Journal articles on the topic 'Arabic Christian theology'

This paper analyses major examples of some of the earliest Christian theological texts written in Arabic, authored within two centuries of the first Christian contact with Islam. These texts also comprise the first systematic Christian theological critiques of Islam written in Arabic. As with many later Christian polemical engagements with Islam, these texts attempt to associate Islam with violence and sensuality. This paper analyses this highly influential theological and rhetorical strategy and shows that it in fact reveals some of the key theological differences between Christian and Muslim theological paradigms. This analysis suggests that Christian and Muslim theological misunderstanding may be discursively located within differing theologies of the body and materiality.

Ibn Kātib Qayṣar's long-neglectedCommentary on the Apocalypse of Johnis a veritable treasure trove for those interested not only in the early transmission of the biblical text and its history of interpretation, but also in the way ancient definitions of prophecy and vision were reconceived in Arabic Christian theology. Written in Cairo by a thirteenth-century Egyptian author, it is one of only two large-scale medieval commentaries on Revelation produced in the Arabic language. The other such commentary was composed by a fellow Copt, Būlus al-Būshī, who was a near contemporary of Ibn Kātib Qayṣar. Together, these two works provide a compelling witness to the currency of this apocalyptic biblical text among Christians living in Islamic Egypt.

In the ongoing scholarly search for the roots of Islamic theology, students of Kalām are entrenched in two main camps: those who see early Islamic theology as a product of the encounter with Christian theology, and those who, without denying certain influences, emphasize the independence of Muslim thought and regard Kalām as a genuine, original reflection of the inner development of Islam. Until now, the arguments of one group of scholars have done little to convince the other. Indeed the scarcity of sources from the formative period of Kalām renders any evidence inconclusive. Yet it is not only the paucity of material, but the very nature of the question, which makes a definite answer practically impossible. For it can always be argued that interest in questions such as God's unity, theodicy, and anthropomorphism might appear within any monotheistic system. Thus, although Islamic theology can often be shown to be strikingly similar to Christian theology of an earlier period, it is often easier to speak about parallels than about sources.

Abstract The Latin authors of ninth-century Umayyad Córdoba Eulogius, Albarus, and Samson are known for their opposition to acculturation, Arabic learning, and, in the case of Eulogius and Albarus, their defense of the martyrs’ movement of the 850s. One generation later, the first known Christian-Arabic theologian of Hispanic origin appears, Ḥafṣ b. Albar. His adoption of Islamized Arabic has traditionally represented an ideological break from the previous generation of Christian intellectuals in Córdoba. This article questions this discontinuity through analysis of Samson’s Apologeticus contra perfidos (864 CE) and Ḥafṣ’s extant work. The article argues that the Apologeticus engages kalām and proves relevant for its Islamic context. Further, the article argues that Ḥafṣ’s work continues the project laid out by Samson, though with a more polemical eye towards Islam.

The article examines the contribution of the greatest encyclopedic mind of antiquity - Aristotle to the formation of scholasticism. The direct and indirect influence of Aristotelian ideas can be traced during the long period of the formation of scholasticism. The emergence of non–Christian Aristotelianism – Averroism - was an important moment in the history of philosophy. An adherent of authentic Aristotelianism - Averroes, translated the works of Aristotle and interpreted them through the concepts of Arabic philosophy. The topic of the influence of authentic scholasticism on patristic theology is touched upon. The traditional understanding of scholasticism as a combination of Christian theology with the philosophy of Aristotle is noted. Scholasticism, being a religious philosophy, applies philosophical concepts and techniques to the Christian-church doctrine, the early experience of which is contained in patristics. Scholasticism, as a religious philosophy, needed the development of theological thought and its development took place along with the development of theology. Studying the great ancient thinkers – Plato and Aristotle, the development of scholasticism has moved forward especially noticeably, which is reflected in the formation of scholastic metaphysics. The penetration of Aristotelianism in the XIII century into Christian philosophy marked the heyday of scholasticism. The scholastics turned their eyes to the ancient thinkers in order to establish Christian truth. Aristotle was presented to them as a universal thinker with a broad outlook, who achieved knowledge by the aspirations of reason. The similarity of Aristotle's organic worldview and the Christian understanding of the spirit and life turned out to be suitable for representatives of scholasticism, who noticed the similarity of Aristotle's teaching about the existence of God with the teaching of Holy Scripture.

AbstractWithin Africa, as well as outside the continent, the writings and videocassettes of Ahmed Deedat have been, and still are, most influential. In this article, Deedat's great interest in religious polemics, especially against Christianity, has been interpreted primarily as an apologetical endeavour influenced largely by the marginal and exposed situation of the small minority of Muslims in the strongly Christiandominated South Africa. Deedat's main task was to provide Muslims with theological tools for defending themselves against the intense missionary strivings of many Christian denominations. He spoke and wrote for the Muslim masses rather than for learned scholars, and the fact that he used English instead of Arabic or some other 'Muslim' language further increased the availability of his writings among, for instance, Muslim minorities in Europe and North America.

This article discusses the concept of I'jaz al-Qur'an and its relationship with Arabic as a form of criticism of the logos concept put forward by Louis Awad. This research is a literature review conducted by collecting related data sources to analyze the character's thought in question. The concept of I'jaz al-Qur'an is a study related to the faith of Muslims, in this case the existence of the al-Qur'an as Kalamullah. Among the Islamic scholars, two views have been very influential since this issue was raised, namely the Asy'ariyah and Mu'tazilah circles. These two groups agree to believe that the Qur'an is Kalamullah. However, in this case, Dr. Louwis expresses this opinion and relates it to the concept of Christian Logos, in which the concept of al-Qur'an, as the eternal Kalamullah (qadim) put forward by two major groups in Islamic Theology, is an adoption of the Christian Logos concept. The misappropriation of the information provided by Dr. Louwis shows his lack of understanding and mastery regarding the issues he addresses in his book. Not supported by historical facts and correct scientific studies, he conveyed in his book a form of hatred against Islam, the Koran and the Arabic language in particular and the Arab nation in general.

