The presented publication is a type of bibliographic dictionary, compiled by an interdisciplinary team of authors (Byzantynists and Paleoslavists), containing an overview of medieval texts referring to the person of Muhammad, the Arabs, and the circumstances of the birth of Islam, which were known in the Slavia Orthodoxa area (especially in its eastern part, i.e. in Rus’). Therefore, it presents the works written in the Church Slavic language between the 9th and the mid-16th centuries. As the Old Rus’ discourse on Islam was shaped under the overwhelming influence of Byzantine literature, the majority of the presented sources are Byzantine texts from the 6th–14th centuries, translated into the literary language of the Orthodox Slavs. The reader will also find here a discussion on several relics, originally created in other languages of the Christian East (Syriac, Arabic) and the West (Latin), which – through the Greek – were assimilated on the Slavic ground.
This book aims to fill a gap in previous studies on inter-religious polemics in the Middle Ages, which has usually focused on Christian-Muslim cultural relations, analyzing Greek and Latin texts or the works written in one of the Middle Eastern languages, almost completely ignoring the Church Slavic heritage. It is worth noting that a number of the texts presented here (as well as Slavic translations of Byzantine sources) have not been published so far. The information on them, provided in this monograph, is therefore the result of research conducted directly on the manuscript material.
Author(s): Zofia A. Brzozowska, Mirosław J. Leszka, Teresa Wolińska
Series: Byzantina Lodziensia
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 384
City: Kraków
Cover
Tile page
Editorial Page
Contents
Introduction
List of Abbreviations
I. Ammonius, Relatio on the Slaughter of the Monks of Sinai and Rhaithou
II. John Malalas, Chronicle
III. The Lives of St. Symeon Stylites the Younger
IV. John Moschus, The Spiritual Meadow
V. Doctrina Iacobi
VI. Sophronius of Jerusalem, Synodical Letter
VII. The Quran
VIII. The Martyrdom of St. Arethas
IX. The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius
X. Anastasius of Sinai, Questions and Answers
XI. John of Damascus, On Heresies
XII. Michael Syncellus, Unknown refutation of Islam
XIII. Disputation between a Christian and a Saracen
XIV. Theophanes, Chronographia
XV. Nicephorus, the patriarch of Constantinople, Concise Chronography
XVI. The Life of St. John of Damascus
XVII. The Apocalypse of Daniel
XVIII. Gregory Decapolite, The Historical Sermon About a Vision
Which a Saracen Once Had
XIX. The Formula of Abjuration of Islam
XX. George the Monk (Hamartolus), Chronicle
XXI. The Life of St. Constantine-Cyril (the Philosopher)
XXII. The Life of St. Gregentius, archbishop of the Himyarites (St. Gregory
of Taphar)
XXIII. The Life of St. Basil the Younger
XXIV. Nicephorus, The Life of St. Andrew the Fool (Salos)
XXV. Symeon Magister and Logothete, Chronicle
XXVI. John Zonaras, Epitome historiarum
XXVII. Constantine Manasses, Chronicle
XXVIII. The Life of St. Theodore of Edessa
XXIX. The Story of How Prince Vladimir Chose the Religion
XXX. Euthymius Zigabenus, Panoplia Dogmatica
XXXI. Riccoldo da Monte Croce, Contra legem Sarracenorum
XXXII. The Sermon on Idols
XXXIII. Palaea Interpretata
XXXIV. John VI Cantacuzene, Four Apologies, Four Orations against
Muhammad
XXXV. On Bohmit the Heretic
XXXVI. The Tale of the Rout of Mamai
XXXVII. Afanasy Nikitin, The Journey Beyond Three Seas
XXXVIII. The Tale of the Shameful Saracen Faith
XXXIX. Maximus the Greek (Michael Trivolis)
Indices
Index of People
Index of Ethnic and Geographic Names
Abstract
