol.37, 2009.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.29-36.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.93-100.

The Secrets of Rabbi Shim‘ōn ben Yoḥai נסתרות רבי שמעון בן יוחאי

A Judaic messianic interpretation ascribed to the 2nd century Rabbi, but composed in the mid-seventh century, intimating that Muḥammad is a messianic deliverer divinely chosen to liberate the Jews and their Promised Land from Rome’s oppressive yoke. The ‘Kenite’ of Numbers 24.21 is revealed to him as a prophecy about the Ishmaelites and their coming dominion over the land of Israel. The angel Metatron appears to him and reassures him that God will use the Ishmaelites to free the Jews from Byzantine oppression as the fulfilment of the messianic deliverance foretold in Isaiah’s vision of the two riders (Isaiah 21.6–7) and also in Zechariah 9.9. Muhammad’s successor (i.e. ʿUmar) will restore worship to the Temple Mount. The apocalypse then forecasts the Abbasid revolution, which augurs the beginnings of a final eschatological conflict between Israel and Rome to usher in a two-thousand-year messianic reign, followed by the final judgment. Muhammad’s early followers took a keen interest in restoring worship to the Temple Mount, indicating a close affiliation with Judaism that was severed only in the mid-eighth century by which time Islam had developed into a new, distinctive religious confession that drew a sharp boundary between itself and other faiths.

Crestani, S: The Prayer of R. Šim’on b. Yoh’ai between Text, Revelations and Prophecies ex eventu in Materia Giudaica2022.

Reeves, J: Tefillat Rabbi Shim’on b. Yohai in Reeves, J: Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic: A Postrabbinic Jewish Apocalypse Reader, 2005. (An expansion of the text of The Secrets).

Reeves, J: The Secrets of R. Šim‘ōn ben Yoḥai in Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic: A Postrabbinic Jewish Apocalypse Reader, 2005, pp.76-89.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.139-143. Translation of the first part of the text.

Spurling, H and Grypeou, E: Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer and Eastern Christian Exegesis in Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 4 (2007), pp.217-243.

The Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer פִּרְקֵי דְּרַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר

Falsely attributed to Eliezer ben Hyrcanus (1^st – 2^nd c. AD), the text, which appears to have been compiled in the early Islamic period in Palestine but includes earlier materials, predicts the role of Ishmael’s descendants in the events of the eschaton and contains details that lead to its being dated to around 660 AD. It notes how the Ishmaelites ‘will build a building on the Temple’ indicating the Jewish belief that the arrival of the sons of Ishmael and their rule are signs that the Messiah and the End of Days would soon arrive. The text anticipates a future moment when both the Christian and Muslim empires will be annihilated by the power of God when ‘the Holy One, blessed be He, is going to destroy the descendants of Esau, for they are the adversaries of the children of Israel, and likewise (He will destroy) the Ishmaelites, for they are enemies.’ להשמיד לבני עשו שהם צריו לבני ישראל וכן לבני ישמעאל שהן אויבין . It also mentions that ‘two brothers will rise as rulers over them, whom scholars have identified with ʿAbd al-Malik and his brother ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, or alternatively Mu‘āwia and Ziyād ibn Abī Sufyān.

Adelman, R: The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha, in Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 140, Brill 2009.

Fernández, M: Los Capítulos de Rabbí Eliezer, Valencia 1984. Spanish translation.

Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer: Sefaria.org (Online Hebrew text and English translation).

Reeves, J: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer 30 in Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic: A Postrabbinic Jewish Apocalypse Reader, 2005.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.144-149.

The Panegyric of the Three Holy Children of Babylon Ⲡⲉⲣⲫⲙⲉⲩⲓ ⲛ̄ⲡⲓⲅ̄ ⲛⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲉⲧϧⲉⲛ ⲃⲁⲃⲩⲗⲱⲛ

An anonymous source, preserved in a 12th century manuscript, that was probably written shortly after the Arab invasions (circa 650s). The text discusses the exodus from paradise, Christ and the story of Daniel, but contains an early reference to the ‘Saracens’, stating ‘let us not fast like the deicidal Jews; neither let us fast like the Saracens, oppressors who follow after prostitution and massacre, and who lead the sons of men into captivity, saying ⲧⲉⲛⲉⲣⲛⲏⲥⲧⲉⲩⲓⲛ ⲟⲩⲟϩ ⲧⲉⲛϣⲗⲏⲗ ⲉⲩⲥⲟⲡ “We fast and pray at the same time”’. it thus gives an early record of the Coptic sentiment that the Muslims were not liberators but oppressors.

De Vis, H: Homélies coptes de la Vaticane, in II Cahiers de la Bibliothèque Copte, 6, Kopenhagen, 1929, pp.64-120. Coptic text and French translation.

Suermann, H: Copts and the Islam of the Seventh Century in Grypeou, E (ed): The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, pp.107-109.

< 670

The Khuzistan Chronicle ܫܪ̈ܒܐ ܡܕܡ ܡܢ ܬܫܥܝܵܬܐ ܥܕܬܢܝܵܬܐ

Dated to around 660 the anonymous Chronicle (also known as the Anonymous Guidi) includes an account of the appearance of Muḥammad’s followers the ‘sons of Ishmael’, including the earliest attacks on Syro-Palestine but focussing on Khuzistan in particular, listing the progress of the conquests in sequence. It assumes Muḥammad as still alive leading the invasions against the Sasanians. The Nestorian author of the Chronicle also reports on the ‘tent of Abraham’ located in a remote part of the desert as an important cultic site for the Believers, and gives the first non-Qur’ānic reference to Madina/Yathrib. By referring to a King Mundhir as ‘the sixth in the line of the Ishmaelite kings’ the chronicler took the present invaders to be a continuation of the Lakhmid line, rather than as a new power. The invaders are portrayed as violent, including towards Christians, but also concerned to appropriate the relics of the Prophet Daniel, as an indication of their pre-occupation with Biblical authentication.

Guidi, I (ed): Chronica Minora, in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Series Tertia – Tomus IV of Scriptores Syri, Paris 1903, pp.15-39. Syriac text.

Howard-Johnston, J: The Khuzistan Chronicle in Howard-Johnston, J: Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp.128-135.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.47-53.

Robinson, C: The conquest of Khuzistan: a historiographical reassessment, Bulletin of SOAS, 67, 1 (2004), pp.14-19.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.128-137.

The Maronite Chronicle ܡܟܬܒ ܙܒ̈ܢܐ ܕܣܝܡ ܠܐܢܫ ܕܡܢ ܒܝܬ ܡܪܘܢ

An untitled, and highly debated, account that includes episodes from the caliphate of Mu‘āwiya, including his adjudicating debates between Jacobites and Maronites, and his visiting of places associated with the life of Christ: Golgotha, Gethsemane and the tomb of Mary, at all of which he prayed ( ܘܨܿܠܝ ܒܗ ) . There is also a mention of the formula ‘God is great’ ( ܐܠܗܐ ܪܒ ܗܘ Alāhā rabb hū ). The text takes the Arab raids up to Pergamum and Smyrna in the year 663/4.

Breydy, M: Geschichte der syro-arabischen Literatur der Maroniten vom VII. bis XVI. Jahrhundert (Opladen: Westdeutscher, 1985).

Brooks, E (ed): Chronica Minora, in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Series Tertia – Tomus IV of Scriptores Syri, Paris 1904, pp.43-74. Syriac text.

Howard-Johnston, J: The Maronite Chronicle in Howard-Johnston, J: Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp.175-178.

Palmer, A: The Seventh Century in West-Syrian Chronicles, (with S. Brock and R. Hoyland), Liverpool university Press, 1993, pp.29-35.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.54-61.

Theophilus of Alexandria’s Homily ميمر قاله انبا تاوفيلس من اجل بطرس وبولس

Preserved in Arabic, possibly as a translation from Coptic or perhaps Greek, the ‘Homily in honour of Peter and Paul’, is claimed to have been given by Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria (385-412), but contains one of the earliest Coptic references to Islamic rule. The text, which is held to date from the 7th century, retains a tone of antipathy to Byzantium and appreciation of Arab domination. It begins with a short vaticinium ex eventu in which St Peter relates how Athanasius’ see will be the only one to remain firm in the true faith, and how God will then remove the Byzantines from the land of Egypt and establish ‘a strong nation that will have care for the churches of Christ and will not sin against the faith in any way’ ويقيم امة قوية تشفق على بيع المسيح ولا يخطوا الى الامانة بشيء من الانواع but nevertheless God will ‘punish through these people the people of Egypt due to their sins’ ۄﯾﺆدب الله اهل ديار مصر من تلك الامة من اجل خطاياهم . The text thus stands at the point where, after half a century of peace and relief from Byzantine oppression the country is witessing the first effects of a changing attitude of Muslim rulers towards their Christian subjects, in the form of swingeing tax measures and intensified religious assertiveness.

Fleisch, H – Une homélie de Théophile d’Alexandrie en l’honneur de St Pierre et de St Paul in Revue de l’Orient Chrétien 30 Tome X (1935- 36) 371-419. Arabic text and French translation.

Van Lent, J: The Arabic Homily of Pseudo-Theophilus of Alexandria in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History 1, 600-900, ed. D. Thomas and B. Roggema, (History of Christian Muslim Relations 11), Leiden and Boston, 2009, pp. 256-260.

< 690

Anastasius of Sinai Οδηγος – Ερωτησεις και Αποκρισεις

Born in Cyprus, Anastasius travelled widely in the Holy land before settling, in 680 at the monastery of the Theotokos at Mount Sinai (today the monastery of St. Catherine). Of hiσ many works the most relevant for early Islam are his Hodegos(‘Guide’) in which he notes how the ‘Arabs’ regularly misinterpret Christian doctrine as maintaining ‘two Gods’ and blasphemously assume the ‘birth of God’ as involving ‘marriage and insemination and carnal union’ – an indication of growing theological faultlines. His Questions and Answers highlight scriptural and doctrinal issues , the problems of living under the domination of non-Christians (‘if our rulers are Jews or infidels, or heretics, surely we should not have prayers for them in church?’ and occasionally refer to the erroneous beliefs of the Arabs. His Narrations, a collection of edifying tales, and dating possibly to between 640 and 660, provide insights to aspects of day-to-day Christian-Muslim relations in this period, one in which the followers of Muḥammad are represented as wicked and blasphemous oppressors of the Christians, ‘the demons name the Saracens as their companions. And it is with reason. The latter are perhaps even worse than the demons … these demons of flesh trample all that is under their feet, mock it, set fire to it, destroy it’. His accounts are often pious tales of Christian perseverance in their faith, and in one case the first recorded act of martyrdom at the hands of these Believers, including an execution for apostasy. The narrations also include contemporary events, such as news of building works upon the Temple Mount – a reference to the Dome of the Rock, and thus predating the Islamic traditional date of its founding. A particularly interesting reference is made to some Christians’ observations on a place ‘where those who hold us in slavery have the stone and the object of their worship’, and where innumerable sacrifices of sheep and camels are made. The puzzle is whether to consider this a reference to Makka, or some other location that predates the Hijazi shrine.

Griffith, S: Anastasios of Sinai, the Hodegos, and the Muslims in The Greek Orthodox Theological Review 32 (1987), pp.341–58.

Haldon, J: The works of Anastasius of Sinai: A key source for the History of Seventh-Century East Mediterranean Society and Belief in Cameron A and Conrad L: The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East, Princeton 1992.

Hansen, B: Making Christians in the Umayyad Levant: Anastasius of Sinai and Christian Rites of Maintenance, in Studies in Church History 59 (2023), pp.98–118.

Hoyland, R: Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam. Vol. 13 Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1997, pp.92-102.

Nau, F: Le Texte grec des récits utiles à l’âme d’Anastase le Sinaïte, Gorgias Press, 2009.

Richard, R and Munitiz, J (edd): Anastasii Sinaïtae: Quaestiones et responsiones. CCSG 59. Turnhout, 2006.

Sahas, D: Anastasius of Sinai (c. 640–c. 700) and “Anastasii Sinaitae” on Islamin Sahas, D: Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.174-181.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.101-127.

Uthemann, K: Anastasios Sinaites: Byzantinisches Christentum in den ersten Jahrzehnten unter arabischer Herrschaft,Teilband I, De Gruyter, 2015.

Adomnán De Locis Sanctis

Adomnán of Iona (ca. 628–704) was the Irish abbot of Iona Abbey (western Scotland). His work On the Holy Placespresented to King Aldfrith of Northumbria before 688 is the first description of the holy sites of Jerusalem and Palestine following the Arab conquest. In amongst the details of holy places visited by pilgrims Adomnan provides interesting details of life under the new Arab masters. He quotes an account given him by a Frankish bishop from Gaul, Arculf, that ‘where once the Temple had been magnificently constructed, located near the wall on the east, now the Saracens have built a quadrangular house of prayer, which they constructed poorly by standing boards and great beams over some of the remains of its ruins.’ This gives another indication of the early cultic pre-occupation of the Arabs with the Temple Mount, and their building of what may have been a precursor to the Dome of the Rock or of the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Stables of Solomon.

Geyer, P: Itinera hierosolymitana saecvli IIII–VIII in Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 39. Vienna 1898, pp.219-297.

Meehan, D. (ed.): Adomnan’s ‘De Locis Sanctis’ in Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 3. Dublin, 1958. 1–34. Latin text and English translation.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.164-170.

Wilkinson, J: Jerusalem pilgrims before the Crusades, Warminster 1977, pp.93-111. English translation.

Jacob of Edessa: Letters to John the Stylite

In a series of letters Jacob of Edessa (d. 708, and bishop from 684-688) deals with matters such as whether to make altar coverings with materials on which the profession of faith of the ‘Hagarenes’ ( ܬܘܕܝܬܐ ܗܓܪܝܬܐ tawdītha hāgāraythā) is embroidered, or whether one-time Christian converts to the Hagarenes, on returning to Christianity, should be granted baptism or not. Another indication of the atmosphere of the times is his second letter to John in which he argues that it is best that the doors of a church be closed when the Eucharist is offered ‘especially because of the Hagarenes, so that they might not enter, mingle with believers, disturb them and ridicule the holy mysteries’. He notes how the Hagarenes acknowledge that Christ ‘is the true messiah who was to come and who was foretold by the prophets … and they call him the Word of God’ although denying that he is the Son of God. And in one particularly interesting communication, the Fourth Letter to John the Stylite, Jacob writes of how the Hagarenes ( ܡܗܓܪܝܐ mhaggrãyē), even those resident in Egypt, do not face south while worshipping but ‘worship toward the east, toward the Kaʻba’, that the Hagarenes in Ḥira (Kufa) and Basra ‘pray to the west toward the Kaʿba’. The implication is that the Kaʿba of the Hagarenes does not appear to be located in Makka, for which the Hagarenes in Egypt would have to pray directly southwards, but somewhere in Palestine, that is, eastof Egypt and west of Mesopotamia. It appears then that this Kaʿba would have to be sited at Jerusalem or not too far from Jerusalem.

Hoyland, R: Jacob of Edessa on Islam in After Bardaisan: Studies on Continuity and Change in Syriac Christianity in Honour of Professor Han J.W. Drijvers. Edited by Reinink, Gerrit J. and Klugkist, Alex C.. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 89. Louvain: Peeters, 1999, pp.149-160.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.160-174.

Salvesen, A: ‘Christ has subjected us to the harsh yoke of the Arabs’ – the Syriac exegesis of Jacob of Edessa in the new world order.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.202-208.

Ter Haar Romney, R: Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day, in Peshitta Institute Leiden, 2009.

Van Ginkel, J: Greetings to a Virtuous Man: The Correspondence of Jacob of Edessa in Ter Haar Romney, R – Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day, in Peshitta Institute Leiden, 2009, pp.67-82.