Abstract This article focuses on the Arabic manuscript collection of the Near Eastern School of Theology (NEST). The NEST library contains several manuscripts that were donated, copied, or read by important Christian-born intellectuals of the nahḍa. Given these men’s role in the emergence of modern publishing in the Middle East, I examine the intersections between their scribal and printing activities. I also discuss works of grammar, logic, and rhetoric in the NEST’s collection. Most of these are by late medieval and early modern authors and contain extensive commentaries and glosses. This commentary culture was a key site of learning throughout the early modern Ottoman Empire and endured among Christian as well as Muslim intellectuals of the nahḍa movement. The persistence of these scribal and intellectual traditions reveals a longue durée of Islamicate scholarly traditions that is only beginning to be understood by historians of Arab modernity.

SummaryChristian theologians can explain the Trinitarian faith today in dialogue with Islamic thinkers as “deepened monotheism”. Therefore it is important to widen the systematic-theological discourse in an ecumenical and transcultural perspective and to retrieve resources from Western and non-Western traditions of Trinitarian thought (I).In this paper I will first work out historically that the Trinitarian creed of Nicea and Constantinople was originally an ecumenical but non-Western creed (II). Afterwards, I investigate the philosophical-theological reflection on the Trinity by Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) in the context of early interreligious encounters in the Latin West. Based on biblical, augustinian and Greek sources, he developed an approach to understand the mystery of the Trinity by rational arguments as “deepened monotheism” (III). Then I will proceed to explore the philosophical-theological dialogues on the Trinity from the Arabic philosopher and Syrian-orthodox theologian Yaḥyā ibn ‘Adī (893–974). Much earlier he developed rational arguments for the Triunity of God with reference to Aristotle. Thereby he answers to anti-trinitarian arguments from Islamic thinkers like al-Kindī and al-Warrāq. He intends that the Trinitarian faith of Christian minorities can thereby be understood and tolerated by Islamic thinkers as rationally founded “deepened monotheism” (IV).In the end I will evaluate what these classics from the Western and non-western traditions of Trinitarian thought contribute to explicate the doctrine of the Trinity today in a pluralistic religious context as “deepened monotheism” (V).

Muslim-Christian dialogue is an area in which Muslim interest and involvement has increased as greater numbers of Muslims have come to the West and settled and interacted with local populations. From the Muslim point of view the early dialogues with Christian missionaries in the colonial period largely consisted of apologetic reactions and defences against attacks on Islamic beliefs and practices. Today dialogue, at least in some areas, allows a sharing by participants of their respective ideals and world views in search of a common ground for peaceful co-existence and mutual respect. Since Islamic theology incorporates a position on the status of other religions which is based on the Qur'an, it is both more easy and in some ways more difficult for Muslims to dialogue with their neighbors. The broad themes of salvation and righteousness are clearly articulated, and it is the more specific issues which may remain points of contention. Those interested in Christian-Muslim dialogue may wish to examine a recent work Muhammad and the Christian by Kenneth Cragg, an Anglican Bishop who knows Arabic and is the author of a number of books on Islam. In this work, speaking as a Christian, Cragg attempts to formulate an appropriate "positive" Christian response to Prophet Muhammad and the Qur'an. In nine chapters. the major topics of which are usefully summarized in the table of contents, the author addresses themes such as: the role of Prophet Muhammad in history, the Islamic understanding of Muhammad, the role of the Sunna, and the contents of the Qur'an. The author focuses primarily on Islamic understandings of God and the Prophet rather than on traditional fields of Muslim/Christian controversy such as the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, the crucifixion, and so on. It is a work for those already knowledgeable about each religion since many complex points of faith are raised and discussed, occasionally with a subtlety verging on abstruseness. On the positive side, although the book is primarily addressed to the Christian reader, the Muslim who reads Cragg's reflections will at certain points be moved to reflect more deeply on the existential ...

Abstract Ending his refutation of Christian theology in al-Muġnī fī abwāb al-tawḥīd wa-l-ʿadl (written between 361-380/971-990), ʿAbd al-Ğabbār assumes the reasons given by an unknown author against Abū Qurra, bishop of Ḥarrān (d. ca 210/825). According to Abū Qurra, God needs an eternal Son in order to have an equal to “dominate”, lest he should be deprived of honor and sovereignty. The unknown author laughs at this need of a subject God and Son, and argues throughout against this thought out of the Aristotelian category of “relative”. ʿAbd al-Ğabbār’s text, compared to Abū Qurra’s two treatises on this theme, shows up that it may be based on a lost Arabic treatise (known today through its Greek translation). The unknown author might be the theologian al-Murdār (m. 226/840), whose treatise Against Abū Qurra is recorded by al-Nadīm.

AbstractThe catechetical compilation Kitab al-Idah ("The Book of the Elucudation") of the tenth-century Coptic bishop and theologian Sawirus ibn al-Muqaffa' is one of the most frequently copied theological texts of the Arabic-speaking Coptic Church. While its first eight chapters deal with the principal doctrines and practices of the faith, Chapter Nine-omitted from the most recent printed edition of the work-must be understood against the backdrop of the flourishing speculation about supernatural beings and the afterlife that has long characterised Egyptian religion, including Coptic Christianity. In this chapter Sawirus responds to a homily, attributed to Theophilus of Alexandria, on the Angel of Death: the reason for his being granted authority over humankind, and the day of his feast. With considerable passion, Sawirus refutes this homily with arguments drawn from common sense, science, scripture and theology; for him, the cult of the Angel of Death is nothing but a ruse of Satan. However, Sawirus does not simply dismiss Egyptian Christian concern about the realm of supernatural beings. Instead, he attempts to absorb this realm more completely into the world of the Bible by summarizing or redescribing the Bible's central story as that of Christ's deception of and victory over Satan and his demonic host. While this narrative is rooted in ancient soteriological tradition, Sawirus' rendering is fresh and entertaining. The popularity of the Kitab al-Idah suggests that many generations of Egyptian Christians found it not merely entertaining, but genuinely elucidating.

Abstract With his original reflection—deeply influenced by many important Arabic thinkers—Gundissalinus wanted to renovate the Latin debate concerning crucial aspects of the philosophical tradition. Among the innovative doctrines he elaborated, one appears to be particularly problematic, for it touches a very delicate point of Christian theology: the divine creation of the human soul, and thus, the most intimate bond connecting the human being and his Creator. Notwithstanding the relevance of this point, Gundissalinus ascribed the creation of the human soul to the angels rather than God. He also stated that the angels create the souls from prime matter, and through a kind of causality which cannot be operated by God. What are the sources of this unusual and perilous doctrine? And what are the reasons which led Gundissalinus to hold such a problematic position? This article thoroughly examines the theoretical development and sources of Gundissalinus’s position, focusing on the correlations between this doctrine, the overall cosmological descriptions expounded by Gundissalinus in his original works, and the main sources upon which this unlikely doctrine is grounded: Avicenna and Ibn Gabirol.

