Seventh woodbrook-mingana symposium on arab christianity and islam: The qur'an and arab christianity

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Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 11 (2014), pp. 331-335; ISSN 1697–2104
Seventh Woodbrook-Mingana Symposium on Arab
Christianity and Islam: The Qur’ān and Arab Christianity
(17-20 September, 2013)
Ayse ICOZ – Gordon NICKEL – David BERTAINA
University of Birmingham – University of Columbia - University of Illinois
ayseicoz@hotmail.com - gord.nickel@gmail.com - dbert3@uis.edu
Mingana Symposiums are held every four years in Selly Oak, Birmingham, United
Kingdom. As a commemoration of the scholar Alphonse Mingana (1878-1937)
and his connections with Selly Oak, the symposium series have been exploring the
teachings of the Arabic-speaking Eastern Churches and their engagement with the
Islamic world.
7th Mingana Symposium was held in Woodbrook Quaker Centre from 17-20
September, 2013 on the theme “The Qur’ān and Arab Christianity”. The cosy
atmosphere of the event venue and hospitable staff of Woodbrook created a
welcoming, friendly environment for the participants. The surrounding garden,
which exposed every shade of yellow and green in beautiful British autumn, was
especially spectacular.
The symposium started with dinner and followed by the opening session chaired
by David Thomas and John Chesworth on Christian-Muslim Relations, a
Bibliographic History 1500-1900. Prof Thomas and Dr Chesworth summarised the
history and background of the project and gave information about the upcoming
volumes of CMR series, which will make indispensable contribution to the field of
the intellectual history of Christian-Muslim relations.
Sessional presentations started the following day on 18 September. Fourteen
papers were presented on wide range of subjects related to Qur’ānic discourse on
Christians and receptions and use of the Qur’ān in Arab Christian writings in the
middle ages. Afternoon session on the 19th of September was particularly special as
it was devoted to the visit to the Mingana Collection. The session started with the
display of the early Qur’ān palimpsests preserved in Mingana collection currently
held in University of Birmingham Edgbaston Campus. Exhibition was followed by
two valuable presentations delivered by doctoral researcher Alba Fedeli on Qur’ān
fragments in the Mingana Collection and Prof Gabriel Reynolds on the scholarly
debates on the history of the Qur’ān.
The event brought together distinguished scholars in the field of Arab
Christianity and Islam from all over the world. Participants enjoyed with

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intellectually stimulating discussions, exchange of ideas in the comfort of highly
inspiring spiritual aura of the Quaker Centre.
Thomas Hoffmann (“Qur’ānic Christians – new perspectivalist approach”)
focused the depiction of Christians in the Qur’an and noted that both Muslims and
western scholars have accounted for discrepancies in this depiction by appeal to the
traditional Muslim chronology of the sūras of the Qur’an. Hoffman noted that this
chronology was supplied by Muslims later from outside the Qur’an, and suggested
that scholars rather approach the Qur’an as having a “web-like temporarily.” The
Qur’an can be viewed as a collection of disparate and contradictory materials about
various subjects, representing various factions within the umma: a mirror or “hall
of mirrors” expressing various critiques and anxieties but also hopes, said
Hoffmann
Krisztina Szilágyi (“The solid God of Muḥammad: Reflections on early Muslim
interpretation of the Qur’ān in Christian polemic against Islam”) examined Muslim
and Arab Christian interpretations of Q 53:7-10 and Q 112 in reference to the term
al-ṣamad in Q 112:2. She pointed out eight instances from Christian Arabic
sources, ranging from the eighth century through eleventh century, that assume that
early Muslims understood this term to associate corporealism with the divine. She
argued that corporealism might have been more prevalent than previously thought
among the first Muslims, and that these Christian critiques were one of the possible
reasons for the decline of corporealism in Islamic theology.
Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala (“Qur’ānic textual archaeology. Rebuilding the story
of the destruction of Sodom”) presented a reconstruction of the story of the
destruction of Sodom in the Qur’an. His paper argued that we can discover the
“textual archaeology” of the Qur’an’s many references to Sodom by assembling
them together. The result is that the Qur’an’s homily on the even, probably
transmitted via oral or written interactions, suggests a pre-canonical Qur’anic
version of the story that was complete and closer to Late Antique versions of the
story.
Gordon Nickel (“‘They find him written with them’. The impact of Q 7:157 on
Muslim interaction with Arab Christianity”) speculated on the possible impact on
Muslim-Christian interaction of the Qur’anic assertion that references to the
messenger of Islam would be found in the Torah and Gospel. On the one hand,
Nickel argued, the Qur’anic assertion led to a Muslim search for biblical passages
that they then claimed were fulfilled in Islam’s messenger. On the other hand,
when Jews and Christians denied the existence of such prophecies, Muslims
responded with accusations of the malicious falsification of the Torah and Gospel.
Robert Hoyland (“Christian Arabic language and Christian legends in the
Qur’ān”) presented his case for the existence of pre-Islamic Christian Arabic
literature based on an Arabic martyrion inscription dated to ca. 570. His initial
question was, “What was the ‘ajamī language that was spoken by the one who was