The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu

An Egyptian Coptic bishop Nikiu in the Nile Delta and general administrator of the monasteries of Upper Egypt in 696. Although the part of the Chronicle concerning Egypt was written in Coptic it is extant only in an Ethiopic translation. The most important section of John’s Chronicle is that which deals with the invasion and conquest of Egypt by the Muslim armies of ‘Amr ibn al-‘Āṣ, for which the Chronicle provides the sole near-contemporary account, detailing how the Byzantine troops were weakened in their morale by the hostility of the native inhabitants ‘towards the Emperor Heraclius because of the persecution he launched over all Egypt against the orthodox faith’. The annalist notes how subsequently ‘a number apostatised from the Christian faith and embraced the faith of the beast’. The text goes on, however, to chronicle the progressive acquiescence of the conquered people to their new masters, noting how Amr ibn al-‘Āṣ ‘exacted the taxes which had been determined upon but he took none of the property of the churches and he committed no act of spoliation or plunder, and he preserved them throughout all his days.’

Charles, R: The Chronicle of John, Coptic Bishop of Nikiu, Being a History of Egypt before and During the Arab Conquest, translated from Zotenberg’s Edition of the Ethiopic Version. The Text and Translation Society, Philo Press, Amsterdam

Howard-Johnston, J: A Detailed Narrative of the Arab Conquest of Egypt in Howard-Johnston, J: Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp.181-189.

Theophilus of Edessa: Chronicle source

One of a series of short chronologies a work by one Thomas of Edessa, an astrologer who served under the caliph Al-Mahdī (775-785), the so-called ‘Syriac Common Source’ that formed the source for later chroniclers of this period provides more evidence of Jerusalem as a cultic focus. In the entry for 634 the chroniclers using this source describes how ʿUmar entered the Holy City clothed in filthy garments made of camel’s hair, and showing diabolical deceit, he sought the Temple of the Jews, the one built by Solomon, in order to make it a place of worship for his blasphemy. Seeing this, Sophronius said, “Truly this is the abomination of desolation, as Daniel said, standing in a holy place”. For the year 642, the chronicler relates how ʿUmar began to build the Temple in Jerusalem, but the structure would not stand and kept falling down. When he inquired about the cause of this, the Jews said to him, “If you do not remove the cross that is above the church on the Mount of Olives, the structure will not stand.” On account of this advice the cross was removed from there, and thus was their building made stable. For this reason the enemies of Christ took down many crosses.’

Howard-Johnston, J: The Lost History of Theophilus of Edessa and its derivatives in Howard-Johnston, J: Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp.194-236.

Hoyland, R: Theophilus of Edessa’s Chronicle and the Circulation of Historical Knowledge in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, Translated Texts for Historians, Vol.57, Liverpool University Press, 2011.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.224-234.

John Bar Penkaye ܟܬܒܐ ܕܪܝܫ ܡܠܐ

Writing in the year 687, The Book of Salient Points is a chronicle of the world in brief form, so as ‘not to get entangled in lengthy narratives, and so lose the thread of forget our purpose … to demonstrate what God has done for us in His grace and what we in our wickedness have presumed to do in opposition to Him’. At the end of the fourteenth chapter the author explains how the conquest occurred: ‘We should not think of the advent (of the children of Hagar) as something ordinary, but as due to divine working. Now when these people came, at God’s command, and took over as it were both kingdoms, not with any war or battle, but in a menial fashion, such as when a brand is rescued out of the fire; not using weapons of war or human means. God put victory into their hands in such a way that the words written concerning them might be fulfilled, namely, ‘One man chased a thousand and two men routed ten thousand’! How, otherwise, could naked men, riding without armour or shield, have been able to win, apart from divine aid, God having called them from the ends of the earth so as to destroy, by them, a sinful kingdom, and to bring low, through them. the proud spirit of the Persians…. Against those who had not ceased in times of peace and prosperity from fighting against their Creator, there was sent a barbarian people who had no pity on them. The fifteenth and last chapter describes the nature of these Arab conquests – ‘robber bands, among whom were also Christians in no small numbers: some belonged to the heretics, while others to us’ – and explains all the famines and plagues as proddings by God for Christians to repent for ‘those who in peace and prosperity did not cease from fighting against their Creator there was sent a barbarian people who had no mercy on them…Bloodshed without reason was their comfort, rule over all was their pleasure, plunder and captives were their desire, and anger and rage were their food’. Their coming is conceived of in Biblical terms as part of God’s plan as a preface to the end of the world, being steered by the ܡܗܕܝܢܘܬܐ (mhaddyānūthā ‘guidance’) to ‘hold to the worship of the One God in accordance with the customs of ancient law’. The author notes how these originally zealously held to the ‘tradition’ (ܡܫܠܡܢܘܬܐ mashlmānūthā) of Muḥammad, but then details how this degenerated into factionalism, leading to the triumph of the Umayyads, where order and justice was restored. His account goes on to detail the rebellion of al-Mukhtār (685-687) and ends with an apocalyptic prediction of the destruction of the Ishmaelites ‘for only one thing is missing for us: the advent of the Deceiver’. Noteworthy is the lack of any reference or awareness of a sacred scripture, as is the case with all the contemporary Christian writings.: none describes him in terms other than as a teacher or a political leader, nor is there any reference to a sacred writing.

Brock, S: North Mesopotamia in the late seventh century: Book XV of John Bar Penkayé’s Rish Melle, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 9 (1987), 51-75. Includes an English translation.

Mingana, A: Sources Syriaques, Vol.1, Book 15. Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1908. Part 2. Syriac text p.143ff; French translation p.172ff. Syriac text and French translation and Index.

Pearse, R: John bar Penkaye, Summary of World History (Rish melle). English translation of Book 15.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.85-107.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.185-201. Translated excerpt.

< 700

Syriac Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius ܡܐܡܪܐ ܥܠ ܝܘܒܠܐ ܕܡܿܠܟܐ̈ ܘܥܠ ܚܪܬ ܙܒ̈ܢܐ

This apocalyptic vision, a vaticinia ex eventu, delivered from Mount Sinjar, is attributed to Methodius bishop of Olympus (ob.312 AD) and was likely written in around the year 690, a date that corresponds to a prediction of 70 years in which the Arab kingdom was supposedly to last. It speaks of those who will come, under the four leaders of the Ishmaelites: Desolation, Despoiler, Ruin and Destroyer, who will be ‘destitute of love and robbers and spoilers and the wild and those void of understanding and of the religion of God … who will be servants of That One and their false words will find credence … true men and clerics will be subjected to the punishment of the Ishmaelites … They will blaspheme and say: “There is no deliverer for the Christians”. Then suddenly there will be awakened perdition and calamity and a king of the Greeks will go forth against them in great wrath… and will lay desolation and ruin in the desert of Jethrib and in the habitation of their fathers.’ Those who are left will be able to return, ‘everyone to his land and to the inheritance of his fathers, ‘and there will be peace on earth the like of which had never existed, because it is the last peace of the perfection of the world. And there will be joy upon the entire earth, and men will sit down in great peace and the churches will arise nearby, and cities will be built and priests will be freed from the tax.’ The theme of the apocalyptic section of his chronicle is that if the Byzantine emperor was to hand over his dominion to God at the end of time, the Byzantine Empire itself would last to the final consummation and none of its enemies would ever be able to destroy it. The expectation and hope was that the end of the world was about to begin with the impending fall of the Arabs.

Aerts, W and Kortekaas, G: Die Apokalypse des Pseudo-Methodius: die ältesten griechischen Übersetzungen, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 570, Louvain 1988. Parallel Greek and Latin texts.

Alexander, P and Abrahamse, D (ed): The Byzantine apocalyptic tradition, University of California Press 1985, pp.13-60. English translation and study of the Greek translation.

Bonura, C: When did the Legend of the Last Emperor Originate? A New Look at the Textual Relationship between the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius and the Tiburtine Sibyl, in Viator, vol. 47 no. 3 (Autumn, 2016).

DiTommaso, L: The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius: Notes on a Recent Edition.

Garstad, B: Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, An Alexandrian World Chronicle, Harvard University Press, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 14, 2012. Greek and Latin texts with English translation.

Greisiger, L: Ein nubischer Erlöser-König: Kūš in syrischen Apokalypsen des 7. Jahrhunderts. In Sophia G. Vashalomidze, Lutz Greisiger (eds.): Der christliche Orient und seine Umwelt. Gesammelte Studien zu Ehren Jürgen Tubachs anläßlich seines 60. Geburtstages (Studies in Oriental Religions 56). Wiesbaden, 2007.

Grifoni, C and Gantner, C: The Third Latin Recension of the Revelations of Pseudo-Methodius – Introduction and Edition and Gritoni, C: Pseudo-Methodius’ Revelations in the so-called Third Latin Recension, in Wieser, V, Eltschinger, V and Heiss, J: Cultures of Eschatology, Volume 1: Empires and Scriptural Authorities in Medieval Christian, Islamic and Buddhist Communities – Volume 2: Time, Death and Afterlife in Medieval Christian, Islamic and Buddhist Communities. De Gruyter, 2020, pp.194-253.

Livne-Kafri, O: Is There a Reflection of the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius in Muslim Tradition? in Proche-Orient Chrétien 56 (2006): pp.108-119.

Lolos, A: Die Apokalypse des Ps.-Methodius, Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie, Vol. 83, Meisenheim am Glan, 1976.

Martinez, F: Eastern Christian Apocalyptic in the Early Muslim Period: Pseudo-Methodius and Pseudo-Athanasius. Dissertation 1985, pp.2-201. Syriac text and English translation.

Minski, M: The Kebra Nagast and the Syriac Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius: A Miaphysite Eschatological Tradition,Jerusalem 2016.

Reinink, G (ed.): Die Syrische Apokalypse des Pseudo-Methodius, vol.1 , Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium,vol. 540 (Lovanii: E. Peeters, 1993), 1993, pp.1-48. Syriac text.

Reinink, G (ed.): Die Syrische Apokalypse des Pseudo-Methodius vol.2 , Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, vol. 541 (Lovanii: E. Peeters, 1993), pp.1-78. German translation.

Reinink, G – Neue Erkentnisse zur Syrischen Textgeschichte des ‘Pseudo-Methodius’ in Hokwerda, H. et al. (eds): Polyphonia Byzantina, Studies in Honour of W. J. Aerts. 1993, pp.85-96.

Shoemaker, S: A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook. March 2021, pp.80-84.

The Edessene fragment of Pseudo-Methodius

An abridged and modified version of the Pseudo-Methodius apocalypse extant in a 17th-c manuscript, the text, which scholars date to the 690s, adds that both the Sons of Ishmael and a horde of unclean nations from the north will be defeated in Mecca, that the city of Edessa will remain inviolate, and that Christ’s final victory will follow two reconquests of Jerusalem. The world will then end, and the Last Judgment will commence. The motive for its composition is likely to have been the turmoil accompanying the second Arab civil war and the subsequent consolidation of Umayyad rule under ʻAbd al-Malik. Many Syriac Christians were moved to predict the imminent demise of Arab rule.

Martinez, F: Eastern Christian Apocalyptic in the Early Muslim Period: Pseudo-Methodius and Pseudo-Athanasius. Dissertation 1985, pp.206-228. Syriac text and English translation.

Palmer, A: The Seventh Century in West-Syrian Chronicles, (with S. Brock and R. Hoyland), Liverpool university Press, 1993, pp.243–250. English translation.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.130-138

< 710

Coptic Apocalypse of Pseudo-Athanasius ⲟⲩⲗⲟⲅⲟⲥ ⲉⲁϥⲧⲁⲟⲩⲟϥ ⲡⲉⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲥ

This work, ascribed to the 4th century patriarch Athanasius of Alexandria includes an apocalyptic account of the trials of the faithful, ending with a prediction of the conquest of the Arabs: ‘God will stir up upon the earth of mighty people, numerous as the locusts. This is the fourth beast which the faithful prophet Daniel saw … And that nation will come upon the earth in its final days … That nation will rule over many countries and they will pay a tax to it. It is a brutal nation with no mercy in his heart … Many Christians, Barbarians and people from Basan and Syrians and from all tribes will go and join them in their faith, wanting to become free from the suffering that they will bring up on the earth… Their leader shall live in a city called Damascus, whose interpretation is “the one which rolls down to Hell” … The name of that nation is Saracen, one which is from the Ishmaelites, the son of Hagar, maidservant of Abraham.’ There is a mention of a new coinage, now bearing the name Muḥammad, as the invaders ‘destroy the gold on which there is the image of the cross in order to mint their own gold with the name of The Beast written on it, the number of whose name is 666.’ There is also in this text the first occurrence of the use of the Hijrī calendar, as monks are seized and branded with ‘the date of the rule of Islam … in the year 96 of the Hijra there was anxiety among the monks and anguish among the faithful. If an unbranded monk was found, they brought him before the governor who would order one of his limbs to be cut off.’ The text ends with an eschatological warning that‘when you see the bishops, the priests, the deacons and the superiors of the monasteries rendering assistance to those nations, then know and see that the abomination of desolation, namely, the Antichrist, has approached. Woe to the world in those days!’

Martinez, F: Eastern Christian Apocalyptic in the Early Muslim Period: Pseudo-Methodius and Pseudo-Athanasius. Dissertation 1985, pp.285-411 (Coptic and Arabic text) and pp.462-555 (English translation).

Van Lent, J: Réactions coptes au défi de l’Islam: L’Homélie de Théophile d’Alexandrie en l’honneur de Saint Pierre e de Saint Paul in Etudes coptes XII, Quatorzième journée d’études (Rome, 11-13 juin 2009), éd. par A. Boud’hors et C. Louis (Cahiers de la Bibliothèque copte 18), Paris 2013, pp.133-148.

Witte, B: Die Sünde der Priester und Mönche, Koptische Exchatologie des 8. Jahrhunderts, Teil 1: Textausgabe, Oros Verlag, Altenberge 2002. Coptic text and German translation, with extensive study.

Apocalypse of John the Little ܓܠܝܢܐ ܕܝܘܚܢܢ ܙܥܘܪܐ

Composed in the early years of the 700s, this pseudonymous work is part of a collection entitled the Gospel of the Twelve Apostles together with Revelations of each one of them. The Apocalypse of John the Little contains some of the earliest references to Christians converting of Islam, and unlike other apocalypses which emphasized the transitory nature of their conquerors’ rule – in line with the traditional Christian interpretation of Daniel in which the Romans (now the Byzantines) would constitute the world’s final kingdom – it reinterprets Daniel’s four kingdoms as those of the Romans, the Persians, the Medes and the people of the South. As part of what was ‘written on the scrolls what men are to suffer in the last times’ …these people of the South will come in fulfilment of Daniel’s prophesy (XI, 15) that ‘God will bring forth a mighty southern wind’ … A warrior, one whom they will call a prophet, will rise up among them … None will be able to stand before them, because this was commanded of them by the holy one of heaven… They will take all the world’s people into a great captivity. They will pillage them, and all the corners of the world will become slaves. They will impose tribute … the likes of which was never heard …and will especially afflict all who confess Christ our Lord. Because, to the end, they will hate the Lord’s name. They will abolish his covenant, and truth will not be found among them. Rather, they will love evil and adore sin. They will do everything that is hateful in the Lord’s eyes and will be called a defiled people.’ The apocalyptic passage goes on predict their downfall as ‘the Lord will become angry with them, as with Rome, Media, and Persia … and an angel of wrath will descend and kindle evil among them’ in the form of the civil wars of the Fitna, after which ‘the Lord will return the southern wind to the place from which it came, and he will abolish its name and glory.’

Drijvers, Han J.W., Christians, Jews and Muslims in northern Mesopotamia in early Islamic times. The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles and related texts, in The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East. I: Problems in the Literary Source Material. Edited by Cameron, Averil and Conrad, Lawrence Irvin: Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam 1. Princeton, NJ: Darwin, 1992, pp.67-74.

