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Talks by Ayse Icoz (Ayşe İçöz)

Conference Presentations by Ayse Icoz (Ayşe İçöz)

The XIII Symposium Syriacum and the 11th Conference of Christian Arabic Studies, INALCO, Paris, 2022

Egyptian monk Simʿān ibn Kalīl ibn Maqāra was a proficient financial administrator who served dur... more Egyptian monk Simʿān ibn Kalīl ibn Maqāra was a proficient financial administrator who served during the reign of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ayyūbī (1271-93) in the Bureau of the Army. He later retired to the Monastery of St John the Short in the Wādī l-Naṭrūn where he spent the rest of his life as a monk and produced works on Christian theology and morality. His Rawḍat al-farīd wa-salwat al-waḥīd (‘The Garden of the Hermit and the Consolation of the Solitary'), is his ethical work which provides guidance for Christian readers to lead them a virtuous and pious life. The text is divided into twelve chapters each of which focusing on a certain religious or moral practice: The creation of humankind; The faith in one, eternal, bountiful God; The fear of God; Prayer; Fasting; Patience; Love; Chastity; Humility; Forgiveness; Contentment and; Training in living pious and virtuous life. Its language and style shows the author's close familiarity to the surrounding Islamic culture, the text was produced in rhyming prose and contains Qur'anic expressions.

This paper examines the content, language and some structural features of the text and discusses its possible genre. “Why the author preferred this particular style?”, “How it fits into the wider context of Christian Arabic Ethical literature?”, “How the text was received by the Christian community” and “What are the author's possible sources of inspiration” are the main questions which will be addressed. The main conclusions reached at the end are, Simʿān ibn Kalīl composed his work considering the needs and interests of the Medieval Christian community employing both some traditional Christian sources and Islamic material.

Papers by Ayse Icoz (Ayşe İçöz)

Arabica , 2024

Abstract Kitāb al-Maǧdal (The Book of Tower) is one of the earliest known theological encycloped... more Abstract
Kitāb al-Maǧdal (The Book of Tower) is one of the earliest known theological encyclopedias produced in Arabic by a man called ʿAmr ibn Mattā who was a member of the Church of the East towards the end of the tenth century. Its peculiar stylistic features make it one of the most intriguing examples of Christian Arabic corpus. The book is composed in saǧʿ (rhymed prose) and embellished with various types of rhetorical figures. Each chapter represents part of a strong, defensive tower correlated with the metaphorical title of the work. Moreover, the work is divided into specific numbers of chapters and subsections, which all have biblical significance. Considering the socio-political and intellectual milieu in which the Kitāb al-Maǧdal was produced, this article focuses on these specific stylistic features of the work, analyses them in detail, and seeks an answer to the question of the author’s possible inspirational sources.

Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History Volume 18. The Ottoman Empire (1800-1914), 2021

Studia Patristica. Vol. CXXV - Papers presented at the Eighteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2019, 2021

Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History Volume 15 Thematic Essays (600-1600), 2020

Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 2019

Fetihler neticesinde Ortaçağ’da İslam egemenliği altına giren Hıristiyan grupların Arapça’yı yazı... more Fetihler neticesinde Ortaçağ’da İslam egemenliği altına giren Hıristiyan grupların Arapça’yı yazı dili olarak benimsemeleri 8. yüzyıl’dan 11. yüzyıla kadar süren yaklaşık üç asırlık bir süreyi kapsamaktadır. Bu süreçte Arapça eserler veren Hıristiyan yazarlar dili kullanma açısından farklı yaklaşımlar sergilediler. Bu makale Hıristiyan yazarların Arapça’yı yazı dili olarak benimseme sürecinde bu dilin İslam dini ile olan bağlantısının farkında olup olmadıklarını ve bu farkındalığın Arapça’yı benimseme noktasında gösterdikleri yaklaşımlar üzerinde ne denli belirleyici olduğunu değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Eserler incelendiğinde bu farkındalığın bazı Hıristiyan yazarların Arapça’ya olan yaklaşımlarını etkilediği görülmektedir.

For Medieval Christians who fell under the Islamic rule, the process of adopting Arabic as the literary language took place in the span of three hundred years from the 8th to the 11th century. Christians who wrote in Arabic showed different approaches towards using the language. This article studies whether those Christian authors were aware of the connection between the Arabic language and Islam during this process and how this awareness influenced their attitudes. Their writings show that some authors were conscious of the link between Islam and the Arabic language and this had an impact on their use of the language.

Ilahiyat Studies, 2018

The eleventh-century “Nestorian” cleric Elias of Nisibis’ (d. 1046) Kitāb dafʿ al-hamm (The Book ... more The eleventh-century “Nestorian” cleric Elias of Nisibis’ (d. 1046) Kitāb dafʿ al-hamm (The Book of Elimination of Grief) provides a strategy for readers to deal with unwanted sorrow and help them to attain moral perfection. This article focuses on an unstudied part of Dafʿ al-hamm, the virtue of gratitude, which constitutes the second chapter of the book. Analyzing the content, structure, and language, this article intends to determine how gratitude is defined and promoted in the text and the ways in which the author engaged with the surrounding Islamic culture. Throughout the chapter, Elias employs traditional Islamic material, from Sufi sources to ḥadīth quotations, to encourage his Christian audience to attain gratitude. This implies a high level of integration of the author and his Christian readers in the surrounding Islamic culture.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-1058-5 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-5326-1060-8 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1... more Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-1058-5 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-5326-1060-8 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-5326-1059-2 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Islam-Relations-Christianity. | Christianity and other religions-Islam. Classification: BR127 .T5479 2018 (print) | BR127 .T5479 (ebook) Manufactured in the U.S.A.

Thesis Chapters by Ayse Icoz (Ayşe İçöz)

Following the Islamic conquests of the Middle East, Christians living in Iraq and the surrounding... more Following the Islamic conquests of the Middle East, Christians living in Iraq and the surrounding region found themselves under a new socio-political system which was organised around the religious principles of Islam. Falling under Islamic rule had a constant impact on the social and intellectual lives of the Middle Eastern Christians. While benefiting from the religious tolerance which was granted by Muslim rulers of the time, they contributed to the economic and intellectual development of the Islamic caliphate in various ways. Living in an environment which was dominated by Islamic social and political norms also provided them an opportunity to express and define their theology in a new style and language.
Kitāb al-Majdal is the fruit of this fascinating period. It is composed by a member of the Church of the East called ‘Amr ibn Mattā around the end of the tenth century. It is subdivided into seven chapters dealing with different aspects of Christian theology, morality and history. The fourth division of the Kitāb al-Majdal is devoted to explain certain Christian practices and virtues in order to provide spiritual and moral guidance for the readers. Along with Yahya ibn ‘Adi’s Tahdhīb al-Akhlāq from the same time period, it stands as one of the earliest examples of Christian writings on morality in Arabic language.
This study investigates how Christian morality is developed and presented in al-Maṣābīh chapter and the ways in which the surrounding Islamic culture influenced the text in terms of its language, style and structure as well as the content. The key conclusion reached at the end is that Christian morality is defined in a very creative way in al-Maṣābīh chapter using both traditional Christian and Islamic sources. The moral teachings of al-Maṣābīh chapter have its roots in the rich Syriac tradition while shaped and conditioned by the Islamic culture in which the text was produced.