Table Of ContentAn Early Christian Reaction to Islam
Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
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Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies brings to the scholarly world the
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An Early Christian Reaction to Islam
Išū‘yahb III and the Muslim Arabs
Iskandar Bcheiry
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2019
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents ................................................................................. v
Acknowledgments ............................................................................... ix
Abbreviations ...................................................................................... xi
List of Figures and Tables ................................................................. xiii
Introduction. Patriarch Išū‘yahb III’s view of the Muslim Arabs ...... 1
Išū‘yahb III (649–659) .................................................................. 1
Political and religious challenges ..................................................2
Išū‘yahb’s letters ........................................................................... 4
Editions and translation ............................................................... 5
Išū‘yahb III and the Muslim Arabs: an evaluation of the
literature ............................................................................... 7
Summary of the existing literature ............................................. 13
A new approach .......................................................................... 14
Chapter One. Historical background .................................................. 15
The “Church of the East” ............................................................ 15
The beginnings of Christianity in Persia ................................... 16
Magians and Zoroastrians .......................................................... 18
The rise of the Episcopal see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon .................. 21
Persecutions under Sasanians ..................................................... 22
The organization of the Church and the reception of the
faith of Nicaea ................................................................... 24
Council of Marī Isaac (410) ....................................................... 24
Declaration of independence of the Church of the East in
424 ...................................................................................... 26
The Church of the East and Dyophysitism ...............................27
The Church of the East in the sixth century .............................. 28
Monasticism in the Church of the East and its revival in the
sixth century ....................................................................... 31
v
vi AN EARLY CHRISTIAN REACTION TO ISLAM
Expansion of the Church of the East ......................................... 33
The vacancy in the patriarchate and struggles with Jacobites ... 35
The Church of the East before the advent of Islam .................. 37
The Church of the East and the peace between Rome and
Persia after the murder of Khosrow II .............................. 41
The conquest of Persia .............................................................. 42
Chapter Two. Išū‘yahb III: his Life, career and letters ..................... 47
The life of Išū‘yahb III .............................................................. 47
The writings of Išū‘yahb ............................................................ 54
The letters that Išū‘yahb wrote during his episcopate .............. 57
Išū‘yahb’s letters during his metropolitanate of Ḥidyāb .......... 73
Išū‘yahb’s letters during his patriarchate .................................. 74
Nisibis and the monastic community on Mount Izlā .............. 74
The metropolitanate of Fars ...................................................... 74
Conclusion ................................................................................. 77
Chapter Three. Išū‘yahb III and the Muslim Arabs ......................... 79
Letters discussed in this chapter, and their approximate
dates ................................................................................... 79
Early attitudes toward the Muslim Arabs ................................. 80
A tool of punishment by God (Ep. 39) ..................................... 80
The Muslim Arabs as a new authority to be persuaded (Ep.
44B and others) .................................................................. 83
A common theological ground (Ep. 48B) ................................. 91
An update about the new situation (Ep. 49B) .......................... 93
Išū‘yahb’s early attitudes: a summary ........................................ 95
Promoting a new church-state relationship under the
Muslim Arabs’ rule ........................................................... 98
Towards a new church-state relationship ................................. 99
Promoting a new era (Ep. 11M) ................................................ 102
Išū‘yahb’s attitudes as metropolitan: a summary .................... 105
Attitudes toward the Muslim Arabs in an interreligious
context .............................................................................. 105
Conclusion ................................................................................. 117
Chapter Four. Patriarch Išū‘yhab’s positive attitudes toward the
Muslim Arabs ............................................................................ 119
Historical and geographical background: “the southern part
of the world” ..................................................................... 119
Crisis in “the southern part of the world” ............................... 122
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
Retaliation against Christians in Fars and Kirmān .................. 126
Apostasy of the Christians in Mazūn ....................................... 127
Seeking the support of the secular authority ............................ 133
The administrative response of the patriarch ...........................138
What question did this crisis pose to Patriarch Išū‘yhab III? . 139
The patriarch’s response to the crisis ........................................ 141
Internal weakness: apostasy and destruction of churches ........ 141
Internal weakness: an illegitimate priesthood ......................... 143
Why remain Christian, and how can apostasy be avoided?
True power is that of the saints ....................................... 149
Parallels and echoes from the past ............................................. 151
Can the “deceiver” be identified with a historical figure? ........ 153
The Life of Patriarch Sabrīšū‘ (d. 604) ................................... 154
Sabrīšū‘ battling and defeating the devil in and around
Radan ................................................................................. 155
A positive image of the Arabs ...................................................159
Conclusion ................................................................................ 166
Conclusion ......................................................................................... 167
Reassessment of the chronology .............................................. 167
Comprehensive and historical analysis of Išū‘yahb’s
developing view of the Muslim Arabs ............................. 168
The importance of hagiography and a specific
hagiographical text in Išū‘yhab’s view of the Muslim
Arabs ................................................................................. 169
Bibliography ....................................................................................... 171
Primary sources .......................................................................... 171
Secondary sources ..................................................................... 173
Index of Personal Names .................................................................. 187
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am profoundly thankful to so many who have helped make this
book possible. This book is a revised version of my Ph.D. disserta-
tion, defended at the Advance Study Department, Faculty of Lu-
theran School of Theology-Chicago. I would like to thank the faculty
for its support of my studies and, in particular my supervisor, Profes-
sor Mark Swanson for his immense encouragement and direction
over the years, as well as to all the members of the supervisory com-
mittee: Professor Michael Shelly, Professor Kenneth Sawyer, and
Professor Benjamin Stewart, for their careful reading of my disserta-
tion and for providing important feedback to me.
I am grateful to Dr. Melonie Schmierer-Lee and Dr. Tuomas
Rasimus for editing the text and preparing it for publication. I
would like to thank Dr. George Kiraz for his support in publishing
this book. Finally, I would like to thank my family, first and fore-
most my wife Nazo, for supporting me throughout my research, in
addition my children Gabriel, Emanuel, Nineveh, and Alexander.
This book is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Rafi al-Taweel.
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