Christianity in the Islamic World

In this edition of Cheikho’s literary survey of Arabic literature of the nineteenth century, the reader will find the Arabic original of Cheikho’s fine text. Difficult to locate outside the Middle East, Gorgias Press is now bringing this uncommon find to Arabists in the western world.

The relationship between early Christianity in Arabia and the development of Islam was a question that absorbed Louis Cheikho’s attention. In this Arabic volume he directly addresses Christianity and Christian literature in Arabia before the rise of Islam.

Consistently referenced as a reliable source on the "Nestorian" missionary movement, this historical account of that movement is a necessary volume for anyone interested in the missionary work of the Eastern Church. Stewart’s engaging account has remained fresh through the years and remains a standard reference on the topic.

Islam and the Muslim world, for missionaries, as of 1916; extensive survey of the subject, notes on missionary strategy and tactics. Extensive bibliographic appendix

The first critical editions and English translations of the two Syriac recensions of a fascinating text which narrates the story of a young Jewish child, Asher. After converting to Christianity and taking the name ʿAḇdā da-Mšiḥā (‘slave of Christ’), he is martyred by his father. In a detailed introduction, Butts and Gross challenge the use of this text by previous scholars as evidence for historical interactions between Jews and Christians, reevaluating its purpose and situating the story in its Late Antique Babylonian context.

An English translation of Arman Akopian's comprehensive Introduction to Aramean and Syriac Studies, from the earliest appearances of Arameans in the historical record, through to the modern day.

A study of the identity-formation process that the Christians of Syria-Palestine experienced during the Umayyad Caliphate. It approaches this subject by using John of Damascus and his writings on Islam as a case-study. This provides an exhaustive study of the available historical data in order to stimulate some further thought on John of Damascus’s theology and legacy from a contextual and intercultural methodology. Such an examination has not yet been pursued in the scholarship of Byzantine Christianity during that era. Proceeding from a centralizing ‘context’, the monograph revisits John of Damascus’s legacy (and the Umayyad Christians’ identity-formation of that era) from the perspective of his historical, Islamic-Arabic context, and not from any assumed, metanarrative, common to contemporary pro-Byzantine theology scholars.

Starting with the biographical story of a 92 year old Chaldean woman from northern Iraq and a biography of a Kurdish Jewish woman now living in Israel, Adelman writes about the history of Christians and Jews in the Middle East. Their languages, dialects of the 3000 year old Aramaic language, are under threat, and their homelands continuously threatened by war.

The History of Mar Behnam and Sarah tells the story of two siblings who convert to Christianity under the tutelage of Mar Mattai, a monastic leader and wonderworker from the Roman Empire. In this volume, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent and Kyle Smith provide the first critical edition and English translation of this fascinating martyrdom narrative.

Moshe Bar Kepha was a prolific writer of the ninth century. His writings reflect various aspects of West Syriac theology and ecclesiology, and his literary legacy links the earlier Syriac exegetical tradition (beginning with Ephrem) with the Syriac 'Renaissance' of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. His use of sources crosses Christian confessional boundaries in such a way that his works are tinged with aspects of Syriac exegesis from both East and West Syriac traditions. In his Commentary on Luke, the Muslim-dominated context in which Moshe lived is clearly evident in the background, and his aim is to fortify the credibility of the Christian faith and the validity of Christian doctrines for his readers.

The proceedings of the fourth PRO ORIENTE Colloquium Syriacum, which focussed on a culture of co-existence in pluralistic societies in the Middle East and in India.

An anthropological study of Syriac Orthodox Christian identity in a time of displacement, upheaval, and conflict. For some Syriac Orthodox Christians in Bethlehem, their self-articulation - the means by which they connect themselves to others, things, places and symbols - is decisively influenced by their eucharistic ritual. This ritual connects being siryāni to a redeemed community or 'body', and derives its identity in large part from the Incarnation of God as an Aramaic-speaking Bethlehemite.

A refereed journal published annually by the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies.

A sourcebook of major Arabic Christian theologians and texts from the 9th-11th centuries. Christian authors who spoke and wrote Arabic had no choice but to engage with Islam and the complex realities of life—initially as a majority, later as a minority—under Muslim rule. They had to express their theology in new ways, polemicize against the claims of a new religion, as well as defend their doctrines against Islam’s challenges.

A new English translation of the two apologetic works by the 9th-century East Syrian theologian ʿAmmār al-Baṣrī. The Book of the Proof and The Book of Questions and Answers were written to defend Christian beliefs in the face of Muslim criticism.

An English translation of the second edition of Peter Kawerau's Die Jakobitische Kirche im Zeitalter der syrischen Renaissance (1960).

A historical study of the Fāṭimid caliphate in Palestine and Egypt during the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries.

In the mid-6th century, Grigor, the general of the Sasanian king’s armies and a converted from Zoroastrianism to Christianity, was put to death. This event brings about the conversion of several Zoroastrian notables such as Yazd-panāh, a judge who also died as a martyr three years later, and the courtier ʿAwira. The reign of King Khusrō I (531–579) was a key-chapter in the history of the Persian Empire, but also for the Church of the East, some members of which were involved in the Sasanian administration. These East-Syrian historical texts, which are among the few passions of this period in Syriac, have received little scholarly attention. This volume offers a critical text and commentary, as well as the first translation into English of these two martyr texts. Written by contemporaries, they provide valuable information regarding socio-religious life and the political context. They demonstrate how Persian Christians, despite sporadic persecution, were able to maintain a distinct identity while simultaneously acculturating to the norms of Iranian society.

A refereed journal published annually by the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies.

A Festschrift for Rifaat Ebied celebrating a lifetime of work in the field of Semitic Studies, in particular Syriac, Christian Arabic, and Mandaic.

An Arabic translation of George Anton Kiraz's 'The Syriac Orthodox in North America (1895–1995)' – a short history of the Syriac Orthodox community in North America between 1895, the year of the First Sayfo that triggered the first wave of immigration to North America, and 1995, marking the passing away of Metropolitan Mor Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, the first and only Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of the United States and Canada.

This volume brings together the texts and translations for three Syriac martyr acts, set in Sasanian Persia during the reign of Shapur II (309-379 CE). These texts offer compelling witness to the challenges of a community’s need to honor memory and experience, and evidence towards the formation and sustenance of Christian identity in the midst of Persian society and culture.

An Arabic translation of George A. Kiraz's engaging first memoir. The story of a young Palestinian boy growing up in Bethlehem, fascinated with understanding his Syriac roots even as he drew steadily nearer to the day when he would inevitably be transplanted to the United States.