Sidney Harrison Griffith

Excellent history of Christians living in Muslim controlled Middle Eastern territories from about the seventh century through the thirteenth. It offers valuable insight into the "cultural and intellectual life of such Christians indigenous to the Islamic world." You will learn in depth about how they assimilated, how and why Christians tended to either flowed into the Islamic faith or out of Islamic lands, the apologetics of those who lived amongst the Muslims at that time, the adoption of Arabic as a church language, and more. One thing I learned was that when you hear of all the advancements in philosophy and writing from the Muslim lands during this time period, that view tends to ignore all of the contributions of Christians who translated critical intellectual works into Arabic, wrote their own Arabic philosophies, worked alongside many of the Muslims they lived side-by-side with, making valuable contributions without attribution.… (mehr)

This is a useful introduction to Eastern Christianity, and how it has lived side-by-side with Islam for many many centuries. These are the forgotten Christian groups in the mind of the West. We usually think of the Eastern Orthodox when we think of Eastern Christianity, but they are a minority in Arab speaking Countries. The Maronites in Lebanon and the Chaldeans (Nestorian heritage) in Iraq pay allegiance to the See of Rome. The Copts in Egypt are quite independent, with their own pope, and have something of a Monophysite/Jacobite hritage. The old Melkites in the Holy Land were Orthodox in orientation, but declined quite rapidly after the Crusades, and ironically most modern-day Melkites are aligned with Roman Catholics. The book does not really deal with Armenian Christianity, despite its significan presence In Jerusalem, because it has a large history of its own.

Much Christian Arabic writings is polemical in nature. Theodore Qurrah wrote a significant defense of icons. Yahyā ibn 'Adī was an apologist for Christianity and a proponent of Peripatetic thought (lived in modern day Iraq). Patriarch Timothy of Syria had significant discourse with Muslims. But few people remember them today. Sidney Griffith is hoping to remedy our lack of knowledge.… (mehr)