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The Orthodox in the Middle East who remained in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople following the Council of Chalcedon (451), who did not follow the Monophysites, were originally called Melchites (i.e., royalists, from Syr. melk, “king” [cf. Heb. melek, Arab. malik]). It was a term of defamation for their adherence to the Byzantine emperor of Byzantium. As a result of the Islamic conquest (Islam), the three Melchite patriarchates of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem were often vacant. In 960–1085 restoration of Byzantine …

[German Version] are not the Abrahamists (according to Sozomen [5th cent.], known at least in Gaza: cf. Crone), and not the Abrahamites of Bohemia (18th cent.). Abrahamic religions are the monotheistic religions that trace themselves to Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These religions argued over him (cf. John 8:30–47; Gal 3:7–10; 4:22–31; Qur'ān 2:135–141; 3:67–68), but he could still form a bridge between them. Adel-Theodor Khoury Bibliography P. Crone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam, 1987, 190–191, n. 4 H.J. Kuschel, Streit um Abraham, 1994.