Michael Philip Penn (NHC Fellow, 2007–08; 2012–13)
Project Title, 2007–08
Imaging Islam: Syriac Christian Responses to the Islamic Conquests
Mount Holyoke College
Project Title, 2012–13
Syriac Christian Reactions to the Rise of Islam
Mount Holyoke College
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Fellowship Work Summary, 2007–08
Michael Philip Penn wrote "A New Introduction, Edition, Translation, and Commentary of John and the Emir" for Le Muséon; "The Great Isaiah Scroll" for Art Forum; and multiple entries for the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (Gorgias Press, forthcoming). He wrote several other articles for journal publication including "Moving Beyond the Palimpsest: Erasure in Syriac Manuscripts," "A Temporarily Resurrected Dog and Other Wonders: Thomas of Marga and Early Christian/Muslim Encounters," and "Reconsecrating a Defiled Church: Medieval Syriac Ritual and Its Later Modifications," and began work on "God's War and His Warriors: Syriac Christian Interpretations of the Islamic Conquest." In addition, as coauthor, editor, and translator (with Luc Van Rompay), he worked on "Pseudo-Clementine Epistles on Virginity."
Fellowship Work Summary, 2012–13
Michael Philip Penn drafted most of his book When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam and completed revisions for Imaging Islam: Syriac Christianity and the Reimagining of Early Christian-Muslim Relations. He also finished “Jacob of Edessa’s Defining Christianity: An Introduction, Edition, and Translation” for the Journal of Eastern Christian Studies (2012); “Demons Gone Wild: An Introduction, Edition, and Translation of the Syriac Qenneshre Fragment” for Orientalia Christiana Periodica; and “Melania’s Afterlife” for an edited volume.