Studia graeco-arabica (original) (raw)
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FROM DAMASCUS TO BAGHDAD Eastern Christian View on Early Islam
During the early Islamic era, Christian communities both inside and outside of Islamic territory responded to Islam in various ways. Christian responses toward Islam went through a series of changes during that time. The initial response of non-Chalcedonian Christians such as Nestorians and Monophysites were quite positive and welcoming, while Chalcedonian Byzantine Christians’ view of Islam was more negative. Among Byzantine Christians, the first prominent figure who responded to Islam was John of Damascus, the last Eastern Church Father. His view of Islam as “Christian heresy” became an orthodox tenet among Byzantine Christians and succeeding western Christians. Meanwhile, the non-Chalcedonian communities such as the Nestorians and Monophysites survived many years of Muslim rule and eventually evolved their own distinctive view of Islam. Patriarch Timothy was a prominent figure who engaged a dialogue with his Muslim ruler, Caliph Mahdi. His response to Islam was more respectful and conciliatory than that of John of Damascus. The time span between John of Damascus and Mar Timothy was about half a century, and there were significant differences between their geographic and political contexts. John of Damascus was under Umayyad in Damascus, while Mar Timothy was a Patriarch of the Eastern Church in Bagdad under Abbasid rule. These geographical and political transitions were reflected in Christian responses to Islam. Whereas John of Damascus’s response to Islam was more “confrontational,” Mar Timothy’s was more “conciliatory.” This paper is to trace the change of Christian response toward Islam from the early stage to Patriarch Timothy I. The primary research concern is a comparative study of the Christian understanding of Islam between John of Damascus and Mar Timothy of Baghdad and examination of its significance for the modern Christian-Muslim relations.
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A Philosophy for a new Middle East: Christians, Muslims and Jews and the rebirth of philosophy (19 th and early 20 th centuries) This course tells a story that has yet to be told: The regional history of philosophy in the Middle East in the early 20th-century. The seminar will focus on three intellectual centers: Beirut with its two Christian Universities and their impact on the Nahda movement and early Arab nationalism; Jerusalem with the Hebrew University, European Christian Missions and Palestinian learned societies; and Cairo, the heart of Muslim Reformism, Arab Nationalism and Liberalism, expressed in a wide range of religious, academic and cultural institutions. The seminar takes a comparative approach to the role played by modern philosophy in these three intellectual centers. It will study the reception of European philosophy and science by Middle Eastern intellectuals, as well as the philosophical transformation of Christian, Jewish and Islamic religious traditions in the emerging colonial and national contexts.
Heirs of the Apostles: Studies on Arabic Christianity in Honor of Sidney H. Griffith [Flyer and ToC]
David Bertaina, Sandra Toenies Keating, Mark N. Swanson and Alexander Treiger (eds.), Heirs of the Apostles: Studies on Arabic Christianity in Honor of Sidney H. Griffith, Leiden: Brill, 2019
Heirs of the Apostles: Studies on Arabic Christianity in Honor of Sidney H. Griffith Editors: David Bertaina, Sandra Toenies Keating, Mark N. Swanson and Alexander Treiger Heirs of the Apostles offers a panoramic survey of Arabic-speaking Christians—descendants of the Christian communities established in the Middle East by the apostles—and their history, religion, and culture in the early Islamic and medieval periods. The subjects range from Arabic translations of the Bible, to the status of Christians in the Muslim-governed lands, Muslim-Christian polemic, and Christian- Muslim and Christian-Jewish relations. The volume is offered as a Festschrift to Sidney H. Griffith, the doyen of Christian Arabic Studies in North America, on his eightieth birthday. Contributors are: David Bertaina, Elie Dannaoui, Stephen Davis, Nathan P. Gibson, Cornelia Horn, Sandra Toenies Keating, Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, Johannes Pahlitzsch, Andrew Platt, Thomas W. Ricks, Barbara Roggema, Harald Suermann, Mark N. Swanson, Shawqi Talia, Jack Tannous, David Thomas, Jennifer Tobkin, Alexander Treiger, Ronny Vollandt, Clare Wilde, and Jason Zaborowski.