Drijvers, Han J.W.: The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles: A Syriac Apocalypse from the Early Islamic Period, in Drijvers, H: History and Religion in Late Antique Syria, Variorum 1994, pp.199-208.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.146-156.

Rendel-Harris, J: The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles Together with the Apocalypses of Each One of Them, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1900, pp.34-39. Syriac text and English translation.

Greek Daniel (First Vision) – Διήγησις περὶ τῶν ἡμερῶν τοῦ ἀντιχρίστου τὸ πῶς μέλλει γενέσθαι

In the early years of the 8^th century Byzantine Anatolia was subject to increasing raids from the sons of Ishmael, culminating in a prolonged siege of Constantinople itself in the year 716-7. Under these conditions and stresses the apocalyptic themes of Biblical scripture was adapted to currently breaking events. One such example is the Greek translation of the vision and apocalypse of Daniel the prophet, an Account of how the Days of the Antichrist will be. This features enough details of the strategies of the ‘sons of Hagar’ to indicate that the writer was there at the scene, composing a vaticinium ex eventu from within the besieged walls of Constantinople. ‘The depths that hold back the sons of Hagar will dry out, and the people of great Babylon and the three sons of Hagar will emerge, one of whom bears the name Οὐαλης (‘Walēs’ i.e. Walīd ibn ‘Abd al-Malik). And Ishmael will cry out in a loud voice, boasting and saying: “Where is the God of the Romans? There is no one helping them, for they are truly besieged.’ Thwarted by the stout walls, they will take counsel among themselves: ‘let us build a bridge with the help of boats and move toward Byzantium of the seven hills. Whereupon the leaders inside, ‘hearing the threats of the godless ones, will fear lest the Christians will give up and flee to the islands of the sea.’ But as the enemy ‘snort like wild lions against the Romans, the Lord will raise His head and unleash His anger on the sons of Hagar and the faithless race of Ishmael….καί ῥήξει τὸν θυμὸν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῆς Ἂγαρ καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ ἂσπονδον γένος τοῦ Ἰσμαὴλ. Commanders and church priests will take up weapons and then a King will trample every enemy and adversary under his feet…and that king will be named after an animal (i.e. Leo III) and all the world will fear him.’

Berger, K: Die Griechische Daniel-Diegese, eine altkirchliche Apokalypse, Brill, Leiden 1976. (Greek pp.12ff; German translation pp.43ff).

< 780

Ps.-Methodius, Greek addendum Περὶ τοῦ ἀφανισμοῦ τῶν Σαρακηνῶν καὶ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου συντελείας

The apocalyptic theme of God’s punishment for the sins of Christians taking the form of the maraudings of the sons of Ishmael became a recurrent topos, as did the desperate hope for God’s mercy to release them from the scourge. A Greek translation of Ps.-Methodius included an addendum on the depredations and the defeat of the Arabs. After early reverses, a voice will come from heaven proclaiming how the Lord’s vengeance for the sins of the Christians is at an end and how ‘the Lord God will remove the cowardice of the Romans and cast it into the hearts of the Ishmaelites and the courage of the Ishmaelites into the hearts of the Romans. Turning round, the Romans will chase them away from their property, striking without mercy’. This , the text explains, is in accordance with the vision of the ‘lion and whelp’ that will pursue ‘the ass’, as Leo III (the lion) and his son Constantine defeat the Muslim armies at Akroinon in 740. ‘Fear and terror will afflict them from all sides and the Roman King’s yoke will fall upon them … τότε ἐκλάμψουσιν οἱ δίκαιοι ὡς φωστῆρες ἐν κόσμῳ … οἱ δὲ ἀσεβεῖς ἐνδιωχθήσονται καὶ ἀποστραφήσονται εἰς τὸν “Ἅδην. Then shall the righteous ones shine like lights in the world and the wicked be persecuted and turned towards Hades.’

Lolos, A: Die Apokalypse des Ps.-Methodius, Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie, Vol. 83, Meisenheim am Glan, 1976. Greek text (pp.45-142) and German summary (pp.9-19).

The Zuqnīn Chronicle ܡܟܬܒܢܘܬܐ ܕܬܫܥܝܬܐ ܕܙܒ̈ܢܐ

Earlier mistakenly attributed to Dionysus the Talmahrī, it is likely that Joshua the Stylite, a monk of the Zuqnin Monastery near Diyarbakir, wrote this work using older Syriac sources. It encompasses events from the Creation and in its Fourth Part takes events from the years 586 to 775 AD. The writer maes use of the term ‘Assyrians’ to denote the enemies of the Christians as the rod of God’s wrath sent by Him to castigate His wayward people and gives a polemical view on the appearance of Muḥammad and the Arabs: ‘The first king was a man from among them by the name of Muḥammad. This man they also called a prophet, because he had turned them away from cults of all kinds and taught them that there was one God… he appointed laws for them according to their desire … they are a very covetous and carnal people, and any law whether prescribed by Muhammad or another God-fearing person, that is not set in accord with their desire, they neglect and abandon. But what is in accord with their will and complements their desires, although it be instituted by one contemptible among them, they hold to it saying: “This was appointed by the prophet and messenger of God, and moreover it was charged to him thus by God”’.

Chabot, J (ed): Incerti Auctoris Chronicon Anonymum Pseudo-Dionysianum vulgo dictum, vol. 2 in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Vol.104, Scriptores Syri, Tomus 53, Paris 1952. Syriac text (see pp.149-150).

Haase, F : Untersuchungen zur Chronik des Pseudo-Dionysus von Tell-Mahrê, Gorgias Press, 2010.

Harrak, A – The Chronicle of Zuqnin, Parts III and IV: AD 488-775, Translated from Syriac with Notes and Introduction, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1999.

Jacobs, B: The Rise of Islam according to Dionysius of Tell-Maḥrē: Tentative Reconstruction through Three Dependent Texts in Le Muséon, Vol. 133 Issue 1-2, 2020, pp.207-234.

Luther, A: Die syrische Chronik des Josua Stylites, De Gruyter, 1997.

Witakowski, W: Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre: Chronicle (known also as the Chronicle of Zuqnin): Part III (1996).

Wood, P: The Imam of the Christians, The World of Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, c.650-850. Princeton University Press, 2021.

Baḫirā (‘Sergius the Monk’) ܬܫܝܬܐ ܕܪܒܢ ܣܪܓܝܣ ܕܡܬܩܪܐ ܒܚܝܪܐ

A Syrian monk named Sargīs Bḫirā (the ‘venerable’) in this legendary account met the Prophet Muḥammad and inspired him to begin preaching to the Arabs. The story ultimately originates in Islamic traditions about a Syrian monk Baḥīra who learns the descriptions of the prophet to come from a book handed down through generations. As polemics between Muslims and Syriac-speaking Christians intensified, the account of this Christian tutor to Muḥammad took an apocalyptic turn, relating how he had received an apocalyptic vision on Mount Sinai about the imminent rise of Arab rule. To John of Damascus Bḫirā was a heretic, and al-Kindī relates how ‘Baḥīra’ was a monk who fell foul of the church authorities for some misdemeanour and as an atonement set out to Christianise the pagans in Arabia and attached himself to Muḥammad for this purpose, instructing him in a simplified form of Christianity and codifying rituals and precepts in what became the Qur’ān. The story relates, for instance, how the Qurʾānic teaching regarding ‘His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him’(Qurʾān 4:171) is to be traced back to Bḫirā’s instructions to the Prophet and that the Laylat al-Qadr (‘Night of Destiny’) in Qur’ān sūra 97 does not speak about the revelation of the Qur’ān, but of the Holy Night of Christmas, as Bḫirā explains: ‘I wrote also. “Lo! We revealed it on the Night of Predestination.(the Qur’ānic verse) … The angels and the Spirit descend therein, by the permission of their Lord, with all decrees”.… I mean by this the great and holy night, in which the angels came down and announced to the shepherds the birth of our master the Redeemer in Bethlehem.’ This polemic tale has strong apologetic overtones, in claiming that the Qurʾān had a human origin, and was originally designed to support Christian doctrine. The earliest reference to Bḫirā in Christian literature is to be found in the E.-Syr. Dispute between a Muslim and a Monk of Bēt Ḥālē which is commonly dated to the early 8th century.

De Vaux, C – La légende de Bahira, ou un moine chrétien auteur du Coran in Revue de l’Orient chrétien I, 2:4 (1897): 439-454.

Bahkou, A: The Monk Encounters the Prophet—The Story of the Encounter between Monk Bahīra and Muhammad as It Is Recorded in the Syriac Manuscript of Mardin 259/2 in Journal of Cultural and Religious Studies, Nov-Dec 2015, Vol 3, No.6, pp.349-357.

Freidenreich, D: Muḥammad, the Monk, and the Jews: Comparative Religion in Versions of the Baḥīrā Legend inEntangled Religions 13 (2).

Gottheil, R: A Christian Bahira Legend – Part 1, in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, Vol. XIII (1898). Syriac text pp.189-242.

Gottheil, R: A Christian Bahira Legend – Part 2, in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, Vol. XIV (1899). English text pp.203-252; Arabic text pp.252-268.

Gottheil, R: A Christian Bahira Legend – Part 3, in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, Vol. XV (1900). Arabic text (cont.) pp.56-102.

Gottheil, R: A Christian Bahira Legend – Part 4, in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, Vol. XVII (1903). English translation of Arabic text pp.125-166.

Griffith, S: Muḥammad and the Monk Baḥîrâ: Reflections on a Syriac and Arabic Text from Early Abbasid Times in Griffith, S: The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic, Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period, Ashgate Variorum, 2002, Section VII, pp.146-174.

Roggema, B: A Christian Reading of the Qur’an: The Legend of Sergius‐Bahira and its Use of Qur’an and Sira. In Syrian Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years, edited by David Thomas. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Roggema, B – ‘Salvaging the saintly Sergius: hagiographical aspects of the Legend of Sergius Bahira’ inCuffel, A and Jaspert N (edd): Entangled hagiographies of the Religious Other, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019.

Roggema, B: The Legend of Sergius Baḥīra: Eastern Christian Apologetics and Apocalyptic in Response to Islam(History of Christian Muslim Relations, 9) Brill, Leiden and Boston 2009.

Saadi, A. M. (1999). The Story of Monk Sargis-Baḫīrā, Early Christian-Muslim Encounters, in Karmo, Mar Aphram Institute, Vol. 2, Chicago, 2000.

Sprenger, A: Moḥammad’s Zusammenkunft mit dem Einsiedler Baḥyrâ in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 12 (1858), pp.238-249.

Szilágyi, K: Muḥammad and the Monk: The Making of the Christian Baḥīra Legend. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 34 (2008), 169-214.

Thomson, R – Armenian Variations on the Baḥira Legend, in Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 3/4, Part 2. Eucharisterion: Essays presented to Omeljan Pritsak on his Sixtieth Birthday by his Colleagues and Students (1979-1980), pp. 884-895.

The Coptic Apocalypse of Daniel ϯⲡⲣⲟⲫⲏⲧⲓⲁ ⲛ̄ⲇⲁⲛⲓⲏⲗ ⲡⲓⲡⲣⲟⲫⲏⲧⲏⲥ

The Vision XIV of the Apocalypse of Daniel is held by some scholars to reference the fall of the Umayyads (750 AD), although the text was likely written much later. It is modelled after Daniel 7, and contains a prophecy about a succession of 19 Muslim kings, the tenth to the 19th of whom are described. The 17th king clearly stood for the last Umayyad Caliph, Marwān II (r. 744-50), and the 18th apparently stood for the ﬁrst ‘Abbasid caliph, al-Saﬀāḥ (r. 750-54). The last of these kings is to be killed by another, called Pitourgos, ‘the Turk’, after which, at the end of time, a last Roman emperor will free Egypt from Muslim domination.

Bardelli, J: Daniel copto-memphitice (Pisa, 1849), pp.103-112.

Cook, D: An Early Muslim Daniel Apocalypse in Arabica, Vol. 49, Fasc. 1 (Jan 2002), pp.55-96.

Macler: Les apocalypses apocryphes de Daniel, in Revue de l’Histoire des Religions, Vol. 33 (1896), pp.163-76. French translation.

Meinardus, O – A Commentary on the XIVth Vision of Daniel, in Orientalia Christiana Periodica Vol. 32, 1966, pp.394-449.

Suermann, H: Notes concernant l’apocalypse copte de Daniel et la chute des omayyades, 2010 in Parole de l’Orient : Revue semestrielle des études syriaques et arabes chrétiennes : Recherches orientales : Revue d’études et de recherches sur les églises de langue syriaque, Vol. 11 (1983), pp.329-348.

Tattam, H: Prophetae majores in dialecto linguae aegyptiacae memphitica seu coptica (Oxford, 1852), Vol.2, Vision XIV, pp.387- 405. Coptic text and Latin translation.

Ghewond’s History Պատմութիւն Ղեւոնդեայ

The work of the 8th century Armenian chronicler Ghewond (Lewond) covers the period from 632 to 788 AD and includes descriptions of the Arab invasions of Armenia in the mid 7th century and describes the increasing harshness of Arab tax policies and the growing intolerance of individual caliphs and their governors, which triggered two unsuccessful rebellions in Armenia (747-750 and 774-775). As part of his narrative the author features the classic interpretation of the rise of Islam, where the Jews are placed at the forefront: ‘[The Arabs] began to form brigades and mass troops against Constantine’s realm, against Judaea and Asorestan, having for support the command of their law-giver, that sower of darnel, to “Go against the countries and put them under your rule, for the plenty of the world has been given to us for our enjoyment. Eat the meat of the select ones of the countries, and drink the blood of the mighty.” The Jews were their supporters and leaders, having gone to the camp at Madiam and told them: “God promised Abraham that He would deliver up the inhabitants of the world in service [to him]; and we are his heirs and sons of the patriarch. Because of our wickedness, God became disgusted with us and lifted the scepter of kingship from us, subjecting us to the servitude of slavery. But you, too, are children of Abraham and sons of the patriarch. Arise with us and save us from service to the emperor of the Byzantines, and together we shall hold our realm.” [The Arabs] were encouraged further hearing this, and went against Judaea.’ But the most interesting section – the final text of which is judged to be a later 11-12th century interpolation – is the section on the reputed correspondence between the Byzantine Emperor Leo III (717-741) and the caliph ‘Umar II (717-720). This is likely to have been a real exchange since there is a separate chain of transmission of pro-Muslim Arabic texts on this correspondence. The report contained in Ghevond’s chronicle is therefore one that reproduces the elements discussed in that correspondence, since the argumentation is paralleled in the Arabic sources, notably the exchange on the Islamic heaven, the veneration of the Ka‘ba, polygamy and the sexual behaviour of the Prophet.

Arzoumanian, Z: History of Lewond, the Eminent Vardapet of the Armenians, Philadelphia 1982. English translation.

Bedrosian, R: Ghewond’s History, Translated from Classical Armenian.

Hoyland, R: The Correspondence between Leo III (717-41) and ‘Umar II (717-20), Aram, 6 (1994), 165-177.

Jeffery, A: Ghevond’s Text of the Correspondence between ‘Umar II and Leo III, in The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Oct., 1944), pp.269-332. English translation.

Khoury, A-T: Léon – Épître a ‘Umar, Roi des Sarrasins in Khoury, A-T: Les Théologiens byzantins et l’Islam. Paris, 1969, pp.200-218. French translation.

Palombo, C – The ‘correspondence’ of Leo III and ‘Umar II: traces of an early Christian Arabic apologetic work, in Millennium 12 no: 1 (2015), pp.231-264.

