Christianity in pre-Islamic Arabia

Last updated

Christianity was a major pre-Islamic Arabian religion and there were significant communities of Arab Christians by the fourth and fifth centuries. Bishoprics were established across Eastern Arabia, North Arabia (especially in Arabia Petraea), and in South Arabia (Najran, and Zafar). [1] [2] [3] Churches, martyria and monasteries were constructed across the peninsula, allowing local leaders to display their benefaction, communicate with locals, and establish contact with Byzantine Christians. [4]

Contents

Christian proselytism also happened throughout the peninsula, especially in its northwest and southwest. [5] Proselytization and missionary activity was driven from the north by Byzantine (especially Syrian) Christians, from the east by Christian Iraqi populations in the Sasanian empire, and from the south by Ethiopian Christians after the Ethiopian conquest of the South Arabian Kingdom of Himyar. [6] [7] Many conversion stories of Arabs are found in Byzantine Christian literature. [8] Early Arabian Christian communities are also known from the Quran and a growing number of early Arabian inscriptions. [9]

North Arabia

Mosaic of Euthymius the Great at Neo Moni of Chios Euthymius the Great (mosaic in Nea Moni).jpg
Mosaic of Euthymius the Great at Neo Moni of Chios

The first accounts of Christians and Christian conversion in Arabia appear in the New Testament in the first century, including in Paul the Apostle's Letter to the Galatians (1:15–17) and the Book of Acts (Acts 2:8, 11). In the mid-third century, Christian institutions organized two church councils, known now as the Councils of Arabia, to condemn the heresy of Beryllus of Bostra, the earliest recorded bishop in the province of Roman Arabia seated in the metropolis Bostra, for believing that both body and soul are lost between death and the Last Judgement (Ecclesiastical History, 6:37). By the fourth century, significant communities of Christians existed among desert Arabs, especially in the Sinai Peninsula and the province of Roman Arabia. [10] Saint Moses, named "Apostle of the Saracens" by the Romans, was a hermit and, at the behest of the Syrian Arab warrior-queen Mawiyya of the Tanukhid tribe, became another one of the first known Arab bishops. [11]

The growth of Christianity among Arabs was fuelled by missionary efforts. Many hagiographical sources record stories of Christian holy men converting groups of Arabs to Christianity. These stories followed a common template: first, an Arabian community interacts with a monk (or other kind of holy man). Shortly afterwards, the community renounces polytheism and idol worship. Finally, a church is built. Missionaries described in these accounts included Ahudemmeh (d. 575), Euthymius the Great (d. 473), Simeon Stylites (died 459), and the events leading to the construction of the shrine of St. Sergius at Resafa patronized by Al-Mundhir III, leader of the Ghassanid tribe. [4]

Jerome (in the Life of St Hilarion 16.1–12) says that Saint Hilarion converted the Arabs of Elusa, a city located southwest of the Dead Sea, who worshipped the goddess Venus. After exorcising demons from many of their members, they flocked to him and ask for his blessing. Idol worship ended and Hilarion helped them lay the plan for building a church before his departure. [12] The Life of Euthymius by Cyril of Scythopolis says that Euthymius the Great, the abbot of Israel, was approached by an Arab of the Persian army, Aspebetos, to cure his sons sickness. When Euthymius did this, Aspebetos converted and defected to the Romans along with the rest of his clan. [13] Another figure, Ahudemmeh, was said to "visit all the camps of the Arabs, instructing and teaching them in many sermons .... establishing in every tribe a priest and a deacon ... and founding churches and naming them after tribal chiefs." [14]

A number of known tribal conversions to Christianity happened from the fourth to sixth centuries, including of the then-dominant Byzantine foederati , the Salihids, around 400 (following the decision of their leader Zokomos), [15] the Ghassanids at the beginning of the reign of their leader Al-Harith ibn Jabalah (r. 528–569), [16] and the Lakhmids during the reign of their final king of the Nasrid dynasty, Al-Nu'man III, in the late 6th century. [17] [18] There is also some evidence that the Taghlib and Tanūkhid tribes had converted. [19]

The Ghassanid Kingdom (220–638 AD)
New Ghassanid Banner.png
The war banner of the Ghassanids, bearing the picture of Saint Sergius
Ghassanid Kingdom Map.svg
Map of the Ghassanid Kingdom under al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith

Arab kings became involved in imperial church affairs and in theological debates, and helped organize meetings between members at the highest authorities in the churches of the empire. [20] The most important of these were the Ghassanids, who controlled a kingdom in the Levant and in northern Arabia. John of Ephesus describes the convert king, al-Harith, as helping appoint bishops and exercising authority in the "southern and [eastern] countries and in the whole of the desert and in Arabia [ Petraea] and Palestine". [16] The Ghassanids became leading patrons of the Miaphysites and sponsored the martyr cult of St Sergius, popular among Arabs. [21] Mutually, the Miaphysites sent missionaries into Arabia. [22] Epigraphic evidence suggests they sponsored multiple Christian sites, including the shrine of St Sergius, a basilica in al-Ruṣāfa, and a three-church complex in Nitl (near Madaba). The Ghassanids are also linked to three Christian Paleo-Arabic inscriptions from Syria, including the Jebel Usays inscription, the Harran inscription, and the Zabad inscription. The Zabad inscription was found at a martyrium at the Church of St. Sergius. [23] Other inscriptions at martyria mention more sponsors with Arab names. [24]

Around the year 569 or 570, Al-Harith ibn Jabalah convened a conference in the province of Roman Arabia towards resolving a theological debate at the time. A letter from the conference has survived, known as the Letter of the Archimandrites (preserved in the Documenta Monophysitarum), and it contains the signatures of the representatives (being the Archimandrite) of 137 different monasteries, indicating a widespread systematic presence of Christians in Roman Arabia, territorially centered in modern-day Jordan and adjacent regions. [25]

A growing amount of archaeological evidence for Christians in the region is known. A monastery from northwest Arabia has been identified in the Tabuk region of Saudi Arabia, dedicated to Saint Thecla, a disciple of Paul the Apostle. The monastery might have been established at the eve of Islam. Its presence in the arid desert indicates that some nomadic Arab tribes had converted by that time. [26] [1] A growing number of Christian inscriptions in the area are also known, especially in the Paleo-Arabic script, such as the Jebel Usays inscription, Harran inscription, Zabad inscription, and the Umm al-Jimal inscription. The Umm al-Jimal inscription was discovered in the northern part of the Double Church at Umm al-Jimal. [27] In 2021, the first Christian Safaitic inscription, dating to the fourth century, was found, invoking the aid of Jesus to cure the maternal uncle of the author. The text calls Jesus ʿĪsâ, the earliest use of this grammatical form before the Quran. [28]

South Arabia

Christianity was introduced into South Arabia in the 4th century. Towards the end of the 5th century, Christianity's presence was strong enough that the Synodicon orientale says that a "Moses of Himyar" attended a synod in 486 AD. [29] During he 6th century, bishoprics are described in the capital Zafar (Gregentios), Najran, and Qana'. It was also in this period that the Christian community of Najran faced severe persecution, precipitating an invasion by the nearby Christian Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum, leading to official Christian rule for decades. [30]

