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IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 1327: Christianity in the Islamic World, IV: Coexistence and Conversion

Wednesday 5 July 2017, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:Krisztina Szilágyi, Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:Sarah Stroumsa, Department of Arabic Language & Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Paper 1327-aSyrian Historical Writing on Conversion between Christianity and Islam, 640-850
(Language: English)
Jessica Mutter, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, University of Chicago, Illinois
Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Language and Literature - Semitic
Paper 1327-bEconomic Parity between Christians and Muslims in 9th-Century Baghdad
(Language: English)
Christopher PreJean, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles
Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Language and Literature - Semitic
Paper 1327-cEulogius of Córdoba and the Arabization of Public Life in Al-Andalus
(Language: English)
Emilio González Ferrín, Departamento de Estudios Árabes e Islámicos, Universidad de Sevilla
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Abstract

The Christians of the Islamic world were caught between the permission to practice their religion and the easier social advancement if abandoning it. Many chose to do the latter, a phenomenon discussed in two papers of the session. Mutter examines conversions to and from Islam in early Islamic Syria, and the implications of such decisions. The other two papers point to ways of coexistence. Ferrín points to the growing separateness of communities in the Iberian Peninsula resulting from Arabization, while PreJean shows that Christians and Muslims enjoyed parity in their economic position.