History of Arab Christians
Encyclopedia
Pre-Islamic period
The earliest Arab Christians belong to the pre-IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic period. There were many Arab tribes that adopted Christianity. These included the Nabateans and the Ghassanids
Ghassanids
The Ghassanids were a group of South Arabian Christian tribes that emigrated in the early 3rd century from Yemen to Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Holy Land....
, who were of Qahtani origin and spoke Yemeni Arabic
Yemeni Arabic
Yemeni Arabic is a cluster of Arabic varieties spoken in Yemen, southwestern Saudi Arabia, and northern Somalia...
as well as Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. These tribes received subsidies and protected the south-eastern frontiers of the Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
s in north Arabia.
The tribes of Tayy
Tayy
Tayy is a large and ancient Arabian tribe belonging to the southern or Qahtanite branch of Arab tribes. Their original homeland was the area of the two mountains Aja and Salma in north central Arabia , though, like all Qahtanite tribes, it is believed they originally moved there from Yemen...
, Abd Al-Qais, and Taghlib
Taghlib
Banu Taghlib or Taghlib ibn Wa'il were a large and powerful Arabian tribe of Mesopotamia and northern Arabia. The tribe traces its lineage to the large branch of North Arabian tribes known as Rabi'ah, which also included Bakr, 'Anizzah, Banu Hanifa and Anz bin Wa'il .The tribe's ancestral...
were also known to have included a large number of Christians prior to Islam.
The southern Arabian city of Najran
Najran
Najran , formerly known as Aba as Sa'ud, is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province. Designated a New town, Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom; its population has risen from 47,500 in 1974 and 90,983 in 1992 to...
was also a center of Arab Christianity. Letters exist in Syriac that record the persecution of believers by the king of Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
in the 6th century, when the latter had adopted Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
. Cosmas Indicopleustes
Cosmas Indicopleustes
Cosmas Indicopleustes was an Alexandrian merchant and later hermit, probably of Nestorian tendencies. He was a 6th-century traveller, who made several voyages to India during the reign of emperor Justinian...
records the launch of a punitive expedition
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...
from Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
in response. The leader of the Arabs of Najran during the period of persecution, Al-Harith, was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church as St. Aretas.
No literature has been preserved in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
from this period.
Islamic period
The rise of IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
led to large areas of the Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
coming under the rule of Muslim Arabs. This resulted in substantial Christian populations coming under Islamic rule.
Initially, the invasions were seen by the occupied as more like a large-scale raid with tribute being paid. Possibly the Arabs saw things in these terms themselves; certainly their policy was to allow the existing administration to continue, but the taxes gathered to be paid to themselves rather than to the Byzantine emperor or the Persian Shah
Shah
Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
.
Christians did not at first compose in Arabic, but continued to write in Greek, Syriac or Coptic
Coptic language
Coptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
. However, over time as conversions occurred, there was a need for works in Arabic. The first to write in Arabic was Theodore Abu-Qurrah
Theodore Abu-Qurrah
Theodore Abū Qurrah was a 9th century Christian Arab theologian who lived in the early Islamic period.Biography=He was born around 750 AD in the city of Edessa, in northern Mesopotamia, and was the Chalcedonian or Melkite bishop of the nearby city of Harran between 795 and 812...
and Severus Ibn al-Muqaffa
Severus Ibn al-Muqaffa
Severus ibn al-Muqaffaʿ or Severus of El Ashmunein was a Coptic Bishop, author and historian. In Arabic, his name is spelled Sawires ساويرس. Severus is sometimes confused with Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa.He was bishop of Hermopolis Magna , in Upper Egypt, around the end of the tenth century...
.
Relations with Islam
As "People of the BookPeople of the Book
People of the Book is a term used to designate non-Muslim adherents to faiths which have a revealed scripture called, in Arabic, Al-Kitab . The three types of adherents to faiths that the Qur'an mentions as people of the book are the Jews, Sabians and Christians.In Islam, the Muslim scripture, the...
", Christians in the region are accorded certain rights by theoretical Islamic law (Shari'ah) to practice their religion free from interference or persecution . However it was conditional to pay a special amount of money by non-Muslims called "Jizyah" . This could be paid in form of either cash or goods, usually a wealth of animals, in exchange for their safety and freedom of worship. In practice, things were less clear, and the obligation was seen as levied on a community rather than individuals. At times this was used by Muslims to oppress Christians; at others, Christians could be found in government and Muslims remained indifferent towards the payment of Jizya . At the same time, non-Muslims were not allowed to be involved in the army.
In the 9th century, Islamic rulers often had Christian or Jewish physicians, such as Hunain Ibn Ishaq.
The History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria contains lengthy eye-witness accounts of how Christians in Egypt were treated under various Islamic rulers.
Other issues
Arab Christians have made significant contributions to Arab civilization and still do. Many of Arab literature's most noted poets were Arab Christians, and many Arab Christians were physicians, writers, government officials, and men of letters.Further reading
- Twice a Stranger by Bruce Clark. Publisher: Granta Books (March 5, 2007)# ISBN 1862079242, # ISBN 978-1862079243 has very limited information on Assyrian Christians.
- Not Even My Name: A True Story by Thea Halo. Publisher: Picador; 1st Picador USA Pbk. Ed edition (June 2, 2001) ISBN 0312277016, ISBN 978-0312277017
- A History of the Modern Middle East by William L. Cleveland. # Publisher: Westview Press; 3 edition (July 1, 2004) ISBN 0813340489, ISBN 978-0813340487
- Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East by Akram Fouad KhaterAkram Fouad KhaterAkram Fouad Khater is a professor of history at North Carolina State University. He specializes in the history of the Middle East and Arab relations and studies. Khater received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1993...
. Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company (April 9, 2003) ISBN 0395980674, ISBN 978-0395980675