Defending the "People of Truth" in the Early Islamic Period
The Christian Apologies of Abū Rā’iṭah
Series: - The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, Volume: 4
The apologetical writings of the Jacobite Christian, Abū Rā’iṭah al-Takrītī († c. 835) have remained relatively unknown in Western scholarship. Yet his engagement with Muslim questions about Christianity provides a significant insight into the theological debate between the two communities in the early ʿAbbāsid period.
Abū Rā’iṭah’s treatises take up many of the topics that become standard for Christian-Muslim apologetics: proofs of the true religion, the Trinity, the Incarnation, and Christian practices. In each case, he provides his reader with complex arguments in defense of Christian doctrines that can be used to convince both Muslims and wavering Christians of the truth of Christianity.
This new Arabic edition and English translation seeks to contextualize Abū Rā’iṭah’s important writings and to make the original texts available to modern scholars interested in all aspects of the early development of Muslim-Christian relations.
Abū Rā’iṭah’s treatises take up many of the topics that become standard for Christian-Muslim apologetics: proofs of the true religion, the Trinity, the Incarnation, and Christian practices. In each case, he provides his reader with complex arguments in defense of Christian doctrines that can be used to convince both Muslims and wavering Christians of the truth of Christianity.
This new Arabic edition and English translation seeks to contextualize Abū Rā’iṭah’s important writings and to make the original texts available to modern scholars interested in all aspects of the early development of Muslim-Christian relations.
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Sandra Toenies Keating received her Ph.D. from the School of Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Her publications have focused on theological issues in early Muslim-Christian relations, including falsification of scriptures and the use of non-scriptural evidence in theological debate. She is currently assistant professor of theology at Providence College in Providence, RI.
This volume will be of great interest to those interested in Christian Arabic apologetics, in early Christian-Muslim relations, the early ʿAbbāsid period, the Syrian-Orthodox Church, in Jacobite Christianity, and in Christians under Islamic Rule.