Arab Christianity: A Short History

Year 2020, , 763 - 786, 15.12.2020

Alexander Treiger Translator: Recep Aydoğmuş

https://doi.org/10.35415/sirnakifd.769616

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Speakers of Arabic were among the first peoples to hear the gospel preached. They witnessed the first Pentecost and heard the Apostle Paul, who visited Arabia (present-day Jordan) immediately after his conversion. Although several Arab tribes had converted to Christianity prior to the rise of Islam and undoubtedly used Arabic in their religious practice, the use of Arabic as a Christian literary language began with the Islamic conquest of the Middle East. For over thirteen hundred years, from the seventh century until today, the constant struggle to articulate and proclaim the Christian faith in a language largely defined by Islam gave the Christian communities of the Arab lands much of their unique character.

Keywords

History of Religions, Christianity, Christian Theology, Eastern Christianity, Arab Christianity

Arap Hristiyanlığı: Kısa Bir Tarih

Abstract

Arapça konuşanlar, İncil’in vaazını işiten ilk halklar arasındaydı. Onlar ilk Pentakost’a şahitlik ettiler ve vizyon geçirdikten hemen sonra Arabistan’ı (Bugünkü Ürdün) ziyaret eden havari Pavlus’u işittiler. İslam’ın ortaya çıkışından önce her ne kadar birkaç Arap kabilesi Hıristiyanlığı kabul etmiş ve hiç şüphesiz Arapçayı kendi dini pratiklerinde kullanmış olsalar da Arapçanın Hıristiyan yazınsal dili olarak kullanımı, İslam’ın Ortadoğu’yu fethi ile başladı. On üç yüzyıldan daha fazladır, yedinci yüzyıldan günümüze kadar, büyük ölçüde İslam'ın tanımladığı bir dilde Hıristiyan inancını dile getirme ve ilan etme mücadelesi, Arap topraklarındaki Hıristiyan toplumların özgün karakterlerinin büyük kısmını oluşturdu.

Keywords

Dinler Tarihi, Hıristiyanlık, Hıristiyan Teolojisi, Doğu Hırıstiyanlığı, Arap Hıristiyanlığı

