The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam

The History of Christian-Muslim Relations #5

by Emmanouela Grypeou (Editor), Mark N. Swanson (Editor), David Thomas (Editor)

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

344 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Benjamin Buchholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more readable collections of essays and papers on the juncture between Early Islam and Byzantine / Syrian Christianity.

This book is worthwhile because it provides a lot of contemporary Syriac material for a time period before Islamic history began to be internally committed to writing. It fills gaps and it does so often with illuminating incidents and theories.

As a downside, the material only comes from the Byzantine / Syrian perspective. For a balanced reading of this time period a person should acquaint themselves with the Arab sources too, oral as they might be for this period. A good starting point being Tabari's Tarikh and the isnads that credit his material to believable, although occasionally polemicized, witnesses and participants in the Islamic conquests.