Christians in Iraq After the Muslim Conquest

Christians in Iraq After the Muslim Conquest PDF Author: Michael G. Morony
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781593336028
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This brief introduction to the state of Christianity in Iraq during the ascendancy of Islam begins with a discussion of the friction between Christians and Magians. The political role of the church among the Sassanians, both internally and externally, is addressed. With the Islamic conquest various traditions circulated regarding the tolerance of Christianity within Muslim jurisdiction. Morony skillfully navigates these traditions, providing a plausible historical view. The formation of the Assyrian Church of the East's doctrine and identity as well as their schools, monasteries, laws, and their sense of community and separateness are considered. The contrast with Monophysites with their "Nestorian" competitors rounds out the discussion.

Christians in Iraq After the Muslim Conquest

Christians in Iraq After the Muslim Conquest PDF Author: Michael G. Morony
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781593336028
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This brief introduction to the state of Christianity in Iraq during the ascendancy of Islam begins with a discussion of the friction between Christians and Magians. The political role of the church among the Sassanians, both internally and externally, is addressed. With the Islamic conquest various traditions circulated regarding the tolerance of Christianity within Muslim jurisdiction. Morony skillfully navigates these traditions, providing a plausible historical view. The formation of the Assyrian Church of the East's doctrine and identity as well as their schools, monasteries, laws, and their sense of community and separateness are considered. The contrast with Monophysites with their "Nestorian" competitors rounds out the discussion.

Christianity in Iraq

Christianity in Iraq PDF Author: Suha Rassam
Publisher: Gracewing Publishing
ISBN: 9780852446331
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Christianity was firmly established in Iraq from the earliest times, and the Churches of Iraq were to play a major role in the development of Christian theology and spirituality for many centuries. By the seventh century evangelization from Iraq had brought Christianity to China, Central Asia and India. Yet few people in the West are aware of Christianity's vibrant past in this region, or of the fact that Christianity has continued to be a significant cultural and religious presence in Iraq right up to the present day. The story of the Churches of Iraq, their interaction with each other and their varied fortunes under successive Parthian, Sassanid, Arab, Mongol and Ottoman rule, is told here with consummate skill. Suha Rassam guides the reader seemingly effortlessly through complex issues of doctrinal dispute and ecclesiastical politics. She helps us explore the ancient heritage of these Churches, and the major contribution they have made to the intellectual development of the region and the wider world. Suha Rassam's book comes to fill a large vacuum in the knowledge of those in the West, many of whom are still not aware of the fact that from ancient times Christianity was firmly rooted in Iraq and the rest of the territory now seen as the 'Arab Middle East'. Archbishop Mikhael Al Jamil, Patriarchal Vicar of the Syrian Catholic Church of Antioch to the Holy See and Vicar Apostolic for Europe Dr Suha Rassam has written a work of remarkable scholarship. But is is also a vivid portrayal of an extraordinary story of conflict, persecution and, for fifty years in the twentieth century, of hope, harmony and prosperity for the Christian community in Iraq. It would be a tragedy if that Christian community were now extinguished. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster Gives to the general interested public a comprehensive and informed insight into two thousand years of Christianity in Iraq. Dr Erica Hunter, School of Oriental and African Studies, London University

Christian Martyrs Under Islam

Christian Martyrs Under Islam PDF Author: Christian C. Sahner
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069120313X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
A look at the developing conflicts in Christian-Muslim relations during late antiquity and the early Islamic era How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play in this process? Christian Martyrs under Islam explains how Christians across the early Islamic caliphate slowly converted to the faith of the Arab conquerors and how small groups of individuals rejected this faith through dramatic acts of resistance, including apostasy and blasphemy. Using previously untapped sources in a range of Middle Eastern languages, Christian Sahner introduces an unknown group of martyrs who were executed at the hands of Muslim officials between the seventh and ninth centuries CE. Found in places as diverse as Syria, Spain, Egypt, and Armenia, they include an alleged descendant of Muhammad who converted to Christianity, high-ranking Christian secretaries of the Muslim state who viciously insulted the Prophet, and the children of mixed marriages between Muslims and Christians. Sahner argues that Christians never experienced systematic persecution under the early caliphs, and indeed, they remained the largest portion of the population in the greater Middle East for centuries after the Arab conquest. Still, episodes of ferocious violence contributed to the spread of Islam within Christian societies, and memories of this bloodshed played a key role in shaping Christian identity in the new Islamic empire. Christian Martyrs under Islam examines how violence against Christians ended the age of porous religious boundaries and laid the foundations for more antagonistic Muslim-Christian relations in the centuries to come.

A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East

A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East PDF Author: Heather J. Sharkey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052176937X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
This book traces the history of conflict and contact between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Ottoman Middle East prior to 1914.

The Vanishing

The Vanishing PDF Author: Janine di Giovanni
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541756681
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
The Vanishing reveals the plight and possible extinction of Christian communities across Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Palestine after 2,000 years in their historical homeland. Some of the countries that first nurtured and characterized Christianity - along the North African Coast, on the Euphrates and across the Middle East and Arabia - are the ones in which it is likely to first go extinct. Christians are already vanishing. We are past the tipping point, now tilted toward the end of Christianity in its historical homeland. Christians have fled the lands where their prophets wandered, where Jesus Christ preached, where the great Doctors and hierarchs of the early church established the doctrinal norms that would last millennia. From Syria to Egypt, the cities of northern Iraq to the Gaza Strip, ancient communities, the birthplaces of prophets and saints, are losing any living connection to the religion that once was such a characteristic feature of their social and cultural lives. In The Vanishing, Janine di Giovanni has combined astonishing journalistic work to discover the last traces of small, hardy communities that have become wisely fearful of outsiders and where ancient rituals are quietly preserved amid 360 degree threats. Di Giovanni's riveting personal stories and her conception of faith and hope are intertwined throughout the chapters. The book is a unique act of pre-archeology: the last chance to visit the living religion before all that will be left are the stones of the past.

Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule

Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule PDF Author: David Richard Thomas
Publisher: History of Christian-Muslim Re
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This volume on Christian life and thought in Baghdad under 'Abbasid rule illustrates the vigour of Christianity, and shows that relations between Christians and Muslims, although at times strained, could often be beneficial to followers of both faiths.

They Say We Are Infidels

They Say We Are Infidels PDF Author: Mindy Belz
Publisher: NavPress
ISBN: 1496425405
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
Now with a new chapter! “Everywhere militants were blowing up Christians, their churches, their shops. They threatened them with kidnapping. They promised to take their children. The message to these ‘infidels’: You have no place in Iraq. Pay a penalty to stay, leave, or be killed.” Sweeping from Syria into Iraq, Islamic State fighters (ISIS) have been brutalizing and annihilating Christians. How? Why? Where did the terrorists come from, and what can be done to stop them? For more than a decade, journalist Mindy Belz has reported on the ground from the Middle East, giving her unparalleled access to the story no one wants to believe. In They Say We Are Infidels, she brings the stark reality of this escalating genocide to light, tracking the stories of real-life Christians who refuse to abandon their faith—even in the face of losing everything, including their lives. As Reading Lolita in Tehran did for Iran and We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families did for Rwanda, They Say We Are Infidels shines light into the Middle East through the stories of everyday heroes and heroines who will not be silenced. A must-read for anyone seeking a firmer grasp on the complex dynamics at play in war-torn Iraq and Syria, They Say We Are Infidels is the eye-opening and revelatory testimony of a journalist who heads into a war zone—and is forever changed by the people she encounters there.

The Last Christians

The Last Christians PDF Author: Andreas Knapp
Publisher: Gospel in Great Writers
ISBN: 9780874860627
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A Westerner's travels among the persecuted and displaced Christian remnant in Iraq and Syria teach him much about faith under fire. Gold Medal Winner, 2018 IPPY Book of the Year Award Silver Medal Winner, 2018 Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist, 2018 ECPA Christian Book Award Inside Syria and Iraq, and even along the refugee trail, they're a religious minority persecuted for their Christian faith. Outside the Middle East, they're suspect because of their nationality. A small remnant of Christians is on the run from the Islamic State. If they are wiped out, or scattered to the corners of the earth, the language that Jesus spoke may be lost forever - along with the witness of a church that has modeled Jesus' way of nonviolence and enemy-love for two millennia. The kidnapping, enslavement, torture, and murder of Christians by the Islamic State, or ISIS, have been detailed by journalists, as have the jihadists' deliberate efforts to destroy the cultural heritage of a region that is the cradle of Christianity. But some stories run deep, and without a better understanding of the religious and historical roots of the present conflict, history will keep repeating itself century after century. Andreas Knapp, a priest who works with refugees in Germany, travelled to camps for displaced people in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq to collect stories of survivors - and to seek answers to troubling questions about the link between religion and violence. He found Christians who today still speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The uprooted remnant of ancient churches, they doggedly continue to practice their faith despite the odds. Their devastating eyewitness reports make it clear why millions are fleeing the Middle East. Yet, remarkably, though these last Christians hold little hope of ever returning to their homes, they also harbor no thirst for revenge. Could it be that they - along with the Christians of the West, whose interest will determine their fate - hold the key to breaking the cycle of violence in the region? Includes sixteen pages of color photographs.

Christians and the Middle East Conflict

Christians and the Middle East Conflict PDF Author: Paul S Rowe
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317801105
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Christians and the Middle East Conflict deals with the relationship of Christians and Christian theology to the various conflicts in the Middle East, a topic that is often sensationalized but still insufficiently understood. Political developments over the last two decades, however, have prompted observers to rediscover and examine the central role religious motivations play in shaping public discourses. This book proceeds on the assumption that neither a focus on the eschatological nor a narrow understanding of the plight of Christians in the Middle East is sufficient. Instead, it is necessary to understand Christians in context and to explore the ways that Christian theology applies through the actions of Christians who have lived and continue to live through conflict in the region either as native inhabitants or interested foreign observers. This volume addresses issues of concern to Christians from a theological perspective, from the perspective of Christian responses to conflict throughout history, and in reflection on the contemporary realities of Christians in the Middle East. The essays in this volume combine contextual political and theological reflections written by both scholars and Christian activists and will be of interest to students and scholars of Politics, Religion and Middle East Studies.

Nasara

Nasara PDF Author: Paul Kingery
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781723804823
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
The story of Muslim invasion of Christian areas is an old one that finds fresh expression in the recent expulsions of Christians from Mosul, the site of ancient Nineveh, and surrounding villages and towns. The ruthlessness with which the Christians were expelled in some cases rivaled that seen in the genocide against the Yezidis in that same time. The difference is that the Yezidis stayed, despite harsher treatment, while the Christians left the area with no plans to return. Nineveh is now Muslim territory, for the moment lost to Christianity. But this is more than a new chapter in an old story. The ruthlessness of this genocide against Christians has been be stoked by the setbacks ISIS experienced in Iraq and Syria, and further polarization of Muslims and Christians has been the outcome. New, more troubling, chapters are likely to be written in time.