The Ehnesh Inscription

An inscription on three limestone blocks of the south wall of the church of Saint Sergius at Ehnesh in northern Syria chronicles a series of events and catastrophes that overtook the local Christian inhabitants: ‘in the year 995 (i.e. 683/4) there was a great famine, and in the year 1005 (693-4) there was a darkness, and in the year 1091 (779/80) the ܐܡܝܪܐ ܕܡܗܝܡܢܐܵ (Amīra dh-Mhaymnē (i.e .Amīr al-Mu’minīn – ‘the Commander of the Faithful’) ordered that the churches be torn down and that the Tanūkhids become Muslims’. The inscriber attributes their plight to their sinfulness. The inscription appears to contrast the coming of Christ and the joy it brought, as opposed to the coming of the Arabs and the misery which that brought – salvation as opposed to enslavement.

Palmer, A: The Messiah and the Mahdi – History Presented as the Writing on the Wall, In Hokwerda, H. et al. (eds): Polyphonia Byzantina, Studies in Honour of W. J. Aerts. 1993, pp.45-84.

Later visionary / apocalyptic works

The Apocalypse of Ps. Ezra ܫܐܠܬܐ ܕܫܐܠ ܥܙܪܐ ܥܠ ܥܬܝܵܕܬܐ ܕܒܐܚܪܝܬ ܙܒܢܐ̈

The question that Ezra asked concerning the things that are to happen at the End of Times is a historical apocalyptic text that claims the biblical character Ezra as author, and a pseudonymous product of a Syriac-speaking Christian author who writes in response to the Arab conquests and subsequent consolidation of Arab political and religious dominance under the caliphate. The work provides an interesting example of how sacred texts were re-imagined in order to explain current calamities and respond to the theological challenges presented by Arab rule. ‘There will come out from the South’, the author writes, ‘a warlike man with a numerous people and his rule will extend over the Land of Promise. He will make great peace and effect great benefits in the land for three years and seven months. Then the four winds of heaven will be set in motion, peoples will rise up one against another and destroy themselves until the earth will be hidden by the blood spilled upon its face’. In the text the images given of ‘the serpent’, ‘the eagle’, ‘the viper’ and the ‘four kings’ have been likened by scholars to the sequence of Islamic dynasties: the Umayyads, the ‘Abbāsids, the Fāṭimids and the Turks. At the end, the angel of the Lord returns to console Ezra with a description of the last days, in which the ‘Ishmaelites’ will be destroyed. The work is held to date originally from the early 7th century but contains elements that pertain to the 11th-12th century.

Chabot, J: L’Apocalypse d’Esdras touchant le royaume des Arabes in Revue sémitique d’épigraphie et d’histoire ancienne 2 (1894): pp.242–250 and 333–46. Syriac text and French translation.

Estes, L – The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ezra: Syriac Edition, English Translation, and Introduction, 2016.

Gottheil, R – An Arabic version of the ‘Revelation of Ezra’ in Hebraica, Oct. 1887, Vol.4 No.1, pp.14-17.

Hall, I: The Vision of Ezra the Scribe Concerning the Latter Times of the Ishmaelites, in Presbyterian Review 7 (1886): pp.537–541.

The Apocalypse of Peter كتاب المجال– جليان بطرس

The Book of the Rolls or Apocalypse of Peter is a 9^th-10^th c. work, or collection of works, but incorporates materials from the mid- 8^th century. Claiming to be a revelation of Jesus as given to the Apostle Peter, the work includes in its third section an apocalyptic account of the End Times, reflecting the Persian depredations in Palestine, and the Emperor Heraclius’ restoration of Christian rule, the ensuring destruction from the ‘the sons of Ishmael’ or ‘the sons of Kedar’ from the deserts of the south and prophecies about the collapse of Islamic rule. At the end of time, the ‘lion’s whelp’ will appear, a victorious Christian king who will besiege the Muslims and restore the Christian faith. The tone of the work is at times highly polemic with regards to the sons of Ishmael, a nation that will‘claim prophecy, and will become false prophets. In their days the beast of the desert will rule over mankind, and his people will divide the earth into parts for which they will cast lots among themselves.’ These people will ‘compel other people to embrace its religion, and it will attain its aim with the sword … that nation will lay its hands on the sanctuaries in order to strip them of their gold and will destroy the religious edifices and churches built under my name… Its king will chop off the noses, cut out the eyes, and cut off the hands, the feet, and the ears. He will establish an iniquitous law to himself and he will be cruel, and in his cruelty he will kill people, destroy towns and rob and murder without pity, while saying “God ordered me to do this”. The revelation warns Peter to ‘tell your people to avoid them and not to follow their false doctrine about God, a doctrine that will be delivered with a diabolical cunning and assertions to which there is no foundation.’ It regards Islamic rule as a chastisement for the Christians’ sins, and criticizes the Christians’ use of Arabic, their adoption of Muslim customs, and marriage with Muslims, and condemns Islamic worship, laws and morals. There also appears to be a description of the character and physical appearance of Muḥammad, and an allusion to the story that he was taught by a heretical Christian.

Gibson, M – Kitāb al-Magāll, or The Book of the Rolls, in Apocrypha Arabica, Studia Sinaitica No. VIII, 1901, pp.1-58. Arabic text and English translation of Part I.

Grypeou, E: Kitāb al-majāll, (also Apocalypse of Peter; the Book of (hidden) Secrets), in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 5 (1350‒1500). Edited by Thomas, David Richard and Mallett, Alex. History of Christian-Muslim Relations 20. Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2013, pp.632-637.

Grypeou, E: The Re-written Bible in Arabic: The Paradise Story and its Exegesis in the Arabic Apocalypse of Peter in Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, pp.113-130.

Mingana, A: The Apocalypse of Peter in Woodbrooke Studies 3, Cambridge, 1931, Parts 2 and 3 (pp.209-282 and pp.349-407). English translation of the Garshuni Arabic text.

Roggema, B: Biblical Exegesis and Interreligious Polemics in the Arabic Apocalypse of Peter—The Book of the Rolls in Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, pp.131-150.

Later non-Muslim historical texts

Overviews

Borrut, Antoine, La circulation de l’information historique entre les sources arabo-musulmanes et syriaques: Élie de Nisibe et ses sources, Pages 137-159 in L’historiographie syriaque. Edited by Debié, Muriél. Études syriaques 6. Paris: Geuthner, 2009.

Brock, S: Syriac historical writing, a survey of the main sources. The Oriental Institute, Oxford.

Brock, S: Syriac Sources for Seventh-Century History, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Vol 2 (1976), 17-36. Blackwell.

Howard-Johnston, J: Later Historians: Theophanes in Howard-Johnston, J: Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Palmer, A – The Seventh Century in West-Syrian Chronicles, (with S. Brock and R. Hoyland), Liverpool university Press, 1993.

Witakowski, W: Historiography, Syriac in Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage.

Witakowski, W: Syriac Historiographical Sources in Whitby, M (ed): Byzantines and Crusaders in Non-Greek Sources, 1025-1204, Proceedings of the British Academy, 132; 2007 pp.251-281.

Theophanes the Confessor – Χρονογραφια

An aristocrat turned monk, Theophanes (c.759-818) continued the Chronology of George Syncellus and used earlier Greek historians to flesh out his account of the early years of the Arab raids, and gives many original contributions on these between 663/4 and the Arab withdrawal from Constantinople in 718. Theophanes also gives more details than many on the new faith and on Muḥammad’s personality (he was the first to claim that the Prophet suffered from epilepsy), ascribes the origins of the faith to Jewish machinations. He maintains that those Jews who converted to Islam soon found the religion to be false but persisted with it out of fear, affecting his mission in such a way that it became directed mainly against the Christians ἐδίδασκον αὐτὸν ἀθέμιτα καθ’ ἡμῶν τῶν Χριστιανῶν.

Athanasiou, D: Το Ισλάμ κατά το Θεοφάνη Ομολογητή (‘Islam according to Theophanes the Confessor’), Ekklisiastikos Faros, 2020.

Cecota, B: Islam, the Arabs and Umayyad Rulers According to Theophanes the Confessor’s Chronography in Studia Ceranea 2, 2012, p. 97–111.

Cecota, B: The Jewish Theme in Theophanes the Confessor’s Testimony on the Prophet Muḥammad in Studia Ceranea 13, 2023.

Forest, S: Theophanes’ Byzantine Source for the Late Seventh and Early Eighth Centuries, c. AD 668-716, in Jankowiak, M and Montinaro, F (edd): Studies in Theophanes, Travaux et Mémoires 19, 2015, pp.417-444.

Khoury, A-T: Théophane le Confesseur in Khoury, A-T: Les Théologiens byzantins et l’Islam. Paris, 1969, pp.106-109.

Maximov, Y: Исламский Мир в «Хронографии» Преподобного Феофана Сигрианского in pravoslavie.ru, March 2008.

Agapius – كتاب العنوان

Maḥbūb ibn Qusṭanṭīn, or Agapius in the Latinized form of his name, was a 10^th century bishop of Menbidj and one of the earliest Christian writers to use Arabic. His universal history the Kitāb al-ʿunwān includes in its later pages historical information on the Arabs up to the end of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Leo IV (755-80) and the second year of the caliphate of al-Mahdī (776-7 AD). His work covers the history of Byzantium and the Caliphate, especially at the time of the transfer of power from the Umayyads to the ‘Abbāsids.

Hoyland, R – Agapius, Theophilus and Muslim sources in Jankowiak, M and Montinaro, F (edd): Studies in Theophanes, Travaux et Mémoires 19, 2015, pp.355-364.

Pearse, R: Agapius, Universal History, English tr. (2009) of A. Vasiliev’s A: Kitab al-‘Unvan, Histoire Universelle.

Vasiliev, A: Kitab al-‘Unvan, Histoire Universelle, Agapius (Mahboub) de Menbidj, Seconde Partie II, St. Petersburg, 1909. Arabic text and French translation. The first references to the Arabs begins on p.191.

Michael the Syrian – ܡܟܬܒܢܘܬ ܙܒ̈ܢܐ

The Chronicle of Michael the Great (A.D. 1126-1199) has been described as the longest medieval chronicle in the Western world. It begins with Creation and continues to the year 1195. Its textual survival was precarious, partly due to its sheer size that discouraged copyists from the task. Only one copy of the Chronicle in the original Syriac is known today, but some 60 copies of medieval Armenian versions have survived. Michael’s work in Books Eleven and Twelve covers the years 591 to 758 and gives important details on the Byzantine emperors’ relationship with Miaphysites before and during the Arab conquests, providing the groundwork for dissatisfaction with imperial rule, and the initial attitudes to the Arab conquerors. It also highlights how the Byzantines underestimated the Arab threat, and acted to undermine Christian solidarity through their violent persecution of anti-Chalcedonians.

Chabot, J. (tr.) : Chronique de Michel Le Syrien, Patriarche Jacobite d’Antioche (1166-1199), Tome II, Paris 1901, Livre XI, Chapters 1-26. French translation.

Moosa, M – The Syriac Chronicle of Michael Rabo (The Great) – A Universal History from the Creation (English translation and introduction), Beth Antioch Press 2014. (Books XI- XII).

Wood, P: New histories of a time of conflict: The seventh century in the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian in Travaux et mémoires 26 (Melanges James Howard-Johnston, ed. P. Booth and M. Whitby), pp.581-600.

Studies on apocalyptic literature on the Arab conquests

Scholars have argued that historiography takes two forms: one is the linear composition that explains events from a start to a finish, and the internal causality that this implies; the other is a composition that explains the sense of events, the sequence of which is conceived as teleological. As man in times of stress seeks to understand his place in history, the apocalyptic genre answers this need, dispensing with the randomness of events and explaining the meaning of current disorder as the commencement of The End. Some of the works featured above reveal a strong vein of apocalypticism and eschatology. While these works are less useful for historical data – aside from the historically challenging view of Muḥammad’s personal leading of his followers in raids into the Holy Land – their texts do include references to, and descriptions of, contemporary life and thus retain their importance for cultural anthropology. These works also reveal some important continuities with the apocalypticism of the pre-conquest era, since in the seventh century religious believers saw themselves as witnessing the fulfilment of these early prognostications – even if they are universally vaticinia ex eventu, prophesies after the event.

Alexander, P and Abrahamse, D (edd): The Byzantine apocalyptic tradition, University of California Press1985.

Amirav, H, Grypeou, E and Stroumsa, G (edd): Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity. Encounters in the Abrahamic Religions, 6^th-8^th Century. Late Antique History and Religion, 17, Peeters, Leuven 2017.

Anthony, S – Who was the Shepherd of Damascus? The Enigma of Jewish and Messianist Responses to the Islamic Conquests in Marwānid Syria and Mesopotamia in: Paul M. Cobb, ed., The Lineaments of Islam: Studies in Honor of Fred McGraw Donner, IHC 95 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp.21-59.

Atkinson, K : Jewish and Christian Religious Perceptions of Islam from Muhammad to the Fall of the Umayyad Caliphate.

Atkinson, K: Jewish Eschatology and Early Islamic History in Polish Journal of Biblical Research 19-20 (2020 2021): pp.7-26

Cook, D: Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic (Studies in Late Antiquity and early Islam 21), Darwin Press, 2002. Chapter 1: Historical Apocalypses, pp.34-91.

Cook, D: The Book of Tribulations, The Syrian Muslim Apocalyptic Tradition an Annotated Translation by Nu‘aym b. Ḥammād al-Marwazī, Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Apocalypticism and Eschatology, Edinburgh University Press, 2017.

Doufikar-Aerts, F: Gog and Magog Crossing Borders: Biblical, Christian and Islamic Imaginings in Wieser, V, Eltschinger, V and Heiss, J: Cultures of Eschatology, Volume 1: Empires and Scriptural Authorities in Medieval Christian, Islamic and Buddhist Communities – Volume 2: Time, Death and Afterlife in Medieval Christian, Islamic and Buddhist Communities. De Gruyter, 2020, pp.390-414.

Drijvers, Han J.W., Christians, Jews and Muslims in northern Mesopotamia in early Islamic times. The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles and related texts, in The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East. I: Problems in the Literary Source Material. Edited by Cameron, Averil and Conrad, Lawrence Irvin. Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam 1. Princeton, NJ: Darwin, 1992, pp.67-74.

Eichner, W: Byzantine Accounts of Islam in Cameron, A and Hoyland, R (edd.): Doctrine and Debate in the East Christian World, 300–1500, (The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300–1500, Volume 12), Ashgate Publishing, 2011,pp.109-172.

Greisiger, L: Ein nubischer Erlöser-König: Kūš in syrischen Apokalypsen des 7. Jahrhunderts. In Sophia G. Vashalomidze, Lutz Greisiger (eds.): Der christliche Orient und seine Umwelt. Gesammelte Studien zu Ehren Jürgen Tubachs anläßlich seines 60. Geburtstages (Studies in Oriental Religions 56). Wiesbaden, 2007.

Grypeou, E: ‘A People will emerge from the Desert’, Apocalyptic perceptions of the early Muslim conquests in contemporary eastern Christian literature, in Visions of the End: Apocalypticism and Eschatology in the Abrahamic Religions between the 6th and 8th centuries / [ed] H. Amirav, et al., Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2017, p. 291-310.

Grypeou, E: The Abomination of Desolation: Eastern Christian Apocalyptic Literature and the Symbolic Construction of Islam 1, in Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 20, 2023, pp.57-71.

Grypeou, E, Swanson, M and Thomas D (edd): The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2006.

Kraft, A: Byzantine apocalyptic literature In The Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature, ed. Colin McAllister, 172–189. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp.172-189.

Kraft, A : On the eschatological elucidation of the ‘Ishmaelite’ phenomenon. Oxford University Research Archive (2010).

Kraft, A: The Last Roman Emperor and the Mahdī – on the Genesis of a Contentious Politico-Religious Topos, in Πρακτικά Διεθνούς Συμποσίου: Βυζάντιο και Αραβικός κόσμος. Συνάντηση Πολιτισμών, ed. A. Kralides and A. Gkoutzioukostas, pp.233–248.