Abstract Late antique Alexandria is much better known than the early Islamic city. To be fully appreciated, the transition must be contextualized against the full range of Afro-Eurasiatic commercial and intellectual life. The Alexandrian schools ‘harmonized’ Hippocrates and Galen, Plato and Aristotle. They also catalyzed Christian theology especially during the controversies before and after the Council of Chalcedon (451) that tore the Church apart and set the stage for the emergence of Islam. Alexandrian cultural dissemination down to the seventh century is here studied especially through evidence for the city’s libraries and book trade, together with the impact of its educational curriculum from Iran to Canterbury. After the Arab conquest, Alexandria turned into a frontier city and lost its economic and political role. But it became a city of the mind whose conceptual legacy fertilized not only Greek scholarship at Constantinople, but also Arabic science and philosophy thanks to the eighth- to ninth-century Baghdadi translation movement. Alexandria emanated occult energies too, thanks to the Pharos as variously misunderstood by Arabic writers, or the relics of its Christian saints, not least the Evangelist Mark, surreptitiously translated to Venice in 828-29. Study of the astral sciences too - astronomy but also astrology - was fertilized from Alexandria, as far afield as India and perhaps China as well as Syria, Baghdad and Constantinople. Egypt’s revival by the Fatimids, who founded Cairo in 961, had little impact on Alexandria until about the end of the eleventh century when, for a time, the city attracted Sunni scholars from as far away as Spain or Iran, while commerce benefited from the rise of the Italian merchant republics and the beginning of the Crusades. While the early caliphate had united a vast zone from Afghanistan to the Atlantic, the eleventh century saw a reemergence of late antique distinctions between the Iranian plateau, Syro-Mesopotamia, and the two Mediterranean basins. Alexandria was one of the points where these worlds intersected, though sub-Saharan Africa, to which it formally belonged, remained largely beyond its horizon until the twentieth century.

Abstract Many Muslim and non-Muslim merchants from East and West were attracted to Safavid Isfahan, the new “center of the world,” a city that also played host to its own mercantile communities, among them many zemmi traders—Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. As representatives of the newly-established Twelver Shiʿite theology, Safavid religious scholars felt the need to offer commentary on evolving issues on a theoretical level, sometimes writing not in Arabic but in New Persian. How did they regard the activities of zemmi merchants? Were zemmi traders subject to religiously-motivated restrictions? Or did they, on the other hand, enjoy exclusive rights? While my paper focusses on these questions, it will also compare the legal opinions of selected Safavid foqahāʾ on the social reality as reflected in travelogues and through historiography.

AbstractFor first-century Jews the eastern disapora was at least as important as the western. When Paul returned from Arabia (Nabatea) to Damascus, his intention was to travel east from Damascus to Mesopotamia, where the synagogue communities, descendants of the original exiles of both northern and southern tribes of Israel, would have been his starting point for mission to the Gentiles of the area. But when he escaped arrest by the Nabatean ethnarc, Nabatean control of the trade routes south and east of Damascus left him no choice but to travel to Jerusalem, where he re-thought the geographical scope of his mission. Had Paul travelled east, the Christian communities of both north and south Mesopotamia might have flourished already in the first century and Paul's writings might have had more influence on Syriac theology. Considering how Christianity in the Roman Empire would have developed without Paul entails rejecting such exaggerated views of Paul's significance as that Paul invented Christianity or that without Paul Christianity would have remained a Jewish sect. The Gentile mission began without Paul and took place in areas, such as Rome and Egypt, which were not evangelized by Paul. Without Paul much would have been different about the way the early Christian movement would have spread across the Roman Empire, but it would still have spread, with much the same long-term effects.

The international Islamabad conference titled God, Life and Cosmos:Theistic Perspectives was held in Islamabad, November 6-9, 2000.Sponsored and organized by the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences(CTNS), Berkeley, United States, Islamic Research Institute (IRI),Islamabad, Pakistan, and International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT),Islamabad, Pakistan, the conference drew over fifty scholars from the fieldsof natural sciences and religious studies. A number of interesting paperswere presented on various aspects of the relation between religion and science,and each paper was critically evaluated and responded to by a respondent.The conference commenced with the introductory remarks of MuzaffarIqbal (National Library, Alberta, Canada) and then the keynote speechwhich was delivered by William Chittick, the renowned scholar of Islamicintellectual history and Ibn Arabi. Chittick’s keynote address titled“Modem Science and the Eclipse of Tawhid” focused on the sharp contrastbetween the Islamic concept of tuwhid (Divine unity) and the secularworldview of modem science. Drawing on the traditional distinctionbetween the transmitted (naqli) and intellectual (uqli) sciences, Chittickemphasized the importance of intellectual sciences in confronting the challengesof the modem world. As respondent to Chittick‘s keynote paper,Hasan al-Shafi’i (President of the International Islamic University,Islamabad, Pakistan) further elaborated on the points raised by the keynotespeaker. The f i t day of the conference closed with a wonderful presentationabout Pakistan and its history by the son and daughter of MuzaffarIqbal, the indefitagiable convener of the conference.The papers presented at the conference touched upon nearly all of themajor aspects of the religion-science relationship: the rise of modem physicalsciences and the responses of the Islamic as well as Christian worlds,philosophy of science, modem cosmology, theory of evolution and itsmeaning for the religious worldview, history of Islamic sciences and its ...

