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Peter Schadler, Dickinson College, USAHow did Islam come to be considered a Christian heresy? In this book, Peter Schadler outlines the intellectual background of the Christian Near East that led John, a Christian serving in the court of the caliph in Damascus, to categorize Islam as a heresy. Schadler shows that different uses of the term heresy persisted among Christians, and then demonstrates that John’s assessment of the beliefs and practices of Muslims has been mistakenly dismissed on assumptions he was highly biased. The practices and beliefs John ascribes to Islam have analogues in the Islamic tradition, proving that John may well represent an accurate picture of Islam as he knew it in the seventh and eighth centuries in Syria and Palestine.Biographical notePeter F. Schadler, D.Phil (2011), University of Oxford, is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Dickinson College. He has published articles on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Relations, early Christian Hagiographical Methodology, and early Christian conceptions of Conciliar Authority in the Eastern Roman Empire and Near East.ReadershipAll interested in the history of Christian-Muslim Relations, Christian Heresiology and Christian Theology of Islam, and early Christian understanding of Islam.Table of contentsAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction1 Heresy and Heresiology in Late AntiquityProblems in Associating Islam with HeresyManichaeism: The Exception that Proves the RuleHeresy as Opposition to the ChurchOther Understandings of Heresy in Late AntiquityEarly Christian Use of HeresiologyThe Demonic Nature of HeresyHeresy as the Result of Philosophical SpeculationOther Typical Traits of Heresiology2 Aspects of the Intellectual BackgroundThe Encyclopedism of Christian PalestineHeresiology as History?The Sociological Imperative to Institution Building as a Force for Islam’s InclusionFrom Heresiology to Panarion and from Panarion to Anacephalaeosis: The Shifting Nature of HeresiologyJohn of Damascus and non-Christian PhilosophyThe Definition of Heresy in John’s WorksDemons and the Heresiology of John3 The Life of John of Damascus, His Use of the Qurʾan, and the Quality of His Knowledge of IslamThe Life of John of DamascusJohn of Damascus and ArabicThe Qurʾan and its Apparent Use Among ChristiansJohn of Damascus and the QurʾanAnastasius of Sinai and the QurʾanThe Alleged Leo-Umar CorrespondenceLives of the Prophets and Other Sources4 Islamic and Para-Islamic TraditionsScholarly Accounts of Early IslamRevisionist Islamic Studies and its AntecedentsContemporary Islamic StudiesJohn of Damascus, the Black Stone, and the Ka’baThe Ka’ba, the Black Stone, and the Maqām Ibrāhīm in the Islamic TraditionAn Untraditional PerspectiveThe Damascene’s Observations Given the Untraditional PerspectiveRivers in ParadiseThe Monk and an-NasaraFemale CircumcisionPillars of Faith5 John of Damascus and Theodore Abu Qurrah on IslamProblems Authenticating Abu Qurrah’s Greek CorpusTheodore Abu Qurrah on IslamTheodore, the Qurʾan, and MuhammadThe Arian MonkTheodore and HeresyTheodore and John: Some Differences and ConclusionsConclusionAppendix 1: Greek Text and English Translation of ‘On Heresies 100’Appendix 2: Potential Qurʾanic References in ‘On Heresies 100’BibliographyIndexhttp://www.brill.com/products/book/john-damascus-and-islam