References

• Abullif, W.. “Les sources du Maǧmu’ usul al-din d’al-Mu’taman ibn al-’Assal”. Parole de l’Orient 16 (1990-91), 227-38.
• Abullif, W.. Dirasa ‘an al-Mu’taman ibn al-’Assal wa-kitabihi “Majmu’ usul al-din" wa-tahqiqihi. Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1997.
• Albert, M. vd. Christianismes orientaux: Introduction a l’étude des langues et des littératures. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1993.
• Al-Mu’taman ibn al-‘Assal. Majmu’ usul al-din [Summa dei principi della Religione]. çev. B. Pirone. ed. W. Abullif. Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1998-2002.
• Beaucamp, J. vd. “La persecution des chretiens de Nagran et la chronologie himyarite”. ARAM 11-12 (1999-2000), 15-83.
• Beaumont, M. “Ammar al-Basri on the Incarnation”. Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule: Church Life and Scholarship in ‘Abbasid Iraq. ed. D. Thomas. 55-63. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
• Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch. çev. F. C. Belfour. London: Oriental Translation Fund, 1835-37.
• Bitar, T.. Al-Qiddisun al-mansiyyun fi al-turath al-Antaki. Duma-Lebanon: Manshurat al-Nur, 1995.
• Brock, S.. “From Qatar to Tokyo, by Way of Mar Saba: The Translations of Isaac of Beth Qatraye (Isaac the Syrian)”. ARAM 11-12 (1999-2000), 475-84
• Brock, S.. “Syriac Authors from Beth Qatraye”. ARAM 11-12 (1999-2000), 85-96.
• Bualuan, H.. “Mikha’il Breik, a Chronicler and Historian in 18th Century Bilad al-Šam”. Parole de l’Orient 21 (1996), 257-70.
• Cheikho, L.. Arabic Christian Poets before and after Islam [in Arabic]. Piscataway: NJ: Gorgias Press, 2008.
• Ciggaar, K.-Metcalf, M. (ed.). East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean: Antioch from the Byzantine Reconquest until the End of the Crusader Principality. 1. Cilt. Leuven: Peeters, 2006.
• Coquin, R.-G.. “Arabic Christian Literature”. The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. ed. Andre Vauchez. 1/91-93. Cambridge: J. Clarke & Co., 2000.
• Courbage, Y.-Fargues, P.. Christians and Jews under Islam. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1997.
• Davis, S. J.. “Introducing an Arabic Commentary on the Apocalypse: Ibn Katib Qaysar on Revelation”. Harvard Theological Review 101 (2008), 77-96.
• Dick, I.. Melkites: Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholics of the Patriarchates of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem. Boston: Sophia Press, 2004.
• Djobadze, W.. Archaeological Investigations in the Region West of Antioch on-the-Orontes. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1986.
• Ebied, R. Y.-Teule, H. G. B. (ed.). Studies on the Christian Arabic Heritage in Honour of Father Prof. Dr. Samir Khalil Samir S.I. at the Occasion of his Sixty- Fifth Birthday. Leuven: Peeters, 2004.
• Ebied, R. Y.-Thomas, D. (ed.). Muslim-Christian Polemic during the Crusades: The Letter from the People of Cyprus and Ibn Abi Talib al-Dimashqi’s Response. Leiden: Brill, 2005.
• El Cheikh, N. M.. “The Contribution of Christian Arab Historians to Muslim Historiography on Byzantium”. Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies 1 (1999), 45-60.
• Endress, G.. The Works of Yahya ibn ‘Adi: An Analytical Inventory. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1977.
• Fattal, A.. Le statut légal des non-musulmans en pays d’Islam. Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 2. Baskı, 1995.
• Ferrari, C. (çev. ve ed.). Der Kategorien kommentar von Abu l-Faraǧ‘Abdallah ibn at-Tayyib: Text und Untersuchungen. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
• Fiey, J. M.. Chrétiens syriaques sous les Mongols (Il-Khanat de Perse, XIIIe- XIVe s.). Leuven: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1975.
• Grabar, O.. The Dome of the Rock. Cambridge: MA: Belknap Press, 2006.
• Graf, G.. Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur. 5 cilt. Vatican: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944-1953.
• Graf, G.. Christlicher Orient und schwäbische Heimat: Kleine Schriften, anlässlich des 50. Todestags des Verfassers. ed. H. Kaufhold, Ergon-Verlag in Kommission. 2 cilt. Beirut and Wurzburg, 2005.
