Showing papers in "Islam and Christian-muslim Relations in 1996"

The Bible in early Muslim anti‐Christian polemic

Abstract: During the early centuries of Islam, the Bible did not usually receive specific attention from Muslim polemicists. Among those who did refer to it, some rejected the text on the grounds that it was corrupt, and developed accounts of how the original injil had been lost and replaced by the canonical Gospels. The majority, however, have left no expressed view, but do not appear to have experienced difficulty in employing suitable verses in their arguments as illustrations and proofs. A few scholars were in a position to use the Biblical texts to good effect in their arguments. The Christian convert cAli b. Rabban al‐Tabari employed a distinctively Muslim method of exegesis, and demonstrated how predictions of the coming of Muhammad and Islam are scattered throughout the biblical books. The Zaydi theologian al‐Qasim ibn Ibrahim al‐Rassi followed a more radical method in translating parts of Matthew's Gospel into Arabic, and altering words and phrases and omitting sections in order to make the origin...

A twelfth‐century Muslim biography of Jesus

Abstract: The biography of Jesus as it appears in Ibn ‘Asakir's Tarikh madinat dimashq comprises material which originated from the Qur'an and from the Bible (the Old and the New Testaments). It also comprises material that is neither qur'anic nor biblical: material reflecting an image of Jesus whom the Sūfi order in the medieval period was using as the prophetic authority for its ascetic teachings, and whose purpose was to make him a prototype of the ascetic (al_zahid). Furthermore, Ibn ‘Asakir, writing at the time of the Crusades, believed in the imminent qiyama of Jesus to lead the Muslims to victory and to defeat the invaders. Ibn ‘Asakir's biography of Jesus reflects the extent to which literature about the earthly career of Jesus had developed in Muslim lore by his time.

In search of another identity : female Muslim-Christian conversions in the Mediterranean world

Abstract: The present study tries to characterize the specificity of female conversion by examining the—mostly unedited—sources kept in the State Archive of Venice, i.e. Inquisition trials, official decrees of the Government of Venice, letters and dispatches from and to the bailo (i.e. the Venetian Ambassador at Constantinople). In the light of these documents, the dimension of women's conversion appears to be more intimate than that of their male counterparts. For instance, being far from the political scene, Christian women did not convert to Islam in search of titles and honours; rather, for some of them, to embrace the Muslim religion meant to try to escape from a grey life and to redeem themselves by settling down in the Ottoman domains. On the other hand, Muslim women's conversions to Christianity were often overcast by the shadow of forced proselytism.

The Quranic context of Muslim biblical scholarship

Abstract: Classical Muslim writing on the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament manifests a continuing tension between two potentially contradictory estimations. Certain verses in the Qur'an charge Jews and Christians with deliberate or inadvertent corruption of their scriptures and persistent misinterpretation of them. Conversely, other qur'anic passages assert the predictive value of these same texts, stimulating Muslim scholars to search biblical sources for the promised attestations. Both incentives to Muslim biblical scholarship have produced, and continue to produce, a diverse body of work and the diametric tension which these works collectively sustain constitutes a central element among those intellectual strategies which secure qur'anic authority.

Islamist depictions of Christianity in the twentieth century: The pluralism debate and the depiction of the other

Abstract: Muslim perception of Christianity has been coloured by references to Jesus and Christianity in the Qur'an and by the great range of historical encounters between members of the two traditions over fourteen centuries. In response to colonialism and Christian missionary activity in Muslim countries, Muslim modernists depicted Christianity as a religion of the sword and cast Islam as a superior system noted for its moderate and pluralistic vision. By the second half of the twentieth century, the challenge of Marxism and Zionism gave credence to the Islamist ideology of the Islamic imperative to eliminate all other systems. Muslim society was depicted as the victim of secular, Christian and Jewish fanaticism that sought to eradicate Islam. During the eighties, a new discourse on the role of religious minorities has developed which sees pluralism as a foundational principle of Islamic society sanctioned by God since it was his will to create difference. The purpose is to promote not discord, but the p...

The Shahrur phenomenon: A liberal Islamic voice from Syria

Abstract: (1996). The Shahrur phenomenon: A liberal Islamic voice from Syria. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations: Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 337-341.

Inter‐confessional relations in nineteenth‐century Syria: Damascus, Homs and Hama compared

Abstract: This article examines relations between Muslims and Christians in Syria during the later Ottoman period in light of social science literature on ethnicity and ethnic conflict. It argues that the social science literature illuminates the historiography of this question by bringing to the fore historians’ underlying assumptions about religion and ethnicity. By comparing three Syrian towns with contrasting histories of inter‐communal relations, the article argues that religious consciousness in Syria ought not to be understood in strictly primordialist terms. Rather, a more circumstantialist approach is needed where specific conditions transform an otherwise unproblematic situation of religious diversity into one of inter‐confessional hatred and strife.

