000			02228nam a22001937a 4500
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005			20250422101941.0
008			250422b |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a978-0691212791
040			_aPMNP _beng _cKutubkhanah Diraja
082			_a261.27095648.
100			_93480 _aWood, Philip
245			_aThe Imam of the Christians: _bThe World of Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, c. 750–850 _cPhilip Wood
260			_aUnited States America _bPrinceton University Press; _cApril 20, 2021
300			_a304 pages _c6.2 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
520			_aThe Imam of the Christians examines how Christian leaders adopted and adapted the political practices and ideas of their Muslim rulers between 750 and 850 in the Abbasid caliphate in the Jazira (modern eastern Turkey and northern Syria). Focusing on the writings of Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, the patriarch of the Jacobite church, Philip Wood describes how this encounter produced an Islamicate Christianity that differed from the Christianities of Byzantium and western Europe in far more than just theology. In doing so, Wood opens a new window on the world of early Islam and Muslims’ interactions with other religious communities. Wood shows how Dionysius and other Christian clerics, by forging close ties with Muslim elites, were able to command greater power over their coreligionists, such as the right to issue canons regulating the lives of lay people, gather tithes, and use state troops to arrest opponents. In his writings, Dionysius advertises his ease in the courts of ʿAbd Allah ibn Tahir in Raqqa and the caliph al-Ma’mun in Baghdad, presenting himself as an effective advocate for the interests of his fellow Christians because of his knowledge of Arabic and his ability to redeploy Islamic ideas to his own advantage. Strikingly, Dionysius even claims that, like al-Ma’mun, he is an imam since he leads his people in prayer and rules them by popular consent. A wide-ranging examination of Middle Eastern Christian life during a critical period in the development of Islam, The Imam of the Christians is also a case study of the surprising workings of cultural and religious adaptation.
650		0	_93222 _aReligions
942			_2ddc _cBK _n0
999			_c3275 _d3275