The book reviewed here is a welcome addition to the library of works seek- ing to construct a richer picture of the early Islamic landscape after the wane of radical revisionist theories of Islamic origins of Islam. Salem has presented a thoughtful study of the scholar-ascetic-warrior ‘Abdallāh ibn al-Mubārak (d. 181/797), and what the outlines of his life reveal about the proto-Sunnī milieu of the second Islamic century. Whereas early academic explorations of the development of Sunnī orthodoxy focused on theology and law, with Scott Lucas later highlighting the crucial role of ḥadīth, Salem has focused on the hitherto neglected dimension of ethics. The book is well laid out with an introduction, then a chapter outlining Ibn al-Mubārak’s life, followed by chapters analyzing his activities in the fields of ḥadīth, ji- hād, and zuhd respectively, wrapped up with a brief concluding chapter. Chapter 1 begins with a succinct overview of the ‘descriptive’ and ‘skeptical’ approaches among scholars of early Islamic history, followed by the relevant observation that interpretation of source material almost in- evitably reflects some of the assumptions of the scholar interpreting them. Salem makes the (unobjectionable) assertion that the contents of historical reports in early sources are indicative of attitudes and conceptions that ex- isted among Muslims at the time of authorship, regardless of whether they are historically genuine in all their details. She then presents a representa- tive selection of biographical details that paint Ibn al-Mubārak as a devout worshipper with high moral character, a scholar of ḥadīth and fiqh, yet also a wealthy and philanthropic trader and a brave man who spent much time guarding the frontiers. Nathan Hofer, in his review of the book, has cor- rectly pointed out that the historical sources Salem draws on span eight centuries, and criticizes her for failing to distinguish between material from different time periods. This criticism could have been avoided had Salem included an acknowledgment of this fact, along with a brief exposition of her assumptions about the nature of the sources and transmission into later biographies of materials not found in extant earlier chronicles. It is likely that excluding later biographical sources would not radically alter Salem’s central arguments—but the historiographically curious reader might won- der about some of the details, such as (for example) the genuineness of attribution of certain theological positions to Ibn al-Mubārak, given the highly-charged sectarian tensions that emerged in subsequent centuries, and the rather diverse early milieu that makes it difficult—as hadith master al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1348) observed—for adherents of later orthodoxy to find pure ideologues from that early period. Chapter 2 details Ibn al-Mubārak’s prowess in hadith. The sourc- es seem to be in agreement that he amassed a large number of hadiths, a feat that Salem traces to a combination of his wide travels in search of knowledge and his readiness to write down hadiths at a time when such re- cording was still controversial. (Chapter 3 brings up a third relevant factor: his interactions with other scholars while guarding the frontiers.) We are also given a useful overview of Ibn al-Mubārak’s works, both unpublished (including lost) and published. The absence of mention of one edited ver- sion of the Kitāb al-Zuhd (Sa‘īd al-Asmarī’s 824-page MA dissertation at Umm al-Qurā University from 2012) is understandable given it was not yet available at the time Salem finished her initial manuscript. This survey is followed by a sketch of Ibn al-Mubārak’s scholarly network, including both his major teachers and prominent students. Salem asserts that these net- works show the importance of both direct teacher-to-student transmission of knowledge, a mutual awareness among its members, and acknowledged (theological and ethical) criteria amongst them for legitimation of scholar- ly authority through acceptance in this network. Salem has made reference to Lucas’ important work on this, but does not reference William Graham’s essay on Traditionalism, a source that I think deserves mention regarding the continuity of the Islamic scholarly tradition. Chapter 2 also contains some important historiographical observa- tions. Salem finds that the biographical sources show an internal consis- tency and coherence that strongly suggest their overall reliability, and make it difficult to accept revisionist theories that dismiss them entirely as later inventions that were back-projected. For example, the critique of Ḥasan al-Baṣrī as a hadith narrator, in spite of the near-unanimous praise for his piety, suggests the hadith biographers were resistant to the natural tenden- cy to “aggrandize” popular persons. Salem also rightly observes that the in- formation from biographical dictionaries can undermine some of Schacht’s assumptions, but I would have liked to have seen more engagement with the academic debates (involving Schneider, Berg, Motzki and others) over whether the biographical dictionaries are actually independent sources of information. In Chapter 3, Salem argues that although the concept of martial valor as a form of piety was well known in the Late Antique Near East, it is a mistake to assume that post-expansion Muslims simply adopted it from the Christians they came in contact with. She cites Qur’ānic references to these concepts as well as numerous narrations in Ibn al-Mubārak’s Kitāb al-Jihād that chronologically mention battles in which the Prophet Muhammad was involved, as evidence that early pietist-martial men like Ibn al-Mubārak saw their activity as a continuation of indigenous Islamic teaching and practice regarding noble and ethical combat (granted of course that their understanding may have continued to evolve under other influences). For Islamic scholars to participate in guarding the frontiers, she adduces, was considered a superior form of piety than for them to live a luxurious city life. The existence of ‘religious scholars’ and ‘Qur’ānic reciters’ as a distinct class of people during this time ties in well with Salem’s assertions in the previous chapter about the transmission of religious knowledge. It might have been useful for her to cite here the work of Mustafa Shah and oth- ers who have discussed the early qurrā’ communities. A significant part of Chapter 3 discusses selected hadiths from the Kitab al-Jihād with regard to how Ibn al-Mubārak (and the community at that time) perceived jihād. In Chapter 4, Salem shows, through a comparative analysis of the early zuhd literature, that the virtuous ideal of zuhd was interpreted in diverse ways in the early community. Ibn al-Mubārak, in his own Kitāb al-Zuhd as well as in what biographical sources coherently tell us about his personal life, was a proponent of a “sober and moderate” form of zuhd as detachment of the heart from material things, along with an overarching attitude of piety, so that there is no contradiction between being wealthy and practic- ing zuhd. This stands in sharp contrast to more austere interpretations of zuhd (such as that of his contemporary, Mu‘āfā ibn Ibrāhīm) who advocat- ed a renunciation of the things of this world. While this latter group might well have been influenced by Christian ascetic practices, Salem credibly argues that a major sector of the community (typified by Ibn al-Mubārak) viewed zuhd as a broad ethical framework taken from the teachings of the Qur’ān and the Prophet Muhammad. This normative early zuhd literature, she proffers, formed the kernel of what later became Sufism, although later Sufism (and in particular the ṭarīqas) came to differ in sometimes signif- icant (and potentially problematic) ways from the earlier zuhd tradition. Hence, Salem makes a case for a “primitive” Sufism that represents a primal ethical core of Islam, in contrast to later Sufism that probably did syncreti- cally incorporate beliefs and practices from other (non-Islamic) religious traditions. Even though the book is geared towards bigger-picture arguments more than details, there could have been more precision in translation in some cases. I understand the pressures of completing a dissertation and the impossibility of perfection, and hence these critiques should not be taken to undermine the book’s worth. I found rather jarring the anachronism of translating ṣannafa/taṣnīf as “printing” (rather than the expected “author- ing” or “compilation”) when attributed to figures in the early centuries of Islam. A description of the famous Egyptian judge Ibn Lahī‘ah (d. 174/790) as muḍṭarib...yuktabu ḥadithuhū ʻalā al-iʻtibār (59), is correctly identified by Salem as a critique of his accuracy in hadith transmission, but is rather opaquely translated as “problematic....wrote hadiths for recognition.” I per- sonally would have preferred that titles like “al-Ḥāfiẓ”, “al-Imām”, and “al- ‘Alam” (at 10, for example) be translated, or at least placed before the actual name of the person in question, rather than risk non-specialists assuming these to be part of the name (though I understand that the book is directed towards specialists). Vocalizations of uncommon Arabic names are some- times inaccurate (e.g. “Sammāk” should be “Simāk”), but Salem has been exceptionally meticulous in marking in diacritics. She demonstrates a solid grasp of the overall framework of hadith-sciences and of the Arabic lan- guage, and so there are no imprecisions so egregious as to undermine her broad arguments and conclusions. Grammatical errors are extremely few. I understand that Salem’s more recent work focuses on later time pe- riods, but I would welcome further articles from her that leverage her ex- perience with the figure of Ibn al-Mubārak and her familiarity with the source materials. One possible area of further exploration for which the constraints of the dissertation did not allow but which would be useful, is some quantitative prosopographical data analysis. This could include stud- ies of the narrators of ḥadīths in Ibn al-Mubārak’s books as well as a thematic classification of all the narrations therein, which might show more clearly that the data she has cited in support of her assertions is indeed representative of the overall contents. Salem’s conclusion reads extremely well, and she has adeptly summa- rized her major findings and observations. In my estimation, the major contribution of her book has been to articulate a two-pronged centrality of ethics and morals in Sunnī orthodoxy: first, that the early zuhd genre of literature was the carrier of ethics before being subsumed later by the field of taṣawwuf; and second, that the living practice of morality and eth- ics by identified individuals in early society was central to the processes of legitimation, authority, and formation of orthodoxy (as shown by the importance of moral accreditation for being an acceptable transmitter of knowledge). Suheil LaherDean of Academics and Senior InstructorFawakih Institute for Classical Arabic