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teaching the messenger of Islam?” (according to Q 16:103 and Muslim tradition).
Hoyland suggested that Christian missionaries were evangelizing Arabic speakers
at the time of Islam’s emergence and had developed an Arabic Christian
vocabulary. He supported this thesis by discussing the Qur’anic story of the
sleepers in the cave (Q 18:9-26).
Mark Beaumont (“‘Ammār al-Baṣrī. Ninth century Christian theology and
qur’ānic presuppositions”) discussed the ninth-century Christian writer ‘Ammār al-
Baṣrī and his response to the Islamic critique of the Bible in his Kitāb al-burhān.
Beaumont argued that ‘Ammār was less concerned with philosophical categories
inherited from the Greek tradition and was more focused on defending the logic of
Christian theology consistent with the presuppositions of Islamic thought based on
the Qur’an. ‘Ammār’s motivation, said Beaumont, was to stop the flow of
Christians to Islam and to establish the Gospel accounts as the authentic revealed
Word of God.
Mike Kuhn (“Paul the Apostle in early Muslim polemics”) explored depictions
of the apostle Paul by Muslim writers such as ‘Abd al-Jabbār (d. 1025). Kuhn
found that according to some Muslim authors, Paul was a pseudo-convert to
Christianity—in reality a Jewish infiltrator seeking only to defile the Christian
faith. To others, Paul was a Christian sycophant courting Rome’s favour by
Romanizing the Gospel while seeking Roman revenge on the Jews. Kuhn said that
the purposes of these narratives were to make the case that Paul corrupted Islamic
law; that he corrupted tawḥīd; and that therefore he corrupted the Christian
scriptures.
Emilio Platti and Sandra Keating both presented on the Arab Christian author
‘Abd al-Masīḥ al-Kindī (ca. 825). Platti (“‘Abd al-Masīḥ al-Kindī on the Qur’ān”)
discussed the parts of al-Kindī’s Apology that present an early account of the
Qur’an’s collections and editions, the material on violence in the Qur’an, and the
Islamic doctrine of abrogation. He also described al-Kindī’s concept of “three
shariahs”: rational/natural law from the Old Testament, divine (ilāhī) law from the
Gospel; and demonic law from the Qur’an.
Keating (“The Qur’ān in the epistolary exchange of al-Hāshimī and ‘Abd al-
Masīḥ al-Kindī”) pointed out the striking number of quotations from the Qur’an in
the Apology, and queried the source of knowledge to its Christian Arab author,
whom she also dated early. She walked carefully through al-Kindī’s comments on
how the Qur’an came together. Al-Kindī asserted that the “miracle” of the Qur’an
was small in comparison to the miracles of the prophets and of Jesus, and said that
in fact there was greater linguistic perfection in works in other languages such as
Greek, Syriac and Hebrew.

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Alba Fedeli’s study (“Qur’ān fragments in the Mingana Collection”) examined
a number of early Qur’an fragments from the Mingana Collection. She pointed out
examples of textual emendation in early Qur’an manuscripts that suggest a re-
writing of text to conform to later canonical versions of the text. Fedeli devoted
particular attention to a Qur’an palimpsest in a Christian Arabic manuscript,
published by Alphonse Mingana and Agnes Smith Lewis in Leaves from three
ancient Qur’āns. She suggested that, given the existence of this manuscript, the
link between early Islam and Arab Christianity needs further attention in the
academy.
Gabriel Said Reynolds (“Current scholarly debates on the history of the
Qur’ān”) presented the current discussions among scholars about the data of
Qur’an manuscripts such as the manuscript described by Alba Fedeli. He noted a
“reflex” among many scholars to assume the truth of medieval Muslim traditions
about the development of the Qur’an, and then to measure the manuscripts against
that Muslim tradition. For example, he highlighted the articles of Behnam Sadeghi
on such manuscripts as the San‘ā’ palimpsest, in which Sadeghi examines the
manuscript while assuming the historicity of the ḥadīth stories of the fixation of the
Qur’anic text by the caliph ‘Uthmān.
Ayse Icoz (“The use of Qur’ānic terms and phrases in the Kitāb al-majdāl”)
examined the use of Qur’anic terms and phrases in the late-tenth-century Christian
Arabic encyclopedia Kitāb al-majdāl. The Kitāb discusses God and his attributes in
the first section, the Incarnation in the second, Christian practices in the third,
ethical issues in the fourth, and finally history in the fifth part. Icoz presented as an
example the author’s use of the Qur’anic term jihād, which she described as
physical struggle or “holy war” in the Qur’an. The Kitāb author also knew of
another interpretation of jihād as spiritual struggle against world desires at the end
of the 10th century, said Icoz. Icoz asked a great question about the ethical section
of the Kitāb: why did the author start this section with the concept of taqwa rather
than the concept of maḥabba?
David Bertaina (“The concept of qur’ānic authority according to Coptic convert
Būluṣ ibn Rajā’ (ca. 1000)”) presented on the concept of Qur’anic authority in the
work of a Muslim convert to Coptic Christianity named Būluṣ ibn Rajā’ (ca. 1000).
Ibn Rajā’ had become a Christian after witnessing the martyrdom of a young
convert to Christianity along the Suez. Ibn Rajā’ was tried for apostasy but was
released by an Ismaili judge, after which he built a monastery. Bertaina explained
how ibn Rajā’ used the Qur’an in a positive sense arguing that his former co-
religionists had failed to live up to its standards. He argued that the way ibn Rajā’
used the Qur’an contrasted with other Arab Christian assessments of the Qur’an as
a distorted scripture.
David Thomas, organizer of the symposium, examined the use of the Qur’ān in
the letter of a monk known as Paul of Antioch, written just before 1200 (“The use

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and abuse of the Qur’an: Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim friend”). Paul wrote
the letter as a report on experiences on a trip from which he had returned, though
Thomas suggested that the people described in the letter were not real but merely
mouthpieces for Paul’s arguments. Paul argued that the true meaning of the Qur’an
was to be found in its agreement with Christianity; that the Qur’an was for Arabs
alone; and that the expression “no other religion accepted than Islam” (Q 3:85) was
also only for Muslims. Thomas said that Paul’s use of the Qur’an was effective and
even perceived as dangerous by Muslims who answered the letter, but that “due
respect for the text deserts him.”