Islamic Daciva and Christian mission: Positive and negative models of interaction between Muslims and Christians

Abstract: The history of relations between the Muslim and Christian worlds has been predominantly one of discord and confrontation. There have been instances of mutual acceptance and amicable co‐existence, but the influence of these has been lost under the cumulative, negative impressions gained from conflict. Of the positive and negative models of interaction between Muslims and Christians, it is the latter that have been most influential. This is especially to be seen in the matter of Islamic dacwa and Christian mission which have become identified as part of the battle between the two religions, whether a theological contest over ‘truth’ or a political weapon of colonial rule. This paper looks at the political and historical contexts of the theological debate between Islam and Christianity and seeks to discover whether this is inherently negative or whether there is the possibility of a positive interaction between followers of the two religions.

Ahl al‐dhimma in an Islamic state: The teaching of Abū al‐Hasan al‐Mawardi's Al‐ahkam al‐sultaniyya

Abstract: The much‐quoted Al‐ahkam al‐sultaniyya of the prominent Shafi'i jurisconsult, Abu l‐Hasan al‐Mawardi (364–450 AH/974–1058 AD), was written primarily to buttress the ‘Abbadsid caliphate which was facing, at the time, challenges to its authority by the competing caliphates of the Fatimids and Umayyads, in Cairo and al‐Andalus respectively, and, at home by the actual usurpation of its power by the Twelver Shi'ite Buwayhids (945–1055 CE). Al‐Mawardi recapitulates Sunni political thought to lend credence to the primacy of the cAbbasid caliphate in Baghdad and its legitimacy. His discussion of the various functions, rights and duties of the caliph included discussion of the rights and obligations of ahl al‐dhimma (Christians and Jews) in the Muslim state which included freedom of worship and protection by the state, in lieu of the obligation of male adults to pay a poll tax (jizya) and land tax (kharaj) by farmers. Al‐Mawardi affirms the obtaining practice that allowed Christians and Jews to attain hig...

Christian‐Muslim theological encounter: The priority of tawhid

Abstract: Both Islam and Christianity are monotheistic faiths, yet the one God proclaimed and worshipped by each appears to be a different deity by virtue of the different conceptual construct that applies in each case. For Islam the defining motif is the idea of tawhld, for Christianity it is the notion of Trinity. In respect to theological dialogue between these two faiths the onus lies with the side holding the more complex construct to relate that back to the simpler and less complex, especially where the simpler motif is deemed to be contained within ike complex. Thus it behoves the Christian side to examine critically the trinitarian and related doctrines concerning the understanding of God, with a view to a clearer restatement of the essential oneness of deity which, after all, is the undergirding conceptual reference. In attempting this task, the ‘problematic of unity’ inherent in the Christian concept of God is addressed and a theological revision is suggested. The intention is to rethink critical...

Yemeni debates on the status of non‐Muslims in Islamic law

Abstract: This essay examines Yemeni legal debates, in the period between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, regarding the status of and relations with non‐Muslims inside and outside the Islamic state. The legal works considered in this paper are written by Zaydi scholars, but they are informed by all other Muslim legal traditions. Studies of the Islamic law of nations and of the dhimma system have traditionally fluctuated between either wholesale condemnation or unqualified apologetic defence. And yet, as the works examined in this essay illustrate, the Islamic legal position on each of the controversial aspects of the laws of non‐Muslims is diverse, and it does not lend itself to essentialist classifications. Moreover, this diversity demonstrates the internal flexibility of the law and its inherent potential for reforming itself.

French Christian narratives concerning Muhammad and the religion of Islam from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries

Abstract: French travellers to Muslim lands in the late middle ages and into the early modem period came for a variety of reasons. They were missionaries and pilgrims, diplomats, merchants and adventurers. Many of them recorded their travels for the edification of their compatriots, often including descriptions of Muslim peoples, their practices and their basic beliefs. The following essay summarizes the reflections of some of these travellers about the life and the character of the Prophet Muhammad, the process of collection and the content of the Qur'an, and Muslim understanding of the nature of Jesus. While generally they share a quite negative assessment of the Prophet and his religion, some reporters evidence an appreciation both of his contributions to religious thought and of the nature and character of the Muslim people whom they met.

The view of Islam from the monasteries of Palestine in the early cAbbasid period: Theodore Abū Qurrah and the Summa theologiae arabica

Abstract: Christians in the Holy Land, and particularly members of the monastic communities in the Judean desert, were the first to compose original works of theology in Arabic. These writers presented the doctrines of the church in an idiom which was calculated to appeal to the understanding of any speaker of Arabic who was familiar with the Qur'an and with the thought of the early Muslim mutakallimin. From these texts there emerges a view of Islam which makes it dear that the writers very much consider themselves to be doing theology in dialogue. The article discusses the earliest Christian apology in Arabic; two works of Theodore Abu Qurrah; an early Summa Theologiae Arabica; and an essay in apologetics, provocatively entitled Kitab al‐burhan.

