A Neoplatonic Refutation of Islam from the Time of the Komnenoi (original) (raw)

Maimonides as Muslim Theologian: Al-Kawtharī’s Edition of al-Tabrīzī’s Commentary on Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed - DRAFT

Zutot 19 (2022), 93-102

The article focuses on a Muslim commentary on a section from Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed, written by a 13th-century Persian scholar. Whereas the first part of the article briefly discusses the reception of Maimonides’ Guide in medieval Islam, the nature of the commentary, and the identity of its composer, the second and main part discusses a mid-20th-century Egyptian critical edition of the commentary. This part focuses on the Muslim editor’s preface to the commentary, in which he depicts Maimonides and his Guide in a positive light, against the negative portrayal of Jews and Judaism. The contemporary political context is suggested as a motive for this apologetic and polemical depiction. https://brill.com/view/journals/zuto/aop/article-10.1163-18750214-bja10002/article-10.1163-18750214-bja10002.xml

Bogataj, Jan Dominik. (2019). "Byzantine Theology and Islam: Paul of Antioch's Irenic Approach". Edinost in dialog 74, št. 2: 195-210.

Edinost in dialog, 2019

For the West, Islam has generally been seen as a typical example of exotic, dangerous and unknown culture, whereas for the Byzantines, Islam was much better known, since they had to live together with Muslims for centuries and therefore their attitude could not have been uniformly hostile but consisted of manifold attempts to hold a (theological) dialogue. The paper presents some key features of the heterogeneous Byzantine theology of Islam within the corpus of the theological polemical works which have been produced from 7th to the 13th century. After examining John Damascene (app. 676-749), the first Byzantine theologian who wrote on Islam and gained knowledge of Islam at first hand as a civil servant in the court of the Umayyad Caliph in Damascus, the present study examines a relatively unknown work, Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend (MS Sinai Arabic 448; 531). The text of this Melkite bishop of Sidon was written in Arabic somewhere around 1200 and is one of the most authentic contributions to the Byzantine-Islam polemics about Paul’s irenic approach and his interpretation of Qur’an. Although it still applies a clear apologetic approach, Paul’s Letter may be viewed from the perspective of the theological dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

Al-Anṭākī’s use of the lost Arabic version of Philoponus’ Contra Proclum

Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 23, 2013

Ibn al-Faḍl al-Anṭākī’s Kitāb Bahjat al-muʾmin, the Book of the Delight of the Believer preserves, in the first part, in at least three of its 100 philosophical and theological problems, passages from the hitherto lost Arabic version of Philoponus’ De Aeternitate mundi contra Proclum. All quotations are taken from the refutation of the first proof, one of them from the beginning which is also lost in Greek. For this latter passage a parallel is found in al-Isfizārī who draws on the same Philoponus source in his Kitāb fī Masāʾil al-umūr al-ilāhiyya (Book on Metaphysical Questions). A comparison of the other passages to the extant Greek text suggests that al-Anṭākī quotes Philoponus faithfully, but with some omissions and occasional re-arrangement of his source. Additional evidence for al-Anṭākī’s overall accurate use of sources can be gained from his quotations of the extant Arabic versions of the De Anima-paraphrase, Nemesius’ De Natura hominis and ʿAlī b. Rabban al-Ṭabarī’s Firdaws al-ḥikma (Paradise of Wisdom).

Byzantine Theology and Islam: Paul of Antioch’s Irenic Approach

Edinost in dialog, 2019

For the West, Islam has generally been seen as a typical example of exotic, dangerous and unknown culture, whereas for the Byzantines, Islam was much better known, since they have to live together with Muslims for centuries and therefore their attitude could not have been uniformly hostile but consisted of manifold attempts to hold a (theological) dialogue. The paper presents some key features of the heterogeneous Byzantine theology of Islam within the corpus of the theological polemical works which have been produced from 7th to the 13th century. After examining the first Byzantine theologian who wrote on Islam, John Damascene (ca. 676–749), who gained knowledge of Islam at first hand, as a civil servant in the court of the Umayyad Caliph in Damascus, the present study examines one relatively unknown work, Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend (MS Sinai Arabic 448; 531), written in Arabic somewhere around 1200, which is a unique among Byzantine polemics for Paul’s irenic appr...

The Authorship of the Early Greek Translation of the Quran (Vat. gr. 681)

Dumbarton Oaks Papers 77, 2023

This article sheds light on the first Greek translation of the Quran and the possible cultural-religious background of its translator(s). The fragments of this quranic translation are mainly preserved in the anti-Islamic work of Nicetas of Byzantium (ninth/tenth century), Refutation of the Quran. Through a philological-theological analysis of the remnants of this quranic translation handed down in Nicetas’s work, referred to as Coranus Graecus, the article aims at giving a detailed picture of the understanding of the Arabic quranic text and its subtly nuanced rendering in Greek. Therefore, the article examines some of the Greek quranic fragments in terms of their philological rendering into Greek and compares them synoptically with the Arabic quranic readings. Through this Greek–Arabic analysis, the article elaborates on the early Christian understanding of the quranic text as documented in the Coranus Graecus. The argument therefore focuses on verses which are theologically relevant to Christian–Muslim interfaith topics. In a final part, conclusions are presented about the cultural and religious background of the translator(s) of the Coranus Graecus based on the philological-comparative analysis and its cultural-historical interpretation.