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Christian Thought in the Medieval
Islamicate World
OXFORD ORIENTAL MONOGRAPHS
This series of monographs from the Faculty of
Oriental Studies, University of
Oxford, makes available the results of recent
research by scholars connected
with the Faculty. Its range of subject matter includes
language, literature,
thought, history, and art; its geographical scope
extends from the
Mediterranean and Caucasus to East Asia. The
emphasis is more on specialist
studies than on works of a general nature.
Editorial Board
Professor Julia Bray, Laudian Professorial Fellow in
Arabic
Dr Dominic Brookshaw, Associate Professor of
Persian Literature
Professor Bjarke Frellesvig, Professor of Japanese
Linguistics
Dr Elizabeth Frood, Associate Professor of Egyptology
Professor Henrietta Harrison, Professor of Modern
Chinese Studies
Professor Christopher Minkowski, Boden Professor of
Sanskrit
Professor Alison?G.?Salvesen, University Research
Lecturer in Hebrew
Dr Robert Thomson, formerly Calouste Gulbenkian
Professor
of Armenian Studies
Christian Thought in the Medieval
Islamicate World
ʿAbdīshōʿ of Nisibis and the Apologetic
Tradition
SA LA M R ASS I
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom
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University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing
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certain other countries
© Salam Rassi 2022
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2022
Impression: 1
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You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same
condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021941266
ISBN 978–0–19–284676–1
ebook ISBN 978–0–19–266217–0
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192846761.001.0001
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Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only.
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Acknowledgements
List of Figures
List of Tables
Note on Conventions and Abbreviations
All Arabic terms, names, and phrases have been rendered according
to the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (IJMES)
system of transliteration. For the Syriac I have used a single method
of transliteration for East and West Syrian pronunciation. As such, I
have employed conventions governing soft and hard consonants
(rukkāḵa and quššāyā) as stipulated by the medieval East Syrian
grammatical tradition. This includes retaining the hard pē (e.g.,
naqqīpūṯā) in all instances except in certain cases such as nap̄ šā
(pronounced nawšā).1 All other letters subject to spirantization have
been softened where appropriate, e.g., ḥḏāyūṯā. However, for the
sake of those unspecialized in the Syriac language, I have avoided
these conventions where personal names are concerned, thus
ʿAbdīshōʿ bar Brīkhā not ʿAḇdīšōʿ bar Brīḵā.
To avoid cluttering the text with multiple dating systems, I have
chosen to use Common Era in most instances. In a few cases,
however, ‘A.G.’ is given for anno graecorum and ‘A.H.’ for anno
hegirae. As for Christian personal names, I have tended to employ
Romanized and Anglicized forms of Greek-origin names that appear
in Syriac (e.g., ‘Theodore’ instead of ‘Tēʾwādōrōs’ or ‘Nestorius’
instead of ‘Nesṭōrīs’). Names of Semitic origin have been left in place
(e.g., ‘Yahbalāhā’ and ‘Īshōʿdād’), with the exception of widely used
Anglicized forms of Biblical names such as ‘Jacob’ and ‘Ephrem’.
Place names conform to their pre-modern usage, thus Āmid instead
of Diyarbakır, Mayyāfaraqīn instead of Silvan, etc., though well-
known cities like Aleppo, Damascus, and Baghdad have been
normalized throughout.
Abbreviations used for ʿAbdīshōʿ bar Brīkhā’s works are as
follows:
Durra I fondamenti della religione (Kitāb Uṣūl al-
dīn). Edited and translated by Gianmaria
Gianazza. Bologna: Gruppo di Ricerca
Arabo-Cristiana, 2018.
NB: All translations from ʿAbdīshōʿ’s works are mine unless stated
otherwise.
Abbreviations and acronyms for frequently cited materials are:
1 Georges Bohas, Les bgdkpt en syriaque selon Bar Zo‘bî (Toulouse: Amam-
Cemaa, 2005), 10–11. For an up-to-date comparison between East and West
Syrian systems of phonology and transcription, see Stephanie Rudolf and Michael
Waltisberg, ‘Phonologie und Transkription des Syrischen,’ Zeitschrift der deutschen
morgenländischen Gesellschaft 170, no. 1 (2020): 19–46.
