Christian influences in Islam can be traced back to Eastern Christianity, which surrounded the origins of Islam.Michael Nazir-Ali. Islam, a Christian perspective, Westminster John Knox Press, 1983, p. 66 Islam, emerging in the context of a Middle East with various Christian populations, was first seen as a Christological heresy known as the "heresy of the Ishmaelites", described as such in Concerning Heresy by Saint John of Damascus.
Christians introduced the Muslims to Greek learning. Eastern Christian scientists and scholars of the medieval Islamic world (particularly Nestorian Christians) contributed to the Arab Islamic civilization during the Umayyad and the Abbasid periods by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic.Hill, Donald. Islamic Science and Engineering. 1993. Edinburgh Univ. Press. , p.4Ferguson, Kitty Pythagoras: His Lives and the Legacy of a Rational Universe Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2008, (page number not available – occurs toward end of Chapter 13, "The Wrap-up of Antiquity"). "It was in the Near and Middle East and North Africa that the old traditions of teaching and learning continued, and where Christian scholars were carefully preserving ancient texts and knowledge of the ancient Greek language." They also excelled in philosophy, science, theology and medicine.Rémi Brague, Assyrians contributions to the Islamic civilization Britannica, Nestorian
Scholars and intellectuals agree Eastern Christians have made significant contributions to Arab and Islamic civilization since the introduction of Islam,Hill, Donald. Islamic Science and Engineering. 1993. Edinburgh Univ. Press. , p. 4 and they have had a significant impact contributing to the culture of the Middle East and North Africa and other areas.
Christian communities have played a vital role in the Muslim World. Pew Research Center estimates indicate that in 2010, more than 64 million Christians lived in countries with Muslim majorities (excluding Nigeria). The Pew Forum study finds that Indonesia (21.1 million) has the largest Christian population in the Muslim world, followed by Egypt, Chad and Kazakhstan. The majority of Muslim countries also use a Gregorian calendar and some countries observe Sunday as a non-working day (cf. Sunday Sabbatarianism).
Prayer and worship The religion of Islam has been claimed to have been molded by Assyrian Christians and Jews. In explicating the origin of the Islamic salat, academics state that it was influenced by the religions prevalent in the Middle East during the time of Muhammad, such as Christianity and Judaism. The five fixed prayer times in Islamic prayer may have their origins in the canonical hours of Christians, especially those used in the 4th century by believers in the Oriental Orthodox Churches (that were widely regarded as Miaphysite) who prayed seven times a day, given the extensive contact that Muhammad and his companions had with Syrian Christian monks. Abu Bakr and other early followers of Muhammad were exposed to these fixed times of prayer of the Syrian Christians in Abyssinia and likely relayed their observations to Muhammad, "placing the potential for Christian influence directly within the Prophet's circle of followers and leaders." Muhammad, who had direct contact with the Christians of Najrān in Yemen, would have been aware of the Christian practice of facing east while praying, which was ubiquitous in Christendom at the time. The position of prostration used by the Desert Fathers, Coptic Christian monks of Egypt, may have influenced the position of sujjud, marked by the Quranic symbol ۩.
The German philosopher Nicholas of Cusa had discovered parts of Nestorian Christianity in the Quran. The Nestorian sect of Christianity was widely practiced in the Middle East during that time. Professor Guillaume, speaking of the Nestorians (but the same would apply to the Monophysites), writes:
The Nestorian Christians were puritanical and opposed to showing images of Jesus and the cross. The Nestorians stance against images found firm place within the doctrines of Islam.
Ritual washing before performing the Salah was influenced by the Jewish practice of washing one's hands and feet before praying, a practice common among the Jews in Syria, Yathrib and Yemen; the Babylonian Talmud teaches that in the absence of water, earth should be used, a practice adopted in Islam. The Jews face Jerusalem when praying and the Qur'an records that the early Muslims did the same, with the direction of prayer facing Mecca being changed to this later. Justin Paul Hienz regards these as clear examples of syncretism in which Judaism influenced religious practice in Islam.
According to historian Philip Jenkins, Ramadan comes "from the strict Lenten discipline of the Syrian Churches", a postulation corroborated by other scholars, such as the theologian Paul-Gordon Chandler.Jenkins, Philip (31 July 2006). The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (p. 182). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
Cultural influence
Christians (particularly Nestorian Christians) contributed to the Arab Islamic civilization during the Umayyad and the Abbasid periods by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic. During the 4th through the 7th centuries, scholarly work in the Syriac and Greek languages was either newly initiated, or carried on from the Hellenistic period. Centers of learning and of transmission of classical wisdom included colleges such as the School of Nisibis, and later the School of Edessa, and the renowned hospital and medical academy of Jundishapur; libraries included the Library of Alexandria and the Imperial Library of Constantinople; other centers of translation and learning functioned at Merv, Thessalonica, Nishapur and Ctesiphon, situated just south of what later became Baghdad.Yazberdiyev, Dr. Almaz Libraries of Ancient Merv Dr. Yazberdiyev is Director of the Library of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat. The House of Wisdom was a library, translation institute, and academy established in Abbasid-era Baghdad, Iraq.Hyman and Walsh Philosophy in the Middle Ages Indianapolis, 3rd edition, p. 216Meri, Josef W. and Jere L. Bacharach, Editors, Medieval Islamic Civilization Vol.1, A - K, Index, 2006, p. 451 Nestorians played a prominent role in the formation of Arab culture, with the Jundishapur school being prominent in the late Sassanid, Umayyad and early Abbasid periods.The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 22:2 Mehmet Mahfuz Söylemez, The Jundishapur School: Its History, Structure, and Functions, p.3. Notably, eight generations of the Nestorian Bukhtishu family served as private doctors to caliphs and sultans between the 8th and 11th centuries.
