IN PROGRESS 2006-7
Kitab al‑masā’il
(Questions and Answers) and Iḥtijāj
(Religious disputation).
Apart from the Qur'an itself where numerous verses relate to
the Prophet’s interaction with Jews and/ or Christians one of the earliest
bodies of literature pertaining to Islamic dialogue are the often brief
letters which Muhammad allegedly wrote to contemporary rulers and
ecclesiatics. Whether these letters are genuine or not Islmic sources reckon
that it was around 9/631 that Muhammad sent out a series of communications
to rulers, religious leaders and notables summoning them to Islam. Several
such letters were addressed to Jews and Christians (Ḥamīdullāh, al‑Wathā’iq,
index). Bishops (asāqīf) from the Christian town of of Najrān (between
Medina and the Yemen), for example, were communicated with in a very brief
invitation to servitude before God (`ibadat Allāh) [in Islam] beginning, "In
he Name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (cited Ḥamīdullāh, al‑Wathā’iq,
174).
The sources
also have it that in year 10/ 632‑3 this led to a mubālaha, a
confrontation/ mutual execration being proposed by Muhammad to a deputation
of Christians headed by Balḥārith
ibn Ka`b from Najrān. This at times Christological dispute was engaged in by
the prophet in the presence certain of the (future) Imams but was ultimately
postponed on the request of the Christians who came to be accorded the
protection of dhimmis (Schmucker, Mubāhala, 276,EI2 VII: 276 cf. Momen,
13‑14).
Partially
rooted in ancient and, for example, Patristic‑Byzantine literatures numerous
Islamic texts exhibit a `Questions and Answers’ literary form (Daiber, `Masā’il
wa‑Adjwiba’EI2 VI:636‑9).
One form incorporates religious debate such as that which allegedly took
place between the ultimately converted Jew `Abd‑Allāh b. Salām and the
prophet Muhammad. The intention is often to highlight the ability of the
Prophet or another Muslim authority such as the Sh ī` ī Imām to answer all
manner of complicated religious questions. A good example of this is found
in Bal`amī’s Persian version of Ṭabarī’s history.
The exchanges between
Muslims and the monastic theologian John of Damascus (d.133 /750) reflected
in the Disputatio Saraceni et Christiani and his De Haeresibus and the
Fount of Knowledge give some glimpses into the early Muslim Christan debate
(Sahas1972). Another Muslim‑Christian example of this is the Sunni dialgoue
that took place between the Caliph al‑Mahd ī and the patriach Timothy I
between 170 and 178 AH (=786[7]‑794[5] CE).
In the above
mentioned Persian version of Tabarī’s Tafsīr following the Persian
translation of the Sūrat al‑baqara (Q. 2) there is a section entitled `The
Disputation of the Infidels [of Mecca and the Jews of Khaybar] with the
Prophet’. Here Muhammad is represented as being tested by being asked
twenty‑eight abstruse, allegedly Torah‑rooted questions. His replies are
set down along with the response of the enquirers (see Tafsīr [Per.]
1:24‑44). Asked, for example, about the location of the mysterious cites
Jābalqā and Jābarsā and their inhabitants, Muhammad is said to have located
them nigh Mt. Qāf (Tafsīr [Per.] 1:32).
Bibliography: General
