All of the texts chosen for this volume are interesting in their own right, but the collection of these sources into a single volume, with helpful introductions and bibliographies, makes this book an invaluable resource for the study of Arabic Christianity and, indeed, the history of Christianity more broadly. ― Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies Arabic was among the first languages in which the Gospel was preached. The Book of Acts mentions Arabs as being present at the first Pentecost in Jerusalem, where they heard the Christian message in their native tongue. Christian literature in Arabic is at least 1,300 years old, the oldest surviving texts dating from the 8th century. Pre-modern Arab Christian literature embraces such diverse genres as Arabic translations of the Bible and the Church Fathers, biblical commentaries, lives of the saints, theological and polemical treatises, devotional poetry, philosophy, medicine, and history. Yet in the Western historiography of Christianity, the Arab Christian Middle East is treated only peripherally, if at all. The first of its kind, this anthology makes accessible in English representative selections from major Arab Christian works written between the eighth and eigtheenth centuries. The translations are idiomatic while preserving the character of the original. The popular assumption is that in the wake of the Islamic conquests, Christianity abandoned the Middle East to flourish elsewhere, leaving its original heartland devoid of an indigenous Christian presence. Until now, several of these important texts have remained unpublished or unavailable in English. Translated by leading scholars, these texts represent the major genres of Orthodox literature in Arabic. Noble and Treiger provide an introduction that helps form a comprehensive history of Christians within the Muslim world. The collection marks an important contribution to the history of medieval Christianity and the history of the medieval Near East.

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 in what constitutes modern-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, and eastern Turkey, these Syriac Christians were under Muslim rule from the seventh century to the present. They wrote the earliest and most extensive accounts of Islam and described 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 of what eventually became the world's two largest religions, shedding new light on Islamic history and Christian-Muslim relations.

The first systematic global study of how Christians respond to persecution, presenting new research by leading scholars of global Christianity.

Arab history did not begin with the coming of the Prophet in the 7th century; the region had a strong Christian population before the rise of Islam, and it is the story of the first six centuries of Christian Arabia that this book addresses. professed their faith within the traditions of Syriac Christianity, which profoundly influenced culture and history in the ancient Near East. Beginning with a sketch of the Arabs prior to the rise of Christianity, the author goes on to examine the spread of Christianity in Mesopotamia and Babylon, among the nomadic tribes of Northern Arabia and down into central and southern Arabia. It examines the cults and martyrs, ascetics and early monastic movements of the age, weaving together a wide range of scholarship and sources to present this account of the history of the Arabs before the rise of Islam. Arabic Islamic studies feature topics on Arabic and Islamic studies. From a description of the Arabian incense trade, to a sociological study of Islam and its beliefs, this series aims to offer authoritative insights into the history, and contemporary situation, of Arabia.

This book traces the history of conflict and contact between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Ottoman Middle East prior to 1914.