The book reviewed here is a welcome addition to the library of works seek- ing to construct a richer picture of the early Islamic landscape after the wane of radical revisionist theories of Islamic origins of Islam. Salem has presented a thoughtful study of the scholar-ascetic-warrior ‘Abdallāh ibn al-Mubārak (d. 181/797), and what the outlines of his life reveal about the proto-Sunnī milieu of the second Islamic century. Whereas early academic explorations of the development of Sunnī orthodoxy focused on theology and law, with Scott Lucas later highlighting the crucial role of ḥadīth, Salem has focused on the hitherto neglected dimension of ethics. The book is well laid out with an introduction, then a chapter outlining Ibn al-Mubārak’s life, followed by chapters analyzing his activities in the fields of ḥadīth, ji- hād, and zuhd respectively, wrapped up with a brief concluding chapter. Chapter 1 begins with a succinct overview of the ‘descriptive’ and ‘skeptical’ approaches among scholars of early Islamic history, followed by the relevant observation that interpretation of source material almost in- evitably reflects some of the assumptions of the scholar interpreting them. Salem makes the (unobjectionable) assertion that the contents of historical reports in early sources are indicative of attitudes and conceptions that ex- isted among Muslims at the time of authorship, regardless of whether they are historically genuine in all their details. She then presents a representa- tive selection of biographical details that paint Ibn al-Mubārak as a devout worshipper with high moral character, a scholar of ḥadīth and fiqh, yet also a wealthy and philanthropic trader and a brave man who spent much time guarding the frontiers. Nathan Hofer, in his review of the book, has cor- rectly pointed out that the historical sources Salem draws on span eight centuries, and criticizes her for failing to distinguish between material from different time periods. This criticism could have been avoided had Salem included an acknowledgment of this fact, along with a brief exposition of her assumptions about the nature of the sources and transmission into later biographies of materials not found in extant earlier chronicles. It is likely that excluding later biographical sources would not radically alter Salem’s central arguments—but the historiographically curious reader might won- der about some of the details, such as (for example) the genuineness of attribution of certain theological positions to Ibn al-Mubārak, given the highly-charged sectarian tensions that emerged in subsequent centuries, and the rather diverse early milieu that makes it difficult—as hadith master al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1348) observed—for adherents of later orthodoxy to find pure ideologues from that early period. Chapter 2 details Ibn al-Mubārak’s prowess in hadith. The sourc- es seem to be in agreement that he amassed a large number of hadiths, a feat that Salem traces to a combination of his wide travels in search of knowledge and his readiness to write down hadiths at a time when such re- cording was still controversial. (Chapter 3 brings up a third relevant factor: his interactions with other scholars while guarding the frontiers.) We are also given a useful overview of Ibn al-Mubārak’s works, both unpublished (including lost) and published. The absence of mention of one edited ver- sion of the Kitāb al-Zuhd (Sa‘īd al-Asmarī’s 824-page MA dissertation at Umm al-Qurā University from 2012) is understandable given it was not yet available at the time Salem finished her initial manuscript. This survey is followed by a sketch of Ibn al-Mubārak’s scholarly network, including both his major teachers and prominent students. Salem asserts that these net- works show the importance of both direct teacher-to-student transmission of knowledge, a mutual awareness among its members, and acknowledged (theological and ethical) criteria amongst them for legitimation of scholar- ly authority through acceptance in this network. Salem has made reference to Lucas’ important work on this, but does not reference William Graham’s essay on Traditionalism, a source that I think deserves mention regarding the continuity of the Islamic scholarly tradition. Chapter 2 also contains some important historiographical observa- tions. Salem finds that the biographical sources show an internal consis- tency and coherence that strongly suggest their overall reliability, and make it difficult to accept revisionist theories that dismiss them entirely as later inventions that were back-projected. For example, the critique of Ḥasan al-Baṣrī as a hadith narrator, in spite of the near-unanimous praise for his piety, suggests the hadith biographers were resistant to the natural tenden- cy to “aggrandize” popular persons. Salem also rightly observes that the in- formation from biographical dictionaries can undermine some of Schacht’s assumptions, but I would have liked to have seen more engagement with the academic debates (involving Schneider, Berg, Motzki and others) over whether the biographical dictionaries are actually independent sources of information. In Chapter 3, Salem argues that although the concept of martial valor as a form of piety was well known in the Late Antique Near East, it is a mistake to assume that post-expansion Muslims simply adopted it from the Christians they came in contact with. She cites Qur’ānic references to these concepts as well as numerous narrations in Ibn al-Mubārak’s Kitāb al-Jihād that chronologically mention battles in which the Prophet Muhammad was involved, as evidence that early pietist-martial men like Ibn al-Mubārak saw their activity as a continuation of indigenous Islamic teaching and practice regarding noble and ethical combat (granted of course that their understanding may have continued to evolve under other influences). For Islamic scholars to participate in guarding the frontiers, she adduces, was considered a superior form of piety than for them to live a luxurious city life. The existence of ‘religious scholars’ and ‘Qur’ānic reciters’ as a distinct class of people during this time ties in well with Salem’s assertions in the previous chapter about the transmission of religious knowledge. It might have been useful for her to cite here the work of Mustafa Shah and oth- ers who have discussed the early qurrā’ communities. A significant part of Chapter 3 discusses selected hadiths from the Kitab al-Jihād with regard to how Ibn al-Mubārak (and the community at that time) perceived jihād. In Chapter 4, Salem shows, through a comparative analysis of the early zuhd literature, that the virtuous ideal of zuhd was interpreted in diverse ways in the early community. Ibn al-Mubārak, in his own Kitāb al-Zuhd as well as in what biographical sources coherently tell us about his personal life, was a proponent of a “sober and moderate” form of zuhd as detachment of the heart from material things, along with an overarching attitude of piety, so that there is no contradiction between being wealthy and practic- ing zuhd. This stands in sharp contrast to more austere interpretations of zuhd (such as that of his contemporary, Mu‘āfā ibn Ibrāhīm) who advocat- ed a renunciation of the things of this world. While this latter group might well have been influenced by Christian ascetic practices, Salem credibly argues that a major sector of the community (typified by Ibn al-Mubārak) viewed zuhd as a broad ethical framework taken from the teachings of the Qur’ān and the Prophet Muhammad. This normative early zuhd literature, she proffers, formed the kernel of what later became Sufism, although later Sufism (and in particular the ṭarīqas) came to differ in sometimes signif- icant (and potentially problematic) ways from the earlier zuhd tradition. Hence, Salem makes a case for a “primitive” Sufism that represents a primal ethical core of Islam, in contrast to later Sufism that probably did syncreti- cally incorporate beliefs and practices from other (non-Islamic) religious traditions. Even though the book is geared towards bigger-picture arguments more than details, there could have been more precision in translation in some cases. I understand the pressures of completing a dissertation and the impossibility of perfection, and hence these critiques should not be taken to undermine the book’s worth. I found rather jarring the anachronism of translating ṣannafa/taṣnīf as “printing” (rather than the expected “author- ing” or “compilation”) when attributed to figures in the early centuries of Islam. A description of the famous Egyptian judge Ibn Lahī‘ah (d. 174/790) as muḍṭarib...yuktabu ḥadithuhū ʻalā al-iʻtibār (59), is correctly identified by Salem as a critique of his accuracy in hadith transmission, but is rather opaquely translated as “problematic....wrote hadiths for recognition.” I per- sonally would have preferred that titles like “al-Ḥāfiẓ”, “al-Imām”, and “al- ‘Alam” (at 10, for example) be translated, or at least placed before the actual name of the person in question, rather than risk non-specialists assuming these to be part of the name (though I understand that the book is directed towards specialists). Vocalizations of uncommon Arabic names are some- times inaccurate (e.g. “Sammāk” should be “Simāk”), but Salem has been exceptionally meticulous in marking in diacritics. She demonstrates a solid grasp of the overall framework of hadith-sciences and of the Arabic lan- guage, and so there are no imprecisions so egregious as to undermine her broad arguments and conclusions. Grammatical errors are extremely few. I understand that Salem’s more recent work focuses on later time pe- riods, but I would welcome further articles from her that leverage her ex- perience with the figure of Ibn al-Mubārak and her familiarity with the source materials. One possible area of further exploration for which the constraints of the dissertation did not allow but which would be useful, is some quantitative prosopographical data analysis. This could include stud- ies of the narrators of ḥadīths in Ibn al-Mubārak’s books as well as a thematic classification of all the narrations therein, which might show more clearly that the data she has cited in support of her assertions is indeed representative of the overall contents. Salem’s conclusion reads extremely well, and she has adeptly summa- rized her major findings and observations. In my estimation, the major contribution of her book has been to articulate a two-pronged centrality of ethics and morals in Sunnī orthodoxy: first, that the early zuhd genre of literature was the carrier of ethics before being subsumed later by the field of taṣawwuf; and second, that the living practice of morality and eth- ics by identified individuals in early society was central to the processes of legitimation, authority, and formation of orthodoxy (as shown by the importance of moral accreditation for being an acceptable transmitter of knowledge). Suheil LaherDean of Academics and Senior InstructorFawakih Institute for Classical Arabic