Translation of Greek works to Arabic was almost exclusively performed by Christian scholars. Egyptian priest and philosopher George Chehata Anawati mentions over sixty translators, all of whom were Christians except one Jew and one Sabaean. Baghdad received scholars from all over the Abbasid Caliphate who offered their services to the caliphs and rich sponsors. Some sponsors are known to have paid in gold the weight of each book translated into Arabic. The Nestorian Christian Hunayn ibn Ishaq, who worked as a writer and a teacher in the House of Wisdom, was one of the most influential translators of Greek medical and scientific treatises of his day.
Aristotle’s work was preserved in Arabic by Christians in the Muslim world such as the fifth-century priest Probus of Antioch, who introduced Aristotle to the Arab speaking world. Syrian Christian Yahya ibn ‘Adi also translated works of philosophy into Arabic, and wrote one of his own, called "The Reformation of Morals". His student, another Christian named Abu ‘Ali ‘Isa ibn Zur’a, also translated Aristotle and others from Syriac into Arabic. Timothy I of Seleucia-Ctesiphon translated Aristotle's Topics from the Syriac language into Arabic at the request of the Caliph.
The Nestorian Christian Hunayn ibn Ishaq was one of the most famous of these translators. He was a master in the Arabic, Greek, Assyrian and Persian languages. Hunayn is responsible for laying the foundation of scientific and philosophical terminology in Arabic, which was lacking until then, and which was essential for transmitting thought and knowledge. He worked with a team who translated almost the whole corpus of Galen’s medical works, as well as many of the works of Homer, Aristotle, Plato and Hippocrates.
As late as the 11th century, the Muslim philosopher and traveler Nasir Khusraw reported, “Truly, the scribes here in Syria, as is the case of Egypt, are all Christians…[and] it is most usual for the physicians…to be Christians.”
Language In the late 7th and 8th centuries, Muslims encountered Levantine Christians. The cognate Syriac word may have influenced the Arabic ('martyr-witness').Brian Wicker, Council on Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament. Witnesses to faith?: martyrdom in Christianity and Islam, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006, pp. 25-26 During the Abbasid dynasty, translations of the gospels from Syriac into Arabic were made, particularly by historian Bar-Hebraeus, at the request of the Arab governor. According to Professor Dominique Urvoy of the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès the Arabic script may have been created by Christian missionaries from the Christianized Arab city of Hira in ancient Iraq.
Richard Bell notes that the word “surah” is likely a derivation from the Syriac word surta, “used in the sense of Scripture.”
The arabic word "Hanif" which is usually translated as “monotheist,” (specifically one who before the advent of Muhammad was a true believer, that is, a believer in the one true god) comes from the Syriac word "hanephe", which means “heathens,” and is, according to Richard Bell, “the term applied by Christians to the Arabs.”
Linguist Robert Kerr says: “The fact that both the script and language of the Qur’an point to the Classical Arabia Petraea of Syro-Palestine, and not Arabia Deserta, is further supported by the fact that the Qur’an’s vocabulary is largely borrowed from Aramaic, especially Syriac, the liturgical language of the local churches.”
According to linguist Jan Retsö, “Many of the most important and frequent words in the Qur’an are clear Aramaic borrowings, which can be shown by a comparison with Syriac.” These include such key words in Islam as “Lord,” “merciful,” “prostrate,” “repent,” “offering,” “salvation,” “alms,” “Christ,” and even “ayat,” “sura,” and “Qur’an” itself. This coincides with research showing that the earliest mosques faced not Mecca but Petra in modern-day southern Jordan, where Syriac was spoken.
According to Christoph Luxenberg, the word Quran (reading, lectionary") is a rendition of the Aramaic word "qeryana", a book of liturgical readings, i.e. the term for a Syriac lectionary, with hymns and Biblical extracts, created for use in Christian services.
Christoph Luxenberg has examined the Aramaic substratum of the Qur’an Aramaic and notes that the Psalms are mentioned several times in the Qur’an (3:184, 17:55, 21:105, 35:25, 54:43, 54:52). He suggests that the mysterious letters may be vestiges of the Qur’an’s source text having been a Christian lectionary. Quranic scholar Erwin Gräf declares that the Qur’an, “according to the etymological meaning of the word, is originally and really a liturgical text designed for cultic recitation and also actually used in the private and public service. This suggests that the liturgy or liturgical poetry, and indeed the Christian liturgy, which comprises the Judaic liturgy, decisively stimulated and influenced Mohammed,”
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