Christian-Muslim Encounter Research Articles

Christian-Muslim Encounters: George of Trebizond and the ‘Inversion’ of Eastern Discourse regarding Islam in the Fifteenth Century

The capture of Constantinople (1453) by the Ottoman troops of Mehmed II was a historical turning point. The political reference point of Eastern Christianity was now in Muslim hands, the Ottomans representing in the eyes of late medieval Europeans not only an enemy of the true faith, and as such an obstacle for ecclesiastical unity, but also a potential rival of the papacy as a political power. In short, within the contemporary context and the socially dominant apocalyptic frame of mind, the Ottomans were viewed as an existential threat for Christianity as a whole. While the papal reaction to this development was to go on the offensive, expressed through the call for a new crusade, the emergence of a few voices expressing divergent theological content and political orientation had special significance. One of the voices which ‘set off the politics of religious synthesis from different quarters” was that of George of Trebizond (1395–1472/3), a Cretan emigrant to Italy who lived in Venice and Florence before moving to Rome. He had converted to Catholicism without losing his sense of belonging to the East, and became a prominent figure of the Italian intellectual elite and an editor of classical and theological literature, as well as a member of the Vatican bureaucracy.

Diatribe, Discourse and Dialogue: Reflections on Jesus in the History of Christian-Muslim Encounters

The history of Christian-Muslim encounter is a growing field in areas of Christian theology and Islamic Studies. While there is arguably no particular systematic discipline or approach, anyone who enters the history of the theological encounters between these two religions is met with a large body of work which reflects an unusual complexity and degree of nuance. These range from polemical and irenic approaches by those who were writing in response to critiques of their faith without any direct contact with one another, to those Muslim and Christian writers who lived and wrote within the shared culture and civilization of the Arab East.

Early Modern Encounters with the Islamic East: Performing Cultures ed. by Sabine Schülting, Sabine Lucia Müller, and Ralf Hertel

Reviewed by: Early Modern Encounters with the Islamic East: Performing Cultures ed. by Sabine Schülting, Sabine Lucia Müller, and Ralf Hertel Dennis Austin Britton (bio) Keywords Christian-Muslim encounter, performance theory, cross-cultural contact, travel, diplomacy, cultural difference, Ottoman empire, early modern literature Sabine Schülting, Sabine Lucia Müller, and Ralf Hertel, eds. Early Modern Encounters with the Islamic East: Performing Cultures. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2012. xv + 226 pages. $114.95. Like other studies of the past decade, the essays in Early Modern Encounters with the Islamic East: Performing Cultures evince the inadequacy of Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism to explain early modern Christian Europe’s relationship with and representations of the Islamic East. The collection’s central [End Page 132] claim, however, is unique: early modern encounters between the “West” and the “East”—problematic as those terms are—may better be understood by examining performativity in cross-cultural encounters. The editors argue that their “focus on performing cultures draws particular attention to the contingent nature of . . . cultural encounters in which roles are improvised and the rules regulating the conduct of the participants are subject to negotiation” (2). The essays primarily examine early modern English texts—the exceptions are an essay on Italian painting, one on Italian music, and one on contemporary German drama. Considering plays, travel literature, painting and music, the collection’s essays make a strong case for rethinking encounter itself; they describe how often European emissaries performed identities that reified power relations, how material objects like clothing accrue meaning through performance, and how cross-cultural encounter shapes the formal and aesthetic choices pertaining to artistic performance. The collection is divided into three parts. The essays in Part 1, “Players and Playgrounds,” focus on the role of contingency in cross-cultural encounters, detailing just how much specific outcomes depended on the ability of European “actors” to perform expected roles. These essays also attend to performance by highlighting the significance of clothing, tone of voice, and bodily gestures—especially important because of the way these signifiers express linguistic and cultural difference. The first chapter, Sabine Lucia Müller’s “William Harborne’s Embassies: Scripting, Performance and Editing Anglo-Ottoman Diplomacy,” considers the varying layers of performance imbedded in Richard Hakluyt’s editing of accounts of Harborne’s travels to Turkey: Harborne performs for English stakeholders his performance before the sultan, and Hakluyt strategically edits the narratives to perform an English fantasy of its superior position in European-Ottoman trade relations. Although the essay’s central claim—that “reports of diplomatic encounters were edited and fashioned both for current audience and posterity” (13)—is somewhat obvious, the essay persuasively details how the contingent nature of cultural encounters is erased in Navigations in order to create a teleological narrative of empire. In “Performing at the Ottoman Porte in 1599: The Case of Henry Lello,” Gerald Maclean argues that “successful Anglo-Ottoman diplomacy was not simply a matter of Englishmen understanding and following Ottoman protocols, but more importantly of their ability to interpret and perform them” (27). The distinctions Maclean makes between understanding versus interpretation and between following protocols versus performing them are [End Page 133] subtle ones; extending what he elsewhere calls “playing east,” his essay shows that emissaries invented and performed forms of national identity that they considered necessary and suited for the Islamic context, and that an emissary’s success depended upon his ability to outperform his rivals. Maclean’s essay also provides evidence that negates the scholarly consensus that the Ottoman Empire did not engage in “modern” diplomacy because it was bound to Jihad. Richmond Barbour’s very informative essay, “Command Performances: Early English Trader’s in Arabia Felix,” takes up the collection’s critique of Saidian Orientalism by examining how English traders performed their subject position vis-à-vis the basha. Examining the East India Company’s early documents, Barbour shows that “Public spectacles constituted an international language of power that here instructed the English to read on their bodies the lessons of power dominion.... Established by textual and theatrical protocols, the identities and purposes of the English merchants were not clear to their hosts until they were proven in performances” (47). The...