Early missionary efforts

According to the Greek historian Philostorgius (d. 439) in his Ecclesiastical History 3.4, Constantius II, the successor of Constantine the Great, sent an Arian bishop known as Theophilus the Indian (also known as "Theophilus of Yemen") to Tharan Yuhanim, then the king of the South Arabian Himyarite Kingdom to convert the people to Christianity. According to the report, Theophilus succeeded in establishing three churches, one of them in the capital Zafar. [31] From the fifth and sixth centuries, the Miaphysite church displayed a significant interest in expanding missionary activity in the Himyarite Kingdom. [22]

Najran

Christianity may have been introduced into Najran in the fifth century, plausibly through trade routes. Several late sources suggest different beginnings for the Christianity of Najran. According to the Chronicle of Seert, Christianity was introduced into the area around 450 when a Christian merchant from the city named Hannan travelled to Constantinople, and then Al-Hira, where he converted and was baptised. Upon returning to Najran, he began sharing his faith with others and other members of the community also began to convert. Ibn Ishaq offers a different story: a Christian Syrian named Fimiyyun ended up as a slave in Najran. His manner of praying shocked the Najran community, leading to a mass conversion. Other versions of the story also permeated the Arab-Islamic tradition, some focusing on the miracles of a man named Abdallah ibn Tahmir that Fimiyyun was ministering to, and another centered on a secret conversion of a Himyarite king. Though the details about Christianity's introduction into the area cannot be recovered, an involvement of the trade routes of Al-Hira are possible. Several explicitly Christian inscriptions are known from the Hima Paleo-Arabic inscriptions, located at a site near Najran, with the texts dates covering the late fourth to early fifth centuries. [32] Many of these contain Christian iconography, including large and ornate crosses, establishing a notable Christian community in the region which had produced them. For example, Ḥimà-al-Musammāt PalAr 5 contains a cross and describes a figure named "῾Abd al-Masīḥ" ("the servant of Christ"). [33] [34] A Greek inscription, likely Christian, has been found north of Najran which reads "Lord, protect me." [35]

The Christian community of Najran experienced waves of persecution before the massacre of the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas, likely beginning around 470. [36] The Martyrdom of Azqir reports that Najran's first priest, Azqir, was transferred to the Himyarite capital Zafar where he was beheaded on the advice of a group of rabbis to create an example against introducing a new religion into the region. The first bishop of Najran, named Paul, was stoned to death sometime afterwards but before 500. Ethiopian sources describe a persecution of Najran's Christians during the reign of the Himyarite king Sharhabil Yakkuf (468–480 AD). Later, the Syriac poet Jacob of Serugh wrote a letter of consolation to the Christian community of Najran (his Letter to the Himyarites ), sometime before his death in 521, indicating another wave of persecution prior to the massacre of 523. Finally, the Book of the Himyarites says that an (unidentified) bishop named Thomas appealed to the aid of the Kingdom of Aksum in the face of the Himyarite persecution of the Najran Christians. [37] [38]

Beginning in 522, the Jewish king Dhū Nuwās initiated a series of campaigns against Christians in South Arabia, including Himyarite locals and Aksumites in the region. The massacre is also recounted in a celebratory manner in an inscription (Ja 1028) commissioned by one of the army commanders of Dhu Nuwas. [39] According to his inscriptions, Dhu Nuwas himself captured and burned down the churches of the cities of Zafar and Al-Mukāʾ. Then, three inscriptions (Ja 1028, Ry 507, and Ry 508 [40] ) describe the campaigns of Sharahil Yaqbul dhu-Yazan against Najran (despatched by Dhu Nuwas) and the ensuing massacre. According to these inscriptions, Sharahil "positioned himself against Najran" (laying it to siege). He blocked the Najran's caravan route to the northeast that would have led to both Qaryat al-Faw and eastern Arabia to put economic pressure on the city. After a thirteen month long siege, Sharahil captured Najran, which resulted in a large plunder of the area and a stated execution of 12,500 people from the city. [41] [42] Part of the success of the capture involved, according to Simeon's letters, an offer made by Dhu Nuwas that relinquishing control of the area would result in guarantees for the safety of the Christians, which Dhu Nuwas was said to have sworn an oath over, on a Torah scroll, and in the presence of several rabbis. However, Dhu Nuwas broke his promise, and the massacre ensued. The massacre became a moment of international outrage among Christians, with Syriac authors writing many works about the massacre of the Christian community of Najran, including the Book of Himyarites and Simeon's Letter on the Himyarite Martyrs. [41] [43] There is also the Greek Martyrdom of Arethas. [44] A particular moment of outrage, according to Simeon's letters, was how Dhu Nuwas ordered the bones of Najran's bishops to be exhumed, collected in a church, and then burned up there alongside other Christian laity and clerics. [45]

Ruins of the Kaaba of Najran near the ruins of Al-Okhdood Ancient site of al-Ukhdud, Najran, Saudi Arabia (52).jpg
Ruins of the Kaaba of Najran near the ruins of Al-Okhdood

At Najran, Christians built churches, monasteries, and martyria. In the aftermath of the massacre, the Ḥārith ibn Kaʿb clan of the Christian community built a martyrium dedicated to the martyred Christians known as the Kaaba of Najran, one of several pre-Islamic Arabian Kaabas. This Kaaba became a point of pilgrimage, and its custodians were from Banū ʿAbd al-Madān, the chief clan of the tribe of Balḥārith. As such, Najran became one of the holy cities of Eastern Christianity. The Kaaba may also be identical to another martyrium described in the city, the Martyry of Arethas, constructed around 520. [46] [47] In addition to the Kaaba Najran, three churches from Najran are known: the Church of the Ascension of Christ, the Church of the Holy Martyrs and the Glorious Arethas, and the Church of the Holy Mother of God. [48] Monasticism (involving monks and monasteries) is also documented. [49]

Najran was the only episcopal see in the Arabian Peninsula apart from those in Eastern Arabia. [2] The first bishops of Najran are mentioned by the letter written in 524 of Simeon, the bishop of Beth Arsham. According to Simeon, Philoxenus of Mabbug consecrated two bishops, both called Mar Pawlos (Paul). Both died during the massacre, the first during the siege of Zafar, and the second in Najran before its final surrender to Dhu Nuwas. [50] The consecration being done by Philoxenus, a leading member of the Syrian Orthodox Church, indicates a Miaphysite, non-Chalcedonian Christianity at Najran. [51] [52] Other bishops are mentioned in Islamic sources, including the legendary Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi, a contemporary of Muhammad. [53] Bishops are attested for Najran into the Islamic era, up until the 9th and 10th centuries. [46]

The Christian community of Najran was also linked with Syriac Christianity and some of the clerics located at Najran were trained in Syriac monasteries. [54] This link is also indicated by a letter sent to the Christians of the city by the Syriac poet and bishop, Jacob of Serugh. [55]

Two strands of the Islamic tradition commented on Christian community of Najran: those sources commenting on the Quranic story of the People of the Ditch, believed by many to be about the massacre of Najran's Christians, and South Arabian Muslims with an antiquarian interest in the regions pre-Islamic history. [56] [57] [58]

