The Orthodox Church in the Arab World, 700–1700: An Anthology of Sources (NIU Series in Orthodox Christian Studies)

There authors have selected some of the most interesting texts to translate in this volume. Orthodox Christians were quick to adopt Arabic as a liturgical and literary language so there is a long tradition to draw from.Chapter 1 contains a translation of 'An Apology for the Christian Faith'. This is the earliest text presented. It appears to have been written in the 8th century. Even though the treatise is addressing Muslims it is free from polemic.Chapter 4 contains the passion of Saint Anthony Rawh. Rawh was an Abbasid prince who converted to Christianity and adopted the name Anthony. There is lots of information on how Rawh was disrespectful and dissolute prior to his conversion. Eventually he was executed on Christmas Day, 799. A truly fascinating story and fairly brief (pages 117-123). A second hagiographic text concerns Abd al-Masih, a Christian Arab who fell into the company of ghazi raiders and adopted Islam. Eventually he regretted his decision and retired to Mt Sinai as a monk. On a trip to Ramla he was spotted and denounced as a Muslim apostate and executed. Sorry to say there aren't a lot of happy endings in Muslim conversion stories but their examples survive to inspire us today.Chapter 5 is an extract from the Chronicle of Agapius of Manbij from the 10th century. The extract covers pre- Christian history. It gives an account of Ptolemy's translation of the Old Testament into Greek and discusses the authenticity of Scripture.Chapter 7 has some works by Abdallah ibn al-Fadl al-Antaki who was active in the 11th century around Antioch. He was completely unknown to me but the introduction says he wrote extensively. I can only hope future scholars will take up the task and do more on this figure.Chapter 10 has a full translation of Paul of Sidon's 'Letter to a Muslim Friend' from the 12th century. In this subversive text Paul tries to show that Muslim's have misunderstood the Qur'an and that it is pro-Christian. This letter scandalised Muslims. I have read about letter before and I was really happy to finally have a translation to read for myself. The notorious Ibn Taymiyya (died 1328) felt compelled to write a massive refutation of Paul's letter.Chapter 12 has a translation of extracts of Paul of Aleppo's travels to Russia and Eastern Europe in the 17th century in the retinue of the Patriarch of Antioch. The only problem I have is that I wished I could read more.Other readers might find other texts in this volume equally interesting. Scholarly translations from Arabic tend to be very expensive so I was pleasantly surprised about the fair price. I even bought an extra copy for an Antiochian Orthodox friend of mine.

If you want to know more about Christian roots and presence in the Middle East and the spirituality of believers who have lived there for thousands of years, buy and read this book. Editors, Noble and Treigar have compiled an impressive book of first time English translations of Christian writers from the Arab world of 700-1700, a world where being a Christian meant persecution by Muslims who demanded conversion, unreasonable taxation, or death by beheading for non-conversion to Islam. (Sound familiar?)The maintenance of faith and love by Christians in the region during this time is inspiring. Learning more about the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition is illuminating for Western readers, especially. Although the editors may have intended the book for academic use in religious studies courses, it is both a readable and valuable book for the general public who desires to know more about the history of the Orthodox Christian Church and its civilizing contributions in a region that continues to be in turmoil.

This was a very worthwhile book to read.First, because this subject-matter, while seemingly remote in time and distance, is actually very pertinent to our times. In these very lands Christians are continuing to struggle to maintain their faith and identity in the very same -- if more overtly hostile -- environment which this anthology depicts.Second, this is pertinent for another reason. Many of us in "the west" are waking up to realize that we, too, are an embattled minority in a land that we once thought "ours." Christians in the West can learn a lot from our coreligionists from the East.Third, because of the changing situation in the West, I found this spiritually enriching.I found the editor's notes very helpful and the material accessible.

A great work which surveys the most important classics of Arabic Christian Literature, many of them for the first time in English translation. This ambitious scholarly collaboration is both timeless in presenting the words of important figures of Arab history and theology, and timely in highlighting a minority which is vital to a number of countries (Iraq, Syria, etc) which are currently in conflict. While this work is an invaluable scholarly contribution, it is also very readable and accessible to the lay reader, both from a historical and a devotional perspective. The living tradition which this book highlights through various phases of its history is as important today as it has ever been, and this book succeeds in bringing that to a wider english-speaking audience, which will hopefully beget further interest and scholarly attention on works like these.

Excellent reference for those interested in the Arab Christian Communities in the Middle East.

I'm am happy with this book

There are many introductions to Orthodox Christianity available in the English language today, covering the vast history of the Church and quoting various saints and sources to support their position. The most famous of these is Metropolitan Kallistos’ The Orthodox Church, which covers both the history of beliefs of the Church in a way which covers all key elements. Though even his books has a flaw, which Samuel Nobel addresses in the Introduction to The Orthodox Church in the Arab World. As Noble states, “The Chapter Entitled ‘The Church under Islam’ begins with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, with not the slightest hint that three Patriarchates had been under Islamic domination for more than eight centuries prior to that date.” And Noble highlights the same issue with various other texts.It is in this respect that Noble and Trieger’s text comes as a breath of fresh air to any reader with an interest in reading about the experience of Christians in the Arab world before the 16th century. Noble has been able to collect and translate a collection of texts spanning the 1000 years between 700 and 1700, giving a sense of a diverse experience and collection of genres of writing produced by Christians in the Arab world during this time.In my view the book is a great stride in out understanding of the experience of Arab Christians in the Middle Ages, with such texts as The Disputation of the Monk Abraham of Tiberius and Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend demonstrating the interaction between the Christians and Muslims of the time, as well as other texts showing the forms of Apologetic technique being used, including the use of the Qur’an by Christian clergy to debate Muslims and explain the Orthodox faith in terms which they could understand. Noble’s translation of these texts allows for this experience to come to light for the first time and, in doing this, opens up a field of analysis of this intercultural dialogue at a time when Christian-Muslim relations are a heated topic in the context of the MENA region.A weaker point of the book is the lack of analysis of relations in areas such as Egypt and the non-Chalcedonian Orthodox tradition, largely due to the author’s area of study being based around the Chalcedonian Orthodox community. This means that the book does not allow for a study of relationships between the two Orthodox communities in the Middle East at the time, though the stud of the Coptic Community in the context of the various caliphates has been an object of study by Medievalists and Egyptologists over the years already.In conclusion, Noble’s text provides a rare and wonderful glance into the Orthodox Church in the Arab World and fills a long neglected void in Scholarship regarding the Christians of the Middle East and the Arabic Christian community. The translation of these texts also allows for a peek into the various interactions between Christian and Muslim in these areas and the fascinating apologetic tradition which emerged from this. Noble has done a great service to Christian Scholarship in producing this text, which will hopefully open the eyes of others to this untapped area of study.