Lindstedt, I: The Last Roman Emperor, the Mahdi, and Jerusalem in Laato, A (ed): Understanding the Spiritual Meaning of Jerusalem in Three Abrahamic Religions, Brill, Leiden, 2019.

Martinez, F: La Literatura Apocalíptica y las Primeras Reacciones Cristianas a la Conquista Islámica en Oriente.Conference paper, Real Academia de la Historia, April 2002.

Monferrer-Sala, J: ‘The Antichrist is coming…’ The making of an apocalyptic topos in Arabic (Ps.-Athanasius, Vat. Ar. 158/Par. ar. 153/32) in Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 187, Bibel, Byzanz und Christlicher Orient, 2011.

Sahas, D: Apocalyptic Treatment of Islam in Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.268-274.

Schmieder, S (ed.): Endzeiten – Eschatologie in den monotheistischen Weltreligionen, De Gruyter 2008

Shoemaker, S: Syriac Apocalypticism and the Rise of Islam

Shoemaker, S: The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. Philadelphia PA, University of Pennsylvania Press 2018.

Stoyanov, Y: Apocalypticizing Warfare: From Political Theology to Imperial Eschatology in Seventh- to Early Eighth-Century Byzantium, in Bardakjian, K; La Porta, S (edd): The Armenian Apocalyptic Tradition, A Comparative Perspective, Brill, Leiden, 2014, pp.379-433.

Stroumsa, G: False Prophet, False Messiah and the Religious Scene in Seventh-Century Jerusalem, in Markus Bockmuehl and James Carlton Paget, eds., Redemption and Resistance: The Messianic Hopes of Jews and Christians in Antiquity (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 2007), pp.278-289.

Van Lent, J – Les apocalypses coptes de l’époque arabe: quelques réflexions in Etudes coptes V, Sixième journée d’études (Limoges, 18-20 juin 1993) e Septième journée d’études, Neuchatel, 18-20 mai 1995), éd. par M. Rassart-Debergh (Cahiers de la Bibliothèque copte 10) Paris-Louvain, 1998, pp.181-195.

Von Sivers, P: Christology and Prophetology in the early Umayyad Arab Empire in Markus Groß and Karl-Heinz Ohlig, eds., Die Entstehung einer Weltreligion III. Die heilige Stadt Mekka – eine literarische Fiktion, Inârah, Schriften zur frühen Islamgeschichte und zum Koran, 7 (Berlin: Verlag Hans Schiler, 2014), pp.255-285.

Early apologetics as a historical source

After initially not taking much notice of the invaders’ religion – since few expected the conquest to last – non-Muslim subjects to the new authorities progressively responded by becoming more assertive about their faith, as a response to the increasing public profile of Islam in the public sphere and the passing of legislation that discriminated between Muslims and non-Muslims. Non-Muslim clerics and scholars therefore felt obliged to respond to the challenge of the new faith, and from the mid-eighth century onwards the earlier anecdotal references to discussions with the invaders on their beliefs turn into fully elaborated, point-for-point defences of Christianity and refutations of Islam. The main points of contention were the Trinity and the Incarnation but the apologetic works also addressed the integrity and the authenticity of the Old and New Testament texts, the Christian doctrine of the moral freedom of the will to choose good and to avoid evil, the efficacy of the sacraments and the defence of monogamy. There were also questions about Muḥammad’s status as a prophet, and the position of the Qur’ān as a revealed scripture, all of which disputed with the necessary tact. The literary forms of the apologetics range from debates in which a Christian churchman responds to criticisms from a Muslim official, to dialogues between a master and his pupil to prepare the latter for challenge, to more discursive letter-treatises or essays. For the Christian apologists these forms were a natural development from the διάλεξεις employed by some of the early church fathers, and they inspired the rise of the Islamic munāẓara ‘disputation’. The rise of this literary genre casts important light upon the historical developments that were taking place. In addition, these apologetic texts trace in parallel the reasoning methodologies that among both Christian and Muslim apologists developed into the ‘ilm al-kalām scholastic disciplines in Baṣra and Baghdad in the late 8th and early 9th centuries.

Overviews

Beaumont, M: Arab Christians and the Quran from the Origins of Islam to the Medieval Period, (The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 35), Brill 2018.

Beaumont, M: Early Christian Interpretation of the Qur’an, Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies October/December 2005 22: 195-203.

Bertaina, D: Christian and Muslim Dialogues: The Religious Uses of a Literary Form in the Early Islamic Middle East, Gorgias Press, Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies, 2011.

Bertaina, D; Keating, S; Swanson, M and Treiger, A(edd): Heirs of the Apostles: Studies on Arabic Christianity in Honor of Sidney H. Griffith, Band 1, Brill, Leiden 2019.

Bertaina, D: The Development of Testimony Collections in Early Christian Apologetics with Islam, in Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, pp.151-173.

Cameron, A and Hoyland, R (edd.): Doctrine and Debate in the East Christian World, 300–1500, (The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300–1500, Volume 12), Ashgate Publishing, 2011.

Fiey, J: Chrétiens syriaques sous les Abbassides surtout à Bagdad, 749-1258. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Vol. 420, Tome 59.

Griffith, S: Answers for the Shaykh: A ‘Melkite’ Arabic Text from Sinai and the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation in ‘Arab Orthodox’ Apologetics, in Grypeou, E (ed): The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2006., pp.277-310.

Griffith, S: Comparative Religion in the Apologetics of the First Christian Arabic Theologians in Griffith, S: The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic, Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period, Ashgate Variorum, 2002, pp.63-87.

Griffith, S: Disputes with Muslims in Syriac Christian Texts: From Patriarch John (d. 648) to Bar Hebraeus (d. 1286), inGriffith, S: The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic, Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period,Ashgate Variorum, 2002, pp.251-273.

Griffith, S: From Patriarch Timothy I to Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq: philosophy and Christian apology in Abbasid times; reason, ethics and public policy in Tamcke, M (ed.) – Christians and Muslims in dialogue in the Islamic Orient of the Middle Ages, Ergon Verlag, Beiruter Texte und Studien (BTS), 1, 2007, pp

Griffith, S: John of Damascus and the Church in Syria in the Umayyad Era: The Intellectual and Cultural Milieu of Orthodox Christians in the World of Islam, in Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 11:2 (2011), pp.207-238.

Griffith, S: Syriac Writers on Muslims and the Religious Challenge of Islam. Mōrān ’Eth’ō 7. Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 1995.

Griffith, S: The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic, Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period,Ashgate Variorum, 2002.

Griffith, S: The Bible in Arabic, 2013. (The Bible in Pre-Islamic Arabia – The Bible in the Arabic Qur’ān – The Earliest Translations of the Bible into Arabic – Christian Translations of the Bible into Arabic – Jewish Translations of the Bible into Arabic – Muslims and the Bible in Arabic – Intertwined Scriptures).

Griffith, S: The Gospel in Arabic: An Inquiry into its Appearance in the First Abbasid Century in Griffith, S: Arabic Christianity in the Monasteries of Ninth-Century Palestine (Variorum Collected Studies) Routledge 1992, pp.126-167.

Griffith, S: The Monks of Palestine and the Growth of Christian Literature in Arabic in Griffith, S: Arabic Christianity in the Monasteries of Ninth-Century Palestine (Variorum Collected Studies) Routledge 1992.

Griffith, S: The Prophet Muhammad, his Scripture and his Message according to Christian Apologies in Arabic and Syriac from the First Abbasid Century in Griffith, S: Arabic Christianity in the Monasteries of Ninth-Century Palestine (Variorum Collected Studies) Routledge 1992, pp.99-146.

Griffith, S – The Qur’ān in Arab Christian Texts: The Development of an Apologetical Argument: Abū Qurrah in the Mağlis of Al-Ma’mūn in Parole de l’Orient 24 (1999), pp.203-233.

Griffith, S: The Qur’an in Christian Arabic Literature: A Cursory Overview in Beaumont, M: Arab Christians and the Quran from the Origins of Islam to the Medieval Period, (The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 35), Brill 2018, pp.1-19.

Høgel, C: An early anonymous Greek translation of the Qur’ān, Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 2010.

Hoyland, R: St Andrews MS14 and the earliest Arabic Summa Theologiae in Syriac Polemics, Studies in Honour of Gerrit Jan Reinink, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 170, 2007, pp.159-172.

Hoyland, R (ed): The Late Antique World of Early Islam: Muslims among Christians and Jews in the East Mediterranean, Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam 25, Gerlach Press 2021.

Jacobs, B: An Ancient Syriac Translation of the Ḳurʾān’? Genealogy of Alphonse Mingana’s Hypothesis in Ulbricht, Manolis, ed., Documenta Coranica Christiana: Christian Translations of the Qurʾān, Documenta Coranica. Leiden: Brill.

Khoury, A-T: Apologétique byzantine contre l’Islam (VIIIe–XIIIe s.) Altenberge, 1982.

Khoury A-T: Les Theologiens byzantins et l’Islam. Paris, 1969.

Mingana, A: An Ancient Syriac Translation of the Kur’an, Exhibiting New Verses and Variants in John Rylands Library Bulletin, Manchester, 1925, Volume 9, pp.188-235.

Mingana, A: Syriac Influence on the Style of the Kur’ān Bulletin of the John Rylands Library,, Vol 1, No.1, 1927, 77-98.

Moorhead, J: The Monophysite Response to the Arab Invasions, in Byzantion 51 (1981): 579-591.

Nickel, G: Early Muslim Accusations of taḥrīf: Muqātil Ibn Sulaymān’s Commentary on Key Qur’anic Verses in Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, pp.207-224.

Reinink, G – Bible and Qurʼān in Early Syriac Christian-Islamic Disputation, in Tamcke, M (ed.) – Christians and Muslims in dialogue in the Islamic Orient of the Middle Ages, Ergon Verlag, Beiruter Texte und Studien (BTS), 1, 2007, pp.57-72.

Roggema, B: Les controverses religieuses en syriaque, F. Ruani (éd.), Paris, 2016 (Études syriaques 13), p. 261-293.

Roggema, B: Muslims as Crypto-Idolaters – A Theme in the Christian Portrayal of Islam in the Near East, in Thomas, D (ed): Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule: Church Life and Scholarship in ‘Abbasid Iraq. The History of Christian-Muslim Relations 1. Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2003. Pages 1-18.

Sahas, D: Βυζάντιο, Ισλάμ και αντι-Ισλαμική γραμματεία (7ος–15ος αι.) (‘Byzantium, Islam and Anti-Islamic Literature – VIIc to XVc’) in Sahas, D: Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.13-48.

Sahas, D: Saracens and Syrians in the Byzantine Anti-Islamic Literature and Before, in Byzantium and Islam,Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.182-202.

Sahas, D: The Art and Non-Art of Byzantine Polemics: Patterns of Refutation in Byzantine Anti-Islamic Literature in Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.97-115.

Samir, S and Nielsen, J (edd) – Christian Arabic Apologetics during the Abbasid Period (750-1258), Studies in the History of Religions, Volume LXIII, Brill, 1994.

Samir, S: The earliest Arab apology for Christianity (c.750) in Samir, S and Nielsen, J (eds) – Christian Arabic Apologetics during the Abbasid Period (750-1258), Studies in the History of Religions, Volume LXIII, Brill, 1994, pp.57-114.

Sizgorich, T: “Do Prophets Come with a Sword?” Conquest, Empire and Historical Narrative in the Early Islamic World.

Steinschneider, M : Polemische und Apologetische Literatur in Arabischer Sprache zwischen Muslimen, Christen und Juden: Nebst anhängen verwandten inhalts, Leipzig 1877.

Stroumsa, G: “Barbarians or Heretics? Jews and Arabs in Byzantine Consciousness,” in Robert Bonfil, et al., eds., Jews of Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures, Leiden: Brill, 2011, pp.761-776.

Suermann, H: The Use of Biblical Quotations in Christian Apocalyptic Writings of the Umayyad Period in Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, pp.69-90.

Swanson, M: Beyond Prooftexting (2): The Use of the Bible in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies in Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, pp.91-112.

Swanson, M: ‘Folly to the Hunafa’: The Crucifixion in Early Christian-Muslim Controversy, in Grypeou, E (ed): The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2006, pp.237-256.

Swanson, M: The Christian al-Ma’mūn Tradition in Thomas, D (ed): Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule: Church Life and Scholarship in ‘Abbasid Iraq, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 1, Brill 2003, pp.63-92.

Szilágyi, K: A prophet like Jesus? Christians and Muslims debating Muhammad’s death. JSAI 36 (2009) pp.131-172.

Teule, H: Christians under the Ummayads and the Abbasids. An Overview of some Encounters in Altripp, M and Suermann, H (edd): Orientalisches Christentum: Perspektiven aus der Vergangenheit für die Zukunft,Brill, pp.22-36.

Thomas, D (ed): Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule: Church Life and Scholarship in ‘Abbasid Iraq, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 1, Brill 2003.

Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006.

Thomas, D: The Bible and the Kalām in Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, pp.175-192.

Versteegh, K: Greek translations of the Qur’an in a Christian polemicist (9th century A.D.) in Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 141 (1991) pp.52-68.

Wilde, C: Christian-Muslim (In)Tolerance? Islam and Muslims according to Early Christian Arabic Texts in Edds. Van Kooten, G and van Ruiten, J: Intolerance, Polemic and Debate in Antiquity, 2019.

Wilde, C: The Qurʾān in Christian Arabic texts (750-1258 C.E.). Dissertation, Washington 2011.

Wilde, C: The Utility of Christian Arabic Texts for Quranic Studies, in Heirs of the Apostles Studies on Arabic Christianity in Honor of Sidney H. Griffith, Brill, Leiden 2019, pp.93-111.

Younes, M and Wénin, A – Le christianisme devant l’Islam: théologiens en dialogue, Cahiers de la Revue Theologique de Louvain, Peeters, Leuven 2012.

Source texts to 800 AD

Disputation of John of the Sedreh with an Emir ܐܓܪܬܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܝܘܚܢܢ ܡܛܠ ܡܡܠܠܐ ܕܡܠܠ ܥܡ ܐܡܝܪܐ ܕܡܗܓܪ̈ܝܐ

Dispute between a Muslim and a Monk of Bēt Ḥālē ܕܪܫܐ ܕܗܘܐ ܠܚܕ ܡܢ ܛܝܝܐ ܥܡ ܝܚܝܕܝܐ ܚܕ ܒܥܘܡܪܐ ܕܒܝܬ ܚܠܐ

John of Damascus Η λαοπλάνος σκεία τῶν Ισμαηλιτῶν

Patriarch Timothy’s debate with al-Mahdī ܕܪܫܐ ܕܛܝܡܬܝܘܣ ܕܥܒܕܗ ܠܘܬ ܡܗܕܝ

Disputation of John of the Sedreh with an Emir ܐܓܪܬܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܝܘܚܢܢ ܡܛܠ ܡܡܠܠܐ ܕܡܠܠ ܥܡ ܐܡܝܪܐ ܕܡܗܓܪ̈ܝܐ

A likely imaginary conversation between the seventh-century Miaphysite patriarch of Antioch John of the Sedreh (d.648) and a Muslim leader – one Bar Sa‘d (possibly ‘Umayr ibn Sa ‘d al-Anṣārī) and representing the earliest witness to an interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims. The text, which is considered to date from the early 8^th century, presents a set of questions to which John gives comprehensive responses, such as the emir’s question: ‘Why, when the gospel is one, is the faith diverse?’ and the demand to ‘show me that your laws are written in the Gospel and be guided by them or submit to the Hagarene law’. The text indicates that the emir was aware that the Qur’ānic description of the Gospel differed from the text which the Christians held and (according to Michael the Syrian) the patriarch had an Arabic translation of the Gospel – possibly the Diatessaron – the made at the request of the emir. The text also highlights what its contemporaries considered some of the most pressing theological issues brought about by the rise of Islam, including the issue of the support of the holy scriptures to the Christian position, for which the emir asked Jews to examine whether these distorted the Hebrew texts. It concludes by asking the reader to pray that God will enlighten the emir and make him favourably disposed toward Christians in view of ‘the dimension of the danger and the peril which threatened’.