Christianity survived in Najran into the Islamic period. Muhammad is said to have sent a delegation to the Najrani Christian community, and there is a fable claiming that the Christians of Najran were expelled by the caliph Umar. According to the traveler Ibn al-Mujawir (d. 1292), Christianity survived in Najran until the 13th century. [59]

Socotra

Christianity was introduced into the Yemeni island of Socotra in the 5th century. A travel report from around 518 AD of Cosmas Indicopleustes says that Socotra had a "multitude of Christians", as well as clerics appointed from Persia (likely of Nestorian background). According to Portuguese sources, a vestigial form of Christianity may have been practiced on Socotra as late as the 16th century. Christianity's introduction may have been facilitated by Greek-speaking communities on the island, which Yaqut al-Hamawi says were the first to embrace Christianity, and some place names on the island have been suggested to be related to the Greek word for "cathedral". According to Al-Hamdani, a Sasanian emperor expelled a Greek community on the island, which later (along with members of Mahri tribes on the mainland) embraced Christianity. Christian material culture has been found on the island, including crosses in Socotran rock art from multiple sites, a church that has been dated between the 7th and 10th centuries, and pottery vessels at burial sites decorated with crosses. [60]

Christianity as the official religion

The massacre of the Christian community of Najran precipitated an invasion by the nearby Christian kingdom in Ethiopia, leading to the conquest of Himyar in 525 and the end of the Jewish leadership of southern Arabia and the beginning of Christian rule. [61] Sumyafa Ashwa came into power, but he was soon overthrown by his rival Abraha, initiating a period of Ethiopian Christian rule over southern Arabia in 530. [62] Historians continue to debate the relative role of religion in the decision to invade South Arabia, as to whether it was the main cause (responding to local aggression against Christians) or whether it was used to legitimate an invasion whose motives were more rooted in material and political incentives. [63]

Christianity became the official religion of South Arabia after the Aksumite conquests [64] and several churches were built. [65] A church being built off the coast of Yemen is mentioned in RIÉ 191, and the Marib Dam inscription mentions a priest, a monastery, and its abbot. [66]

Continuing with the Jewish period, Christian inscriptions call God Rahmanan. They also have crosses and references to Christ as the Messiah and to the Holy Spirit. CIH 541 mentions Abraha sponsoring a church for Marib, describes celebrations hosted by a priest at another church, and invokes the Messiah and the Spirit. Abraha celebrated the construction of the dam by holding mass in the city church and inviting ambassadors from Rome and Persia. Later Islamic historiography also ascribes to Abraha the construction of a church at Sanaa. Christian J. Robin argues Abraha's inscriptions bear a relatively low Christology, perhaps to assuage the Jewish population, with formula resembling descriptions of Jesus in the Quran. Whereas Abraha's predecessor Kaleb of Axum explicitly calls Jesus the Son of Rahmanan and "Victor", and used Trinitarian formulae, Abraha only called Jesus the "Messiah" (not Son). [67] Shoemaker argues that it is doubtful that Himyarite Christians would have not accepted Jesus' Sonship, as no such form of Christianity from these centuries is known, and that the small number of inscriptions mean that more explicit inscriptions may just not have been found. [68]

Abraha severed ties between the Himyarite and Ethiopian churches, realigning himself with the Syriac Christianity centred at Syria and Antioch. Religious terminology from Ethiopian loanwords were systematically replaced with Syriac equivalents, including the words for Messiah, church, and priest. [69] [1] Because of Abraha's conquests, Abraha's influence may have extended to eastern Arabia, central Arabia, and western Arabia (the Hejaz), including his capture of Medina. [70]

Some South Arabian inscriptions are influenced by the Bible. The Jabal Dabub inscription contains a pre-Islamic variant of the Basmala and has been argued by Ahmad Al-Jallad to rephrase parts of Psalm 90 and Psalm 123. [71] Several inscriptions found in South Arabia, written in the Ge'ez script from the time of Kaleb of Axum, quote the Book of Isaiah, Psalms, Gospel of Matthew, and less certainly, the Book of Genesis. [63]

Inscriptions from South Arabia disappear after 560. [69]

East Arabia and Gulf Coast

Jubail Church in eastern Saudi Arabia. The 4th century remains are thought to be one of the oldest surviving church buildings in the world. Jubail Church.jpg
Jubail Church in eastern Saudi Arabia. The 4th century remains are thought to be one of the oldest surviving church buildings in the world.

Christianity was present on the Eastern coast of the Arabian peninsula by the late fourth century. By the fifth century, East Arabian Christian communities organized and had monks and bishops, and the Christian community in the region begins appearing in many records. The principal literary sources are the international Christian synods compiled in the Synodicon Orientale, the letters of Ishoyahb III, and an anonymous Syriac chronicle from the 660s. [72] [73] [74]

Four monasteries have been discovered in the area. The most famous is the Church of the East monastery on Sir Bani Yas, but there are also monasteries at Kharg Island, al‐Quṣūr (in Failaka Island), [75] [76] [77] [78] and Siniyah Island. [79] [80] Monasteries were centers of Christian scholarship, intellectual activity, and theology. The province of Beth Qatraye, where the Sir Bani Yas monastery is located, is notable for the number of Christian authors it produced with surviving writings into the present, including: Dadisho Qatraya, Isaac of Qatar, Gabriel of Qatar, Gabriel Arya, Abraham Qatraya, Ahob Qatraya, and an anonymous translator of Simeon of Rev Ardashir. [81]

Eastern Arabia had long been controlled by the Lakhmid kingdom. The final Lakhmid king, Al-Nu'man III, converted to Christianity, briefly introducing Christian rule into the area. Earlier, the Hujrid princess Hind of the Kingdom of Kinda married the Lakhmid king Al-Mundhir III. She converted to Christianity and even built a monastery in the Lakhmid capital, Al-Hira. [82] She also may have sponsored Christian monasteries and activities in Eastern Arabia. [83]

Qatar

The Chronicle of Arbela, which appears to date to the sixth century, claims that a bishopric already existed in Beth Qatraye (Syriac-originating term for "territory of the Qataris") around the year 225. However, this is unlikely and the document is considered a forgery by modern specialists. [84]

The first concrete evidence of a highly organized Christian presence in the region of modern-day Qatar is in the description of the synods held at Seleucia-Ctesiphon between 410 and 776, as documented in the eighth-century Synodicon Orientale. The signatory Qatari bishop of this synod was stated to have replaced an earlier bishop, pushing back the date of organized Christianity in this region to the late fourth century. The Synodicon shows that four dioceses existed in the region connected to Persia. The earliest and largest of these dioceses was Mashmahig mentioned at the 410 synod, led by the bishop Elijah (Elias). The last known "bishop and metropolitan of the land of Qaṭar" was named Thomas, who signed his name on the synod in 676. The second largest diocese, Darain was located on the island of Toduro (modern Tarout Island) and was founded during the 410 synod. It was led by the bishop Paul. The third diocese, Hajar, was founded during the Synod of 576 under Bishop Isaac. The 676 synod divided it into two, the Hajar and Hatta dioceses. During this event, Hatta became the fourth and last diocese to be founded in Qatar. Later, Isaac the Syrian (613–700), also known as Isaac of Qatar, would grow up in Qatar before he was ordained and became a monk in Iraq. Other prominent Qatari Christians born in the pre-Islamic period include Gabriel of Qatar, Abraham bar Lipeh, and Ahob of Qatar. [85] [86] [87]