Christ Child: cultural memories of a young Jesus

Little is known about the early childhood of Jesus Christ. But in the decades after his death, stories began circulating about his origins. One collection of such tales was the so-called Infancy Gospel of Thomas, known in antiquity as the Paidika or Childhood Deeds of Jesus. In it, Jesus not only performs miracles while at play (such as turning clay birds into live sparrows) but also gets enmeshed in a series of interpersonal conflicts and curses to death children and teachers who rub him the wrong way. How would early readers have made sense of this young Jesus? In this highly innovative book, Stephen Davis draws on current theories about how human communities construe the past to answer this question. He explores how ancient readers would have used texts, images, places, and other key reference points from their own social world to understand the Christ child's curious actions. He then shows how the figure of a young Jesus was later picked up and exploited in the context of medieval Jewish-Christian and Christian-Muslim encounters. Challenging many scholarly assumptions, Davis adds a crucial dimension to the story of how Christian history was created.

Religion and the Formation of an Urban Educational Market: Transnational Reform Processes and Social Inequalities in Christian and Muslim Schooling in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

AbstractOver the last decade in Tanzania parents’ and students’ quest for a good school has been shaped by the growing presence of religiously motivated schools, especially in urban settings. This paper argues that the diverse social positioning and educational appeal of new Christian and Muslim schools in Dar es Salaam are intimately intertwined with the continued weakening of state education that has been taking place since the mid-1990s to early 2000s as the result of privatization and World Bank educational policies. It also shows that the growing stratification and commodification of the education sector is tightly knitted with histories of inequality and religious difference in colonial and postcolonial Tanzania, as well as with the establishment and diversification of ties between actors and institutions on the East African coast on the one hand, and with those in North America, Europe, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia on the other. Finally, this paper demonstrates how macroeconomic and macrohistorical forces have become condensed in processes of subject formation and the widely varying production of religious spaces in an urban educational market. I argue that the resulting reinscription of religion in the public sphere must be understood not so much as an unintended side-effect of transnational reform processes, but more as part and parcel of multilayered histories of schooling and Christian-Muslim encounters in Tanzania that have also shaped the recent repositioning of the country’s education sector in the global and transnational context.

Saint Francis and the Sultan

In August or September 1219 at the height of the Fifth Crusade, Francis ofAssisi audaciously set out to meet Sultan Malik al-Kâmil of Egypt. In SaintFrancis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian–Muslim Encounter,historian John Tolan has produced a fascinating volume on this ratherstrange episode, an encounter that has captivated writers and painters for centuries.In an age when religion has lost much of its traditional power, however,the author wonders how much we can really know about the experience ofFrancis and al-Kâmil meeting each other “in a tent in an armed camp on thebanks of the Nile, during a truce in the midst of a bloody war” (p. 4). Insteadof trying to locate the real Francis and al-Kâmil in the fragments of history,Tolan asks why this particular has fascinated so many different artists. He answers,quite simply, that “for them, it was not merely a curiosity, or a footnoteto the history of a crusade which failed on the banks of the Nile. It was muchmore: an emblematic encounter or confrontation between East and West” (p.326). Whether it was seen as an encounter or a confrontation, in turn, depended in part on the historical, religious, and political context within which the givenartist was working. In this sense, the book reads more like a metahistory ofhow, why, and to what effect a particular historical episode has been depictedover the years.Given the focus on such a momentous encounter between East and West,Islam and Christianity, Muslim and Christian, as well as how it has been portrayedand understood, this book should be of particular interest to students ofChristian–Muslim relations and dialogue. It should also be of interest to peopleinterested in the construction of East/West and Muslim/Christian identity ...

