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Date of Birth: 1627 Place of Birth: Isfahan Date of Death: Between 1698 and 1700 Place of Death: Isfahan Biography Muḥammad-Bāqir al-Majlisī was a famous Twelver Shīʿī jurist and theologian in Safavid Iran (1501-1722), whose exact date of death continues to be disputed. Since he was the son of an important jurist and Hadith commentator with the same last name, Muḥammad Taqī al-Majlisī (1594/5-1659/60), Muḥammad-Bāqir is known as ‘Majlisī II’ (Arabic:  Majlisī thānī; Persian: Majlisī duvvum) .  Father and son are both associated with Isfahan.  As Shīʿism became truly entrenche…

Michele Febure, Michel Fébure (Le Fèvre), Michele da Novi, Giustiniano da Novi, Miguel Fabro da Novi, Mikhāʾīl al-Fabūrī l-Ifranjī Date of Birth: About 1630 Place of Birth: Neuvy (probably Neuvy-le-Roi) Date of Death: After 1687 Place of Death: Aleppo Biography Justinien de Neuvy is the name given to Michel Febvre when he took religious orders. As was common among Capuchin friars, this name indicates his birthplace, most probably Neuvy-le-Roi (Département d’Indre et Loire in the Touraine region), although the most frequently mentioned…

Christian-Muslim Relations A Bibliographical History Volume 13. Western Europe (1700-1800) CONTENTS Foreword  List of illustrations  List of maps  Abbreviations  Clinton Bennett, Introduction: Western Europe and Islam in the  long 18th century. Demonisation to dialogue Jan Loop, Islam and the European Enlightenment Avner Ben-Zaken, Intellectual, scientific and technological relations between Christian and Muslim civilisations 1580-1822 Works on Christian-Muslim relations 1700-1800  North-west Europe British Isles  Edward Pococke Junior           Nabil Mata…

Christian-Muslim Relations A Bibliographical HistoryVolume 19. Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America (1800-1914)  CONTENTSForewordList of illustrationsList of mapsAbbreviations  Sub-Saharan AfricaJaco Beyers, Introduction: Christian-Muslim relations in 19th century sub-Saharan AfricaShobana Shankar, British colonial policy towards Islam in sub-Saharan Africa, 1800-1914Bernard Salvaing, French Colonial Policy on Islam in sub-Saharan AfricaWorks on Christian-Muslim relations 1800-1914  Latin AmericaArely Medina and Diego Melo Carrasco, Introduct…

Date of Birth: 8 May 1737 Place of Birth: Putney, Surrey Date of Death: 16 January 1794 Place of Death: St James Street, London BiographyEdward Gibbon was born on 8 May 1737 in Putney, Surrey, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon, and was the only one of their six children to survive into adulthood. Mainly educated privately due to ill health, he spent several years at a school in Kingston-upon-Thames (1746-8) and was briefly at Westminster School (1749-50), which his father had attended. Following an improvement in his…

‘Works on the Saracens’ Nikolaos Kyritzēs, Nicolae Caragea, Nicolae Caradja Date: Between 1770 and 1780 Original Language: Greek Description Sarakēnika is the short name given by a 19th-century scribal hand to a massive codex (440 folios) authored by Nicholas Karatzas. The title given by Karatzas himself is longer and more explanatory of the contents, in translation: Against Muḥammad , ruler and teacher of Ishmaelites and Saracens, the pseudo-prophet and interpreter of their heresy. The laws established by Muhammad on the religion of the Turks, extracted from his boo…

Regimento dado por Diogo Lopes a D. Rodrigo da Cunha‘Instructions given by Diogo Lopes to D. Rodrigo da Cunha, sent as ambassador to the court of Prester John’ Diogo Lopes de Sequeira Date: 25 April 1520 Original Language: Portuguese Description This document, six pages long (Rego, ‘Regimento’, pp. 20-33), was written by Lopes de Sequeira in the port of Massawa on the African coast of the Red Sea. It gives instructions to Rodrigo da Cunha de Lima about the conduct of an embassy to the Abyssinian court to meet with ‘Prester John’. It c…

- William Ambrose Shedd Date: 1904 Original Language: English Description Islam and the Oriental Churches , their historical relations is a 251-page work that originated as six lectures given by Shedd at various Protestant seminaries in 1902-3 during a furlough from missionary work in Persia. The lectures were well received and Shedd was encouraged by Princeton Seminary to publish them. The lectures cover the impact of Islam on the Syriac-speaking churches (e.g. Jacobite and ‘Nestorian’), primarily based on Syriac Christian sources, especially Bar Hebraeus’s Syriac chronicle an…

‘The fortress of Surami’ Daniel Čonkʻaże Date: 1859-60 Original Language: Georgian DescriptionThe novella  Suramis cʻixe was first published in the journal  Cʻiskari, the first part appearing in 1859 and the second in 1860. The 1924 edition is 24 pages long. Published in the years preceding the abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861, the work reflects class conflict. To divert the attention of the censors, Chonkadze based it on a legend associated with the fortress of Surami in eastern Georgia and set it in the Mid…

Kamāl al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ʿAlavī ʿĀmilī Date of Birth: Unknown Place of Birth: Isfahan Date of Death: Between 1644 and 1650 Place of Death: Isfahan Biography Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn ʿAlavī ʿĀmilī Iṣfahānī was one of the most prominent Twelver Shīʿī scholars in Safavid Persia in the first half of the 17th century. His family had migrated to Iran from Jabal ʿĀmil in Ottoman Syria. Among his teachers was the influential ‘chief jurisconsult’ ( shaykh al-Islām) of Isfahan, Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-ʿĀmilī (‘Shaykh Bahāʾī’, d. 1621), as well as the renowned Sh…