Other literary accounts mention additional monasteries. For example, according to the Life of Jonah, a monastery was constructed on the Black Island between 343–346. [8]

Several Christian sites have been discovered in Qatar and other Gulf countries in recent decades, and they have been dated between the sixth to ninth centuries. Unfortunately, the lack of inscriptions to accompany these discoveries have presented difficulties in dating their remains. [85] [75]

Eastern Saudi Arabia

Discovered in 1986, the Jubail Church is a church found near Jubail in northeastern Arabia and on the Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia. [88] Discoveries of Christian sites have also been made at Jubayl, Thaj, and finally Kilwa, the latter being the only Christian site discovered in eastern Arabia that is not either on an island or directly on the coast. [89] Although some have dated it to the fourth century, more recently, it has been redated to the mid-7th century. [75]

Other Gulf countries

Several additional archaeological findings have been made elsewhere in the Gulf countries. [90] [89] [91] In Oman, a diocese was established by the name of Bet-Mazunaye in the Synod of 424 under the Bishop John. It was mentioned again at the synods of 544, 576, and 767. In the mid-seventh century, the Patriarch of the Church of the East, Isho'yahb, sent a letter to Qataris wherein he described the presence of several faithful communities, including Talun, which is a now an island of Bahrain. [85] The philologist Al-Asmaʿi reported while discussing a figure named Ibn Yāmin, that the people of Yāmin were Christians in Bahrain. This accords with the Jewish or Christian etymology of their name, related to Hebrew Bīnyāmīn or Benjamin, "son of the right side." [92]

A monastery has been discovered at Sir Bani Yas, an island in the United Arab Emirates. It contains decorative motifs that resemble ones known from Al-Hira in Iraq. [93] [94] Even more impressive is a monastery discovered in al-Quṣur in Failaka Island in Kuwait. A monastery has also been discovered at the Kharg Island in Iran, located 40 km offshore from Bahrain. [85] [95]

The dating of these archaeological sites is contentious. The new dating suggests their construction in the Islamic era, [75] although this view does not presently have unanimous support. [89]

West Arabia

Western Arabia is not mentioned in typical Christian sources, [96] leading some to question a Christian presence in the region. [97] [98] [99] However, sitting between two regions with major Christian populations (to the north, the Transjordan, and to the south, Himyar), and given the mobility of Arab troops, tribes, and elites, it is highly likely that Christians passed through the area. [100] [101]

A native Christian presence in the Hejaz has been recently established by the discovery of pre-Islamic Hejazi inscriptions and a monastery. The Dumat al-Jandal inscription from the Al-Jawf Province bears a cross and uses the divine epithet al-ilāh, an uncontracted form of allāh originating among Arabian Christians. [102] A second Christian inscription from the same area has now been found. [103] Several Greek inscriptions from ʿArniyyāt and Umm Jadhāyidh (northwest of Hegra (Mada'in Salih) in Saudi Arabia) are also Christian, shown by the crosses and Christian names written on them. [104] [105] Some areas, like Mecca and Medina, have not been excavated, and so have no data to investigate Christianity in the area. [106] Recently, a monastery was discovered at Kilwa, northeast of Tabuk. [26] Saba Fares believes that the Kilwa monastery was run by Syrian Christians. [107]

The commonness of Christianity among the pre-Islamic poets is debated. [108] According to Islamic tradition, one poet and bishop of Najran, Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi, was said to have had the young Muhammad listening to his sermons in the market-place of Ukaz near Mecca. [53] Al-Nabigha, a Hejazi with unclear religious convictions, praised his patrons (the Ghassanids) as pious Christians [109] and likened some kings to the leadership of Solomon. [110]

The Quran, the only literary source from the turn of the pre-Islamic era, documents a local Christian presence. [111] [112] The Quran mentions Christian groups and beliefs [113] as well as Christian institutions and their clergy like monasteries, priests, and overseers. [114]

Islamic tradition

Generally, Islamic tradition does not recognize the Christian history in Arabia, but there were exceptions. For example, Al-Ya'qubi wrote: [115]

The Arab tribes that became Christian included some of the Quraysh, from the Banū Asad b. ʿAbd al‐ʿUzzā, one of whom was ʿUthmān b. al‐Ḥuwayrith b. Asad b. ʿAbdal‐ʿUzzā and another of whom was Waraqa b. Nawfal b. Asad. From the Banū Tamīm there were the Banū Imruʾ al‐Qays b. Zayd Manāt. From the Rabīʿa there were the Banū Taghlib. From the Yemen [that is, Yaman, the ‘southern’ Arab tribes, most of whom did not live in Yemen] there were the Ṭayyiʾ, Madhḥij, Bahrāʾ, Salīḥ, Tanūkh, Ghassān, and Lakhm.

According to Irfan Shahid, Islamic sources provide strong evidence for the Christianization of Mecca. Places with Christian names in or near Mecca are named, like the "cemetery of the Christians" (maqbarat al-Naṣārā), "the oratories of Mary" (masājid Maryam) and "the station of the Christian" (mawqif al-Naṣrānī). Tradition mentions Christian ascetics and monks that Muhammad interacted with, including Bahira, Waraqah ibn Nawfal, and Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi. Shahid shows that tradition often mentions Ethiopians in the biography of Muhammad. Combined with the conversion of Ethiopia's Kingdom of Aksum to Christianity in the fourth century, Shahid deduces that these historical personages were likely Christian. Many Ethiopic loanwords appear in the Quran. [116]

6th century Byzantine mosaic of the enthroned Theotokos on the north wall of the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo Mary, mother of Jesus on the throne.jpg
6th century Byzantine mosaic of the enthroned Theotokos on the north wall of the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo

Some Islamic sources say that the Kaaba housed icons of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Al-Azraqi mentions such a report through an isnad going back to Ata ibn Abi Rabah: [117]

I have heard that there was set up in al-Bayt (the Kaaba) a picture (timthāl) of Maryam and ʿIsa. ['Ata'] said: "Yes, there was set in it a picture of Maryam adorned (muzawwaqan); in her lap, her son ʿIsa sat adorned."

