Christian-Muslim Relations 600 - 1500
Get access
Subject: Middle East And Islamic Studies
General Editor: David Thomas, Alex Mallett
Associate Editors: Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, Johannes Pahlitzsch, Barbara Roggema, Mark Swanson, Herman Teule and John Tolan
Christian-Muslim Relations, a Bibliographical History Online is a general online history of relations between the faiths. It covers the period from 600 to 1500, when encounters took place through the extended Mediterranean basin and are recorded in Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin and other languages. Christian Muslim Relations Online comprises introductory essays on the treatment of Christians in the Qur’an, Qur’an commentaries, biographies of the Prophet, Hadith and Sunni law, and of Muslims in canon law, and the main body of more than two hundred detailed entries on all the works recorded, whether surviving or lost.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Associate Editors: Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, Johannes Pahlitzsch, Barbara Roggema, Mark Swanson, Herman Teule and John Tolan
| Help us improve our service |
Christian-Muslim Relations, a Bibliographical History Online is a general online history of relations between the faiths. It covers the period from 600 to 1500, when encounters took place through the extended Mediterranean basin and are recorded in Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin and other languages. Christian Muslim Relations Online comprises introductory essays on the treatment of Christians in the Qur’an, Qur’an commentaries, biographies of the Prophet, Hadith and Sunni law, and of Muslims in canon law, and the main body of more than two hundred detailed entries on all the works recorded, whether surviving or lost.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Abbo of Fleury
(1,032 words)
Abbo of Fleury, Abbo Floriacensis, Abbon de Fleury, Abbon de Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire Date of Birth: After about 934 and before about 954 Place of Birth: Orléanais, France Date of Death: 13 November 1004 Place of Death: La Réole, France
Biography Abbo of Fleury was born to free but non-noble parents in the Orléanais, probably in the mid-940s. He is described as a
puer at the time of his taking the monastic habit under Abbot Wulfaldus of Fleury, 948-63, and he became a priest shortly before 987, so most modern scholars put his birth in the 940s. He entered t…
Abbot Samson
(307 words)
Biography Samson was abbot of St Zoilus in Cordova, the church and monastery where Eulogius (q.v.) and Paul Alvarus (q.v.) studied under Speraindeo (q.v.). He later became abbot of Pinna Mellaria, also near Cordova and a center of the martyrs' movement of 850-59. In the early 860s he was employed at the emir's court translating letters intended for the Frankish court from Arabic to Latin. For reasons that are unclear, a group of courtiers turned against Samson, accusing him of passing secrets to …
Abbreviations
(587 words)
ʿAbd al-Jabbār,
Tathbīt ʿAbd al-Jabbār,
Tathbīt dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, ed. ʿA.-K. ʿUthmān, 2 vols, Beirut, 1966 Assemani,
BO J.S. Assemani,
Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, 4 vols in 3, Rome, 1719-28 (repr. Hildesheim, 1975) ‘Bibliographie’ R. Caspar et al., ‘Bibliographie du dialogue islamo-chrétien’,
Islamochristiana 1 (1975) 124-81; 2 (1976) 187-249; 3 (1977) 255-86; 4 (1978) 247-67; 5 (1979) 299-317; 6 (1980) 259-99; 7 (1981) 299-307; 10 (1984) 273-92; 13 (1987) 173-80; 15 (1989) 169-74 Biblioteca de al-Andalus …
Abbreviations
(452 words)
BHG
Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca ‘Bibliographie’ R. Caspar et al., ‘Bibliographie du dialogue islamo-chrétien’,
Islamochristiana 1 (1975) 124-81; 2 (1976) 187-249; 3 (1977) 255-86; 4 (1978) 247-67; 5 (1979) 299-317; 6 (1980) 259-99; 7 (1981) 299-307; 10 (1984) 273-92; 13 (1987) 173-80; 15 (1989) 169-74 Biblioteca de al-Andalus J. Lirola and J.M. Puerta (eds),
Biblioteca de al-Andalus, Almería, 2004-6 BL British Library BNF Bibliothèque nationale de France Brockelmann,
GAL C. …
Abbreviations
(339 words)
‘Bibliographie’ R. Caspar et al., ‘Bibliographie du dialogue islamo-chrétien’,
Islamochristiana 1 (1975) 124-81; 2 (1976) 187-249; 3 (1977) 255-86; 4 (1978) 247-67; 5 (1979) 299-317; 6 (1980) 259-99; 7 (1981) 299-307; 10 (1984) 273-92; 13 (1987) 173-80; 15 (1989) 169-74
Biblioteca de al-Andalus J. Lirola and J.M. Puerta (eds),
Biblioteca de al-Andalus, Almería, 2004-6 BL British Library BNF Bibliothèque Nationale de France Brockelmann,
GAL C. Brockelmann,
Geschichte der arabischen Literatur, 2 vols and 3 supp…
Abbreviations
(420 words)