Nau, F – Dialogue between the Patriarch John I and the Amir of the Hagarenes in Newman, N (ed): The Early Christian‐Muslim Dialogue: A Collection of Documents from the First Three Islamic Centuries, 632‐900 A.D. Translations with Commentary. Hatfield, PA: Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute, 1993, pp.11-46.

Nau, F – Un colloque du patriarche Jean avec l’émir des Agaréens et faits divers des années 712 à 716 – d’après le ms. du British Museum Add. 17193, avec un appendice sur le patriarche Jean Ier, sur un colloque d’un patriarche avec le chef des mages et sur un diplôme qui aurait été donné par Omar à l’évêque du’ Tour ‘Abdin’, in Journal asiatique XI, 5 (1915), pp.225-279. Syriac Text (pp.248-256) and French translation (pp.257-267).

Penn, M – John and the Emir: A New Introduction, Edition and Translation in Le Muséon 121 (2008): pp.83–109. Text and English translation.

Penn, M: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam, Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015, pp.200-209.

Roggema, B: The Debate between Patriarch John and an emir of the Mhaggrāyē: A Reconsideration of the earliest Christian-Muslim Debate, in Martin Tamcke (ed), Christen und Muslime im Dialog. Christlich-muslimische Gespräche im muslimischen Orient des Mittelalters, Beirut, 2007, pp. 21-39 [Beiruter Texte und Studien, 117]

Saadi, A-M : The Letter of John of Sedreh, A New Perspective on Nascent Islam, Karmo Magazine, Vol. 1 No. 2, 1999. Mar Aphram Institute, Chicago, IL.

Dispute between a Muslim and a Monk of Bēt Ḥālē ܕܪܫܐ ܕܗܘܐ ܠܚܕ ܡܢ ܛܝܝܐ ܥܡ ܝܚܝܕܝܐ ܚܕ ܒܥܘܡܪܐ ܕܒܝܬ ܚܠܐ

An anonymous East Syrian text composed around the 720s, and one of the earliest surviving Christian disputation texts concerning Islam and the first to reference a text called the ‘Qur’ān’. An Arab dignitary who had fallen sick consults the monastery of Bēt Ḥālē (NW of Ḥīra) and during his sojourn notes how the Christians surpass the Muslims in prayer but that ‘your religion will not allow your prayer to be accepted (by God)’ ܠܐ ܫܒܩܐ ܬܘܕܝܬܟܘܢ ܕܬܬܩܒܠ ܨܠܘܬܟܘܢ . He then goes on to challenge Christian practices and beliefs such as the Trinity, Christology, the absence of circumcision, and discusses themes such as the prophet Muḥammad (whom the Christian speaker tactfully defines as ‘a wise and god-fearing man, who freed you from the worship of demons, and caused you to know the one true God’) and the origins of the Qur’ān ( ܩܘܪܐܢ). In making his case the monk quotes from the sūras of the Cow (al-Baqara), the Spider ( ܓܘܓܝ al-‘Ankabūt) and Repentance (al-Tawba) which he categorises as texts separate from the Qur’ān. The text has the Muslim interlocutor acknowledging ‘that your way of thinking is better than ours’ but at the same time wondering ‘for what reason did God deliver you into our hands? And why are you led away by us like sheep to the slaughter?’ It concludes with the Muslim dignitary saying that ‘if it were not for fear of the government, and public shame, many would become Christians’.

Griffith, S: Disputing with Islam in Syriac: The Case of the Monk of Bêt Ḥālê and a Muslim Emir. Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Vol. 3.1, 29.–54.

Reinink, G: Political Power and Right Religion in the East Syrian Disputation between a Monk of Bēt Ḥālē and an Arab Notable in Grypeou, E (ed): The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam, Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2006, pp.153-170.

Roggema, B – The Disputation between a monk of Bēt Ḥālē and an Arab notable’, in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, vol. 1 (600-1500), Leiden, 2009, ed. by David Thomas and Barbara Roggema, with Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala, Johannes Pahlitzsch, Mark Swanson, Herman Teule, and John Tolan.

Taylor, D – The Disputation between a Muslim and a Monk of Bēt Ḥālē – Syriac text and annotated English translation, The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford. Parallel Syriac and English text.

John of Damascus Η λαοπλάνος σκεία τῶν Ισμαηλιτῶν

The most celebrated of the early Greek orthodox writers on Islam, John of Damascus (d. c.752) came from a family that held high rank in the Umayyad period. His work composed during the 730s is mainly focused on the challenges of heresies broadly, but in the last chapters of his work Concerning Heresies (Περι Αιρέσεων) he takes up the ‘now dominating superstition of the Ishmaelites that is seducing the people and a forerunner of the Antichrist’. John tersely dismisses the ’false prophet surnamed Mamed’ – ψευδοπροφήτης Μαμὲδ έπονομαζόμενος – who ‘having happened upon the Old and New Testament, in all likelihood through association with an Arian monk, organised his own sect’ with arevelation which he dismisses as containing ‘certain things worthy of ridicule’ – γέλωτος ἂξια – particularly with relation to concubines, polygamy and the behaviour of the Prophet in this respect. On the theological level John laments how Muslims reject the personal character and the essential relationship of God’s own reason, and thus end up believing in a God who is like ‘a stone or a piece of wood’. He also focuses on the Qur’ān’s lack of a chronological order, its opaque language and what he sees as contradictions, such as between the Qur’ānic assertion of Christ as ‘the Word of God and Spirit’ and the condemnation of Christians as Εταιριαστὰς(‘Hetairiastas’)– ‘Associators’ (mushrikīn), and between the veneration of a stone in the Χαβαθὰν (Ka‘ba) and the Christians’ veneration of the Cross. He also makes an early reference to the problems of Qur’ānic mentions of a ‘wooded mountain’ in an area that is neither mountainous nor wooded, a topic which contemporary revisionist scholars have also highlighted as problematic. John then goes on to instruct fellow-believers as to how the various charges raised by the Ishmaelites may be countered: notably the issue of created words from an uncreated divinity, and attacks the Muslim conception of predestination.

Carrasco, C : La visión del Islam en la obra de Juan Damasceno, Byzantion Nea Hellás 34 (2015), pp. 95-115.

Courtieu, G: La Threskeia des Ismaélites et d’autres gens, Etude sur le vocabulaire de l’hérésie 100 de Jean de Damas, Die Entstehung einer Weltreligion I, Von der koranischen Bewegung zum Frühislam H. Schiler Verlag 2010. Die Threskeia der Ismaeliten und andere Völke (German translation).

Hassan, H: الإسلام في المخيلة البيزنطية في القرن الثامن الميلادي: يوحنا الدمشقي نموذجا (‘Islam in the Byzantine Perception in the Eighth Century AD: John of Damascus as a Paradigm’). Includes parallel Greek text and Arabic translation.

Khoury, A-T: Saint Jean Damascène in Khoury, A-T: Les Théologiens byzantins et l’Islam. Paris, 1969, pp.47-82.

Janosik, D, John of Damascus, First Apologist to the Muslims; The Trinity and Christian Apologetics in the Early Islamic Period, Pickwick, Oregon, 2016.

Le Coz, R: Jean Damascène. Ecrits sur l’Islam, Paris 1992, pp.210-227.

Matthews, A: In defence of His Lord: An Examination of St. John Damascene’s Critique of Islam.

Migne, J: John of Damascus – Περι Αιρεσεων, De Haeresibus.Patrologia Graeca, Documenta Catholica Omnia, Col.763ff. Paragraph 101 ff.

Rhodes, D: John Damascene in Context, An Examination of “The Heresy of the Ishmaelites” with special consideration given to the Religious, Political, and Social Contexts during the Seventh and Eighth Century Arab Conquests, St Francis Magazine Vol 7, No 2, April 2010.

Sahas, D: Damascenica: XVIII: John of Damascus on Islam. Revisited; XIX: Islam in the Context of John of Damascus’ Life and Literary Production; XX: Cultural Interaction during the Umayyad Period: The “Circle” of John of Damascus; XXI: The Arab Character of the Christian Disputation with Islam: The Case of John of Damascus (ca. 655–ca. 749) in Sahas, D: Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.291-382.

Sahas, D: John of Damascus on Islam, Leiden 1972, Greek text and English translation pp.132-141.

Schadler, P: John of Damascus and Islam: Christian Heresiology and the Intellectual Background to Earliest Christian-Muslim Relations,in The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, Volume: 34, 2018.

Süss, I: Christus im Diskurs mit Muhammad: Das Ringen um religiöse Identität. Die Auseinandersetzung der syrischen Christen mit dem Islam anhand ausgewählter Texte des Johannes Damaskenos und des Theodor Abū Qurra, Universitätsverlag Chemnitz, 2015.

Tsagkaropooulos, P: The Religious Other in the Homilies of John of Damascus: References to the Christian Confessions and Muslims of the Middle East in Studia Patristica CXXX (130), 2021, pp.171-182.

Voorhuis, J – John of Damascus on the Muslim Heresy in Newman, N (ed): The Early Christian‐Muslim Dialogue: A Collection of Documents from the First Three Islamic Centuries, 632‐900 A.D. Translations with Commentary. Hatfield, PA: Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute, 1993, pp.137-162.

Patriarch Timothy’s debate with al-Mahdī ܕܪܫܐ ܕܛܝܡܬܝܘܣ ܕܥܒܕܗ ܠܘܬ ܡܗܕܝ

The most famous Syriac disputation is that contained in the replies recorded by the Nestorian patriarch Timotheos in the year 781-2 to the questions posed him on the occasion of two consecutive audiences that the patriarch had with the caliph al-Mahdī (r. 775-785). Although unlikely to be a verbatim record of the exchange, it was nevertheless compiled by Timothy very shortly after the debate took place and represents the gist of the discussions. The Arabic version of his responses was widely distributed. Unlike the aggressive tone adopted by John of Damascus the apologetic text is styled as a professorial response to the questions of an enquiring interlocutor, and Timothy tactfully lauds Muḥammad as having ‘walked in the path of the prophets’, while at the same time admitting that Christians do not hold him to be a prophet. The discussion is wide-ranging, concerning the nature of Christ and the Muslim claim of Muḥammad being foretold in the scriptures as the ‘Paraclete’, but on being asked directly whether the Qur’ān was a revelation from God, Timothy declines to comment other than to say that the work has not been accompanied by the required signs and miracles. Significantly, Timotheos also references the Qur’ān itself as a text-book for the debate, as evidenced by Syriac renditions of Qur’ānic verses such as verses such as iii, 48; iv. 156; iv. 159; iv. 170; xix. 17; xxi. 91; and xc. 1-3. He thus counters al-Mahdī’s Docetist position on Christ’s crucifixion – that it was a similitude that was crucified – with sūrat ‘Īsā (sic for sūrat Maryam) XIX, 33. He is also aware of the existence of the mysterious letters found at the beginning of some sūras. The work is distinguished by its rational argumentation, and scholars have noted how Muslim theologians developed their characteristic modes of reasoning in religious matters, the ʿilm al-kalām, very much in the course of their interactions with Syriac-speaking Christian theologians. Timotheos also engaged in conversations with Muslim scholars and tells of his experiences in several of his Syriac letters which he addressed to a number of Christian correspondents. He used his experiences to advise on how to discuss Christology in a Muslim-dominated milieu.

Griffith, S: The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic, Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period, Ashgate Variorum, 2002, pp.262-264.

Hackenburg, C – An Arabic-to-English Translation of the Religious Debate between the Nestorian Patriarch Timothy I and the ‘Abbāsid Caliph al-Mahdī, M.A. thesis, Ohio State University, 2009.

Heimgartner, M – Die Disputatio des ostsyrischen Patriarchen Timotheos (780‒823) mit dem Kalifen al-Mahdi in Tamcke, M (ed.) – Christians and Muslims in dialogue in the Islamic Orient of the Middle Ages, Ergon Verlag, Beiruter Texte und Studien (BTS), 1, 2007, pp.41-56.

Mingana, A – The Apology of Timothy the Patriarch before the Caliph Mahdi in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 12 (1928): pp.137-298. Syriac facsimile text (pp.227-298) and English translation (pp.151-226).

Samir, S: The Prophet Muhammad as Seen by Timothy I and Some Other Arab Christian Authors, in Thomas, D (ed): Syrian Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years, Leiden / Boston / Köln: Brill, 2001, pp.75-106.

Later apologetics (post-800 A.D.)

While Christians and Jews remained the majority of the population until well into the tenth century, the environment facing the apologists of this later period was one where the Muslim proportion of the population was increasing steadily as a result of an escalating number of Christians converting to Islam. This effected a change in the nature of the apologetic endeavour. From the 9th century AD onwards non-Muslim writers more consciously understood the beliefs of the ‘Arabs’, ‘Hagarenes’ or ‘Saracens’ to constitute an independent faith, rather than as a ‘heresy’ or ‘superstition’. During this time, the theological and philosophical agenda began to be set by Muslims who challenged Christians to defend the consistency and intelligibility of their faith. Clergy and scholars were thus prompted to make their case for Christian doctrine in the face of Islamic criticism and also encourage self-confidence within the Christian population. Another problem facing the apologists was the Muslim claim that scripture passages which supported Christian doctrines had been falsified. Christians were therefore obliged to limit themselves to scriptural texts that were not the object of great dispute, and the effect of this limitation for writers was to force them to appeal to reason and logical deduction, supplemented with acceptable scriptural evidence. As Muslims became more acquainted with ancient Greek texts on philosophy and the natural sciences, and as Arabic was becoming the new lingua franca of the predominantly Syriac-speaking peoples of the Fertile Crescent, the idiom of discussion was conducted in Arabic, with all the problems this presented for conveying theological terms in a new tongue and a cultural environment to which these terms were foreign. Over this period each of the three major Christian denominations living under Arab/Muslim domination produced an important apologist in Arabic: the Melkite Bishop of Ḥarrān Theodore Abū Qurrah (fl. 785-829), the Jacobite Abū Rā’iṭa (d. 835) and the Nestorian ‘Ammār al-Baṣrī (c. 800-850). These scholars defended the credibility of Christianity by comparing it with other contemporary religions and highlighting what they considered to be its superior qualities. They argued that human reason itself can discern which is the true religion by determining which most credibly describes God. Scholars have argued that this reflects a specifically Syrian philosophy of religion that depended upon Neo-Platonist principles that had earlier been channelled to refute pagan opponents to Christian doctrine. This Neo-Platonist underpinning that argued for the potential of humankind to know God by the use of reason was eventually rejected in the Islamic world for its contradiction to the view that God may only be known through His revealed speech in the Qur’ān.