The description implies that Jesus was seated in Mary's lap, implying that it depicted the Christ Child, or Jesus when he was a baby. Jesus being seated in her lap also suggests Mary was in a seated position. This description therefore corresponds to widespread Christian imagery and iconography of the child Jesus being seated in the lap of the Virgin Mary. [117]

Architecture

Remains of the Al-Qalis Church in 1942 Kaaba Abraha 1942.jpg
Remains of the Al-Qalis Church in 1942

In South Arabia, according to the Philostorgius (d. 439), Constantius II sent the bishop Theophilus the Indian on a missionary effort to South Arabia in the mid-4th century AD. While he did not convert the ruler, Tharan Yuhanim, he was said to have succeeded in building three churches in Zafar (the capital), Aden, and Qani'. However, archaeological evidence for Christianity in South Arabia is absent before the late fifth century. The next time churches are mentioned in the region, is from local inscriptions, describing several being burned (including at Zafar, Mokha, and Najran) during the persecution of Himyarite Christians by the king Dhu Nuwas in the early 520s. The massacre of the Christians of Najran resulted in an invasion of Himyar by the nearby Kingdom of Aksum, ruled by Ethiopian Christians. The invasion was a success, and resulted in Christian rulers being installed over the region. The first of these, Kaleb of Axum, built three churches in Zafar. His successor, Abraha, built and consecrated numerous churches, including in Marib and Hamer. One later source, the Islamic author Al-Azraqi in the 9th century, says that a cathedral was built in Sanaa, and offers a detailed description of it. The bones of Christian martyrs from Najran or Zafar were placed into it, leading it to become a holy Christian pilgrimage site. Sanaa also saw the construction of the Al-Qalis Church. [118]

Irfan Shahid has used literary sources (the Book of the Himyarites , the Martyrdom of Arethas , and the Vita Gregentii) to establish a tentative ecclesiastical map across South Arabia based on comments and lists that Shahid believes can be reliably accepted. Shahid points to a comment in the Book which indicates that there were many churches, widely dispersed in the area, beginning in the time of Kaleb of Aksum, when a new phase of Christian architecture was introduced into the region: the king "built many churches in the land, and appointed in them priests from those who were with him...and left notables of the Abyssinians to guard...also the churches that he had built". In the Vita, three churches are named at Zafar, the capital of Himyar: the Great Church of the Holy Trinity; the Church of the Holy Mother of God; and the Church of the Holy Apostles. Shahid has argued that one of these Zafar churches may have survived from the fourth until sixth centuries. Three churches are named for Najran: the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Life-giving Resurrection, the Church of the Holy Mother of God, and the Church of the Holy Martyrs and the Glorious Arethas. Of these, the Church of the Resurrection is likely to have been the principal church of Najran, because it is linked to an extensive ecclesiastical hierarchy including archprebysters, archdeacons, and archsubdeacons. Three are named at Qana', the main seaport of South Arabia: the Church of the Ascension; the Church of John, the Forerunner; and the Church of the Apostle Thomas. All of these churches are said to have been built by Kaleb. The number of churches, three in each of South Arabia's Christian centers and nine in all, may reflect a pattern in Kaleb's energetic efforts to ensure the Christianization of the kingdom. [119]

At the center of pilgrimage in the city of Najran was the Kaaba of Najran, first mentioned in the pre-Islamic poetry of Al-A'sha. Some have suggested that it was the same building as the Martyrium of Arethas mentioned in literary sources. The Kaaba was built by the Harith ibn Ka'b clan. It was a qubba (domed building), enclosed by the river Nuhairdan. According to Yaqut al-Hamawi, feasts were celebrated outside of the Kaaba's walls with singing, flowers, and drinking. Bakri says that the Kaaba was rectangular and accessible by a staircase. Ibn Al-Kalbi says it was surmounted by a dome made of hides, whose construction may be analogous to the dome of Debre Dammo in Ethiopia. The dome is painted with the figures of saints gazing down from the heavens. The walls are covered with mosaics and the ceiling with gold, indicating a gilded coffered ceiling. The facade of the church is said to have been clad with marble panels like in the famous Ghumdan Palace in Sanaa. [120]

Multiple churches are mentioned in the Eastern Arabian or Gulf region, including the Jubail Church, and churches in Thaj and Failaka Island. A large Christian cemetery has been found at al-Hinna. The Jubail Church had a rectangular plan about 15–20m2 and a chancel with pastophoria. Round supports on the wide walls probably helped carry a vault. The only decoration still visible are vine scrolls at the springing of the vault and crosses engraved into the pillars of the chancel area. Other churches, monasteries, and cathedrals likely also existed, given that multiple bishoprics are known to have been established across Eastern Arabia. The church at the Failaka Island was modelled off of church architecture from Mesopotamia, The building is 35 x 9 m, with a narthex, a wide central nave, and side aisles only connected to the nave through narrow arcades. The vaulted chancel was enclosed by a blank wall. [121] [122]

A convent in al-Hira was founded by the Christian Princess Hind (who was married to the Lakhmid al-Mundhir III). Monasteries are attested for Kilwa (in the northern Hijaz), Midyan, in the Wadi al-Qura, and in the northern Hijaz. [123]

Bishops and priests

Offices of bishops were established across the Arabian Peninsula between the third and sixth centuries, including in the province of Roman Arabia as early as the third century, [10] across Eastern Arabia by the fifth century, [85] [10] [124] and across multiple major cities in South Arabia by the late fifth and the sixth century. [30]

Byzantine Christians made special recognition of the bishops of the Arab peoples and an emphasis on reaching out to them to bring them into the religion. Bishops to the Arabs were called "bishops of the parembolai" in Greek, and "bishops of the ʿammē" in Syriac (equivalent to umam in Arabic, meaning "nations"). Theodoret of Cyrrhus urged Christians to learn the languages of these peoples in order to share Christianity with them. [125]

Languages

Syriac

The Syriac language was one of the main languages used to connect Byzantine with Arab Christians. There was a special Syriac term, "bishops of the ʿammē" (nations), used for bishops sent out to, and among, the Arab peoples. [125]

Many major figures of the Syriac Miaphysite Church, including Jacob of Serugh, Philoxenus of Mabbug, and Simeon of Beth Arsham, acted as diplomats with communities of Arab Christians, and sent letters, in Syriac, to these communities, such as Jacob's Letter to the Himyarites. One major Lakhmid general, Abu Ya'fur ibn Alqama, consulted advice from and received multiple letters back from Philoxenus over major theological controversies of his day, including on questions related to the baptism of heretics and the nature of Christ. Severus of Antioch, the head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, sent missionary bishops to Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith, the king of the Ghassanids, to convert him into the Miaphysite faith. Later, Al-Harith ibn Jabalah, the Ghassanid king until 569 AD, played a leading role in helping elect a member of the Miaphysite Church to the position of the bishop of Antioch. [126]

The Syriac language was also used for the Christian communities of South Arabia. The Christian community of Najran was linked with Syriac Christianity, with some Najranite clerics receiving training in Syriac monasteries. [127] The massacre of Najran's Christian community sparked outrage across the Syriac-speaking world, with numerous Syriac letters written about the events. [128] This massacre triggered a series of events, leading to an invasion by the nearby Christian Ethiopian kingdom. Abraha, one of the Christian rulers of South Arabia at this time, oriented the region's churches away from the Ethiopian sphere and into the Syriac sphere of influence. [129] [1]

Contact with Near Eastern Christianity

Multiple Christian cities north of the Arabian peninsula acted as contact points between speakers of Arabic and other languages. For example, Al-Hira, the capital of the Arab Lakhmid tribe located in southern Mesopotamia, acted as a meeting point between Arabic, Syriac, and Persian. [17] [130] In addition, it controlled trans-Arabian commerce crossing from Mesopotamia into southern Arabia. [131]

Another city, Petra, was a site of Aramaic-Arabic bilingualism. Furthermore, two of the three Arabic inscriptions from pre-Islamic Syria also contain a Greek text. [132]

