Between Hellenism and Arabicization. On the formation of an ethnolinguistic identity of the Melkite communities in the heart of Muslim rule

The present paper deals with the Melkite community as a specific group with an ecclesiastical identity which arose in the Islamic period, in the heartland of Islam, and therefore not in Constantinople. Our aim is to describe those features of this community that arose from the Byzantine Orthodox faith, although formed from anti-Monothelite Syrian Chalcedonian groups, as distinct from the Jacobites, later identified with the Christians of the Umayyad Caliphate who accepted the teachings of the Sixth Ecumenical Council of the Royal Byzantine Church in 681. In this context the label Melkite should not be understood as a synonym of «Greek Orthodox» but rather of «Chalcedonian», which, for the Syrian Christians, identifies those who followed the Dyothelite dogma.El presente artículo se ocupa de la comunidad melkita, en tanto que grupo que se conformó como una identidad eclesiástica surgida en el periodo islámico, en el corazón del Islam y por tanto no en Constantinopla. De ahí que insistamos en que aquellos rasgos de identidad de esta comunidad que vienen dados por la fe de la Ortodoxia bizantina, formada a partir de grupos de calcedonianos siriacos anti-monotelitas como grupo diferenciado de los jacobitas, que serán identificados posteriormente con los cristianos del califato omeya que aceptaron las enseñanzas del sexto concilio ecuménico de la iglesia imperial bizantina en el año 681. En este contexto, el uso de la denominación melkita no ha de entenderse como sinónimo de «ortodoxos griegos», sino de «calcedonianos», que en el caso de los cristianos siriacos identifica a aquellos que siguieron el dogma diotelita

Réponse de Μ. I. Shahîd à C. Robin

Shahîd Irfan. Réponse de Μ. I. Shahîd à C. Robin. In: Bulletin critique des annales islamologiques, n°7, 1991. pp. 210-212

Early Christianity in East Africa and Red Sea/Indian Ocean Commerce

The ancient East African kingdom of Aksum gradually adopted Christianity from the early- to mid-fourth-century reign of Ezana onwards. The well-known narrative of the late Roman church-historian Rufinus relates a top-down process of conversion, starting with the ruler himself. The report, corroborated by the adoption of Christian symbolism on Ezana’s late coinage, and monotheistic as well as overtly Christian references in royal inscriptions, is generally considered trustworthy. While not challenging the significance of charismatic and powerful individuals, this article argues that Christianity was present in the region before Ezana, and that the introduc- tion of Christianity should be situated within the context of early Red Sea/Indian Ocean commerce. Trade was the carrier of ideological impulses from communities in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean worlds and created the social infrastructure that expatriate believers, early converts, and later, church officials and local elites could draw upon