Source texts post 800 AD

Abū Qurra في صحة الدين المسيحي / ميمر في الحرية

Abū Rā’iṭa al-Takrītī في إثبات دين النصرانية

ʿAmmār al-Baṣrī كتاب البرهان / كتاب المسائل والأجوبة

‘Abd al-Masīḥ al-Kindī رسالة الكندي الى الهاشمي

Nicetas of Byzantium Ἀνατροπὴ τοῦ Κορανίου

Arethas Πρὸς τὸν ἐν Δαμασκῷ ἀμηρᾶν

Būluṣ ibn Rajā’ كتاب الواضح بالحق

Bartholomew of Edessa Ἔλεγχος Ἀγαρηνοῦ

Abū Qurra في صحة الدين المسيحي / ميمر في الحرية

The Melkite bishop Theodorus Abū Qurra (750-825) was a prolific polemicist. He is among the first Christians known to have written in Arabic but many of this works are also extant in Greek. His 30 or so works in Syriac are now lost. He held the episcopal seat of Ḥarrān (present-day Şanlıurf) for a time, and among his works are sustained theological dialogues with Islam. Abū Qurra was faced with the major apologetic task of expounding Christian doctrine in an intellectual milieu that was dominated by Islam, and his Arabic language treatises were therefore directed at Muslim scholars as well as fellow Christians who were being faced with the growing challenges. His works demonstrate that he was an accomplished exponent of kalām disputation, and in his Debate with Muslim mutakallimūn at the court of al-Maʾmūn, he makes his case using quotes from the Qurʾan given that his opponents rejected a priori the authority of the Bible. His technique is therefore to highlight contradictions in the Qur’ān vis-à-vis Christian doctrines. At one point Abū Qurra explains: ‘If I told the truth, then your book tells the truth. And if you were to reject these words of mine, then it is your prophet you reject and from your religion you depart’. He argues that the Qur’ān refers to the Christians as ‘believers, yet ‘you call us infidels, polytheists and blasphemers. You wish, by this, to fault us with a false charge.’ Abū Qurra also composed an interesting apologetic discourse in verse on ‘liberty’, on human freedom and responsibility on questions of good and evil, as a direct challenge to the currents in Islam such as al-Jabriyya that were promoting the belief that humans are controlled by predestination, without having choice or free will.

Bacha, C: ميامر ثاودورس ابي قرة اسقف حران (‘Mimrē of Theodorus Abū Qurra Bishop of Ḥarran’) (1904).

Bacha, C – Un traité des œuvres arabes de Théodore Abou-Kurra évêque de Haran / ميمر في صحة الدين المسيحي (1905). (Arabic text with French translation).

Dick, I: مجادلة ابي قرة مع المتكلمين المسلمين في مجلس الخليفة المأمون (‘The dispute of Abu Qurra with Muslim mutakallimīn at the court of the caliph al-Ma’mūn’), 1999; 2nd printing 2007).

Dick, I – Theodore Abuqurra, La personne et son milieu in Proche Orient Chrétien, 1962 (vol 12, pp.209-223 et 319-332), 1963 (vol 13, pp.114-129).

Graf, G: Des Theodor Abû Ḳurra Traktat über den Schöpfer und die wahre Religion . Münster, Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1913. (German translation).

Griffith, S: Faith and Reason in Christian Kalam: Theodore Abu Qurrah on Discerning the True Religion, in Samir, S and Nielsen, J (edd) – Christian Arabic Apologetics during the Abbasid Period (750-1258), Studies in the History of Religions, Volume LXIII, Brill, 1994, pp.1-43.

Griffith, S: Muslim and Church Councils: the Apology of Theodore Abu Qurrah in Griffith, S: The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic, Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period, Ashgate Variorum, 2002, Section VI, pp.270-299.

Griffith, S: The Qur’ān in Arab Christian Texts; The Development of an Apologetical Argument: Abū Qurrah in the Mağlis of al-Ma’mūn, Parole de l’Orient 24 (1999) 203-233.

Khoury, A-T: Abū-Ḳurra et la démonstration de la Trinité in Khoury, A-T: Apologétique byzantine contre l’Islam (VIIIe–XIIIe s.) Altenberge, 1982, pp.26-31.

Khoury, A-T: Théodore Abū-Ḳurra in Khoury, A-T: Les Théologiens byzantins et l’Islam. Paris, 1969, pp.83-105.

Mihoc, V-O – Christliche Bilderverehrung im Kontext islamischer Bilderlosigkeit: Der Traktat über die Bilderverehrung von Theodor Abū Qurrah, Harrassowitz Verlag, Göttinger Orientforschungen, I. Reihe: Syriaca, Band 53, 2017.

Nasry, W: The Caliph and the Bishop, a 9^th Century Muslim-Christian Debate: Al-Ma’mūn and Abū Qurrah,Textes et Études sur l’Orient Chrétien, 5, CEDRAC, Beyouth, 2008.

Pizzo, P and Samir, Kh: ثاودورس ابو قرة – ميمر في الحرية Teodoro Abū Qurra. La libertà (2002). S. Zamorani, Patrimonio culturale arabo cristiano, (Arabic text with Italian translation).

Süss, I: Christus im Diskurs mit Muhammad: Das Ringen um religiöse Identität. Die Auseinandersetzung der syrischen Christen mit dem Islam anhand ausgewählter Texte des Johannes Damaskenos und des Theodor Abū Qurra, Universitätsverlag Chemnitz, 2015.

Swanson, M: Apologetics, catechesis, and the question of audience in “On the Triune Nature of God” (Sinai Arabic 154) and three treatises of Theodore Abū Qurrah in Tamcke, M (ed.) – Christians and Muslims in dialogue in the Islamic Orient of the Middle Ages, Ergon Verlag, Beiruter Texte und Studien (BTS), 1, 2007, pp.113-134.

Swanson, M: Theodore Abù Qurra in the majlis of al-Ma”mùn in Thomas, D (ed): Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule: Church Life and Scholarship in ‘Abbasid Iraq, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 1, Brill 2003, pp.64-69.

Abū Rā’iṭa al-Takrītī في إثبات دين النصرانية

Ḥabīb ibn Ḫidma ‘Abū Rā’iṭa al-Takrītī (c. 770–c. 835) was a Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) theologian, and one of the first known Christians to write in Arabic. He composed treatises on The Proof of the Christian Religion ( في إثبات دين النصرانية ) and The Demonstration of the Soundness of Christianity ( على صحة النصرانية ) and a series of defenses of the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation in response to Muslim accusations that Christians were mushrikīn. In his defenses on these Abū Rā’iṭa departed from the Cappadocian emphasis on the triune economy in the one God and instead took his starting point from the position of the divine unity, working from the basis of God’s absolute oneness, thence onto threeness, thence onto incarnation – thus minimising the potential points of tension with Muslim interlocutors. He used the rationalist approach as an alternative to citing scriptural proof texts, which the Muslims considered ‘corrupted’, and similarly adopted in his argumentation the characteristically Muslim terminology of divine attributes (ṣifāt) and drew parallels with the Islamic teaching of the Divine Names. Abū Rāʾiṭa’s works, designated as a rasā’il(‘epistles’) or rudūd (‘refutations’), take the form of apologetic διάλεξεις / munāẓarāt, and set out responses to questions Muslims might ask about Christian doctrines. Their structure and tone suggest that they may have been the product of actual debates. As such they maintain the courtesy, obligated by such debates, of not explicitly mentioning Muḥammad or the Qur’ān in the disputation. Nevertheless, Abū Rā’iṭa lists the elements which he sees as disqualifying a faith from authenticity: worldly desire ( الرغبة ), ambition( الطمع ), overpowering fear ( الرهبة القاهرة), license (الرخصة ), personal preference (الاستحسان ) and collusion or ethnic bigotry (العصبية ، التواطؤ ) all of which appear aimed at Islam. He is said to have spent some time in prison due to his apologetic activities.

Athanasiou, D: Η αληθινή θρησκεία στη θεολογική σκέψη του Σύρου Θεολόγου/mutakallim Abū Rāʾiṭa l-Takrītī (775-835) ως απάντηση στην ισλαμική πρόκληση (‘The “True Religion” under the Theological concept of the Syrian Theologian/mutakallim Abū Rā’ita al-Takrītī (775-835) as a reply to the Islamic challenge’) in Ημερίδα: Η Θεολογία συναντά τις άλλες επιστήμες και τέχνες, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Athens 2022.

Graf, G: Die Schriften des Jacobiten Ḥabīb ibn Ḫidma Abū Rā’iṭa, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Vols. 130 and 131, Louvain 1951. (Arabic text).

Griffith, S: Habib ibn Hidmah Abu Ra’itah, a Christian mutakallim of the First Abbasid Century in Griffith, S: The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic, Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period,Ashgate Variorum, 2002, Section II, pp.161-201.

Keating, S – Defending the ‘People of Truth’ in the Early Islamic Period: The Christian Apologies of Abū Rā’itah. The History of Christian-Muslim Relations 4. Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2006.

Keating, S: The Use and Translation of Scripture in the Apologetic Writings of Abū Rā’iṭa al-Takrītī in Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, pp.257-274.

Keating, S: Refuting the Charge of Tahrīf: Abū Rā’ita (d. ca. 835) and his ‘First Risāla on the Holy Trinity’ in Günther, S (ed): Ideas, Images, and Methods of Portrayal: Insights into Classical Arabic Literature and Islam. History and Civilization: Studies and Texts 58. Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2005, pp.41-57.

ʿAmmār al-Baṣrī كتاب البرهان / كتاب المسائل والأجوبة

The Nestorian theologian composed his work The Book of the Proof concerning the Course of the Divine Economy as a systematic theological response to Islam. Scholars date it to the period of the caliph al-Mu‘taṣim (796-842). Much of ʿAmmār’s argumentation focuses on the divine signs that authenticate Christianity over against other faiths, a feature which he compares with the Qur’ān’s rejection that Muḥammad’s preaching should be endorsed by miraculous signs (Qur’ān XVII, 59 and VI, 109). But among the common theological points of issue concerning the godhead between Muslims and Christians, ʿAmmār employs some original arguments. For instance, on the problematic issue of the use of the sword to promote a faith, he argues that the proclamation of a divine message should not be contaminated by any worldly attachments of the preachers or by any incentives to accept the message given to their hearers. Like Abū Rā’iṭa He lists points of contention that should disqualify a faith: the sword ( السيف ), bribes and cajolery (الرشى والمصانعة) , ethnic bigotry ( العصبية), personal preference ( الاستحسان ) and tribal collusion (التواطؤ). On the issue of the Christians’ ‘corruption of the scriptures’, he makes the case that it is inconceivable that those who brought the message of the injīl should wish to corrupt it, or that the disciples or followers would voluntarily create difficulties for themselves by inventing a doctrine of the worship of a crucified man or making the rules for marriage much stricter than men would naturally prefer in their ‘personal preference’ by denying remarriage after divorce, as opposed to the Qur’ānic latitude on this at II:227-42, XXXIII:4, 49, LVIII:2-4, and LXV5:1-7. He turns the accusation of corruption against Muslims who, in his view, have to account for how the Qur’ān has altered the teaching of the Gospels. ʿAmmār’s ‘Book of Questions and Answers’ contains a long section on the Trinity, in the form of a series of answers to nine questions posed by an unnamed Muslim, and couched in the confident language of philosophical discourse, ‘that from our point of view, ‘individual’ applies only to beings with physical bodies’ and ‘there is no physical relationship between the properties of God’s substance’ whereasthe ‘substance’ and ‘hypostasis’, exist without depending on anything else.’

Beaumont, M: ʿAmmār al-Baṣrī’s Arabic Apologetics: The Book of the Proof concerning the Course of the Divine Economy and The Book of Questions and Answers, Gorgias Press, Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies; 63, 2022.

Beaumont, M: ‘Ammār al-Basrī on the alleged corruption of the gospels, in Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, pp.241-256.

Beaumont, M: ‘Ammār al-Basrī on the Incarnation in Thomas, D (ed): Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule: Church Life and Scholarship in ‘Abbasid Iraq, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 1, Brill 2003, pp.55-62.

Beaumont, M: ʿAmmār al-Baṣrī: Ninth Century Christian Theology and Qurʾanic Presuppositions in Beaumont, M: Arab Christians and the Quran from the Origins of Islam to the Medieval Period, (The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 35), Brill 2018, pp.83-105.

Beaumont, M – The Theology of ‘Ammār al-Basrī: Commending Christianity within Islamic Culture, Gorgias Press, 2021.

Griffith, S: ‘Ammar al-Basri’s Kitab al-Burhan, Christian Kalam in the First Abbasid Century in Griffith, S: The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic, Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period, Ashgate Variorum, 2002, Section III, pp.145-181.

‘Abd al-Masīḥ al-Kindī رسالة الكندي الى الهاشمي

Al-Kindī’s apologia is the most famous in the West for its having been translated into Latin (the first work on Islam alongside the Qur’ān to be translated), and rediscovered in Arabic in the 19th century. Current scholarship dates it to about 830 during the reign of the Caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 813–33), but nothing is known for certain about its author(s) or the occasion of its composition. The correspondence begins with a short invitation by al-Hāshimī to al-Kindī to convert to Islam, followed by al-Kindī’s extensive refutation of Muḥammad, his teachings and the Qur’an, along with a summary of the Christian faith. Although al- Kindī’s text is often given the title Apology, it is more than a defence of Christianity and includes significant and sometimes harsh polemical criticisms of Islam, compared to the more courteous and mild tone of al-Hāshimī with respect to Christianity. The Muslim claim to the faith of Abraham, in al-Kindī’s view, is nothing less than the paganism of the Sabaeans, and he draws from Islamic sources of hadith and historiography to measure the claims to Muḥammad’s prophethood against the records of the Old Testament prophets, to the disadvantage of Muḥammad. Al-Kindī’s letter provides a unique multi-pronged attack on the legitimacy of the religion of his rulers, focusing on Muḥammad’s ‘immoral’ behaviour, his instruction at the hands of a Christian monk and the influence of Jews on his message, on the confusion and alteration of the Qur’ān text following Muḥammad’s death, and the consequent expansion of Islam through warfare. All these are contrasted by al-Kindī with the peacefulness and moral authority of Jesus and his Apostles. The actions of these last, he argues ‘are not like the story of your Associate and your companions who constantly advance by killing, plundering, striking with swords, capturing children and conquering countries; they have plundered the goods of the people, [violated] their women and enslaved free people. They incite the people to what is forbidden and similar [bad] morals until they learn it, so that they fabricate lies about what they should not do.’ Al-Kindī rounds of with an acerbic conclusion that it is not surprising that no miracles are associated with Muslims, since their teachings ‘do not follow the way of goodness and truth’. It has been suggested that the entire exchange may have been composed by a Christian author to convey hypothetical responses to the Muslim call to convert.

Griffith, S: The Muslim philosopher al-Kindī and his Christian readers: Three Arab Christian texts on ‘The Dissipation of Sorrows’ in Griffith, S: The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic, Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period, Ashgate Variorum, 2002, Section IX, pp.111-127.

Keating, S: Manipulation of the Qurʾan in the Epistolary Exchange between al-Hāshimī and al-Kindī in Beaumont, M: Arab Christians and the Quran from the Origins of Islam to the Medieval Period, (The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 35), Brill 2018, pp.50-65.

Muir, W – The Apology of al-Kindi – an Essay on its Age and Authorship in Newman, N (ed): The Early Christian‐Muslim Dialogue: A Collection of Documents from the First Three Islamic Centuries, 632‐900 A.D. Translations with Commentary. Hatfield, PA: Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute, 1993, pp.365-546.

Muñoz, F. Gónzález – Exposición y refutación del Islam : la versión latina de las epiśtolas de al-Hãšimi y al-Kindi. La Coruña, 2005.

Platti, E: ‘Abd al-Masīḥ al-Kindī on the Qur’an in Beaumont, M: Arab Christians and the Quran from the Origins of Islam to the Medieval Period, (The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 35), Brill 2018, pp.66-82.

Tien, A: رسالة عبد الله بن اسمعيل الهاشمي الى عبد المسيح بن اسحق الكندي يدعوه الى الاسلام ورسالة عبد المسيح الى الهاشمي يرد بها عليه ويدعوه الى النصرانية (‘The Risāla of ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ismā‘īl al-Hāshimī to ‘Abd al-Masīḥ ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī, inviting him to Islam and the Risāla of ‘Abd al-Masīḥ to al-Hāshimī responding to him and inviting him to Christianity’), Gilbert & Remington Press, London 1885. (The text of al-Kindī’s response begins on p.24).