Introduction: ‘A Constant but not
Frozen Tradition’
The Master of the Horse at the Moorish Court related to me, that
Sultan Mulai Abderahman happened one day to pass through the
Court of the palace, mounted on a magnificent white charger, when a
lion which H.M. was accustomed to stop and caress, sprang up the
side of his horse and placed its paws on the knee of the Sultan. H.M.
reined in his steed, which snorted and reared. The Sultan showed no
alarm and did not, said the Master of the Horse, change a muscle of
his countenance, but turning to the Kaid-el-Meshwa, or Chief Officer
of the Court, and putting his hand on the head of the lion to stroke it,
inquired ‘How many pounds of meat are given to the lion daily?’ The
officer stated the quantity.
‘Let the lion have ten more pounds,’ said His Majesty. The lion’s
petition being granted, it quietly dropped off H.M.’s horse and lay
down quite pacified.
‘These animals,’ observed the Master of the Horse, ‘understand
what is spoken, though they have not the power of speech to tell
what they want.’
‘Mashallah!’ I gravely replied.
Je ne montais pas alors le fameux petit cheval gris, sur lequel je suis revenu de
la chasse avec vous si bon train sans que jamais il bronchât!
Les souvenirs de Tanger, de cette chasse que vous m’avez fait faire avec les
chasseurs à demi-sauvages de la montagne, resteront toujours le meilleur
souvenir de mon voyage, et je n’oublierai pas tout le soin, tout l’empressement
que vous avez mis à me faire connaître un pays si nouveau, si curieux pour moi.
C’est à vous que je dois d’avoir pu profiter comme je l’ai fait du peu de jours
que j’y ai passés, et toutes les fois que je veux faire un rêve agréable, je me figure
prêt à repartir pour le Maroc. . . .
Les événements actuels de l’Europe seraient bien de nature à m’y pousser si
les voyages ne m’étaient impossibles à un pareil moment, car, lorsqu’on voit à
quoi les nations civilisées se laissent entraîner, on est bien tenté d’aller oublier
l’Europe chez des sauvages, au milieu desquels on sent du moins la supériorité de
notre civilisation sans en voir les maux.
Je vous demande pardon, Monsieur, de vous avoir écrit une lettre aussi longue,
mais, du moment que je pouvais écrire, je ne voulais pas me refuser le plaisir de
vous dire toute ma reconnaissance pour le charmant accueil que vous m’avez fait.
En attendant que je puisse le faire de vive voix, croyez-moi toujours, je vous prie,
Votre bien affectionné,
Louis Philippe d’Orléans.
CHAPTER XV.
All is quiet here up to the present moment; thanks to my friends, the hunters,
having acted as the police of the town, and saved all Christians from molestation.
It is supposed the Sultan will be acknowledged everywhere, but my supposition
about the French frontier being invaded has turned out too true; all however may
be arranged quietly.
It is rather from the Spaniards that we have to expect trouble and ferment. They
have been playing the fool at Ceuta, and now seek for satisfaction, which would
humiliate the new Sultan, and then perhaps cause him, if he concedes, to totter
upon his throne before he has even taken a firm seat thereon.
Green and Reade[39] live with me, and are very useful and attentive; but I am
bored with this bachelor’s life and miss my wife and my dear children.
All well so far.
Government has again approved of all I have done and am doing.
When war begins you will probably see me; but be assured I shall not be in
Tangier when bombardment takes place. I shall either be on board a ship or safe
inland amongst my hunters on ‘Mount Washington[40].’ No imprudence shall I be
guilty of, for your sake. As to the Moors, they are ready to do anything for me. I will
not trust the Spaniards, nor go amongst the ‘Kabail.’
Sultan’s brother (Mulai Abbas, in command of the troops) and I are good
friends.
Tangier is deserted. Nothing but armed men: not a woman, not a child.
Difficulty in getting anything.
Every effort was made by the Spaniards to remove Mr. Hay from
the scene of action. His conduct was the subject of violent attacks by
the Spanish Minister, Señor Castelar, and by the Madrid press. It
was also commented on in a letter in the Times from the Special
Correspondent of that paper. These attacks were brought before the
House of Commons, where Mr. Hay’s conduct was defended by Lord
John Russell and Mr. Liddell.
