Seeing Islam as Others Saw It
Encyclopedia
Seeing Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam from the Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam series is a book by scholar of the Middle East Robert G. Hoyland
.
The book contains an extensive collection of Greek
, Syria
n, Copt
ic, Armenia
n, Latin
, Jewish, Persian
, and Chinese
primary sources written between 620 and 780 AD in the Middle East, which provides a survey of eyewitness accounts of historical events during the formative period of Islam
.
The book presents the evidentiary text of over 120 seventh century manuscripts, one of which (the manuscript of Thomas the Presbyter
) contains what Hoyland believes is the "first explicit reference to Muhammad in a non-Muslim source:"
According to Michael G. Morony
, Hoyland emphasizes the parallels between Muslim and non-Muslim accounts of history emphasizing that non-Muslim texts often explain the same history as the Muslim ones even though they were recorded earlier. He concludes "Hoyland's treatment of the materials is judicious, honest, complex, and extremely useful."
Robert G. Hoyland
Robert G. Hoyland is a scholar and historian, specializing in the medieval history of the Middle East. He is a former student of historian Patricia Crone and was a Leverhulme Fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford. He is currently Professor of Islamic History at the Oriental Institute at the University...
.
The book contains an extensive collection of Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n, Copt
Copt
The Copts are the native Egyptian Christians , a major ethnoreligious group in Egypt....
ic, Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Jewish, Persian
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, and Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
primary sources written between 620 and 780 AD in the Middle East, which provides a survey of eyewitness accounts of historical events during the formative period of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
.
The book presents the evidentiary text of over 120 seventh century manuscripts, one of which (the manuscript of Thomas the Presbyter
Thomas the Presbyter
Thomas the Presbyter was a 7th century Middle Eastern Jacobite author of anti-chalcedonian Syriac writings whose manuscripsts are preserved in the British library of Syriac Manuscripts....
) contains what Hoyland believes is the "first explicit reference to Muhammad in a non-Muslim source:"
- In the year 945, indiction 7, on Friday 7 February (634) at the ninth hour, there was a battle between the Romans and the Arabs of Muhammad (tayyaye d-Mhmt) in Palestine twelve miles east of Gaza. The Romans fled, leaving behind the patrician Bryrdn, whom the Arabs killed. Some 4000 poor villagers of Palestine were killed there, Christians, Jews and Samaritans. The Arabs ravaged the whole region.
According to Michael G. Morony
Michael G. Morony
Michael Gregory Morony has been a professor of history at UCLA since 1974, with interests in the history of Ancient and Islamic Near East.Morony was born in 1939 in Sacramento...
, Hoyland emphasizes the parallels between Muslim and non-Muslim accounts of history emphasizing that non-Muslim texts often explain the same history as the Muslim ones even though they were recorded earlier. He concludes "Hoyland's treatment of the materials is judicious, honest, complex, and extremely useful."
Greek Sources
- A Christian Apologist of 634Doctrina JacobiThe Teaching of Jacob, is a 7th century Greek Christian anti-Jewish polemical tract set in Carthage in 634 but written in Palestine sometime between 634 and 640...
- John Moschus
- Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem
- Pope Martin IPope Martin IPope Martin I, born near Todi, Umbria in the place now named after him , was pope from 649 to 653, succeeding Pope Theodore I in July 5, 649. The only pope during the Byzantine Papacy whose election was not approved by a iussio from Constantinople, Martin I was abducted by Constans II and died in...
- Maximus the ConfessorMaximus the ConfessorMaximus the Confessor was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar. In his early life, he was a civil servant, and an aide to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius...
- Anti-Jewish Polemicists of the Seventh Century
- The Miracles of S. Demetrius and S. GeorgeSaint GeorgeSaint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic , Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox...
- Anastasius of Sinai Anastasius SinaitaSaint Anastasius Sinaïta or Anastasius of Sinai, also called Anastasios of Sinai, was a prolific and important seventh century Greek ecclesiastical writer, priest, monk, and abbot of Saint Catherine's Monastery at Mt. Sinai....