Tien, A – The Apology of al-Kindi – The ‘ABBASID ‘Abdullah b. Ismail al-Hashimi and The NESTORIAN ‘Abd al-Masih b. Ishaq al-Kindi, c.820 A.D in Newman, N (ed): The Early Christian‐Muslim Dialogue: A Collection of Documents from the First Three Islamic Centuries, 632‐900 A.D. Translations with Commentary. Hatfield, PA: Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute, 1993, pp.381-545.

Nicetas of Byzantium Ἀνατροπὴ τοῦ Κορανίου

Nicetas of Byzantium was a scholar and theologian who lived and worked in Constantinople in the second half of the ninth century and probably until the beginning of the tenth century. His ‘Refutation of the Qur’ān’ dates from c.856-863 and is one of the first Byzantine polemics that comprehensively engages closely with the text of the Qur’ān (the Greek text of the Qur’ān which he cites is of high quality and accuracy and is recently receiving increased scholarly attention). Nicetas’ refutation is systematic: he refutes individual passages of the Qur’ān, organising his critique into separate confutationes. Addressing the authenticity of the Qur’ān as a divine scripture, he sets definitions, in terms of structure, content and character, for what such a text should exhibit, noting in the case of the Qur’ān that ‘it does not preserve the compositional sequence that corresponds to generally disseminated and recognized works. For it offers neither the style of prophetic speech, nor of historical or legislative or theological exposition, nor any style whatsoever that emanates from right and rational thought; rather, it has a completely confused and disordered composition.’ He also sets a criterion by which godly, human and demonic discourse can be recognized, contrasting in this way what he sees as the Christian and Muslim conceptions of God: a loving God with a misanthropic demon’ (φιλανθρώπῳ Θεῷ – μισανθρώπῳ δαίμονι) and asks whether’ the God of Abraham and Isaac, could be said to be the same as ‘the God of the Ishmaelites.’ But his critique is not uniformly tactful, since he writes off the actions of Muslims as those of ‘a murderous people and a murderous Messenger’ (ἐκ μιαιφόνου λαοῦ καὶ μιαιφονωτέρου ἀποστόλου) who brought what he terms ‘the pitiable and irrational little book which is full of all sorts of improper and loutish abominations’. He goes on to accuse the Messenger of plagiarizing the Old and New Testaments and in so doing ‘distorts them, thereby clearly unmasking it and highlights the over-emphasis made of the ‘book wherein there is no doubt’ as itself ‘attesting to his dominating fear of failing with his foolish undertaking’.

Høgel, C: An early anonymous Greek translation of the Qur’ān, Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 2010.

Khoury, A-T: Nicétas de Byzance in Khoury, A-T: Les Théologiens byzantins et l’Islam. Paris, 1969, pp.110-162.

Khoury, A-T: Nicétas de Byzance et la démonstration de la Trinité in Khoury, A-T: Apologétique byzantine contre l’Islam (VIIIe–XIIIe s.) Altenberge, 1982, pp.32 ff.

Ulbricht, M: Der Islam-Diskurs bei Niketas von Byzanz.Themen und Argumentation in seinem Hauptwerk ‘Widerlegung des Korans’ (Ἀνατροπὴ τοῦ Κορανίου)’ in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 114 (2021) pp.1351–1394.

Ulbricht, M: The Authorship of the Early Greek Translation of the Quran (Vat. gr. 681), Dumbarton Oaks Papers 77, 2023.

Arethas Πρὸς τὸν ἐν Δαμασκῷ ἀμηρᾶν

Arethas, Archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia (c.850-c.932) was an influential church official and one of the most prominent intellectuals of his time. His Letter to the Emīr in Damascus is likely a literary product rather than a real correspondence and remains a subject of scholarly disagreement as to its date and authorship. It nevertheless contains interesting details on the types of discussions and debates among Christians as to how to respond to Muslim criticisms of the cardinal doctrines of their faith. In several speeches Arethas had detailed the pillage by the Saracens of Byzantine sites and cities, and ostensibly at the instigation of the Emperor Romanos Lekapenos (r.919-944), he composed this letter ‘in order to bring the Saracens to their senses’ (εἰς σύνεσιν τῶν Σαρακηνῶν). The text, couched in a language that is unusually combative and at times abusive, condemns the Emīr’s faith as one ‘full of filth that subjects you mostly to sexual acts with women and to many other shameful and improper deeds’. His Letter makes the case for the truth and reliability of Christianity, the proof of the divinity of Jesus and Muslim misconceptions of it and their criticism of the crucifixion, and criticises what he saw as the Muslims’ lack of theological sophistication and human reasoning in these respects. The Christian veneration of the Cross is defended by reference to Muslim veneration of the Prophet’s Mantle, and the ‘decent life’ (σεμνός βίος) of Jesus is contrasted with that of ‘the dirty and licentious’ Prophet, possibly as a reflection of the Muslim practice of comparing Muḥammad to Jesus after embellishing the life of Muḥammad with miracles. Arethas attempts a defence against Arab claims of their military success against Christians proving the truth of Islam by countering with ‘the Lord reproves him whom he loves’ (Prov. 3:12), and with some evidence of Byzantine successes and, most interestingly, with the Qarmatian rebellion against the Sunnī caliphate in 900 AD.

Abel, A – Lettre à l’émir de Damas sur la religion des sarrasins, au début du X° siècle connue comme ‘Lettre d’Aréthas’. Présentation et notes d’Albocicade 2018.

Khoury, A-T: Lettre à L’Émir de Damas in Khoury, A-T: Les Théologiens byzantins et l’Islam. Paris, 1969, pp. 217–234.

Sahas, D: Arethas’ ‘Letter to the Emir at Damascus’: Official or Popular Views on Islam in 10th-century Byzantium?in Byzantium and Islam, Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters, Brill, Leiden, pp.462-475.

Būluṣ ibn Rajā’ كتاب الواضح بالحق

Ibn Rajā’ (c.960–c.1020) is an interesting case of a Muslim convert to Christianity who had been born into a leading Muslim family in Cairo and studied with the foremost scholars of the Qurʾan and hadith. His deep training on the scriptural texts while a Muslim scholar necessarily informs his critique to a high standard, so that his work The Exposer’s Book in Truth is held to rival the Risāla of ʿAbd al-Masīḥ al-Kindī in precision and influence. As such it was translated into Latin as Liber denudationis siue ostensionis aut patefaciens in the 13^th century and went on to form western Christianity’s views on Islam, Muḥammad and the Qur’ān. Ibn Rajā’ maintains a highly skeptical tone concerning the traditional accounts of the origins of the Qur’ān, the prophetic claims about Muḥammad, the alleged trustworthiness of oral traditions in the hadith collections, and the legitimacy of Muslim legal theories and practices. From his perspective of scholarly knowledge of the text, Ibn Rajā’ drew a distinction between the Qur’ān itself and what he held to be the distortions of the commentators, whom he accused of arbitrarily shaping the text due to the lack of a consensus about how it was to be interpreted. In a pre-echo of modern analysis, he makes a case for the commentators’ confused recourse to local dialects from the Hudhayl and Quraysh, along with poetic forms and other criteria, to explain the obscurities. Of the contradictions he highlights, he singles out the alleged corruption of the Gospel and Torah, only to highlight how Qur’ān XV,19 demonstrates that Allah has safeguarded these texts, and that the Qur’ān duly recalls the Bible to justify its own authority. Ibn Rajā also highlighted the issue of variant readings, arguing that Ibn Masʿūd’s version of the Qur’ān did not include sūras I, CXIII or CXIV and that these were liturgical prayers added by Zayd ibn Thābit. Other arguments that remind the reader of contemporary analysis are errors of Arabic grammar in the text and the very case against universality that a revelation exclusive to Arabic implies. The linguistic i‘jāz claim he also dismisses in comparison to other examples of Arabic poetry. Ibn Rajā’ laments the lack of awareness of the derivative nature of the Qur’ān, and its clearly eschatological intent which for four centuries had not been realised. His work is a fascinating window into intra-Muslim theological debates of his period at the turn of the eleventh century.

Bertaina, D: Būluṣ ibn Rajā’ on the History and Integrity of the Qur’ān: Copto-Islamic Controversy in Fatimid Cairo in Beaumont, M: Arab Christians and the Quran from the Origins of Islam to the Medieval Period, (The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 35), Brill 2018, pp.174-196.

Bertaina, D: Būluṣ ibn Rajā’, The Fatimid Egyptian Convert Who Shaped Christian Views of Islam, in Teiger, A (ed): Arabic Christianity: Texts and Studies, Vol.4 Brill, Leiden/Boston. Includes the Arabic text and an English translation.

Burman, T: Religious Polemic and the Intellectual History of the Mozarabs, c. 1050–1200 (on the Liber Denudationis, the Latin version of The Exposer’s Book in Truth and its reception), Leiden: Brill, 1994, pp.37-62.

Bartholomew of Edessa Ἔλεγχος Ἀγαρηνοῦ

Scholars differ on the dating of this Chalcedonian monk, but tend towards placing him at the end of the 9^thcentury since his work on Islam demonstrates a focus on a post-Umayyad era, one where the newly emerging Hadith, and the four schools of the Sharīʿa are already in evidence. As opposed to the approach of earlier apologists, such as the descriptive and informative tone of John of Damascus or the scholastic and logical language of Abū Qurra, Bartholomew in his work “Ἔλεγχος Ἀγαρηνοῦ” (‘Confutation of the Hagarene’) is openly polemical, and uses an aggressive and often caustic language. ‘Since you call him a prophet’, he demands, ‘show me what he prophesised and with what words; what he commanded or what sign and marvel did he do!’ Challenges of this nature may have motivated the inauguration of later Muslim literature on the miracles of the Prophet, and Bartholomew’s sardonic tone may be a response to the rising cult of the Prophet articulated by works such as Ibn Ishāq’s Sīrat rasūl Allāh. Nevertheless, Bartholomew was well-versed in Islamic doctrine, something which he is fully and arrogantly conscious of, arguing that the ‘Hagarenes’ themselves cannot know as much as the Christians do about Muḥammad since ‘we are before Muḥammad and know precisely everything about him’ (διότι ἡμεῖς πρὸ τοῦ Μουχάμετ ἐσμὲν καὶ ἀκριβῶς τὰ κατ’ αὐτοῦ ἅπαντα οἴδαμεν). He writes them off as barbarous, ignorant and simplistic, and as having misunderstood the doctrinal literature of Christianity. He sees, for instance, the legend of the the Mi‘rāj as nothing more than a misreading of works such as the Celestial Ladder (Κλιμαξ – Scala Paradisi) of the sixth-century John Climacus. Expanding on the theme of the derivative nature of Islamic doctrines, Bartholomew attributes the entire upbringing of Muḥammad to the legendary monk Baḫīrā – both of them ‘deceivers’: ‘Whatever truth happens to be found in the Qurʾān’ he sates, ‘comes from this Baḫīrā, while everything that is untrue has come from the scripture of ‘Uthmān’ (τὸ δε ψεῦδος ἀπό τῆς γραφῆς τοῦ Οθμάνη). Reflections of Mu ‘tazilite concerns appear in Bartholomew’s work, particularly the issue of free will,and man’s own independent power to act (αὐτεξούσιον). He deplores the doctrine he reads in the sūrat al-Mā’ida of God being the cause equally of good and evil, and ridicules the concept of the Qur’ān being the actual uncreated Word of God (‘Small children in the streets are holding your Qurʾān … and one time they step on it, another they play with it, other times they hit each other with it’ … and so if it is cast into a well how can you continue to designate it as the actual Words of God?’). Another piece attributed to the same author, entitled “Κατὰ Μωάμεδ” (Contra Muhammed), and possibly not by him, is nevertheless in the same aggressive vein. The doctrine that the sexually concupiscent ‘dragon’ Muḥammad taught was a mishmash of ‘empty teachings: monarchy from the Jews; the Word and Son of God as a created being from the Arians; man-worship from the Nestorians – all conflated into a doctrine that would please his audience’. Bartholomew sees Islam as an irreverent religion and deals with it irreverently, maintaining an aggressive tone throughout the work, and ending his diatribe with the dismissive line: ‘End of the life of the impure Mouchamet’ (Τέλος του βίοὺ του ἀκαθάρτου Μουχάμετ).

Khoury, A-T: Barthélemy d’Édesse in Khoury, A-T: Les Théologiens byzantins et l’Islam. Paris, 1969, pp.259-293. (French translation pp.273-293).

Migne, J (ed): Confutation of the Hagarene (Ἔλεγχος Ἀγαρηνοῦ) in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, CIV, Paris 1896, Columns 1384-1448. Greek text with Latin translation.

Migne, J (ed): Against Muḥammad (Κατά Μωάμεθ) in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, CIV, Paris 1896, Columns 1448-1458. Greek text with Latin translation.

Sahas, D: Bartholomeus of Edessa on Islam: A Polemicist with Nerve! in Sahas, D: Byzantium and Islam,Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters pp.383-402.

Jewish and Christian Polemics in Relation to Early Islam

The phenomenon of a new faith challenging the world order occupied the later apologists, and among the circles that remained under Islam’s direct influence – the Christians of Syria, both the Monophysites and Nestorians in particular – the argumentation developed towards a perception of fundamental Jewish influence. In polemical engagements Muslims were held to be the ‘new Jews’, with the apologetic arguments of the Christians with Jewish communities in Palestine thus having to be rehearsed. This interpretation explained, for apologists such as Abū Rā’iṭa l-Takrītī, the Muslim antipathy to the divine nature of Christ, and Al-Kindī’s Apology suggests that the new religion came from two Jewish scholars. The monk Baḥīrā also came to be duly rebranded as a rabbi. Apologists also noted Moses’ strong representation in the Qur’ān and Muḥammad’s proclamation of himself as the last ‘prophet’ and not the last ‘messiah’. The tradition of drawing comparisons between Moses and Muḥammad is found in early Islamic sīra literature and can also be found (to the discredit of the latter) in the surviving Jewish apologetic literature. The theme of deep Judaic influence and of Muḥammad’s conscious styling himself on the Mosaic model continues to inform contemporary analysis and the theory of the Judaeo-Christian sectarian milieu, where by Islam originated in an anti-Trinitarian monotheistic reform movement.

Butts, A and Gross, S (edd): Jews and Syriac Christians: Intersections Across the First Millennium, Mohr Siebeck, Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism; 180, 2020.

Cecota, B: The Jewish Theme in Theophanes the Confessor’s Testimony on the Prophet Muḥammad in Studia Ceranea 13, 2023.

Déroche, V – Polémique Antijudaïque et Émergence de l’Islam, in Dagron, G and Déroche, V, Juifs et Chrétiens en Orient Byzantin, Paris 2010, pp. 465-484.

O’Sullivan, S: Anti-Jewish Polemic and Early Islam in Thomas, D: The Bible in Arab Christianity, Brill, The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, pp.49-68.

Stroumsa, S: Jewish Polemics against Islam and Christianity in the Light of Judaeo-Arabic Texts in N. Golb, ed., Judaeo-Arabic Studies; Proceedings of the Founding Conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies (Studies in Muslim-Jewish Relations, 3; Amsterdam), pp. 241-50.

Suermann, H: The Old Testament and the Jews in the dialogue between the Jacobite Patriarch John I and `Umayr ibn Sa`d al-Ansārī, in: Juan Pedro Montferrer-Sala (ed), Eastern Crossroads. Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy, Gorgias Eastern Christianity Studies 1, New Jersey 2007, 131-141.

Von Sivers, P: Dating the Doctrina Iacobi, an Anti-Jewish Text of Late Antiquity, Inarah Publications, 2022.Dating the “Doctrina Iacobi” and “The Nistarot of Rabbi Simon b. Yohai,” hitherto assumed to have been composed in the 630s, to the end of the seventh century.

Wasserstrom, S: Between Muslim and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Yadgar, L: Jewish Accounts of Muhammad and His Apostate Informants. Mizan Project.