‘Bibliographie’ R. Caspar et al., ‘Bibliographie du dialogue islamo-chrétien’,
Islamochristiana 1 (1975) 124-81; 2 (1976) 187-249; 3 (1977) 255-86; 4 (1978) 247-67; 5 (1979) 299-317; 6 (1980) 259-99; 7 (1981) 299-307; 10 (1984) 273-92; 13 (1987) 173-80; 15 (1989) 169-74
Biblioteca de al-Andalus J. Lirola Delgado and J.M. Puerta Vilchez (eds),
Biblioteca de al-Andalus, Almería, 2004-6 BL British Library BNF Bibliothèque Nationale de France Brockelmann,
GAL C. Brockelmann,
Geschichte der arabischen Literatur, 2 v…
ʿAbdallāh al-Asīr
(380 words)
ʿAbdallāh the captive Date of Birth: Unknown; possibly early 13th century Place of Birth: Unknown Date of Death: Unknown; possibly late 13th century Place of Death: Unknown; possibly France
Biography The figure of ʿAbdallāh al-Asīr is only known from a few references in the
Kitāb miftāḥ al-dīn of the Tunisian scholar Abū l-Qasim Muḥammad ibn Sirāj al-Qaysī (q.v.), written about 1308. Al-Qaysī was taken captive by Christians in Spain and held in Lerida, where he participated in debates with Christian monks. He wrote the
Kitāb miftāḥ al-dīn at this time and, as part of his argument…
ʿAbdallāh ibn Buluqqin
(358 words)
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh ibn Buluqqin (ibn Buluggīn) ibn Bādīs ibn Ḥabūs al-Ṣinhājī Date of Birth: January 1056 Place of Birth: Granada Date of Death: 1095 Place of Death: Agmāt (Maghreb)
Biography ʿAbdallāh ibn Buluqqīn was the last Zīrid king of the taifa of Granada (1073-90), succeeding his grandfather Bādīs. His predecessors were of Berber origin, and arrived in al-Andalus during the period of the caliphate, taking power in Granada after its collapse. During his reign, ʿAbdallāh and his vizier had to resist a number of threats to the kingdom and his own position. …
ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍl al-Anṭākī
(1,210 words)
Abū l-Fatḥ ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbdallāh al-muṭrān al-Anṭākī Date of Birth: Unknown; probably about 1000 Place of Birth: Unknown; probably Antioch Date of Death: Unknown; after 1052 (remained active as a translator and theologian until the early 1050s) Place of Death: Unknown; probably Antioch
Biography The 11th-century Arab Orthodox (Melkite) translator and theologian ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍl al-Anṭākī is one of the most prolific contributors to the (unfortunately hitherto insufficiently studied) Antiochene Graeco-Arabic translation move…
ʿAbdishoʿ of Nisibis
(1,459 words)
ʿAbdishoʿ bar Brikhā, ʿAbdishoʿ Ṣūbāwī; Ebediesus (Sobensis) Date of Birth: Around the middle of the 13th century Place of Birth: Unknown Date of Death: Beginning of November 1318 Place of Death: Probably Nisibis
Biography ʿAbdishoʿ belonged to the East-Syrian (‘Nestorian’) community. Little is known about his early years. His surname Bar Brikhā, ‘son of the blessed one’, seems to be an honorific name and not an indication of his family or of the place where he was born or grew up. Though he undoubtedly followed the classical ca…
ʿAbdīshūʿ ibn Bahrīz = Ḥabīb ibn Bahrīz
(550 words)
ʿAbdīshūʿ ibn Bahrīz Date of Birth: Unknown, mid/later 8th c.? Place of Birth: Unknown Date of Death: Unknown, perhaps shortly before 827 Place of Death: Unknown, perhaps in or near Mosul, where he was metropolitan
Biography Abdīshūʿ ibn Bahrīz was an eminent bishop and scholar of the Church of the East, who flourished around the time of the Caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 813-33) and his Christian physician Jibrīl ibn Bukhtīshūʿ (d. 827). His father’s name (Bahrīz) indicates his Persian ancestry; perhaps Ḥabīb was his given name, and ʿAbdīshūʿ, ‘servant of Jesus’, his name as a cleric. Ibn Bahrīz …
ʿAbd al-Jabbār
(1,365 words)
Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Khalīl ibn ʿAbdallāh, al-Qāḍī l-Hamadhānī l-Asadābādī Date of Birth: About 937 Place of Birth: Asadābād, southwest of Hamadhān Date of Death: January-February 1025 Place of Death: Rayy
Biography ʿAbd al-Jabbār, commonly referred to in Islamic sources as Qāḍī l-Quḍāt due to his position as chief justice in Rayy under the Būyid emirs Muʾayyid al-Dawla (r. 977-84) and Fakhr al-Dawla (r. 984-97), was the leading figure of the Muʿtazila, and in particular of the Bahsh…
ʿAbd al-Kāfī ibn Abī Yaʿqūb
(342 words)
Abū ʿAmmār ʿAbd al-Kāfī ibn Abī Yaʿqūb Yūsuf ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad al-Tanāwutī al-Wārglānī Date of Birth: Unknown Place of Birth: Tanāwut near Wārglān (Ouargla in present-day Algeria) Date of Death: Unknown; before 1174 Place of Death: Wārglān
