St. John of Damascus on Islam (Pt. 1): Life Among the Muslims

Throughout the history of Christian-Muslim dialogue the importance of the role and work of St. John of Damascus cannot be overstated. His work The Heresy of the Ishmaelites is the earliest written Christian treatise against Islam and, while quite short, it has still dramatically influenced Christian thought concerning Islam and polemics against it. However, some would argue that this emphasis on St. John is unfounded, and that his knowledge concerning Islam and the Qur’an was, in fact, quite limited. Eastern Orthodox priest and theologian John Meyendorff in his essay Byzantine Views on Islam argues that St. John’s “contribution to the history of Byzantine polemics against Islam is slight”^[1] and that he was “neither original nor better informed than other Greeks in this matter.”^[2] J.R. Merrill, a scholar Meyendorff references, in his work Of the Tractate of John of Damascus on Islam argues that Damascene’s works themselves prove he knew very little concerning the Qur’an and Islam. On the other hand some scholars, such as Daniel J. Sahas, find St. John to be a crucial voice in the study of early Christian-Muslim dialogue. In his work John of Damascus on Islam: The “Heresy of the Ishmaelites” he attempts to shed some light on St. John’s life, his interactions with Muslims, and his polemical writings against Islam. Using St. John’s writings on Islam, the focus of this paper will be to address the arguments of both Meyendorff and Sahas and to demonstrate that his knowledge of the Qur’an and Islam was, in fact, much deeper and richer than some have argued.