Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

On the Triune Nature of God

Anonymous

A defence of the Trinity and the incarnation for a Muslim readership, arguing from the Qur'an's own vocabulary as readily as from the Bible.

On the Existence of God and the True Religion

Theodore Abu Qurrah · c. 755 – c. 830

A man comes down from a mountain knowing nothing and finds nine religions each claiming to be true. Abu Qurrah works through them by asking which account of God matches what a physician would prescribe for a sick creation, and argues his way to the incarnation.

On the Veneration of Icons

Theodore Abu Qurrah · c. 750–c. 830

A defence of images written in Arabic for Christians who had stopped venerating them under Muslim and Jewish criticism, arguing the case on grounds a Muslim could follow.

The Apology of al-Kindi

Anonymous

A pair of letters, one inviting a Christian to Islam and the other declining at length, criticising the Qur'an's composition and Muhammad's career directly.

The Apologetic Treatises

Abu Ra'ita al-Takriti · c. 775 – c. 835

A Syriac Orthodox layman defending the Trinity and the incarnation in the vocabulary of Muslim theology, arguing that God's attributes of knowledge and life are what Christians call Word and Spirit, and explaining why the church venerates the cross.

The Book of Proof

Ammar al-Basri · 9th century

A defence of Christian doctrine framed as a test for distinguishing a true religion from a false one, arguing that Christianity spread without the sword, money, or tribal advantage.

How to Discern the True Religion

Hunayn ibn Ishaq · 808 – 873

The caliph's chief translator sets out six reasons people adopt a religion — force, wealth, tribal loyalty, a persuasive orator, permission to indulge, and evidence — and argues that Christianity spread with none of the first five going for it.

The Tafsir

Saadia Gaon · 882 – 942

The Torah and much of the rest of the Hebrew Bible translated into Arabic, deliberately smoothing anthropomorphism — where the Hebrew has God's hand, the Arabic has his power — and adding a running commentary against Karaite and Muslim readings.

The Annals

Nazm al-Jawhar

Eutychius of Alexandria · 877–940

A world history from creation to the author's own day by a physician who became patriarch of Alexandria, covering both Christian and Islamic history.

The Universal History

Kitab al-Unwan

Agapius of Hierapolis · 10th century

A history from creation to the tenth century preserving material from lost Syriac and Greek chronicles, including notices about the first century.

On the Reformation of Morals

Tahdhib al-Akhlaq

Yahya ibn Adi · 893–974

A philosophical ethics of the soul's three faculties and the training of character, written without appeal to scripture so that Muslims, Jews, and Christians could all use it.

The Book of the Councils

Severus ibn al-Muqaffa · d. c. 987

An account of the church councils from a Coptic standpoint, explaining to an Arabic-speaking congregation why their church rejected Chalcedon.

The Book of Sessions

Kitab al-Majalis

Elias of Nisibis · 975–1046

The record of seven courteous conversations with a Muslim vizier on the Trinity, the unity of God, and the merits of Syriac and Arabic as languages of learning.

The Paradise of Christianity

Firdaws al-Nasraniyya

Ibn al-Tayyib · d. 1043

A commentary on the whole Bible in Arabic by a Baghdad physician, philosopher, and priest who also wrote on Aristotle and on medicine.

The Nomocanon

Al-Majmu al-Safawi

Al-Safi ibn al-Assal · 13th century

A systematic code of church and civil law for Egyptian Christians, drawing on Byzantine, Syriac, and Islamic legal material.

The Chronography

Bar Hebraeus · 1226–1286

A world history in secular and ecclesiastical parts, and a shorter Arabic version written at the request of Muslim friends who wanted to read it.

The Lamp of Darkness

Misbah al-Zulma

Abu al-Barakat ibn Kabar · d. 1324

An encyclopaedia of Coptic Christianity — doctrine, canon law, liturgy, the calendar, and a catalogue of the church's Arabic and Coptic books.