MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN DEBATES IN THEEARLY ‘ABBASID PERIOD: The Cases of Timothy I and Theodore Abu Qurra

The era of the early ‘Abbasid caliphate made an important mark on the history of the world by the event of the Greek translation movement, i.e. the translation of Greek thoughts into the Arabic language. In addition to this development, the era also saw the flourishing of interreligious discourse, in both polemical literatures and religious debates, especially between Christians and Muslims. This article tries to describe how those two historical remarks are correlated under the light of other factors such as politics and religious identity. The earliest debate was happened between caliph al-Mahdi (r. 755-785 CE) and a Nestorian Catholicos, Timothy I (728- 823 CE), as the first sample of religious discourses. The second one is the debate between the caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833CE), who arranged many religious debates in his court, with Theodore Abu Qurra (755 – 830 CE), Bishop of Harran. By knowing the motives of the two caliphs who sponsored those events, readers would catch a better picture of the historical contexts of that time.