‘From Mr. Hay’s long residence in Morocco,’ said Lord John, ‘and his kindness
to all who hold any intercourse with him, he has gained to a great degree the
respect of the people of that country, not only of the Foreign Minister of the
Emperor of Morocco, who was formerly a merchant, but of the wild tribes of
natives who so frequently made incursions into the Spanish settlements. Having
this influence, I believe that he, according to instructions from Her Majesty’s
Government, endeavoured to prevent the breaking out of war between Spain and
Morocco. He endeavoured to prevent this war, till he was told by the Moorish
Minister that, whatever advice might be given, Morocco could make no further
concessions. Mr. Drummond Hay did exert himself to the utmost, and used the
influence he had so justly acquired to prevent the outbreak of hostilities. Since that
time, it being the policy of Her Majesty’s Government to be neutral in the war, his
conduct has been in strict conformity with his instructions. The hon. member has
read a report from the correspondent of The Times newspaper—a very
respectable gentleman, I believe; but he is in the Spanish camp, and can hear
nothing but what he is told by Spaniards. They have stated various matters which
the correspondent repeats, but he says that he knows nothing of them, and has no
proof of them whatever. I have not heard from Mr. Drummond Hay since he had an
opportunity of seeing these statements in the newspaper, but I have not a doubt
they are, one and all, entirely false. I do not believe that Mr. Drummond Hay has
felt it his duty to take any part in the war. The Spanish Minister did on one
occasion state to Mr. Buchanan that complaints had been made of the partiality of
Mr. Drummond Hay; but he gave no instance of such partiality, nor any proof of it
whatever. We are aware that the Spanish Government in this war has obtained the
aid of British merchants, and that the Spanish army has been supplied with British
stores and provisions. Any complaints, therefore, of a violation of neutrality might
more justly be made by the Government of Morocco than by the Government of
Spain. I believe that the conduct of Mr. Drummond Hay has been entirely free from
blame. I do not wish to say which party in this war is right; but I cannot sympathise
with the enthusiasm of the hon. gentleman in regard to it. I do not think because
one party is Christian and the other Mohammedan, we ought to give the former all
our sympathy, without knowing the causes of the quarrel.
Thank God! on the 25th preliminaries were signed. Entre nous, though
Spaniards continue to rave against me, it was I who got this Government to agree
to peace after a hard-fought battle in the plain of Tetuan.
Altogether this period had been for him a time of great anxiety. His
troubles were increased by a sharp attack of what is now known as
‘Russian influenza,’ which prostrated him just when affairs were in
the most critical condition. He fought against the malady, however, in
his anxiety to secure peace; but when his family returned to Tangier
they found that the illness had left him with snow-white beard and
moustache, who before had not a gray hair.
The three letters that follow were written from Meknes during a
mission undertaken by Mr. Hay to the Moorish Court with the object
of inducing the Sultan to concede the demands of Spain, and to
place the peace just concluded between the two countries on a firm
basis.
As will be seen, great difficulties arose with regard to the payment
of the indemnity claimed by Spain. The Sultan had asked the British
Government to guarantee a loan, to which request they could not
accede. During his sojourn at Meknes, Mr. Hay received a proposal
from Mr. Forde, a British merchant, to raise a loan in England at 10
per cent., provided the British Government would make a convention
with the Moorish Government by which the interests of the
shareholders in the proposed loan would be safeguarded by the
British Government. This matter was not concluded when Mr. Hay
left Meknes, as much depended on the attitude taken by Spain. He
writes to his mother from Meknes on July 18, 1861:—
Here we are! all well and not even fatigued by our journey. We have had a
triumphal march through the country, and had I been the Sultan himself, more
honour and respect could not have been shown me.
Not an unkind word has been heard from high or low. The General Officer sent
by the Sultan to Tangier to escort us is the third military dignitary in the Empire. All
the governors and chiefs who met us were under his authority, and the good fellow
told me he was ordered by the Sultan to attend upon me and to meet my wishes
as if I were the Sultan himself. He and I have made great friends. He said, ‘When I
received the Sultan’s order to take charge of the Mission, I thought I should have
to take care of pots of china, which would crack or break at the first jolt, and that I
might therefore be ruined by some accident; but I find I have to deal with men who
have kind and stout hearts.’
