An Early Syriac Response to the Charge of Taḥrīf in George of Bʿeltan’s Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew
-
Bert Jacobs
Abstract
This contribution studies a hitherto unidentified Syriac response to the Muslim charge of biblical falsification (taḥrīf), found in chapter 49 of the introduction to the Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew by the West Syriac Patriarch George of Bʿeltan (758-89/90). Besides its early date and comprehensiveness, two elements render this brief text unique in Syriac literature. First, it contains among the earliest quotations of the Qur’ān in Syriac, if not the very first. Second, it provides the earliest version of the so-called “True Religion Apology,” a discourse that soon thereafter becomes very popular in Arabic Christian apologetic texts but is much less common in Syriac. Besides introducing this original response to taḥrīf, this contribution provides an edition of the chapter with English translation.
Abstract
This contribution studies a hitherto unidentified Syriac response to the Muslim charge of biblical falsification (taḥrīf), found in chapter 49 of the introduction to the Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew by the West Syriac Patriarch George of Bʿeltan (758-89/90). Besides its early date and comprehensiveness, two elements render this brief text unique in Syriac literature. First, it contains among the earliest quotations of the Qur’ān in Syriac, if not the very first. Second, it provides the earliest version of the so-called “True Religion Apology,” a discourse that soon thereafter becomes very popular in Arabic Christian apologetic texts but is much less common in Syriac. Besides introducing this original response to taḥrīf, this contribution provides an edition of the chapter with English translation.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Abbreviations IX
- Prolegomena to Eastern Christians’ Engagement with Islam and the Qur’ān 1
- An Early Syriac Response to the Charge of Taḥrīf in George of Bʿeltan’s Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 7
- Qur’ānic Letter versus Spirit: Approaches to the Qur’ān in Kitāb Usṭāt al-rāhib and Masāʾil wa-ajwiba ʿaqliyya wa-ilāhiyya 45
- “Becoming All Things to All People”: Positive Readings of Qur’ānic Christianity in Arabic Christian Apologetics 77
- Continuities and Discontinuities in Byzantine Anti-Islamic Polemics from the Seventh to the Thirteenth Century: The Mount Athos, Great Lavra, MS gr. Ω 44 101
- Michael Synkellos and His Lost Refutation of Islam in the Medieval Byzantine-Slavic Literary Tradition 125
- The Qur’ān in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Qur’ān: Textual Connections and Circulation among Muslims and Christians of al-Ḥabasha 153
- The Armenian Confutatio Alcorani and Its Polemical Function for the Armenian Communities in Pre-Modern Iran 173
- Anti-Islamic Polemics, Scholarship and Encyclopedism in the Greek Orthodox World: Nicholas Karatzas and His Summa Saracenica 201
- System and Muhammadan Religion by Sofroniy Vrachanski: The Bulgarian Translation of Dimitrie Cantemir’s Kniga Sistima 251
- Russian Orthodox Qur’ān Translations of the Eighteenth- and Nineteenth Century and Tatar-Muslim Responses 277
- Epilogue: Christian Reading of the Qur’ān in the Islamic World 309
- List of Contributors 317
- Index of Manuscripts and Prints 321
- Index 325
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Abbreviations IX
- Prolegomena to Eastern Christians’ Engagement with Islam and the Qur’ān 1
- An Early Syriac Response to the Charge of Taḥrīf in George of Bʿeltan’s Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 7
- Qur’ānic Letter versus Spirit: Approaches to the Qur’ān in Kitāb Usṭāt al-rāhib and Masāʾil wa-ajwiba ʿaqliyya wa-ilāhiyya 45
- “Becoming All Things to All People”: Positive Readings of Qur’ānic Christianity in Arabic Christian Apologetics 77
- Continuities and Discontinuities in Byzantine Anti-Islamic Polemics from the Seventh to the Thirteenth Century: The Mount Athos, Great Lavra, MS gr. Ω 44 101
- Michael Synkellos and His Lost Refutation of Islam in the Medieval Byzantine-Slavic Literary Tradition 125
- The Qur’ān in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Qur’ān: Textual Connections and Circulation among Muslims and Christians of al-Ḥabasha 153
- The Armenian Confutatio Alcorani and Its Polemical Function for the Armenian Communities in Pre-Modern Iran 173
- Anti-Islamic Polemics, Scholarship and Encyclopedism in the Greek Orthodox World: Nicholas Karatzas and His Summa Saracenica 201
- System and Muhammadan Religion by Sofroniy Vrachanski: The Bulgarian Translation of Dimitrie Cantemir’s Kniga Sistima 251
- Russian Orthodox Qur’ān Translations of the Eighteenth- and Nineteenth Century and Tatar-Muslim Responses 277
- Epilogue: Christian Reading of the Qur’ān in the Islamic World 309
- List of Contributors 317
- Index of Manuscripts and Prints 321
- Index 325