Heretical Christianity

In earlier scholarship, it was believed that Arabia had become a refuge of heretical Christian groups that were not positively received in the rest of the Christian world. One of the main arguments cited for this has been that it would explain the unconventional Christian beliefs described by the Quran, the founding scripture of Islam that engaged with Christianity in an Arabian environment. However, in recent years, historians have moved away from this view. The Quran is no longer read as supporting the existence of Christians with heretical beliefs in Arabia, but instead, its uncharacteristic description of Christian doctrines has been understood to be a product of the rhetoric used by the Quran in its discourse and debate with Christians. [133] [134] [135]

The Arabs may have had occasional contact with heretical varieties of Christianity. Constantius II (r. 337–361 AD), an Arian emperor, is said to have sent missions into South Arabia. [136] Another Arian emperor, Valens (r. 364–378), wanted the Syrian-Arab queen, Mawiyya, of the Tanukhid tribal confederation, to appoint an Arian when she was making the choice for selecting a bishop for her people. However, Mawiyya refused, leading to a revolt where Valens' forces were repeatedly defeated. Mawiyya, successful, appointed a bishop of her own choosing, and married her daughter to a Roman man who adhered to the Nicene Creed, reinforcing her allegiance to the Nicene church. [137]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Arbach 2022.
  2. 1 2 Robin 2010, p. 50.
  3. ↑ ʻAzmah, ʻAziz (23 February 2017) [2014]. "Preface to Allāh". The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity: Allāh and His People. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 263. ISBN   9781316641552 . Retrieved 15 February 2025. [...] the final phases of Christianisation of the phylarchic border tribes in the erstwhile Provincia Arabia came with the formation of an ethnically Arab episcopate, and the designation by Juvenal of Jerusalem (d. 458) of a 'bishop of encampments'. But central and western Arabia were not only bordered by Christianised lands to the north. This pagan reservation was in fact surrounded by Christian polities, and populations whose Christianity was largely of indeterminate character and uncertain extent, theologically porous and minimal.
  4. 1 2 Fisher & Wood 2015, p. 284–286.
  5. ↑ Robin 2020, p. 100.
  6. ↑ Hoyland, Robert (2018). Río Sánchez, Francisco del; Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (eds.). Jewish Christianity and the origins of Islam conference). Brepols. pp. 37–40. OCLC   1029235683.
  7. ↑ Cook, Michael (2024). A history of the Muslim world: from its origins to the dawn of modernity. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 41–42. ISBN   978-0-691-23657-5. [...] Christian communities [...] did not exist in the interior of the Hijāz, around Mecca and Yathrib; in Mecca our sources mention only a few individuals who were Christians. This region was nevertheless in touch with the Christian world outside Arabia, if only through trade. The later Arabic sources lay particular emphasis on the dependence of Quraysh on trade with Syria. The claim is credible, as they may have been helping meet the apparently insatiable demand of the Roman army for leather.
  8. 1 2 Mourad, Suleiman A. (2014-12-09), "Christianity in Arabia: An Overview (4th–9th Centuries CE)", The Syriac Writers of Qatar in the Seventh Century , Gorgias Press, pp. 37–40, doi:10.31826/9781463236649-004, ISBN   978-1-4632-3664-9
  9. ↑ Al-Jallad, Ahmad. "Jesus in Arabia: Tracing the Spread of Christianity into the Desert". The BAS Library. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  10. 1 2 3 Parry & Hinnells 2000, p. 37.
  11. ↑ Shatzman, Israel (2019). "The Beginning of the Roman Defensive System in Judaea". In Zeichmann, Christopher (ed.). Essential Essays for the Study of the Military in First-century: Palestine Soldiers and the New Testament Context. Pickwick Publications. p. 43.
  12. ↑ Fisher & Wood 2015, p. 287–289.
  13. ↑ Trombley, Frank R. (1994). Hellenic Religion and Christianization c. 370-529, Volume II. Brill. pp. 166–170. doi:10.1163/9789004276789. ISBN   978-90-04-27678-9.
  14. ↑ Hoyland, Robert (2018). Río Sánchez, Francisco del; Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (eds.). Jewish Christianity and the origins of Islamconference). Brepols. p. 38. OCLC   1029235683.
  15. ↑ Fisher & Wood 2015, p. 278, 289–290.
  16. 1 2 Wood, Philip (2023). "Christianity in the Arabian Peninsula and Possible Contexts for the Qurʾān". In Dye, Guillaume (ed.). Early Islam: the sectarian milieu of late Antiquity?. Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles. p. 231. ISBN   978-2-8004-1814-8.
  17. 1 2 Wood, Philip (2023). "Christianity in the Arabian Peninsula and Possible Contexts for the Qurʾān". In Dye, Guillaume (ed.). Early Islam: the sectarian milieu of late Antiquity?. Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles. pp. 232–233. ISBN   978-2-8004-1814-8.
  18. ↑ Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (2014). Al-Ḥīra: eine arabische Kulturmetropole im spätantiken Kontext. Islamic history and civilization. Leiden, Boston: Brill. pp. 194–211. ISBN   978-90-04-26024-5.
  19. ↑ Lindstedt 2023, p. 102–103, 107.
  20. ↑ Debie 2024, p. 242–243.
  21. ↑ Fisher & Wood 2015, p. 281–282.
  22. 1 2 Forness, Philip Michael (2018). Preaching Christology in the Roman Near East: a study of Jacob of Serugh. Oxford early Christian studies. Oxford New York (N.Y.): Oxford University Press. pp. 120–126. ISBN   978-0-19-882645-3.
  23. ↑ Grasso 2023, pp. 151–152.
  24. ↑ Fisher & Wood 2015, p. 311–312.
  25. ↑ Shahid 1995, p. 824–843.
  26. 1 2 Fares 2011.
  27. ↑ Fiema, Zbigniew .T; al-Jallad, Ahmad; MacDonald, Michael C.A.; Nehmé, Laïla (2015). "Provincia Arabia: Nabataea, the Emergence of Arabic as a Written Language, and Graeco-Arabica". In Fisher, Greg (ed.). Arabs and empires before Islam. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 416–417. ISBN   978-0-19-965452-9.
  28. ↑ Al-Jallad, Ahmad; Al-Manaser, Ali (2021). "The Pre-Islamic Divine Name ʿsy and the Background of the Qurʾānic Jesus" . Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association. 6 (1): 107–136. doi:10.5913/jiqsa.6.2021.a004. ISSN   2474-8420.
  29. ↑ Hatke 2019, p. 44–45.
  30. 1 2 Shahid 1979, p. 28–29.
