Table Of ContentCHRISTIANS AT THE
HEART OF ISLAMIC
RULE: Church Life and
Scholarship in ‘Abbasid
Iraq
David Thomas,
Editor
BRILL
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CHRISTIANS AT THE HEART OF ISLAMIC RULE
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THE HISTORY
OF CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM
RELATIONS
EDITORIAL BOARD
David Thomas (University of Birmingham)
Tarif Khalidi(American University of Beirut)
Gerrit Jan Reinink (University of Groningen)
Mark Swanson (Lutheran Theological Seminary, Minneapolis)
VOLUMEI
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CHRISTIANS AT THE
HEART OF ISLAMIC RULE
#
Church Life and Scholarship in Abbasid Iraq
EDITED BY
DAVID THOMAS
BRILL
LEIDEN •BOSTON
2003
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
This series documents the history of encounters between Christians and Muslims. It will include
the records of apologetics, controversies and discussions, and also studies arising from them. All
editions of texts will include full introductions, the texts in their original language (Arabic, Syriac,
Greek, Latin, etc), and annotated translations (normally) into English. They are particularly
intended for college students and researchers in the field.
Researchers will discover here material that traces the development of attitudes between
Christians and Muslims, and reflects religious understandings within the two faiths. Students and
general readers will find the arguments and teachings that form the basis of religious attitudes, and
arise from both scriptural sources and historical and cultural contexts
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Woodbrooke-Mingana Symposium on Arab Christianity and Islam (4th : 2001 :
Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre)
Christians at the heart of Islamic rule : church life and scholarship in ‘Abbasid Iraq /
edited by David Thomas.
p. cm. — (The history of Christian-Muslim relations. ISSN 1570-7350 ; v. 1)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 90-04-12938-3 (alk. paper)
1. Iraq—Church history—Middle Ages, 600-1500—Congresses. 2. Christianity and other
religions—Islam—Congresses. 3. Islam—Relations—Christianity—Congresses. I. Thomas,
David (David Richard), 1948- II. Title. III. Series.
BR1105.W66 2001
275.67’03–dc21
2003049563
ISSN 1570–7350
ISBN 90 04 12938 3
© Copyright 2003 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal
use is granted by Brill provided that
the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright
Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910
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Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
THOMAS_f1-v-xv 3/26/03 1:43 PM Page v
CONTENTS
Introduction ...................................................................................... vii
Notes on Contributors ...................................................................... xv
Barbara Roggema Muslims as crypto-idolaters—a theme in
the Christian portrayal of Islam in the
Near East .............................................. 1
Hilary Kilpatrick Monasteries through Muslim Eyes: the
Diyàràt Books .......................................... 19
Sandra Toenies Keating Óabìb ibn Khidma Abù Rà"i†a
al-Takrìtì’s ‘The Refutation of
the Melkites concerning the Union
[of the Divinity and Humanity in
Christ]’ (III) .......................................... 39
Mark Beaumont 'Ammàral-Baßrì on the Incarnation .... 55
Mark N. Swanson The Christian al-Ma"mùn Tradition .... 63
Lucy-Anne Hunt Stuccowork at the Monastery of the
Syrians in the Wàdì Na†rùn: Iraqi-
Egyptian Artistic Contact in the
'Abbasid Period ...................................... 93
Sidney Griffith The ‘Philosophical Life’ in Tenth
Century Baghdad: the Contribution
of Ya˙yà Ibn 'Adì’s Kitàb tahdhìb
al-akhlàq .................................................. 129
Emilio Platti Ya˙yà Ibn 'Adì and the Theory of
Iktisàb ...................................................... 151
Bo Holmberg Language and thought in Kitàb
al-majdal, bàb 2, faßl 1, al-Dhurwa .......... 159
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vi
Julian Faultless The two recensions of the Prologue
to John in Ibn al-ˇayyib’s
Commentary on the Gospels ........................ 177
Martin Accad The Ultimate Proof-Text: The
Interpretation of John 20.17 in
Muslim-Christian Dialogue (second/
eighth–eighth/fourteenth centuries) ...... 199
Gabriel Said Reynolds A Medieval Islamic Polemic against
Certain Practices and Doctrines of
the East Syrian Church: Introduction,
