Muslim–Paulician Encounters and Early Islamic Anti-Christian Polemical Writings

Year 2025, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 1 - 16, 30.06.2025

Translator: Celal Öney

Abstract

This article investigates the portrayals of the Paulicians in early Islamic sources and specifically analyses the role that Paulician religious views play in Islamic anti-Christian writings. The study also gives insights into the nature of materials that were available to Muslim scholars and the strategies they applied in constructing coherent arguments to refute certain Christian religious beliefs. In doing so, the study touches upon Muslims’ religious needs and scholarly curiosity, which sheds light on their intellectual interactions with non-Islamic religious beliefs and philosophical ideas. The article demonstrates that references to Paulician religious beliefs can be found primarily in early Christian–Islamic polemics. Muslim polemicists, most of whom were Muʿtazilites, attempted to demonstrate the soundness and the coherence of Islamic tenets vis-à-vis inadequacies and contradictions in Christian doctrines. The reliance of Muslim polemicists on heresiographical discourse therefore constituted an important strategy to substantiate their polemical arguments. Two major issues stand out in Islamic portrayals of Paulician doctrines: the centrality of Paul of Samosata in the history of the sect, and his association with the view that Jesus was a human being devoid of divinity.

Keywords

Paulicians; Christian–Islamic, polemics;, Muʿtazilites;, divinity of Jesus;

Müslüman-Paulisyen Karşılaşmaları ve Erken Dönem İslami Hıristiyanlık Karşıtı Polemik Yazıları

Abstract

Bu makale, erken dönem İslam kaynaklarında Paulisyenlerin tasvirlerini incelemekte ve özellikle Paulisyenlerin dini görüşlerinin İslam’ın Hıristiyanlık karşıtı yazılarında oynadığı rolü analiz etmektedir. Çalışma aynı zamanda Müslüman âlimlerin elindeki materyallerin niteliği hakkında fikir vermesinin yanında belirli Hristiyan dini inançlarını çürütmek için tutarlı argümanlar da oluştururken bu Müslüman âlimlerin uyguladıkları stratejiler hakkında da fikir vermektedir. Bunu yaparken, çalışma Müslümanların dini ihtiyaçlarına ve bilimsel meraklarına değinerek, İslam dışı dini inançlar ve felsefi fikirlerle olan entelektüel etkileşimlerine ışık tutmaktadır. Makale, Pavlusçu dini inançlara yapılan atıfların öncelikle erken dönem Hıristiyan-İslam polemiklerinde de bulunabileceğini göstermektedir. Çoğu Mutezile olan Müslüman polemikçiler, Hıristiyan doktrinlerindeki yetersizlikler ve çelişkiler karşısında İslami ilkelerin sağlamlığını ve tutarlılığını göstermeye çalışmışlardır. Bu nedenle Müslüman polemikçilerin heresiografik (mezhepler ile ilgili) söyleme güvenmeleri, polemik argümanlarını kanıtlamak için önemli bir strateji oluşturmuştur. Pavlusçu doktrinlerin İslami tasvirlerinde iki önemli husus öne çıkmaktadır bunlar: Samosata’lı Pavlus’un mezhep tarihindeki merkezciliği ve İsa’nın ilahilikten yoksun bir insan olduğu görüşüyle ilişkisidir.

Keywords

Paulisyenler, Hıristiyan-İslam polemikleri, Mutezile, İsa’nın tanrısallığı, Meryem, heresiografi, Samosata’lı Pavlus, Düalizm, Divriği

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