  31. ↑ Fisher, Greg (2020). Rome, Persia, and Arabia: shaping the Middle East from Pompey to Muhammad. London New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. p. 90. ISBN   978-0-415-72880-5.
  32. ↑ Fisher 2019, p. 96–97.
  33. ↑ Robin, Christian; al-Ghabbān, ʿAlī Ibrāhīm; al-Saʿīd, Saʿīd Fāyiz (2014). "Inscriptions antiques de la région de Najran (Arabie Séoudite meridionale): nouveaux jalons pour l'histoire de l'écriture, de la langue et du calendrier Arabes". Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions & Belles-Lettres. pp. 1033–1128.
  34. ↑ Lindstedt 2023, p. 97–98.
  35. ↑ Gajda, Iwona (2009). Le royaume de Ḥimyar à l'époque monothéiste. L'histoire de l'Arabie du Sud ancienne de la fin du IVe siècle de l'ère chrétienne jusqu'à l'avènement de l'Islam. Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. pp. 249–250.
  36. ↑ Robin 2010, p. 78.
  37. ↑ Robin 2010, p. 67–68.
  38. ↑ Hatke 2019, p. 45.
  39. ↑ Lindstedt 2023, p. 74–75.
  40. ↑ Beeston, A. F. L. (1985). "Two Bi'r Ḥimā Inscriptions Re-Examined". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 48 (1): 42–52. ISSN   0041-977X.
  41. 1 2 Fisher 2019, p. 124.
  42. ↑ Nebes 2010, p. 45.
  43. ↑ Simon's letter is part of Part III of The Chronicle of Zuqnin, translated by Amir Harrack (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1999), pp. 78-84.
  44. ↑ Huxley, G. L. (1980). "On the Greek "Martyrium" of the Negranites". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature. 80C: 41–55. ISSN   0035-8991.
  45. ↑ Nebes 2010, p. 47.
  46. 1 2 Shahid 1993.
  47. ↑ Finster 2010, p. 75.
  48. ↑ Shahid 1979, p. 38–42.
  49. ↑ Shahid 1979, p. 74–75.
  50. ↑ Grasso 2023, p. 98–99.
  51. ↑ Nebes 2010, p. 48.
  52. ↑ Chatonnet & Debie 2023, p. 117.
  53. 1 2 Dziekan 2012.
  54. ↑ Hoyland, Robert (2022). "ʿArabī and aʿjamī in the Qurʾān: The Language of Revelation in Muḥammad's Ḥijāz". In Donner, Fred McGraw; Hasselbach, Rebecca (eds.). Scripts and Scripture: Writing and Religion in Arabia circa 500–700 CE. Late antique and medieval islamic near east. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. pp. 109–110. ISBN   978-1-61491-073-2.
  55. ↑ Forness 2019, p. 115–131.
  56. ↑ Toft 2021.
  57. ↑ Toft 2022.
  58. ↑ Monferrer Sala, Juan Pedro (2010). Redefining History on Pre-Islamic Accounts: The Arabic Recension of the Martyrs of Najrān. Gorgias Press. pp. 23–32.
  59. ↑ Mourad, Suleiman A. (2014-12-09), "Christianity in Arabia: An Overview (4th–9th Centuries CE)", The Syriac Writers of Qatar in the Seventh Century , Gorgias Press, pp. 50–53, doi:10.31826/9781463236649-004, ISBN   978-1-4632-3664-9
  60. ↑ Hatke 2019, p. 44–49.
  61. ↑ Lindstedt 2023, p. 73–76.
  62. ↑ Bowersock, G. W. (2012). Empires in collision in late antiquity. The Menahem Stern Jerusalem lectures. Waltham, Mass: Brandeis University Press. p. 24. ISBN   978-1-61168-320-2.
  63. 1 2 Hatke, Georg (2022). "Religious Ideology in the Gəʿəz Epigraphic Corpus from Yemen". Rocznik Orientalistyczny. 75 (2): 76–78. ISSN   0080-3545.
  64. ↑ Robin, Christian Julien (2015-07-01), "Ḥimyar, Aksūm, and Arabia Deserta in Late Antiquity" , Arabs and Empires before Islam, Oxford University Press, pp. 153–154, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.003.0004, ISBN   978-0-19-965452-9 , retrieved 2024-02-20{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  65. ↑ Robin, Christian Julien (2015-07-01), "Ḥimyar, Aksūm, and Arabia Deserta in Late Antiquity" , Arabs and Empires before Islam, Oxford University Press, p. 149, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.003.0004, ISBN   978-0-19-965452-9 , retrieved 2024-02-20{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  66. ↑ Robin, Christian Julien (2015). "Ḥimyar, Aksūm, and Arabia Deserta in Late Antiquity: The Epigraphic Evidence". In Fisher, Greg (ed.). Arabs and empires before Islam. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 164–167. ISBN   978-0-19-965452-9.
  67. ↑ Lindstedt 2023, p. 98–102.
  68. ↑ Shoemaker 2018.
  69. 1 2 Robin, Christian Julien (2015), "Ḥimyar, Aksūm, and Arabia Deserta in Late Antiquity", Arabs and Empires before Islam, Oxford University Press, pp. 153–154, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.003.0004
  70. ↑ Grasso 2023, p. 119.
  71. ↑ Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2022). "A pre-Islamic basmala: reflections on its first epigraphic attestation and its original significance". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 52: 1–28.
  72. ↑ A Short Chronicle on the End of the Sasanian Empire and Early Islam: 590-660 A.D. Gorgias Chronicles of Late Antiquity. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. 2016. ISBN   978-1-4632-0563-8.
  73. ↑ Bonnéric, Julie (2015-12-23). "Christianity in the Arab-Persian Gulf: An Ancient But Still Obscure History". Le carnet de la MAFKF. doi:10.58079/r5vj.
  74. ↑ Hoyland & Power 2025.
  75. 1 2 3 4 Carter 2008.
  76. ↑ Carter 2013.
  77. ↑ Bonneric 2020.
  78. ↑ Bonneric 2021.
  79. ↑ Power et al. 2023.
  80. ↑ Power et al. 2024.
  81. ↑ Hoyland & Power 2025, p. 8.
  82. ↑ Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (2000). "Lakhmids". Encyclopedia Iranica.
  83. ↑ Hoyland & Power 2025, p. 6.
  84. ↑ Potts, Daniel T. (2004). The Arabian Gulf in antiquity. 2: From Alexander the Great to the coming of Islam (Reprinted ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 241. ISBN   978-0-19-814391-8.
  85. 1 2 3 4 5 Lamport 2018, p. 665–667.
  86. ↑ Kozah 2014.
  87. ↑ Kozah, Mario; Abu-Husayn, Abdulrahim; Al-Murikhi, Saif Shaheen; Thani, Haya Al, eds. (2015-11-04), An Anthology of Syriac Writers from Qatar in the Seventh Century , Gorgias Press, doi:10.31826/9781463236717, ISBN   978-1-4632-3671-7
  88. ↑ Langfeldt, John A. (1994). "Recently discovered early Christian monuments in Northeastern Arabia" . Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 5: 32–60. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0471.1994.tb00054.x.
  89. 1 2 3 Briquel-Chatonnet, Françoise; Debié, Muriel (2023). The Syriac world: in search of a forgotten Christianity. Translated by Haines, Jeffrey. New Haven London: Yale University Press. pp. 115–122. ISBN   978-0-300-25353-5.
  90. ↑ Elders, Joseph (2001). "The lost churches of the Arabian Gulf: recent discoveries on the islands of Sir Bani Yas and Marawah, Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates". Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. 31: 47–57. ISSN   0308-8421. JSTOR   41223670.
