Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule ─ Church Life and Scholarship in 'Abbasid Iraq

Scholars of the history of eastern Christianity will welcome this proceedings from the Woodbrooke-Mingana Symposium on Arab Christianity and Islam held in Birmingham, UK in September 2001. There are 13 papers, by academics in theology, Islamic studies, and art history in the UK, the US, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Lebanon. The topics include Abbasid-style stucco decoration on churches and monasteries in Egypt, the philosophy of Yahya Ibn Adi, conversion stories in Christian communities, Ammar al-Basri's writings on the Incarnation, and historical aspects of the Melkite and Jacobite views of Christ's nature. Some b&w plates are included. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

David Thomas, Ph.D. (1983) in Islamic Studies, University of Lancaster, is Reader in Christianity and Islam at the Department of Theology, University of Birmingham. He has published widely on Christian-Muslim relations, most recently Early Muslim Anti-Christian Polemic, Abu 'Isa al-Warraq's "Against the Incarnation" (Cambridge, 2002).