Aspects of the Sūfism of the Rifaciyya in Bulgaria and Macedonia in the light of the study published by Canon W. H. T. Gairdner in The Moslem World

Abstract: Amongst the major Sufi orders, the Rifaciyya has received less attention than several others. It is only recently that detailed studies of its branches in the Balkans have been published by Alexandre Popovic, Nathalie Clayer and Liliana Masulovic‐Marsol This fact alone makes Canon Gairdner's article on the Rifaci dhikr and the spiritual path (tariq) of the order, which was published in The Moslem World (Vol. 11, 1912, pp. 171–181 and 245–257), an unusually interesting one. This is so, despite the narrowly focused view of the spiritual vision of the order which he obtained from two converted, or Christian‐influenced, Turkish ‘Shaykhs’ from Bulgaria. He met them in Potsdam during those years when he was a ‘wandering scholar’ in Germany (1910–1911) immediately prior to the publication of his translation of al‐Ghazali's, Mishkat al‐anwar in Der Islam in 1914. His information is sparse in regard to factual details about the distribution and the importance of the order in Bulgaria and Macedonia at that...

Secular human rights: Challenge and opportunity to Christians and Muslims∗

Abstract: The principle that all human beings should enjoy equal rights of freedom and participation is a specifically modem idea which initially met with resistance from both Christians and Muslims. Even today Christians and Muslims often have difficulties with recognizing the secularistic features of human rights. The profession of the inalienable dignity of every human person, however, can facilitate a critical reconciliation between the emancipatory ethics of human rights on the one hand and the humanitarian traditions of Christianity and Islam on the other.

The Ottoman approach to Christians and Christianity in sixteenth‐century Jerusalem

Abstract: The Ottoman Empire was a Muslim state not only by definition; in many fields it actually implemented Islamic policies. In Ottoman Palestine these policies could be discerned from the early sixteenth century onwards, and they were applied particularly in Jerusalem. Laden with memories of religious conflicts, encompassing a Christian (as well as Jewish) population and their holy sites, it would hardly be surprising to find anti‐Christian acts and perhaps even policies in Jerusalem. The sixteenth‐century formative Ottoman years witnessed several anti‐Christian incidents: expulsion of the Franciscan monks from their convent on Mount Zion in 1551, Muslim attempts to legally seize parts of the Monastery of the Cross near Jerusalem from the Georgians in the early sixties, and during the same years similar threats to the Coptic Dayr al‐Khadr monastery in town. These incidents should not be construed as part of an overall policy, but should rather be seen as illustrations of pressures exerted on the Ottom...

Inter-religious dialogue between the Vatican and Sudan

Abstract: In the modern world, since the end of the Cold War, it seems that the significance of inter‐religious dialogue between Muslims and Christians is increasing. One of the most interesting cases is that of the Vatican and Sudan. There exists an impression that the inter‐religious dialogue between these two parties is going very well But to what extent is this true? This article attempts to find out the true picture of this dialogue. Although the Sudanese Islamists were initially not so keen on the dialogue, they later became more positive and enthusiastic. The Sudanese have developed a vision in international inter‐religious dialogue, while the Vatican seems to have employed a rather delicate policy towards Sudan.

Reflections by a nineteenth‐century convert to Islam on Judaism and Christianity in Ottoman Jerusalem

Abstract: The Khalidi Library in Jerusalem contains a number of valuable works pertaining to Muslim‐Christian relations during the Ottoman period, and in this paper an effort is made to elucidate one such text, a unique anonymous essay entitled Al‐risala al‐sabiciyya fi ibtal al‐diyana al‐yahūdiyya. As the title suggests, the essay presents itself as a work of a Jewish convert to Islam; pressed to justify what he has done, he gives seven reasons for his conversion, and then lists two sets of seven similarities and differences between Islam and Judaism that have also served to encourage his conversion. In this paper it is argued that the essay is actually the work of a Christian convert, probably one who wrote in Jerusalem in the late nineteenth century. Seeking to justify his conversion, but hesitant to reject openly the central doctrines of Christianity, he pretends to be a Jewish convert and argues for the superior position of Islam among the three monotheistic faiths. This tactic, while uncommon, is kno...

Political implications of the Islamic notion of 'supersession' as reflected in Islamic jurisprudence

Abstract: The paper undertakes to investigate the ways in which the dominant Muslim community regulated legal‐ethical relations with its non‐Muslim minorities. The ideological underpinnings of the Islamic legal tradition in the area of jihad provided legitimacy for the Muslim political domination of the lands and peoples beyond the original boundaries of Islam. The central argument of the paper is that Muslim jurists were involved in the routinization of the qur'anic message about ‘Islam being the only true religion with God’ (Q. 3:19) in the context of the social and political position of the community. The interaction between the idea of Islam being the universal faith for all humankind and the existing predominance of Muslim political power created the specific legal language that provided the justification to extend the notion of jihad beyond its strictly defensive meaning in the Qur'an to its being an offensive instrument for Muslim creation of a dominant political order.