Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Epigraph
- Contents
- List of plates
- Editorial preface
- List of abbreviations
- Map Literary, political and religious centres in the ʿAbbasid period
- 1 Sunnī theology
- 2 Shīʿī theological literature
- 3 Ibāḍī theological literature
- 4 Quranic exegesis
- 5 The prose literature of Ṣufism
- 6 Philosophical literature
- 7 Arabic lexicography
- 8 Arabic grammar
- 9 Islamic legal literature
- 10 Administrative literature
- 11 Arabic biographical writing
- 12 History and historians
- 13 Faṭimid history and historians
- 14 Mathematics and applied science
- 15 Astronomy
- 16 Astrology
- 17 Geographical and navigational literature
- 18 The literature of Arabic alchemy
- 19 Arabic medical literature
- 20 Al-Kindī
- 21 Al-Rāzī
- 22 Al-Fārābī
- 23 Ibn Sīnā
- 24 Al-Bīrūnī and the sciences of his time
- 25 Al-Ghazālī
- 26 Christian Arabic literature in the ʿAbbasid period
- 27 Judaeo-Arabic literature
- 28 The translation of Greek materials into Arabic
- 29 Didactic verse
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
26 - Christian Arabic literature in the ʿAbbasid period
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Epigraph
- Contents
- List of plates
- Editorial preface
- List of abbreviations
- Map Literary, political and religious centres in the ʿAbbasid period
- 1 Sunnī theology
- 2 Shīʿī theological literature
- 3 Ibāḍī theological literature
- 4 Quranic exegesis
- 5 The prose literature of Ṣufism
- 6 Philosophical literature
- 7 Arabic lexicography
- 8 Arabic grammar
- 9 Islamic legal literature
- 10 Administrative literature
- 11 Arabic biographical writing
- 12 History and historians
- 13 Faṭimid history and historians
- 14 Mathematics and applied science
- 15 Astronomy
- 16 Astrology
- 17 Geographical and navigational literature
- 18 The literature of Arabic alchemy
- 19 Arabic medical literature
- 20 Al-Kindī
- 21 Al-Rāzī
- 22 Al-Fārābī
- 23 Ibn Sīnā
- 24 Al-Bīrūnī and the sciences of his time
- 25 Al-Ghazālī
- 26 Christian Arabic literature in the ʿAbbasid period
- 27 Judaeo-Arabic literature
- 28 The translation of Greek materials into Arabic
- 29 Didactic verse
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Christian Arabic literature in its widest sense comprises all the writings of Christians whose tongue is Arabic, but here we shall be concerned principally with the religious literature of Arabic-speaking Christians. The Arabization of Christian populations in north Africa and western Asia under the empire of Islam took place over some three centuries, proceeding most rapidly in Syria and Palestine, and being substantially complete in north Africa by the fourth/tenth century.
In spite of Georg Graf's five-volume study, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, Christian Arabic literature is still relatively unknown, and the various relevant publications are scattered. Some forty volumes have been published in the Patrologia Orientalis series (Paris) and in the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (Louvain) together with translations into European languages. More recently, a further ten or so volumes have been brought out in the Patrimoine Arabe Chrétien (Jounieh and Rome). The Bulletin d'Arabe Chrétien (1976–83) attempted to provide an annual bibliography, and from 1987 this task has been assumed by the review Parole de l'Orient (Kaslik, Lebanon).
Rather than follow Graf and classify the various authors in terms of their respective communities a thematic classification has been chosen here. However, given limitations of space, this may run the risk of providing little more than an inventory. The reader will find it easy enough to fill out what is said here by recourse to Graf's Geschichte (or to Nasrallah's Histoire du mouvement littéraire dans l'église melchite in the case of Melkite authors).
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- Religion, Learning and Science in the 'Abbasid Period , pp. 446 - 460Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990
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