Arabic Christianity in the Monasteries of Ninth-Century Palestine Contributor(s): Griffith, Sidney H. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0860783375 ISBN-13: 9780860783374 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $178.20 Product Type: Hardcover Published: August 1992 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History - Religion | Christianity - History |
Dewey: 275.694 |
LCCN: 92015836 |
Series: Variorum Collected Studies |
Physical Information: (1.60 lbs) 352 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The history of Christian literature took a new turn in the 8th century when monks in the monasteries of Palestine began to write theology and saints' lives in Arabic; they also instituted a veritable programme for translating the Bible and other Christian texts from Greek (and Syriac) into the language of the Qur'an, the lingua franca of the Islamic caliphate. This is the subject of the present volume. Two key factors leading to this change, as Professor Griffith indicates, were that the confrontation with the developing theology of Islam created a direct need for apologetics to face this new religious challenge in its own language; and, second, simply that as the memory of Byzantine power waned, so too did the knowledge of Greek. Issues of particular interest in this apologetic literature are those of the freedom of the will, a key topic in the controversies between Melkites and Muslims, and of the legitimacy of icon veneration, a subject of great contemporary concern at the time of Iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire. L'histoire de la litt rature chr tienne a pris un nouveau tournant au 8 si cle lorsque les religieux des monast res de Palestine commenc rent crire la th ologie et la vie des saints en arabe. De m ame, ils institu rent un v ritable programme de traduction de la Bible et autres textes chr tiens du grec (et du syriaque) en langue corannique, la lingua franca du califat islamique. Tel est l'objet du pr sent recueil. Deux facteurs determinants ayant conduit ce changement, comme l'indique le professeur Griffith, taient, en premier lieu, la confrontation avec une th ologie islamique croissante, qui cr ait un besoin pressant pour les apolog tiques de faire face ce nouveau d fi religieux dans la langue propre celui-ci; en second lieu, au fur et mesure que s'estompait la m moire du pourvoir byzantin, il en allait de m ame pour la connaissance que l'on avait de la langue grecque. Ces textes traitent de q |