- Patriarch GermanusPatriarch Germanos I of ConstantinopleSaint Germanus I was Patriarch of Constantinople from 715 to 730. He is regarded as a saint, with a feast day of May 12.-Life:According to Theophanes the Confessor, Germanus was a son of patrician Justinian who was executed in 668. Justinian was reportedly involved in the murder of Constans II and...
- Cosmas of Jerusalem
- Stephen the SabaiteSaint Stephen the SabaiteSaint Stephen the Sabaite was a Christian monk from Julis, a district of Gaza. He was a nephew of John of Damascus and spent a half-century in the monastery of Mar Saba....
- John the Eremopolite
- A Greek-Coptic Papyrus
- Berlin Papyrus no. 10677Berlin papyrusThe Berlin Papyrus 6619, commonly known as the Berlin Papyrus, is an ancient Egyptian papyrus document from the Middle Kingdom. This papyrus was found at the ancient burial ground of Saqqara in the early 19th century CE....
- Timothy the Stylite
West Syrian, Coptic and Armenian Sources
- Fragment on the Arab ConquestsFragment on the Arab ConquestsFragment on the Arab Conquests are fragmentary notes that were written around the year 636 AD on the front blank pages of a sixth-century Syriac Christian Gospel manuscript which depict events from the early seventh century conflict between the Byzantines and what the Fragments call "the Arabs of...
- Thomas the PresbyterThomas the PresbyterThomas the Presbyter was a 7th century Middle Eastern Jacobite author of anti-chalcedonian Syriac writings whose manuscripsts are preserved in the British library of Syriac Manuscripts....
- Homily on the Child Saints of BabylonHomily on the Child Saints of BabylonThe Homily on the Child Saints of Babylon is a Christian sermon given in Iraq around 640 AD which makes a historical reference to the conduct of the Saracens and the Jews during that period....
- Gabriel of QartminGabriel of QartminGabriel of Qartmin was an 7th century abbot in the famous Syrian Orthodox Christian Qartmin monastery located in present day Turkey.A medieval manuscript titled the Life of Gabriel of Qartmin provides a glimpse into the events in the middle east during the 7th century.The quote below provides an...
- Sebeos, Bishop of the BagratunisSebeosSebeos was a 7th century Armenian bishop and historian who participated in the first Council of Dvin in 645.The history of Sebeos contains detailed descriptions from the period of Sassanid supremacy in Armenia up to the Islamic conquest in 661...
- Benjamin I, Patriarch of AlexandriaPope Benjamin of AlexandriaPope Benjamin I of Alexandria was the thirty-eighth Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. He is regarded as one of the greatest patriarchs of the Coptic Church...
- A Maronite Chronicler
- George of Resh'ainaGeorge of Resh'ainaGeorge of Resh'aina was a 7th century Syriac historian. He was opposed to Maximus the Confessor, the defender of orthodoxy against monotheletism and wrote an unfriendly biography of him. This book also provides a glimpse into the events of his time....
- Daniel, Bishop of Edessa
- Athanasius of Balad, Patriarch of Antioch Athanasius of BaladAthanasius of Balad AD was a medieval scholar and the patriarch of Antioch, Syria. A Christian monophysite, he devoted himself to Greek philosophy. He produced commentaries and translations of Greek texts into Syriac.- Quotes :...
- Isaac, Patriarch of Alexandria Pope Isaac of AlexandriaPope Isaac of Alexandria was the Coptic Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark from 689 to 692. He is commemorated in the Coptic Synaxarion on the 9th day of Hathor....
- John, Bishop of NikiuJohn of NikiûJohn of Nikiû was an Egyptian Coptic bishop of Nikiû/Pashati in the Nile Delta and appointed general administrator of the monasteries of Upper Egypt in 696...
- Theodotus of Amida
- Jacob of EdessaJacob of EdessaJacob of Edessa was one of the most distinguished of Syriac writers.-Life:Jacob of Edessa was born in Aindaba near Aleppo, around 640...
- Zacharias, Bishop of Sakha
- Simeon of the Olives
- A Coptic Papyrus
- Theophilus of AlexandriaTheophilus of AlexandriaTheophilus of Alexandria was Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, from 385 to 412. He is regarded as a saint by the Coptic Orthodox Church....