  91. ↑ Mourad, Suleiman A. (2014-12-09), "Christianity in Arabia: An Overview (4th–9th Centuries CE)", The Syriac Writers of Qatar in the Seventh Century , Gorgias Press, pp. 55–56, doi:10.31826/9781463236649-004, ISBN   978-1-4632-3664-9
  92. ↑ Klasova, Pamela (2024). "Arabic Poetry in Late Antiquity: The Rāʾiyya of Imruʾ al-Qays". In Fakhreddine, Huda; Stetkevych, Suzanne Pinckney (eds.). The Routledge handbook of Arabic poetry. London$pRoutledge, Taylor and Francis Group. p. 8. ISBN   978-1-003-09695-5.
  93. ↑ King, G. R. D. (1997). "A Nestorian Monastic Settlement on the Island of Ṣīr Banī Yās, Abu Dhabi: A Preliminary Report" . Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 60 (2): 221–235. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00036375. ISSN   0041-977X. JSTOR   620383.
  94. ↑ Hellyer, Peter (2001). "Nestorian Christianity in the Pre-Islamic UAE and Southern Arabia". Journal of Social Affairs. 18: 79–99.
  95. ↑ Steve, Marie-Joseph (2003). L'ile de Kharg. Une page de l'histoire du Golfe Persique et du monachisme oriental. Neuchâtel.
  96. ↑ Wood, Philip (2023). "Christianity in the Arabian Peninsula and Possible Contexts for the Qurʾān". In Dye, Guillaume (ed.). Early Islam: the sectarian milieu of late Antiquity?. Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles. p. 236. ISBN   978-2-8004-1814-8.
  97. ↑ Munt, Harry (2015). ""No two religions": Non-Muslims in the early Islamic Ḥijāz" . Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 78 (2): 249–254. doi:10.1017/S0041977X14001049. ISSN   0041-977X.
  98. ↑ Shoemaker, Stephen J. (2022). Creating the Qur'an: a historical-critical study. Oakland, California: University of California Press. pp. 245–254. ISBN   978-0-520-38903-8.
  99. ↑ Hawting, G. R. (1999). The idea of idolatry and the emergence of Islam: from polemic to history. Cambridge University Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN   978-0-521-65165-3.
  100. ↑ Debie 2024, p. 231.
  101. ↑ Sinai 2024, p. 68–69.
  102. ↑ Nehmé, Laila (2017). "New dated inscriptions (Nabataean and pre-Islamic Arabic) from a site near al-Jawf,ancient Dūmah, Saudi Arabia". Arabian Epigraphic Notes. 3: 121–164.
  103. ↑ Lindstedt 2023, p. 109–111.
  104. ↑ Villeneuve, François (2018). "The Greek inscriptions at al-ʿArniyyāt and Umm Jadhāyidh". In Nehmé, Laila (ed.). The Darb al-Bakrah. A Caravan Route in North-West Arabia Discovered by Ali I. al-Ghabban. Catalogue of the Inscriptions. Riyadh: Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage. pp. 285–292.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  105. ↑ Lindstedt 2023, p. 108–109.
  106. ↑ Lindstedt 2023, p. 117–118.
  107. ↑ Fares 2010.
  108. ↑ Lindstedt 2025, p. 3.
  109. ↑ Lindstedt 2023, p. 111–112.
  110. ↑ Stetkevych 2017, p. 4–14.
  111. ↑ Lindstedt 2023, p. 108–111, 172–184.
  112. ↑ Reynolds 2025.
  113. ↑ Tesei, Tommaso (2021). "The Qurʾān(s) in Context(s)". Journal Asiatique: 189.
  114. ↑ Zellentin, Holger (2016). "Aḥbār and Ruhbān: Religious Leaders in the Qurʾān in Dialogue with Christian and Rabbinic Literature". In Neuwirth, Angelika; Sells, Michael (eds.). Qurʼanic studies today. Routledge studies in the Qurʼān. London New York (N.Y.): Routledge, Taylor & Francis group. pp. 258–289. ISBN   978-1-138-18195-3.
  115. ↑ Lindstedt 2025, p. 2.
  116. ↑ Shahid, Irfan (2007), "Islam And Oriens Christianus: Makka 610-622 AD", The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam , Brill, pp. 9–32, doi:10.1163/ej.9789004149380.i-338.5, ISBN   978-90-474-0882-6
  117. 1 2 King, G. R. D. (2004). "The Paintings of the Pre-Islamic Ka?ba". Muqarnas. 21: 219–229. ISSN   0732-2992.
  118. ↑ Finster 2017, p. 73–77.
  119. ↑ Shahid 1979.
  120. ↑ Finster 2010, p. 75–76.
  121. ↑ Finster 2017, p. 77–78.
  122. ↑ Salles, J.‐Fr. et al. (2013). Les Églises de Koweit et du Golfe Persique. In Fr. Briquel Chatonnet, Les églises en monde syriaque, Collection Études Syriaques 10. Paris: Paul Geuthner, pp. 237–268.
  123. ↑ Finster 2017, p. 78.
  124. ↑ Kozah, Mario; Abu-Husayn, Abdulrahim; Al-Murikhi, Saif Shaheen; Thani, Haya Al, eds. (2015-11-04), An Anthology of Syriac Writers from Qatar in the Seventh Century , Gorgias Press, doi:10.31826/9781463236717, ISBN   978-1-4632-3671-7
  125. 1 2 Debie 2024, p. 232.
  126. ↑ Debie 2024, p. 240–243.
  127. ↑ Hoyland, Robert (2022). "ʿArabī and aʿjamī in the Qurʾān: The Language of Revelation in Muḥammad's Ḥijāz". In Donner, Fred McGraw; Hasselbach, Rebecca (eds.). Scripts and Scripture: Writing and Religion in Arabia circa 500–700 CE. Late antique and medieval islamic near east. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. pp. 109–110. ISBN   978-1-61491-073-2.
  128. ↑ Debie 2024, p. 243–244.
  129. ↑ Robin, Christian Julien (2015), "Ḥimyar, Aksūm, and Arabia Deserta in Late Antiquity", Arabs and Empires before Islam, Oxford University Press, pp. 153–154, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.003.0004
  130. ↑ Toral-Niehof, Isabel (2010). "The ʿIbād of al-Ḥīra: An Arab Christian Community in Late Antique Iraq". In Neuwirth, Angelika; Sinai, Nicolai; Marx, Michael (eds.). The Qurʾān in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qurʾānic Milieu. Brill. pp. 323–348.
  131. ↑ Briquel-Chatonnet, Françoise; Debié, Muriel (2023). The Syriac world: in search of a forgotten Christianity. Translated by Haines, Jeffrey. New Haven London: Yale University Press. pp. 115–117. ISBN   978-0-300-25353-5.
  132. ↑ Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2020). "The Linguistic Landscape of pre-Islamic Arabia: Context for the Qur'an". In Shah, Mustafa; Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Qur'anic Studies. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford: Oxford university press. pp. 120–121. ISBN   978-0-19-969864-6.
  133. ↑ Dye 2021, p. 158–162.
  134. ↑ Tannous, Jack (2018). The Making of the Medieval Middle East: Religion, Society, and Simple Believers. Princeton University Press. pp. 252–253.
  135. ↑ Reynolds, Gabriel Said (2014). "On the Presentation of Christianity in the Qurʾān and the Many Aspects of Qur'anic Rhetoric". Al-Bayan: Journal of Qur'an and Hadith Studies. 12 (1): 42–54.
  136. ↑ Debie 2024, p. 230.
  137. ↑ Debie 2024, p. 238.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.