St Francis of Assisi and Islam: A Theological Perspective on a Christian-Muslim Encounter

In 1219 an encounter took place between a Christian from Italy, Francis of Assisi, and the Muslim Sultan of Egypt, al-Malik al-Kāmil. This meeting took place at Damietta in northern Egypt during the progress of the Fifth Crusade. Over a period of perhaps three weeks, religious dialogue took place between Francis and al-Kāmil, after which time the Sultan had Francis escorted safely back to the Christian camp. It is possible to discern from the writings of Francis after his return from Egypt that the meeting had had a deep religious impact upon him, realised in the latter years of his life. It can be said that both Francis and al-Kāmil experienced through their encounter what the Christian theologian Bernard Lonergan has spoken of as a conversion into a new horizon. The historical encounter between Francis and the Sultan witnesses to the fact that through religious conversion, it is possible for members of different religious faiths to arrive at a common vision of universal peace and reconciliation.

Book Reviews: Théâtre élisabéthain, Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter, the Martin Marprelate Tracts, Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare, the New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies, Documents of Performance in Early Modern England, Shakespeare in Stages: New Theatre Histories, Shakespeare's Individualism, Dance, Spectacle and the Body Politick

Book Reviews: Théâtre élisabéthain, Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter, the Martin Marprelate Tracts, Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare, the New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies, Documents of Performance in Early Modern England, Shakespeare in Stages: New Theatre Histories, Shakespeare's Individualism, Dance, Spectacle and the Body Politick

Saint Francis and the Sultan. The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter * By JOHN NOLAN

Saint Francis and the Sultan. The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter * By JOHN NOLAN

Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian–Muslim Encounter. By John Tolan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. xvi+382 pp. $55.00 cloth.

Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian–Muslim Encounter. By John Tolan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. xvi+382 pp. $55.00 cloth.

Christian-Muslim Experiences in Poland

AbstractThe reality of Christian-Muslim encounters in Eastern Europe is often overlooked because problems that states and societies of Western Europe face in relation to Muslim presence tend to be placed in the focal positions of contemporary debates on Christian-Muslim relations. Refection given in this article is presented from a Polish perspective marked by the dominance of one religious tradition, namely Roman Catholic. The Muslim population of Poland is tiny at present — estimated at 0.04-0.08% of the total population. The argument presented here is that even in such an imbalanced situation interreligious contacts can effectively contribute to rethinking, renewing and strengthening of the identities of those involved in the contacts. For the RC Church it is an opportunity of learning to “make space for the others” without a feeling of giving in under pressure. After giving some attention to a question whether Poland is “multicultural”, brief characteristics of Muslim communities in Poland will be given with some attention devoted to the problem whether they are marginal or involved in the main stream of the Polish society. This will form a framework for acquaintance with examples of interreligious experiences/ encounters, and with their results and significance. The article was written before the outbursts of controversies around the construction of a mosque in Warsaw in March 2010.

Methodists and Muslims in the Gambia

The Gambia (West Africa) is a predominantly Muslim country, with a small Christian community. Christian–Muslim encounters in the Gambia can be traced back as far as the fifteenth century. This article explores part of this long interreligious history of the Gambia. It researches – on the basis of archival materials – the attitudes and perceptions of the Gambian Methodist Church towards Muslims in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The article argues that, although the attitude of the Methodists towards Muslims changed in the middle of the twentieth century from aggressive evangelization towards more irenic relations, Methodism in the Gambia still perceives Christian witness to Muslims to be one of its core callings.

Coexistence and/or Confrontation?: Towards a Reappraisal of Christian-Muslim Encounter in Contemporary Ethiopia

AbstractThis article deals with the genesis and development of Christian-Muslim relations in Ethiopia from the earliest times to the present, with an emphasis on the post-1974 developments in the country. It seeks to demonstrate that these relations were both consensual and conflictual, and that the conventional over-emphasis on the former has obscured—and marginalized and distorted—the occasional confrontational aspects of the relations that also need to be historicized, contextualized and assessed. Examples of both aspects of relations are presented and discussed, and their relevance to the contemporary situation analyzed. In summary, the paper challenges the validity of the concept of peaceful coexistence as the only defining feature of the relations between the Christian and Muslim communities of Ethiopia.