ʿAlī Qulī Jadīd al-Islām, António de Jesus Date of Birth: Second half of the 17th century Place of Birth: Portugal Date of Death: Around 1722 Place of Death: Unconfirmed; probably Isfahan BiographyMost documentary evidence suggests that ʿAlī Qulī Jadīd al-Islām was the post-conversion name of the Portuguese Augustinian missionary António de Jesus, who converted to Islam in Iran towards the end of the 17th century. After his conversion, he went on to become a major polemicist against Christianity and Sufism. Little is known about the details of Alī Qulī’s life. His exact dat…

‘Rejecting the sophistries of the unbelievers by presenting inquiries into the three faiths’ Āqā Muḥammad ʿAlī Kirmānshāhī, Āqā Muḥammad ʿAlī Mujtahid, Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn al-Waḥīd al-Bihbahānī, Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad Bāqir al-Bihbahānī, Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad Bāqir Iṣfahānī Date: 4 March 1801 Original Language: Persian DescriptionAt the beginning of the introduction to  Rādd shubahāt al-kuffār, Bihbahānī explains that, while he was in Tehran in 1798, Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah requested explanations about a few matters including interreligious issues. B…

Ignace Etienne Brasil, Ignace Etienne Brazil Date of Birth: 25 December 1882 Place of Birth: Ottoman Empire Date of Death: 15 March 1955 Place of Death: Rio de Janeiro BiographyThe life of Abbé Ignace Etienne can only be traced from his published works. Scattered over Brazilian newspapers and some European journals, these publications not only shed light on his private life, but also provide insight into his intellectual reading and his political engagement, which included relations with the Ottoman Empire and issues concerning it.Ignace Etienne was born on 25 December 1882, …

- Laurent d’Arvieux Date: 1735 Original Language: French DescriptionThe Mémoires du Chevalier d’Arvieux is dedicated to Louis François de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, in posthumous gratitude for his grandfather’s support of d’Arvieux during their lifetimes. The full title is Mémoires du Chevalier d’Arvieux, envoyé extraordinaire du Roy à la Porte, Consul d’Alep, d’Alger, de Tripoli, & autres Echelles du Levant. Contenant ses Voyages à Constantinople, dans l’Asie, la Syrie, la Palestine, l’Egypte, & la Barbarie, la description de ces païs, les religions, les…

- Nicolas Antoine Boulanger Date: Late 1750s Original Language: French DescriptionThis treatise was in all likelihood composed at the very end of Boulanger’s life. His purpose in it was to ‘unmask’ an historical and theological deception and to reveal the true face of two imaginary figures on whom Scripture imposed the mythical persona of prophets: Elijah and Enoch. In the opening lines, he explains that Elijah is merely the embodiment of an astronomical symbol shown to the peoples after many years and ce…

'Christianity, Islam and their people' Jamāl al-Dīn Asadābādī Date: 1884 Original Language: Arabic Description‘Al-Naṣrāniyya wa-l-Islām wa-ahluhumā’ is an article of only a few pages that al-Afghānī wrote in Paris in collaboration with his student and ardent defender Muḥammad ʿAbduh (d. 1905), the celebrated Egyptian reformer, litterateur, and theologian, in their joint journal  Al-ʿUrwa l-Wuthqā (‘The firmest bond’) . In the article, al-Afghānī blends philosophical metaphor and symbolism typical of Aristotelian-Avicennan ways of expression with poli…

'Letter from Father Dom Gonçalo to the Fathers and Brothers of the College of the Society of Jesus in Goa’ Dom Gonçalo da Silveira Date: 9 August 1560 Original Language: Portuguese Description The letter was written on 9 August 1560, later in the year of Dom Gonçalo’s arrival in Africa. It is five printed pages in length. Dom Gonçalo opens the letter with thanksgiving that the king and queen of Tonge (Otongue) have received baptism, along with many relatives, including all the king’s sons and daughters, as well as many nobleme…

Biography Hernando de Talavera was born in Talavera de la Reina between 1428 and 1430. Very little is known of his early years. He was probably the illegitimate son of one of the Álvarez de Toledo, lords of Oropesa, and his mother may have come from a family of converts. The Álvarez de Toledo family partially financed the studies of the young Talavera, who is first heard of in 1442, when he was in Barcelona studying calligraphy. Later he joined the University of Salamanca, where, in around 1444, he was studying a course in arts and later in theology. In 1460, he was ordained priest, and betwe…

‘On Muḥammad and against the Latins’ Anastasios Gordios Date: Approximately 1717-21 Original Language: Greek (modern) DescriptionThis treatise is Gordios’s most remarkable theological work, demonstrating his theological and ideological attitude towards the religious and historical developments of his time. It is extant in a large number of manuscripts; in the critical edition it is around 90 pages long. In the Preface (chs 1-4), Gordios mentions verses in the Book of Revelation that he claims refer to Muḥammad. Developing these, in Part I (chs 5-17) …

Date of Birth: 14 September 1802 Place of Birth: Maroldsweisach, Germany Date of Death: 9 August 1874 Place of Death: London BiographyFerdinand Christian Ewald was born on 14 September 1802 in a little village near Bamberg, Bavaria, to very poor Jewish parents. Not much is known about his youth. It seems that despite his parents’ poverty he received a thorough education, and it is said that he displayed a special aptitude for ancient languages. Later, he went to Basel, and received there (possibly further) Christian…