When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam | National Humanities Center

Work of the Fellows: Monographs; Translations

When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam

By Michael Philip Penn (NHC Fellow, 2007–08; 2012–13)

Christianity; Islam; Islamic History; Syriac Christianity; Primary Sources

Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015

From the publisher’s description:

The first Christians to meet Muslims were not Latin-speaking Christians from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speaking Christians from Constantinople but rather Christians from northern Mesopotamia who spoke the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Living under Muslim rule from the seventh century to the present, Syriac Christians wrote the first and most extensive accounts of Islam, describing a complicated set of religious and cultural exchanges not reducible to the solely antagonistic.

Through its critical introductions and new translations of this invaluable historical material, When Christians First Met Muslims allows scholars, students, and the general public to explore the earliest interactions between what eventually became the world’s two largest religions, shedding new light on Islamic history and Christian-Muslim relations.

Subjects
Religion / History / Christianity / Islam / Islamic History / Syriac Christianity / Primary Sources /

Penn, Michael Philip (NHC Fellow, 2007–08; 2012–13). When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015.