Many books have been written on Muslims and Islam since 9/1 I. Amajority of them have tried to show Islam's negative side in an attempt toprove that Islam teaches violence and that Muslims love to engage injihad to become martyrs. Such contentions are generally made by antiMusliminterest groups, certain religious organizations, and politiciansunder the influence of such extremists. These people stir up anti-Muslimsentiments to influence public opinion and bend government policies infavor of such groups. This book is a similar attempt to gain popularity forthe authors and arouse anti-Muslim sentiment at a time that is trying formost Americans. The authors, Ergun Caner and Emir Caner, are brothers.The senior author is professor of theology at Criswell College, Dallas,Texas, and the second author teaches at the Baptist Seminary in WakeForest, North Carolina.The book contains a preface and introduction, I 6 chapters on variousaspects of Islam, and four appendices, including an index to the Qur'anand a glossary of Arabic terms. The preface is a story of the clash ofculturesbetween the authors' Muslim (Turkish) father and Swedish mother,which resulted in a divorce when the Caner brothers were still veryyoung. The father had visitation rights and would take Ergun and Emir tothe Islamic Center in Columbus, Ohio, on weekends "to do the prayers,celebrate Ramadhan and read the Qur'an." This was the children's onlyexposure to Islam, until Ergun was I 5 and visited a church after his bestfriend invited him to do so. Ergun found the people at church warm and"didn't mock when he stumbled through the hymns." He joined thegospel ministry in 1982 and has since been preaching (against Islam) inorder "to bring salvation for 1.2 billion Muslims." Thus the title of thebook is itself deceiving, as it conveys that a practicing Muslim became aChristian, when, in fact, the authors actually became Christians in theirearly teens and had almost no education in Islam.It is appalling that the introductory chapter opens with a threat from"Shaikh" Osama bin Laden to the Americans and blessings for those whogave their lives to k.ill the 9/1 I victims. The authors portray bin Laden asa typical Muslim who is out to get all people who refuse to accept Islam ...

