In the thirteenth-century, a debate transpired over the course of several days between a monk named Jurjī and several Muslims jurists in the city of Aleppo. This debate represents a careful and sophisticated example of a literary genre that had been developing among the Christians living under Islamic rule since the seventh century. The immense popularity of this work is demonstrated by the sheer volume of surviving manuscripts, which number around hundred. This volume provides a critical edition and translation of the text.
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4394-4
Publication Status: In Print
Publication Date: Feb 28,2022
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 358
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4394-4
In 1216, a group of monks from the monastery of Mār Simᶜān reportedly visited Aleppo to discuss matters concerning their monastery with the governor. During this visit, a venerable member of the monastic community named Jurjī began discussing monastic life with the emir, the governor’s younger brother. Soon, several Muslim jurists joined the gathering. The emir asked them to engage in a religious debate with Jurjī.
In the debate, the jurists question the monk about Christian doctrines and practices. While Jurjī answers their questions, he criticizes Islamic teachings, claims, and figures. He also compares the messages and personalities of Christ and Muḥammad, defends the sacraments of Christianity, and examines the laws and scriptures of the Sabaeans, Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
This religious dispute survived in dozens of manuscripts. It is a wonderful example of a Christian-Arabic genre that describes medieval Christian-Muslim encounters in the caliphal court. Although these debates may have taken place, the surviving texts which describe them should not be viewed as literal recreations of the encounters. Rather, the texts seem to represent experiences and challenges faced by Christians living under Muslim rule. This genre has been popular among Christians for centuries, and the current text appears to be one of its latest developments. In order to create the most accurate representation of Jurjī’s work, this present study scrutinized over a dozen manuscripts, including the oldest extant ones. With this edition and translation, we hope to bring more scholarly attention to this fascinating genre and fantastic debate.
REVIEWS
“The amount of manuscript work Ibrahim and Hackenburg have done is impressive.”
“In the Introduction, Ibrahim and Hackenburg offer some insightful considerations about the purpose of this popular genre among Christians living under Islamic rule that help the reader understand the text at hand.”
“We can only be thankful to Ibrahim and Hackenburg for providing us with a critical edition of [the Arabic text] with a parallel English translation. Their work, which builds on and improves the earlier editions… will certainly make the text more easily available to both specialists and a wider readership. The translation generally succeeds in reproducing the sense of the Arabic text faithfully.”
“Anyone who has tried to translate medieval works of Christian Arabic literature knows how difficult it can be to produce a readable and accurate translation. It is a task that requires much revision and polishing. It is also obvious that there is no way in which a momentous project of the sort undertaken by Ibrahim and Hackenburg could be completely free of errors. All in all, they deserve much recognition for their work on this important text.”
-- Diego SARRIÓ CUCARELLA, Islamochristiana: 48 (2022).