• Griffith, S.. “Ammar al-Basri’s Kitab al-burhan: Christian Kalam in the First Abbasid Century”. Le Museon 96 (1983), 145-81.
• Griffith, S.. Arabic Christianity in the Monasteries of Ninth-Century Palestine. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1992.
• Griffith, S.. Syriac Writers on Muslims and the Religious Challenge of Islam. Kottayam: SEERI, 1995.
• Griffith, S.. (çev.). A Treatise on the Veneration of the Holy Icons . . . by Theodore Abu Qurrah. Leuven: Peeters, 1997.
• Griffith, S.. “Melkites,” “Jacobites” and the Christological Controversies in Arabic in Third/Ninth-Century Syria”. Syrian Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years. ed. D. Thomas. 9-55. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
• Griffith, S.. The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic: Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002.
• Griffith, S.. (çev.). Yahya ibn ‘Adi: The Reformation of Morals. Provo: UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002.
• Griffith, S.. ”The Church of Jerusalem and the “Melkites”: The Making of an “Arab Orthodox” Christian Identity in the World of Islam, 750-1050”. Christians and Christianity in the Holy Land. ed. O. Limor -G. G. Stroumsa. 173-202. Turnhout: Brepols, 2006.
• Griffith, S.. ”Christians, Muslims and the Image of the One God: Iconophilia and Iconophobia in the World of Islam in Umayyad and Early Abbasid Times”, Die Welt der Gotterbilder. ed. B. Groneberg-H. Spieckermann. 347-380. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007.
• Griffith, S.. ”Syriacisms in the “Arabic Qur’an”: Who Were Those Who Said “Allah Is Third of Three” according to al-Ma’ida 73?”. A Word Fitly Spoken. ed. M.M. Bar-Asher vd. 83-110. Jerusalem: Mekhon Ben-Tsevi le-heker kehilot Yisra’el ba-Mizrah, 2007.
• Griffith, S.. The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam, NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2008.
• Griffith, S.. ”Hunayn ibn Ishaq and the Kitab adab al-Falasifah: The Pursuit of Wisdom and a Humane Polity in Early Abbasid Baghdad”. Malphono w-Rabo d-Malphone: Studies in Honor of Sebastian P. Brock. ed. G. Kiraz. 135-60. Piscataway: NJ: Gorgias Press, 2008.
• Gutas, D.. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/5th-10th centuries). London: Routledge, 1998.
• Gyekye, K. (çev.). Arabic Logic: Ibn al-Tayyib’s Commentary on Porphyry’s “Eisagoge”. Albany: NY: SUNY Press, 1979.
• Haddad, R.. La Trinité divine chez les théologiens arabes, 750-1050. Paris, Beauchesne, 1985.
• Hage, W.. Das orientalische Christentum. Stuttgart, Kohlhammer, 2007.
• Hainthaler, T.. Christliche Araber vor dem Islam: Verbreitung und konfessionelle Zugehörigkeit. Leuven, Peeters, 2007.
• Hourani, G. G.-Habachi, A. B.. “The Maronite Eremitical Tradition: A Contemporary Revival”. Heythrop Journal 45 (2004), 451-465.
• Hoyland, R.. Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam. Princeton: NJ: Darwin Press, 1997.
• Kaplony, A.. The Haram of Jerusalem, 324-1099. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2002.
• Kassatly, H.. La communauté monastique de Deir el Harf. Balamand-Lebanon: Universite de Balamand, 1996.
• Keating, S. T.. Defending the “People of Truth” in the Early Islamic Period: The Christian Apologies of Abu Ra’itah. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
• Kennedy, H.. Antioch: From Byzantium to Islam and Back Again. The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East, Essay VII. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.
• Kilpatrick, H.. “Journeying towards Modernity: The Safrat al-Batrak Makariyus of Bulus ibn al-Za’im al-Halabi”. Die Welt des Islams 37/2 (1997), 156-77.
• Korobeinikov, D.. “Orthodox Communities in Eastern Anatolia in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, Part I”. Al-Masdq 15/2 (2003), 197-214.
• Korobeinikov, D.. ”Orthodox Communities in Eastern Anatolia in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, Part II”. Al-Masaq 17/1 (2005), 1-29.
• Krivov, V. V.. “Arab-Christians in Antioch in the Tenth-Eleventh Centuries [in Russian]”. Traditions and Heritage of the Christian East. ed. D. E. Afinogenov-A. M. Muraviev. 247-255. Moscow: Indrik, 1996.