Muslim-Christian Encounters in Masuccio Salernitano's Novellino

AbstractClose textual and contextualized analysis of two novellas drawn from Masuccio Salernitano's mid-fifteenth-century collection of short stories, Il Novellino, shows that, while the tales appear to present antithetical notions of Muslim identity, they also blur the categories of good and evil through often over-lapping positive and negative depictions of both Christian and Muslim protagonists. Both narratives discussed are also set within similar contexts (the guerra del corso, maritime travel, enslavement and ransom, inter-racial sexual relations) and can thus function as partial records of particular fifteenth-century cultural and social experiences. Although Salernitano's narratives have often been read as moralizing tales through which the author sought to expose the vices he perceived in society, as this article seeks to show, much more is at stake. The novellas offer significant insights into mid-fifteenth-century notions of Muslim identity and preoccupations about Christian-Muslim encounters and reflect a panorama of contemporary historical and social realities on a scale and in a fashion that remained unparalleled in the subsequent novella tradition.

ISLAMICDA ‘WAAND CHRISTIAN MISSION: TOWARDS A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

DAVID A. KERR [*] 1:0 Introduction Christianity and Islam have in common fact that -- like Buddhism -- they are missionary religions. While this is acknowledged by missiologists and comparative religionists, little scholarly attention has yet been given comparative study of Islamic da 'wa and mission. Nearly twenty-five years ago, in 1976, International Review of Mission devoted an issue Christian Mission and Islamic Da 'wah. It contained papers by Muslim and participants in a week-long dialogue conference held in Chamb[acute{e}]sy (June 1976), together with verbatim excerpts from conference discussions, and a final conference statement agreed among participants. [1] Although several Muslim and groups subsequently republished some of papers and common statement, no significant attempts have been made advance discussion of substantive issues. The present paper seeks regenerate interest in this topic, problems and opportunities of which have become more evident in last two decades of Christian-Muslim encounter. The paper is written as part of an international research project of theologians concerned with future of theological education in Muslim societies. [2] It contains material that was presented an international seminar of missiologists and missionaries in Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut, in October 1999. [3] It also reflects issues discussed at a consultation on Religious Freedom, Community Rights and Individual Rights: a Christian-Muslim Perspective, sponsored by World Council of Churches at Hartford Seminary, Connecticut, also in October 1999. The paper is not intended address issues of Islam or, in practical terms, Muslim da 'wa among Christians. It offers a summation of various studies of and da 'wa since 1976, and sets out a basis for certain comparisons between and Islamic understandings of and da 'wa. In conclusion it proposes ten theses for renewed discussion about and da 'wa among Muslims and Christians. 1:1 The Meaning of Da'wa The Arabic word da'wa [4] expresses sense of or invitation. [5] It comes from verb da'a, to call, of which da'i is active participle, one who calls or invites. The question immediately arises whether words da'wa and da'i bear English translation of mission and missionary. In Arabic they imply a centripetal action of calling into, whereas implies centrifugal action of sending. Whether this etymological distinction has any comparative significance is a question be addressed in last section of this paper. In order not prejudge issue, words da'wa and da'i (plural du'ah) will be transliterated rather than translated, unless they are cited in quoted translation in which case translated terms will be italicized. [6] 2:0 Da'wa in Qur'an The verb da'a occurs frequently in Qur'an. Sometimes its subject is God: for example, God calls Home of Peace (dar al-islam), and He guides whom He pleases a straight path. [7] On other occasions subject is prophet: for example, the Messenger invites you believe in your Lord. [8] Frequently subject is people of faith who call upon God: for example, They cry unto God, making sincere their religion unto Him. [9] The noun da'wa also occurs several times in Qur'an, in reciprocal senses of God's call humankind, and believers' call or prayer God. In relation concerns of this paper, locus classicus of verb da'a is found in Sura Al Imran (The Family of Imran: Q3:104). I quote it in variant translations from two widely respected English versions of Qur'an: And there may spring from you a nation [umma] who invite [10] goodness, and enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency. …

The Social-Political Context of Christian-Muslim Encounter in Northern Nigeria

The Social-Political Context of Christian-Muslim Encounter in Northern Nigeria

The Social-Political Context of Christian-Muslim Encounter in Northern Nigeria

The Social-Political Context of Christian-Muslim Encounter in Northern Nigeria

The Social-Political Context of Christian-Muslim Encounter in Northern Nigeria

The Social-Political Context of Christian-Muslim Encounter in Northern Nigeria

Can a House Divided Stand? Reflections on Christian-Muslim Encounter in the West

Can a House Divided Stand? Reflections on Christian-Muslim Encounter in the West

Personal Encounters with Muslims and Their Faith

The BBC asked Professor Kerr to give a series of talks on his personal attitudes, as a Christian, toward Islam. These vignettes, selected from that series, are suggestive of ways that we can, by our involvement with Muslims, in their world or ours, appreciate and profit by the positive values of their faith. Far from diluting our own Christian faith, such contacts may serve to enhance it, as Dr. Kerr found. This kind of purposeful involvement may be a necessary first step toward achieving the higher level of respect that is a crucial prerequisite to effective Christian-Muslim encounter in our day.