Excerpts and Commentary .................. 215
David Thomas Early Muslim Responses to
Christianity ............................................ 231
Bibliography ...................................................................................... 255
Index .................................................................................................. 267
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vii
INTRODUCTION
Iraq in the period of the 'Abbasid caliphs was an area of surprisingly
mixed population, culture and religion. Although it came under Muslim
rule within a decade of the Prophet Mu˙ammad’s death, and was made
the political and intellectual centre of the Islamic world in the second/
eighth century, it remained religiously pluralist for many hundreds of
years. At first, the Jews, Christians, Persian dualists and others who had
lived there for centuries, and in some cases millennia, hardly seemed
aware of any need or requirement to conform to the faith of their Muslim
rulers. And it was only after some centuries that many of them felt driven
to abandon their dhimmì status and inherited faith under the accumu-
lated pressures on people who did not follow Islam. In the intervening
centuries, when members of different faiths mixed with some confidence
and freedom in the lands along the Tigris and Euphrates, intellectual
and religious influences extended in all directions, and relations between
scholars, professionals and many of the common populace flourished in
ways that prohibit any over-simple account of the ways in which Muslims
looked upon their client Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians.
Christianity was long-established in Iraq by the time al-Manßùr chose
the site of Baghdad for his new capital. And Christians quickly became
noticed in and around the city, both for their sheer numbers and also
for the skills and accomplishments by which they could benefit their
rulers. At the top of the social and religious hierarchy the metropolitans
and bishops of the various denominations were early recognised as men
who commanded respect and deference among their followers, and could
thus control them on behalf of the caliph. And so the election of new
church leaders became a matter of keen interest to the government and
frequently an occasion for direct intervention to ensure the right man
was appointed.
It is probable that the best known of the church leaders under early
'Abbasid rule, the Nestorian Patriarch Timothy I, rose to his position
through this direct involvement of the caliph. And by virtue of his pre-
eminence over all Christians in the empire he enjoyed direct access to
the caliph’s presence itself. The manner in which he casually begins a
letter to his friend Sergius—‘One day recently, as I was at the gate of
the royal palace, a prominent man exuding power, wealth and grandeur
approached’—suggests how normal it was for him to attend at court and
how undaunted he was by his dhimmì status. Nevertheless, he was never
allowed entirely to forget this, and could never feel completely at ease
with his Muslim counterparts. In his celebrated dialogue with al-Manßùr’s
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viii
son al-Mahdì he is repeatedly put on the defensive and rather than ini-
tiate discussion is forced to respond to questions about the legitimacy of
his beliefs. Of course, this was not a debate between social equals, but
even in the form in which it is self-referentially reported by Timothy
himself it bears the features of an interrogation in which the Christian
is required to account for and justify the points on which he differs from
Islam.
This same ambivalence in is also evident at the level of technical schol-
arship, where Christians were obviously valued for their knowledge and
sophistication but also suspected and even despised for their religious
principles. Concerning Muslim esteem for Christians, the prominence of
scholars such as Óunayn ibn Is˙àq, his son Is˙àq and their colleague
Qus†à ibn Lùqà in translating texts from the ancient world into Arabic
for the caliph and nobles is well-known. And they and countless other
less famous Christian translators were paid proper respect and remu-
neration for their services. Similarly, Muslim philosophers were often the
pupils of Christian teachers, as in the case of al-Fàràbì and Yù˙annà
ibn Óaylàn and Abù Bishr Mattà ibn Yùnus, and even Muslim theolo-
gians were occasionally known to consult Christians, as in the case of
'Abdullàh ibn Sa'ìd ibn Kullàb and a certain Pethion who met in a
church cloister in the Dàr al-Rùm quarter of Baghdad.