• Lamoreaux, J. C. (çev.). Theodore Abu Qurrah. Provo: UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2005.
• Lamoreaux, J. C.-Cairala, C. (ed. ve çev.). “The Life of Timothy of Kakhushta”. Patrologia Orientalis 48/4 (2001). Brepols, Turnhout.
• Leeming, K.. “The Adoption of Arabic as a Liturgical Language by the Palestinian Melkites”. ARAM 15 (2003), 239-46.
• Levy-Rubin, M.. “Arabization and Islamization in the Palestinian Melkite Community during the Early Muslim Period”. Sharing the Sacred. ed. A. Kofsky-G. G. Stroumsa. 149-162. Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben Zvi, 1998.
• MacEvitt, C.. The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
• Matar, N. I. (çev.). In the Lands of the Christians: Arab Travel Writing in the 17th Century. New York: Routledge, 2002.
• Matthew the Poor. Orthodox Prayer Life: The Interior Way. Crestwood: NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1983.
• Matthew the Poor. Communion of Love. Crestwood: NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984.
• Michel, T. F. (çev.). A Muslim Theologian's Response to Christianity: IbnTaymiyya’s al-Jawab al-Sahih. Delmar: NY: Caravan Books, 1984.
• Morony, M.. Iraq after the Muslim Conquest. Piscataway: NJ: Gorgias Press, 2005.
• Morray, D. W.. “The Defences of the Monastery of St Simeon the Younger on Samandag”. Orientalia Christiana Periodica 60 (1994), 619-23.
• Nahas, G. N.. “Le mouvement de la jeunesse Orthodoxe”. Proche-Orient Chretien 43 (1993), 69-81.
• Nasrallah, J.. “Couvents de la Syrie du Nord portant le nom de Siméon”. Syria 49 (1972), 127-159.
• Nasrallah, J.. Histoire du mouvement littéraire dans l’Église melchite du Ve au XXe siècle. 2/2, 3/1, 3/2, 4/1, 4/2 Cilt. Leuven: Peeters, 1983-1989.
• Nasrallah, J.. Histoire du mouvement littéraire dans l’Église melchite du Ve au XXe siècle. ed. R. Haddad. 2/1 Cilt. Damascus: Institut français de Damas, 1996.
• Noble, S.-A. Treiger, “Christian Arabic Theology in Byzantine Antioch: ‘Abdallah ibn al-Fadl al-Antaki and His Discourse on the Holy Trinity”, Le Muséon 124 (2011), 371-417.
• Noble, S.-A. Treiger. The Orthodox Church in the Arab World (700-1700): An Anthology of Sources. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2014.
• O’Mahony, A.. “Coptic Christianity in Modern Egypt”, The Cambridge History of Christianity, Eastern Christianity. ed. M. Angold. 5/488-510. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Osman, G.. “Pre-Islamic Arab Converts to Christianity in Mecca and Medina”. Muslim World 95/1 (2005), 67-80.
• Pacini, A. (ed.). Christian Communities in the Arab Middle East: The Challenge of the Future. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
• Panchenko, K. A.. Blizhnevostochnoe Pravoslavie pod osmanskim vladychestvom: Pervye tri stoletija (1516-1831). Moscow: Indrik, 2012.
• Papaconstantinou, A.. “They Shall Speak the Arabic Language and Take Pride in It: Reconsidering the Fate of Coptic after the Arab Conquest”. Le Museon 120/3-4 (2007), 273-99.
• Pearse, R. (çev.). Agapius of Hierapolis: Universal History. Tertullian Project website: http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/index.htm#Agapius_Universal_History, 2008.
• Perier, A. (ed. ve çev.). Petits traités apologétiques de Yahya Ben ‘Adi. Paris: J. Gabalda and P. Geuthner, 1920.
• Pirone, B. (ed. ve çev.). Leonzio di Damasco: Vita di Santo Stefano Sabaita (725-794). Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1991.
• Polosin, V. V. vd. (ed.). The Arabic Psalter: A Supplement to the Facsimile Edition of Manuscript A187 “The Petersburg Arabic Illuminated Psalter”. St Petersburg: Kvarta, 2005.
• Portillo, R. D.. “The Arabic Life of St. John of Damascus”. Parole de l’Orient 21(1996), 157-188.
• Prawer, J.. “Social Classes in the Crusader States: The “Minorities”, A History of the Crusades, The Impact of the Crusades on the Near East. ed. N. P. Zacour-H. W. Hazard. 5/59-115. Madison: WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.
• Robinson, C. F.. “Waraka b. Nawfal”. Encyclopaedia of Islam. 11/142-143. Leiden: Brill, 2. Baskı, 2000-2002.
• Rubenson, S.. “Translating the Tradition: Some Remarks on the Arabization of the Patristic Heritage in Egypt”. Medieval Encounters 2 (1996), 4-14.