Biography ʿAbd al-Kāfī ibn Abī Yaʿqūb was born in a village of the Sahara oasis of Wārglān sometime in the later 11th or early 12th century. He studied there before moving to Tunis, where he continued to study for some years before returning home. In Wārglān his reputation for learning attracted students a…
ʿAbd al-Masīḥ al-Isrāʾīlī al-Raqqī
(289 words)
Biography The author’s name indicates that he was a Jew (‘al-Isrāʾīlī’) from al-Raqqa in Syria (‘al-Raqqī’), who converted to Christianity and took the name ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, ‘Servant of Christ’. The extended title of his
Kitāb al-istidlāl indicates that the person instrumental in his conversion was the Christian physician [Abū l-Fatḥ] Manṣūr ibn Sahlān [ibn Muqashshir], who served for many years in the Fatimid court in Cairo and died around 1004, while in the service of the Caliph al-Ḥākim (996-1021). Samir inclines to the opinion …
ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Marrākushī
(264 words)
Muḥyī l-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn ʿAlī l-Tamīmī l-Marrākushī Date of Birth: 9 July 1185 Place of Birth: Marrakesh Date of Death: Unknown; probably mid-13th century Place of Death: Unknown
Biography ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Marrākushī was born in Marrakesh, a town he calls ‘the first land that my skin touched’, in 1185, at the beginning of the reign of the Almohad Caliph Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb. At a very early age (he was only nine) he went to Fez, a center of science and cultural life, to study the Qur’an and Arabic language. Altho…
Abner of Burgos/Alfonso of Valladolid
(1,660 words)
Master (Maese, Maestro) Alfonso Date of Birth: Approximately 1260-70 Place of Birth: Unknown, but probably Burgos Date of Death: Approximately 1345-47 Place of Death: Unknown, but probably Valladolid
Biography Little is known about the early life of Abner of Burgos, but on the basis of information in his
Moreh tsedeḳ (‘Teacher of righteousness’, now extant only in Castilian as
Mostrador de justicia), it is estimated that he was born into the Jewish community in or around Burgos sometime between 1260 and 1270. Judging by his works, it is assumed he receive…
Abū l-ʿAbbās ʿAbdallāh ibn Hārūn al-Maʾmūn
(416 words)
The Caliph al-Maʾmūn Date of Birth: 786 Place of Birth: Baghdad Date of Death: 833 Place of Death: Tarsus
Biography As his name indicates, ʿAbdallāh ibn Hārūn was the son of the Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd. Declared second heir after his brother al-Amīn, he established himself as governor of Khurāsān during his brother's caliphate. In 810, tensions between the two erupted into open hostility, and by 813 power had moved away from al-Amīn; he was executed, and al-Maʾmūn was acknowledged as caliph. His control over the empire was finally assured when he left Khurāsān and entered Baghdad in 819. Al-M…
Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Īrānshahrī
(744 words)
Al-Īrānshahrī Date of Birth: Unknown Place of Birth: Nīshāpūr Date of Death: Late 9th c. Place of Death: Unknown, possibly Nīshāpūr
Biography Very little is known about this figure, even his full name (
Encyclopaedia Iranica and Aminrazavi 1999 give it as Abū l-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Īrānshahrī but do not cite a source), though the few surviving fragments of information suggest he was anything but orthodox. He came from Nīshāpūr, also known as Īrānshahr, and is mentioned by al-Bīrūnī as witnessing a solar eclipse there in 873 (Pines,
Doctrine, pp. 193-94 n. 1). Al-Bīrūnī al…
Abū l-ʿAbbās ʿĪsā ibn Zayd ibn Abī Malik
(179 words)
Abū l-ʿAbbās ʿĪsā ibn Zayd Date of Birth: Unknown, early/mid-9th c.? Place of Birth: Unknown (probably Iraq) Date of Death: Unknown, end of 9th c.? Place of Death: Unknown (probably Iraq, perhaps in or near al-Anbār or Baghdad)
Biography Very little is known about this East-Syrian author. The monk Ḥanūn ibn Yūḥannā ibn al-Ṣalt, who outlived him, praised his piety, intellect and generosity, recounted a conversation that Abū l-ʿAbbās had once held with the Catholicos John III bar Narsai (in office 884-92), and related that he himself h…
Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Baṣrī
(545 words)
Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Baṣrī, al-Khāghidhī, al-Juʿal Date of Birth: Unknown, probably early 10th century (dates ranging from 902 to 921 are given) Place of Birth: Basra Date of Death: 19 June, 980 Place of Death: Baghdad
Biography Abū ʿAbdallāh was born in Basra sometime early in the 10th century. In his youth he came under the influence of Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī (d. 934) (q.v.), the leader of the Basra school of the Muʿtazila, and Abū Hāshim’s pupil Ibn Khallād (q.v.), who was his own teacher in Muʿtazilī theology. He mo…