I will not tell you of the thousands of wild fellows—cavalry and infantry—who
have saluted us on the road, but will merely describe our reception this morning.
We left our last encampment, called Kasba Faráo, at 4 a.m., escorted by the
Governor of Sherarda with about 1,200 cavalry.
At 5.30 we were met by the wild tribe of Zerhóna, shouting and firing. I do not
believe they meant to offend us in any way, but, on the contrary, to welcome us in
this boisterous manner; but our old Kaid declared that no man should shout or fire
again till I had passed. The Zerhóna objected, as they said they wished to honour
me face to face. I should mention that they are of Rif origin, and fight better than all
the other tribes put together. A dispute took place, and then the order was given to
the cavalry to surround our party. In a moment we found ourselves surrounded by
the 1,200 cavalry; the chiefs of Sherarda declaring that they would ride down the
Zerhóna if the slightest insult were offered. All passed off quietly.
At 7 a.m. mounted officers arrived, sent from the capital by the Sultan to
welcome us. At 8 o’clock, about four miles from the town, the Kaid-el-Meshwa, the
first military officer of the court, met us, and we beheld a line of about 15,000
cavalry and 18,000 infantry[41], with banners flying, ranged along the heights
surrounding the town. Along these lines we passed, and I was presented to all the
governors, generals, and other dignitaries. A feu de joie was fired repeatedly along
the lines.
The Governor of Meknes arrived in state to receive us, also a relation of the
Sultan; and the late Ambassador to London, with another Moorish officer, came
out to welcome us, and to say that they were ordered by the Sultan to attend upon
us during our sojourn at the court.
All the shops were shut; the whole population lined the wall.
We are lodged in a large and handsome house, with a fountain in the centre of
the court. The walls are in Arabesque filagree, the floors in glazed tiles. The house
is lofty, and has a second story. The rooms are magnificently furnished with
carpets, mirrors, clocks, beds, and velvet and cloth tapestries.
The provisions are profuse, never have I eaten such bread; and, strange to say,
the butter is delicious.
The ex-Ambassador waits below to learn our wishes, the General Officer to act
as chief guard. Too much has been done, and it almost makes me feel sad, as I
know how little we can do to help them, and what a bitter pill I have to offer as the
remedy to be taken to save the Empire.
The horse is the throne of the Sultan of Morocco, who is the descendant and
representative of the prophet Mohammed and of those Kaliphs who, rallying from
the deserts of Arabia on their swift horses, conquered such vast and fair portions
of Africa, Asia, and Europe.
The fact of the Sultan having mounted a milk-white horse is meant to be
emblematic of peace and goodwill. When His Majesty is displeased he rides a
black horse, and according to the royal humour he is said to vary the shade of the
steed he mounts.
July 30.
I have just returned from a long private interview with the Sultan. He has not
conceded Spanish terms, for he has not the money, and, therefore, to say he
would give what he has not, would only make matters worse; but he agrees to
send an Ambassador to Madrid to treat. To persuade him to do this was one of the
chief objects of my mission.
Thus far we have succeeded.
Sultan is very kind, says much that is flattering, and laughs and talks with me.
The Sultan is at Rabát, and my object was to have a chat with him. He received
me very kindly, and privately, as I had requested. He agreed to all I suggested, and
even told his Uzir that his duty would be to listen to what I proposed, and then to
act at once on my recommendations.
His Sultanic Majesty was in good spirits, scolded me good-humouredly for not
writing to him, told me he looked upon me as his best counsellor and friend, and
he therefore expected I should write to him, not only what was agreeable, but also
what was disagreeable, as he said thus alone he could learn the truth.
I was lodged sumptuously. I refused all presents, but accepted for Commander
Nicolas a splendid sword mounted in gold which the Sultan sent him through me.
I begin to feel almost nervous about the blind confidence placed in me by the
Sultan. I happened to mention to the Uzir that one of the governors of a port was
an ‘imbecile.’ Next morning I was informed that the Sultan said my opinion
sufficed, and he was dismissed from office. A Jew had been robbed and put in
prison by a governor. I mentioned it. Orders were given for restoration of the
property, and the governor is sent for by the Sultan, which is equivalent to
imprisonment. I must think twice before I speak to these folk.
There are sad delays in England about the loan, but I am working hard.