• Samir, S. K.. “Date de la composition de la “Somme theologique” d’al-Mu’taman b. al- Assal”. Orientalia Christiana Periodica 50 (1984), 94-106.
• Samir, S. K.. “Christian Arabic Literature in the ‘Abbasid Period”. Religion, Learning and Science in the ‘Abbasid Period, The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature. ed. M. J. L. Young vd. 446-460. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
• Samir, S. K.. Rôle culturel des chrétiens dans le monde arabe. Beirut: CEDRAC, 2003.
• Samir, S. K.-Nielsen, J. S. (ed.). Christian Arabic Apologetics during the Abbasid Period (750-1258). Leiden: Brill, 1994.
• Sanders, J. C. J. (ed. ve çev.). “Ibn al-Tayyib: Commentaire sur la Génèse”. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 274-75. Scriptores Arabici, 24-25. Leuven: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1967.
• Shahid, I.. The Martyrs of Najran: New Documents. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1971.
• Shoshan, B.. “Waba’ [Plague]”. Encyclopaedia of Islam. 11/2-3. Leiden: Brill, 2. Baskı, 2000-2002.
• Swanson, M. N.. “The Trinity in Christian-Muslim Conversation”. Dialog 44/3 (2005), 256-63.
• Tamari, S.. Miha’il Burayk. Historians of the Ottoman Empire database: http://www.ottomanhistorians.com/database/html/burayk_en.html, 2007.
• Teule, H. G. B.. “Ta’rikh: Christian Arabic Historiography”. Encyclopaedia of Islam. 12/807-809. Leiden: Brill, 2000-2002.
• Teule, H. G. B.-Schepens, V.. “Christian Arabic Bibliography 1990-95”. Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 57 (2005), 129-74.
• Teule, H. G. B.-Schepens, V.. “Christian Arabic Bibliography 1996-2000”. Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 58 (2006), 265-99.
• Teule, H. G. B.-Schepens, V.. “Christian Arabic Bibliography 2001-2005”. Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 62 (2010), 271-302.
• Thomas, D. (ed.). The Bible in Arab Christianity. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
• Thomas, D. “Arab Christianity”. The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity. ed. K. Parry. 1-22. Malden: MA: Blackwell, 2007.
• Thomas, D.. B. Roggema-A. Mallett. Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. 4 Cilt. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009. (Devam ediyor)
• Todt, K.-P.. “Notitia und Diozesen des griechisch-orthodoxen Patriarchates von Antiocheia im 10. und 11. Jh.”. Orthodoxes Forum 9 (1995), 173-85.
• Todt, K.-P.. “Region und griechisch-orthodoxes Patriarchat von Antiocheia in mittel- byzantinischer Zeit”. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 94 (2001), 239-67.
• Todt, K.-P.. “Griechisch-Orthodoxe (Melkitische) Christen im zentralen und südlichen Syrien . . . (635-1365)”. Le Muséon 119/1-2 (2006), 33-88.
• Treiger, A.. “New Evidence on the Arabic Versions of the Corpus Dionysiacum”. Le Museon 118 (2005), 219-40.
• Treiger, A.. “The Arabic Version of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite’s Mystical Theology, Chapter 1”. Le Museon 120 (2007), 365-93.
• Troupeau, G.. “La littérature arabe chrétienne du Xe au XIIe siècle”. Cahiers de civilisation médiévale i4 (1971), 1-19.
• Troupeau, G.. Études sur le christianisme arabe au Moyen Âge. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1995.
• Wasserstein, D. J.. “Why Did Arabic Succeed Where Greek Failed? Language Change in the Near East after Muhammad”. Scripta Classica Israelica 22 (2003), 257-72.
• Wisnovsky, R.. “New Philosophical Texts of Yahya ibn ‘Adi: A Supplement to Endress’ Analytical Inventory”. Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honor of Dimitri Gutas. ed. F. Opwis-D. Reisman. 307-326. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012.
• Yakushev, M. I.. “On the Restoration of the Rule of Arab Patriarchs in the Patriarchate of Antioch [in Russian]”. Lomonosovskie Chtenija, Vostokovedenie. 374-379. Moscow: Akademija Gumanitarnykh Issledovanij, 2006.
• Zaborowski, J. R.. “From Coptic to Arabic in Medieval Egypt”. Medieval Encounters 14/1 (2008), 15-40.
• Zanetti, U.. “Tradition et modernité dans l’Église copte”, Traditions and Heritage of the Christian East. ed. D. E. Afinogenov-A. M. Muraviev. 221-238. Moscow: Indrik, 1996.