When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam

by Michael Philip Penn

Overview

The first Christians to meet Muslims were not Latin-speaking Christians from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speaking Christians from Constantinople but rather Christians from northern Mesopotamia who spoke the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Living under Muslim rule from the seventh century to the present, Syriac Christians wrote the first and most extensive accounts of Islam, describing a complicated set of religious and cultural exchanges not reducible to the solely antagonistic.

Through its critical introductions and new translations of this invaluable historical material, When Christians First Met Muslims allows scholars, students, and the general public to explore the earliest interactions between what eventually became the world’s two largest religions, shedding new light on Islamic history and Christian-Muslim relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520284944
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/21/2015
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	558,391
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Michael Philip Penn is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Religion at Mount Holyoke College and the author of Envisioning Islam: Syriac Christians in the Early Muslim World and Kissing Christians: Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Year 630

Introduction 

Account ad 637
Chronicle ad 640
Letters, Isho'yahb III 
Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephrem
Khuzistan Chronicle
Maronite Chronicle
Syriac Life of Maximus the Confessor
Canons, George I 
Colophon of British Library Additional 14,666
Letter, Athanasius of Balad
Book of Main Points, John bar Penkaye
Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius
Edessene Apocalypse
Exegesis of the Pericopes of the Gospel, Hnanisho' I
Life of Theodute
Colophon of British Library Additional 14,448
Apocalypse of John the Little
Chronicle ad 705
Letters, Jacob of Edessa
Chronicle, Jacob of Edessa
Scholia, Jacob of Edessa
Against the Armenians, Jacob of Edessa
Kamed Inscriptions
Chronicle of Disasters
Chronicle ad 724
Disputation of John and the Emir
Exegetical Homilies, Mar Abba II
Disputation of Bet Hale

Bibliography
Index