The article presents the Council of Chalcedon; its theological and historical context and its consequences. The author starts with the theological context of this Council. In that time the question of relation between humanity and divinity in Christ was discussed. Apollinarius of Laodicea taught that in the person of Christ there were two elements: the Logos and the body. The Logos replaced the soul. He propagated the formula mia physis tou theou logou sesarkomene. Others theologians were not agree with his opinion. Generally, there were two theological schools which worked on this matter: school of Alexandria and of Antioch. In the first one, the Christ was seen especially as God who became man. In the second one, He was seen as the man who was God’s Son. With other words, in Alexandria the starting point of reflection was the Divinity of Christ. In Antioch the starting of reflection was His humanity. The author mentioned Eutyches whose ideas on Christology produced a lot of trouble. In such a context, the Council of Chalcedon was organized (451). It was the proposal of Emperor Marcjan. The Council, after having condemned Eutyches and Dioskur of Alexandria because of their position on theological matter, proclaimed a new definition of the catholic faith. The base of this definition was the Letter of Pope Leo the Great Ad Flavianum. The most important point of this definition was the statement that Divinity and humanity meet in Christ, and both form one person. Such a declaration seems to be clear, but it did not satisfy Greek theologians. They did not want to accept the formula two natures (duo physeis) in one person, because in their opinion it signifies a separation between the Divinity and the humanity of Christ. They preferred to speak about mia physis tou Theou Logou sesarkomene. Surely, by the term physis they did not understand nature, but a being. While saying mia physis they did not mean one nature, but one being. In their conception, Jesus Christ was a Being in which met Divinity and humanity. Many theologians were suspicious of the term person (prosopon); they supposed that it had a modalistic meaning. The main opinion of Modalists is: there is only One God who appears sometimes as Father, sometimes as Son, sometime as Holy Spirit. There were also other reasons of contesting the definition of Chalcedon. It was known that that this definition was imposed by the Greek emperor, influenced by the Bishop of Rome (Pope). Many theologians, especially in monastic milieu, did not want to accept the intervention of the civil authorities in religious matter. They did not have a very good opinion about Latin theology. In the fifth century there were some anti-Hellenic tendencies in the eastern part of the Empire. Many Oriental theologians rejected the definition of Chalcedon because it was „a for­mula of Rom and Constantinople”. In such circumstances, a lot of Christians separated themselves from the Catholic Church, forming Monophysite Churches. Those who remained in unity with Rome and Constantinople, keeping the defini­tion of Chalcedon, were called Melchites. Another problem was the canon 28, which gave some privileges to the bishop see of Constantinople. Pope Leo the Great did not approve this canon. Anti-Hellenic tendencies were so strong that in the time of Islamic invasions the people of Palestine, Syria, and Egypt welcomed Arabic soldiers as liberators from Byzantine domination. It is to be said that Arabic authorities, after having taken power in a country, were friendly towards Monophysites and persecuted Melchites. So, the contestation of the definition of Chalcedon prepared the ground for the victory of Islam in the East. The article is ended by an observation of a French theologian Joseph Moingt: declaration that Divinity and humanity make union the person of Jesus Christ produced division not only in the Church, but also in the Roman Empire. This is one of great paradoxes in the history of Christianity.

The relevance of this topic is due to the lack of study of the history of the formation of two mutually exclusive concepts of God, tanzih akyda (impropriety) and tashbih akyda (likening God to created) and the influence of this process on the formation and development of the Hanbali madhhab in Russian history and religious studies. The influence of Israiliyat, individual stories and beliefs inherent in some Jewish and Christian sects on the formation of the teachings of anthropomorphic sects is also noted. In this regard, the special role of neophytes, who formally accepted Islam and actively introduced Israelism, was noted. This applies primarily to Kab al-Akhbar and Wahb Ibn Munabbih. The subject of the study is tanzih akida and tashbih akida, the influence of Israiliyat on its formation and its role in the history of the Hanbali madhhab. Due to the fact that our research is primarily of a philosophical and religious nature, we applied research methods adopted in these Humanities. As a result, we studied the processes of influence of Israiliyat on the formation of tashbih akyda and came to the conclusion that it had a great impact on the formation of the Hanbali madhhab and the historical features of its development. Particular emphasis was placed on the fact that Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbali, the eponym of Hanbali madhhab, held the aqida of unlikening God to created, but some of his disciples, who were followers of some anthropomorphistic sects, brought tasbih aqida mazhab, which was formed largely under the influence of Israiliyat. This has led to the fact that for many centuries, under the name of Hanbali madhhab, researchers unite two groups of people who profess a diametrically opposite concept of God. This research occupies an important place in religious studies, history and philosophy, because it reveals new aspects of the formation and historical development of this madhhab. There is also shown the Israiliyat influence on the formation of tasbih aqida and religious-philosophical doctrine, which at the turn of XIII – XIV centuries was preached by a famous religious figure from Syria – Ahmad Ibn Taymiyah, known for having the key influence on the formation of the Wahhabi sect in Arabia. The scope of the research results includes: theoretical development of courses and textbooks on the history of Islam, Islamic theology and sectarianism, etc. Practical application of the research results is possible in the development of methods for resolving religious and political conflicts of modern times, mainly between Sunnis and Shiites, as our research helps to understand the origins of their appearance and the formation of religious and political differences.Key words: Islam, Muslim, Israiliyat, tanzih aqida, tasbih aqida, Kab al-Ahbar, Wahb Ibn Munabbih, Hanbali madhhab, Ahmad Ibn Imam Hanbali, Ibn al-jawzi, the history of Baghdad