- A Letter of Bishop Jonah
East Syrian Sources
- Isho'yahb III of AdiabeneIsho'yahb III of AdiabeneIshoyahb III of Adiabene was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 649 to 659. Sources =Brief accounts of Ishoyahb's patriarchate are given in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of the Jacobite writer Bar Hebraeus , and the ecclesiastical histories of the Nestorian writers Mari , Amr and Sliba...
- A Chronicler of Khuzistan
- Rabban Hormizd
- George IGeorge IGeorge I may refer to:* Patriarch George I of Constantinople * George I of Georgia * George I of Russia, * George I of Bulgaria * George I of Halych George I may refer to:* Patriarch George I of Constantinople (d. 686)* George I of Georgia (1014–1027)* George I of Russia, (c. 1099–1157)* George I...
- John bar PenkayeJohn bar PenkayeJohn bar Penkaye; Yūḥannan bar penqayê, was a 7th century East Syriac Nestorian Christian writer of the late 7th century. He lived at the time of fifth caliph of the Umayyad dynasty Abd al-Malik....
- Hnanisho' the ExegeteHnanisho' the ExegeteHnanisho' the Exegete was a 7th century Catholic priest in Iraq whose writings give witness to the events of his time including the relationship between the Christians and the Jews and the "new folly" "spread by the sword" which was later to become Islam....
- John of Daylam
- Isho'bokht, Metropolitan of Fars
- The Abbots of the Convent of Sabrisho'
- Isho'dnah of Basra
- Thomas of MargaThomas of MargaToma bar Yacoub was an ethnic Assyrian bishop and author of an important monastic history in Syriac, who flourished in the 9th century CE. He was born early in the century in the region of Salakh to the north-east of Mosul...
Latin Sources
- Fredegar, a Frankish ChroniclerChronicle of FredegarThe Chronicle of Fredegar is a chronicle that is a primary source of events in Frankish Gaul from 584 to around 641. Later authors continued the history to the coronation of Charlemagne and his brother Carloman on 9 October 768....
- ArculfArculfArculf , was a Frankish Bishop who toured the Levant in around 680. Bede claimed he was a bishop , who, according to Bede's history of the Church in England , was shipwrecked on the shore of Iona, Scotland on his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and was hospitably received by Adamnan, the...
- WillibaldWillibaldSaint Willibald was an 8th century bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria.Information about his life is largely drawn from the Hodoeporicon of Saint Willibald, a text written in the 8th century by Huneberc, an Anglo-Saxon nun from Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm who knew Willibald and his brother personally...
- Later Testimonia
- Historia miscella
- Morienus the Greek
Syriac Texts
- Ps.-EphraemApocalypse of Pseudo-EphraemApocalypse of Pseudo-Ephraem is a 7th century Syrian tract which provides a glimpse into the events that took place during its time in the Middle-East.- Use of Pseudo-Ephraem in Rapture Controversy :...
- Ps.-MethodiusApocalypse of Pseudo-MethodiusThe Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius is a 7th-century apocalypse that shaped the eschatological imagination of Christendom throughout the Middle Ages. The work was written in Syriac in the late 7th century, in reaction to the Islamic conquest of the Near East, and is falsely attributed to the...
- The Edessene Ps.-Methodius and John the Little
- BahiraBahiraBahira , or "Sergius the Monk" to the Latin West, was a Syriac or Bahrani Nestorian monk who, according to tradition, foretold to the adolescent Muhammad his future prophetic career.-Islamic tradition:...
- Ps.-Ezra
- Copto-Arabic Texts
- Ps.-Shenute
- Ps.-Athanasius
- Samuel of Qalamoun and Pisentius of Qift
- Coptic Daniel, XIV Vision
- Arabic Apocalypse of Peter/Book of the Rolls
Greek Texts
- Ps.-Methodius, Greek Translation
- Greek Daniel, First Vision
- The Vision of Enoch the Just
- Stephen of AlexandriaStephen of AlexandriaStephen of Alexandria was a 7th century Byzantine philosopher, astronomer and teacher. He was a public lecturer in the court of Heraclius . In the manuscripts he is called the Universal Philosopher.He taught on Plato and Aristotle, and on Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy and Music.- Works :1...