Ibn Kullàb was active in the early years of the third/ninth century,
in the same period as the first generation of major Arabic-speaking
Christian theologians. The best known among these, Theodore Abù
Qurra, 'Ammàr al-Baßrì and Óabìb ibn Khidma Abù Rà"i†a, were deeply
involved in current circles of Muslim theology, from which they bor-
rowed techniques and concepts to help articulate their doctrines of the
Trinity and Incarnation, and within which they were known for the
innovative arguments they set out. Nevertheless, there is almost no sign
that Muslims were persuaded by anything that Christians wrote about
their faith, but rather a sustained series of refutations that demonstrate
in various ways the hollowness and incoherence of all that Christians
attempted to prove. And here we see signs of suspicion and disrespect.
The succession of works, both substantial and slight, by Christians and
Muslims on aspects of the other’s beliefs eloquently illustrates the dou-
ble theme of engagement and inimicality. From the first decades of the
'Abbasid period onwards theologians on both sides composed diatribes
apparently as a normal part of their activities, and the relatively few that
have survived show both extensive knowledge of what the other believed
and also a refracted image as that knowledge passed through the prism
of the author’s own dogmas. This typically resulted in distortion, which
gave an opportunity for ridicule.
A prime example can be given from The Introduction of the fourth/tenth
century Ash'arì theologian Abù Bakr al-Bàqillànì, which is a compre-
THOMAS_f1-v-xv 3/26/03 1:43 PM Page ix
ix
hensive treatise of systematic theology in Islam, ranging from episte-
mology to political theory. Part of its author’s concerns is to show what
is wrong theology as a backdrop to what is right. And so at different
points he turns from his exposition of Ash'arì kalàm to refute one group
or another. Among these are the Christians whom he tackles on the key
doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation. He begins his arguments against
the first by commenting on the claim that the Trinity is ‘substance’.
This, he insists, brings the Godhead into the sphere of the material where
it can bear the accidental qualities of contingent bodies and by impli-
cation undergo change. Such a notion is ridiculous. But what he fails to
disclose in this discussion (if he indeed appreciated it properly) is that
the common term ‘substance’ is understood quite differently within the
theologies of Arab Christians and Muslims. While the latter apply it
exclusively to material, physical things, which by definition are contrary
to the divine, the former apply it to self-subsistent entities which do not
derive their character from outside themselves. Within Islamic theology
the term cannot conceivably be applied to God, but within the Aristotelian
thinking of Christian contemporaries it necessarily should.
In this brief argument al-Bàqillànì makes clear by implication that he
rejects Christian doctrine because it does not conform to the norms of
Islam. And in his approach to Christianity as a whole in this work he
reveals his disdainful dismissal of it as a distortion of true belief that is
valuable only as an example of how the purity of the oneness of God
can be corrupted into tritheism and anthropomorphism.
In order for al-Bàqillànì and other Muslims to have levelled the attacks
they composed, they required expert knowledge of Christianity. Some
authors gained insights into denominational differences and the detailed
metaphors that Christians employed to communicate their teachings,
while others became closely acquainted with the Biblical basis of doc-
trinal constructions. But there are few signs that this knowledge led to
understanding, and no indication of sympathy towards Christians or their
beliefs. The evident intimacy that this awareness presupposes had no
effect upon the hostility that Muslim works on Christianity characteris-
tically show.
The same ambivalence can be seen in social and professional contacts
between Christians and Muslims, where Christians were again recog-
nised and respected for their expertise but despised and maybe feared
for their manner of applying it. Maybe the most vivid picture of Christian
professionals in 'Abbasid society is given by the Mu'tazilì thinker and
literary stylist Abù 'Uthmàn al-Jà˙iΩ in the mid third/ninth century. He
presents this in a letter which he wrote to some fellow Muslims who
had appealed for his help with a set of awkward questions posed by a
group of Christians. Before getting down to specific answers al-Jà˙iΩ
attempts to explain why Christians enjoy so much freedom in Muslim