An Introduction to Islam by David Waines consists of three parts:“Foundations,” “Islamic Teaching and Practice,” and “Islam in the ModernWorld.” The author begins by characteristically painting the picture of pre-Islamic pagan Arabia on the eve of Islam’s advent. He discusses the role andsignificance the pre-Islamic Arabs accorded their pantheon of deities, as wellas the (largely inherited) moral codes that governed their conduct in tribalsociety. Waines neatly ties this into what follows, where he discusses thebirth of Prophet Muhammad, the event of the Qur’an’s revelation, and theopposition he encountered from his fellow tribesmen in Makkah. This is followedby an analysis of the Qur’an’s significance, its conception of divinity,and the content and importance of the Hadith as a source of guidance forMuslims. The section is rounded off with examinations of such topics as the first period of civil strife (fitnah) after the Prophet’s death and the interestingbody of literature devoted to Muslim-Christian polemics in earlymedieval Islam.The transition from the first part of the book to the second part is ratherfluid, for the second part is essentially an elaboration of the themes discussedin the first. With remarkable ease and accuracy, the author elucidatesthe historical development and main features of Islamic law in both its theoryand practice. Returning to his earlier discussion on the Hadith, here hebriefly outlines how its corpus came to be collected. Readers unfamiliar withthe main theological controversies that confronted Islam in its formativeyears (e.g., the problem of free will and the status of the grave sinner) willfind the section devoted to Islamic theology fairly useful.Waines goes on to explain some of the principle Mu`tazilite andAsh`arite doctrines, and outlines some of the ideas of Neoplatonic Islamicphilosophy, albeit through the lenses of al-Ghazali’s famous refutation.Surprisingly, the author does not address any of the major developments inIslamic philosophy post-Ibn Rushd, such as the important work of theIshraqi (Illuminationist) school (incidentally, the founder of this school,Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi, was a contemporary of Ibn Rushd). The last twochapters are devoted to Sufism and Shi`ism, respectively. Although Wainesdoes misrepresent Ibn al-`Arabi’s metaphysics of Being by calling it a “system”(pp. 153 and 192), on the whole he presents the Islamic mystical traditionin a refreshing and informed manner. His section on Shi`ism is splendid.It is written with considerable care, and he effectively isolates the mainthemes characteristic of Twelver Shi`ite thought and practice.In the third and longest part of this work, Waines incorporates IbnBattutah’s travel accounts into the book’s narrative. This works very well, asit gives readers a sense of the diverse and rich cultural patterns that wereintricately woven into the fabric of fourteenth-century Islamic civilization.After reading through the section, this present reviewer could not help butmarvel at how the observations of a fourteenth-century traveler and legaljudge from Tangiers could so effectively contribute to a twenty-first centuryintroductory textbook on Islam. Additionally, Waines takes readers throughsome of the essential features of the three important “gunpowder” Muslimdynasties, devotes an interesting discussion to the role played by the mosquein a Muslim’s daily life, and outlines some of its different architectural andartistic expressions throughout Islamic history ...

AbstractIt is very often for some people to define theology as the core of Islamic teachings in the regard of its content as the science of God. It has Arabic similar terms such as Aqidah and Kalam for explaining the principles of God. It is not surprisingly that Moslem should deal with the issues of theology since the early history of Islam, but why do appear some conflicts in the matters of theology.Theological controversies are something inherent regarding theology is the result of man’s thinking which are bound by the limits of space and of time as the contexts. In other words, theology is the application of the principle of universalism of Islamic teachings in the certain contexts of space and time. Consequently theology is improperly to be claimed as having a universal application. That is why theology is different from iman (belief). It is believed by the Sufis who evaluate correctly that theology does not have an in-depth feeling of spirituality due to its main focus on the use of ratio for the elaboration. Meanwhile iman exists in all religions theology exists in the religions which deal with the matters of worldly affairs, especially in monotheist religions such as Yew, Christian, and Islam.Theology is in great need at the time of crisis such as at the time of the death of Muhammad PBUH the prophet. Indeed at that time theology has not developed well and be arranged systematically as today. We have some theological groups such as Shiite, Sunni, Khawarij. And in Indonesia we have Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama, and PKS which all of them come from the Sunni sect. It is possible to notice them from their different socio-cultural background. In other words, socio-cultural background influence the form of theology.Keywords: theology, belief, Sunni, Shiite, Muhammadiyah, NU, and PKS.

Arab Christianity has a long history, longer than the history Christianity has in many European countries, a fact we seem to have forgotten in the west. According to Acts 2:11, some Arabs together with several other people of different nationalities were present when Peter gave his address to the crowd on the first Pentecost day after the ascension of Christ. Even if this piece of information is not historically true, there is no doubt that Christianity spread to the Arab world fairly early, probably in the beginning with some Judaeo-Christians, who moved to Arabia, and later on as a result of a mission to the gentiles. Already in antiquity the Bible was translated from the Greek Septuagint into Arabic.

For the West, Islam has generally been seen as a typical example of exotic, dangerous and unknown culture, whereas for the Byzantines, Islam was much better known, since they have to live together with Muslims for centuries and therefore their attitude could not have been uniformly hostile but consisted of manifold attempts to hold a (theological) dialogue. The paper presents some key features of the heterogeneous Byzantine theology of Islam within the corpus of the theological polemical works which have been produced from 7th to the 13th century. After examining the first Byzantine theologian who wrote on Islam, John Damascene (ca. 676–749), who gained knowledge of Islam at first hand, as a civil servant in the court of the Umayyad Caliph in Damascus, the present study examines one relatively unknown work, Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend (MS Sinai Arabic 448; 531), written in Arabic somewhere around 1200, which is a unique among Byzantine polemics for Paul’s irenic approach and its copious use of quotes from the Qur’an. Approach of this Melkite bishop of Sidon is characterized by presenting Muslim beliefs as misunderstandings rather as plainly false and heretic. Although still applies a clear apologetic approach, Paul’s Letter is investigated in the perspective of the theological dialogue between Christians and Muslims.