- The Andreas Salos Apocalypse
Hebrew Texts
- The Secrets of Rabbi Simon ben YohaiThe Secrets of Rabbi Simon ben YohaiThe Secrets of Rabbi Simon hen Yobay is a Jewish apocalypse of the mid-eighth century, which present a Judaic messianic interpretation of the Arab conquest of the early 7th century and which appears to confirm the authenticity of similar interpretations found in the Doctrina...
- Pesiqta rabbati
- The Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer
- Jewish Apocalypse on the Umayyads
- Signs of the Messiah
- On That Day
- A Judaeo-Byzantine Daniel
Persian Texts
- Bahman yasht
- Jamasp Namag
- BundahishnBundahishnBundahishn, meaning "Primal Creation", is the name traditionally given to an encyclopædiaic collections of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology written in Book Pahlavi. The original name of the work is not known....
- DenkardDenkardThe Dēnkard or Dēnkart is a 10th century compendium of the Mazdaen Zoroastrian beliefs and customs. The Denkard is to a great extent an "Encyclopedia of Mazdaism" and is a most valuable source of information on the religion...
- A Pahlavi Ballad on the End of Times
- The Prophecy of Rostam
- A Judaeo-Persian Daniel
Muslim Arabic Texts
- Signs of the Hour
- `Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and the Mahdi
- Tiberius, Son of Justinian
- An Apocalyptic Chronicle
Greek Texts
- Sixty Martyrs of Gaza
- George the Black
- A Christian Arab of Sinai
- Peter of CapitoliasPeter of CapitoliasPeter of Capitolias 7th century Christian saint. He was born in Capitolias, in what is today Jordan, married and became the father of three children. After the death of his wife, he became a monk and, according to some traditions, was later consecrated bishop of Busra.He was tortured and beheaded...
- Sixty Pilgrims in Jerusalem
- Elias of Damascus
- Romanus the Neomartyr
- Copto-Arabic Texts
- Menas the Monk
- Thomas, Bishop of Damascus
Syriac Texts
- Michael the Sabaite
- `Abd al-Masih al-Najrani al-Ghassani
- A Muslim at Diospolis
Syriac Texts
- Theophilus of Edessa and the Syriac
- The Zuqnin Chronicler
- The Ehnesh Inscription
- Dionysius of Tellmahre
- The Chronicles of 819 and 846
- Elias of Nisibis
Greek Texts
- Theophanes the ConfessorTheophanes the ConfessorSaint Theophanes Confessor was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy, who became a monk and chronicler. He is venerated on March 12 in the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church .-Biography:Theophanes was born in Constantinople of wealthy and noble iconodule parents: Isaac,...
- Patriarch Nicephorus
- A Short Chronology ad annum 818
- Armenian Texts
- Christian Arabic Texts
- Agapius, Bishop of Manbij
- Eutychius of Alexandria
- The Chronicle of Siirt
- The History of the Patriarchs
- Jewish Texts
- Samaritan Texts
- Derivative Accounts
Syriac Texts
- Patriarch John I and an Arab Commander
- A Monk of Beth Hale and an Arab Notable
- Timothy I
- BahiraBahiraBahira , or "Sergius the Monk" to the Latin West, was a Syriac or Bahrani Nestorian monk who, according to tradition, foretold to the adolescent Muhammad his future prophetic career.-Islamic tradition:...
- Greek Texts
- John of DamascusJohn of DamascusSaint John of Damascus was a Syrian monk and priest...
- The Correspondence of Leo III
- and `Umar II
Christian Arabic Texts
- Fi tathlith Allah al-wahid
- Papyrus Schott Reinhard no. 438
- Masa'il wa-ajwiba `aqliya wa-ilahiya
Latin Texts
- Istoria de Mahomet
- Tultusceptru de libro domni Metobii
- John the Stylite
- AbjurationAbjurationAbjuration is the solemn repudiation, abandonment, or renunciation by or upon oath, often the renunciation of citizenship or some other right or privilege. .-Abjuration of the realm:...
- Ms. Mingana 184
See also
Islamic studies by authorIslamic studies by author (non-Muslim or academic)
Included are prominent authors who have made studies concerning Islam, the religion and its civilization, except for those studies of Islam produced by Muslim authors meant primarily for a Muslim audience....