Christian Martyrs under Islam: Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World

Christian C. Sahner

Published by Princeton University Press 2018

Christian Martyrs under Islam

Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World

Christian C. Sahner

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691184180

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Christian C. Sahner is associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Oxford and a fellow of St Cross College. He is the author of Among the Ruins: Syria Past and Present.

Reviews

"The Spectator's Books of the Year"

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
A Note to Readers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
Maps Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xix
Introduction: Christian Martyrs under Islam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Converting to Islam and Returning to Christianity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
2. Converting from Islam to Christianity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
3. Blaspheming against Islam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
4. Trying and Killing Christian Martyrs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
5. Creating Saints and Communities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Conclusion: Making of the Muslim World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Appendix 1. Comparing Christian and Muslim Accounts of Martyrdom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Appendix 2. Glossary of Names and Key Words Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325