Theodore Abū Qurrah and ʽalī B. Rabbān Al-Ṭabarī—Two Comparative Theologians from Early Islam?

ISIT 2.1 (2018) 47–70 Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology (print) ISSN 2397-3471 https://doi.org/10.1558/isit.32587 Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology (online) ISSN 2397-348X Interreligiosity as a Realist Learning Engagement: Theodore Abū Qurrah and ʽAlī b. Rabbān al-Ṭabarī—Two Comparative Theologians from Early Islam? NAJIB GEORGE AWAD HARTFORD SEMINARY [email protected] Abstract The comparative theologian, Francis X. Clooney, once opined that much recent comparative theology is done with Hinduism and Buddhism, and Islam is hardly gaining a proportionately sufficient attention in this scholarship. This essay aims at contributing to the attempt at filling-in the gap of doing comparative theology in relation to Islam. I pursue this task by studying fī al-Dīn wa-l-Dawlah (On Religion and State) by the Muslim ʽAlī b. Rabbān al-Ṭabarī in comparative conversation with Maymar fī Wjūd al-Khāliq wa-l-Dīn al-Qawym (Maymar on the Existence of the Creator and the Right Religion). by the Christian Theodore Abū Qurrah. It is my goal to shed comparative lights on Wa-l-Dīn al-Qawīm and Al-Dīn wa-l-Dawlah by observing similarities and differences with regard to the following: the method of verification; the criterion of credibility acknowledged by each; and the telos of verification they seek. Toward the end of the comparison, I reflect briefly on whether or not Abū Qurrah and al-Ṭabarī could be considered comparative theologians of the early Islam/middle Byzantine era and, if so, what kind of “comparative theology” are they presenting in their legacies? Keywords Theodore Abu Qurrah, ʽAli b. Rabban al-Tabari, comparative theology, Christian-Muslim Kalam Introduction This study is an experiment in comparative theology from a Christian Muslim case-study perspective. Francis X. Clooney, one of the founding fathers of the discipline of comparative theology, has pointed out that much recent comparative theology is done with Hinduism and Buddhism (thus seeming to receive the greater attention of this field’s scholars), and Islam is not attracting as much attention (2010, 198). This essay responds to the issue raised by Clooney, contributing to filling in the gap in comparative theology in relation to Islam. I pursue © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2018, Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX 48 Najib George Awad this task by studying ʽAlī b. Rabbān al-Ṭabarī’s text Fī al-Dīn wa-l-Dawlah (On Religion and State) in comparative conversation with Theodore Abū Qurrah’s text Maymar fī Wjūd al-Khāliq wa-l-Dīn al-Qawym (Maymar on the Existence of the Creator and the Right Religion). ʽAlī al-Ṭabarī and Theodore Abū Qurrah were, respectively, Muslim and Christian mutakallims, or theologians (Pines 1971, 224; Van Ess 1975, 1976, and 1982; Woflson 1976; Cook 1980; Frank 1999; Griffith 2008, 45-74; Treiger 2014).1 Both lived and wrote about their faith during the late eighth century AD/second century AH and early ninth century AD/third century AH. The Muslim theologian, Abū al-Ḥasan ʽAlī Ibn Sahl (Rabbān) al-Ṭabarī was born around 780 AD. He is believed to have been born in Merv, to have lived his life in Irāq, and to have died in Sāmarrā᾽ or Baghdād sometime around c. 860 AD (Thomas 2009, 669; al-Ṭabarī 1982, 5–19; Thomas and Ebied 2016). It is believed that the description “Rabbān,” a Syriac word meaning “our master,” must not be mistakenly read as an Arabic transliteration of the Hebrew word “Rabbi,” something that may suggest that al-Ṭabarī had a Jewish background (al-Ṭabarī 1982, 7-8). Rather, scholars seem in favour of translating “Rabbān” from within its Syriac Christian context to reveal al-Ṭabarī’s familial Christian origin. He was a son of a preeminent physician, whose intellectual rank made his society call him “the master/our master.” Scholars support this Christian background based on references al-Ṭabarī himself mentions in his al-Dīn wa-l- Dawlah about his paternal uncle Abū Zakkār yaḥyā Ibn an-Nuʽmān: al-Ṭabarī introduces his uncle as “a Christian scholar” (Thomas 2009, 669; Thomas and Ebied 2016, 1–24). Historians suggest that this uncle lived approximately between c. 760 AD and c. 830 AD, commenting that “he was known in Irāq and Khurāsān for his intellectual acumen and [he] had a following of disciples,” and that he was from the Syriac Oriental (probably Nestorian) Christianity that was popular in Irāq (Thomas 2009, 565). We have here, then, an author called ʽAlī b. Rabbān al-Ṭabarī who comes from a Christian background, who converted to 1 I do use this term to describe the theological discourses of these two figures because the science of Kalām is multiform and diverse in style and method: it can be developed after either as “question-answer” (“you say so”-“I say so”), or defensive polemic form, or comparative rationalization form, or as rational- philosophical hermeneutic. The two authors studied here follow a comparative rationalization form of Kalām discourse. These two authors do use other styles of Kalām in their other texts, especially either the defensive polemic or the “you say so”-“I say so” form. For this essay I have selected two texts that each follow an apologetic comparative method in order to make relevant conversation with comparative theology. © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2018 Interreligiosity as a Realist Learning Engagement 49 Islam, and who remained one of the defenders of this faith during his life in the Muslim court, and especially during the reign of the Caliph al-Mutawakkil (Jaʽfar b. Muḥammad al-Muʽtaṣim bi-Allāh) who ruled between 822 AD and 861. It is during that era (some years after 850 AD), and as a gesture of veneration and gratitude, that al-Ṭabarī wrote al-Dīn wa-l-Dawlah to express his adherence to Islam before this Muslim Caliph. The Christian Arab mutakallim, Abū Qurrah, was the bishop of Ḥarrān and one of the earliest theologians to produce Arabic theological discourses to defend and explain Christian theology before Muslims (Awad 2015, 1–7; Griffith 1978; Dick 1982; Bacha 1904; Lamoreaux 2005, 2002, and 2009). Abū Qurrah belonged to the Melkite-Chalcedonian Church. He served as one of its prelates and most influential theologians during the Muslim Abbasid rule in the eight to ninth centuries AD, especially during the rules of the Abbasid caliphs al-Mahdī (775–785) through to his grandson al-Ma᾽mūn (813–833). Scholars deem him “a theological and intellectual link between Greek church fathers and the Arab Christian authors of the eighth and ninth centuries CE” (Awad 2015, 4), and as an innovative reconciler of the Greek patristic past with the Christian Arabic theological apologies during the early age of Islam (Awad 2015, 2; Dick 1986, 17). Contemporary scholars believe that Abū Qurrah was born and grew up in the famous city of Edessa (Urfa in today’s Turkey). They connect the largest proportion of his life to the city of Ḥarrān and to the Melkite diocese of Jerusalem; some even suggest his relation to the Mār Sābā monastery (Awad- 2015, 4–5). When it comes to the dates of his birth and death, we can merely presume possibilities. Of the various suggestions, it is generally conceded that Abū Qurrah must have lived sometime between the second half of the eighth century and the first third of the ninth. To be more precise, he lived and died more or less between 750 AD and 825/830. Finally, Abū Qurrah is believed to have composed the text of Maymar fī Wjūd al-Khāliq wa-l-Dīn al-Qawym (Maymar on the Existence of the Creator and the Right Religion) as one of his earliest writs in Arabic in defence of Christian faith. Scholars estimate its date of writing to be at the last decade of the eighth century (Awad 2015, 5; Abu Qurrah 1982, 52; Griffith 1993). It is also believed that although Abū Qurrah has Muslims primarily in mind as readers, the text is addressed to every potential group of readers who do not believe in Christianity (Awad 2015, 5; Abū Qurrah 1982, 52; Griffith 1993). In this essay, I utilize al-Ṭabarī’s Al-Dīn wa-l-Dawlah and Abū Qurrah’s Wa-l-Dīn al-Qawīm for the following reasons: first, their authors both © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2018 50 Najib George Awad belong to the same historical era (late eighth-early ninth centuries AD), and both developed their theological views within the same intellectual Abbasid, dominantly Muʽtazilite, sitz im leben. Second, both texts were written in an attempt from each author to verify the authenticity and truthfulness of his own faith (Christianity in Abū Qurrah’s case, Islam in al-Ṭabarī’s). It is my goal to shed comparative light on Wa-l- Dīn al-Qawīm and Al-Dīn wa-l-Dawlah by observing their similarities and differences with regard to the following: (1) the method of verification each follows; (2) the criterion of credibility each acknowledges; and (3) the telos of verification they aim to reach. Toward the end of the comparison, I reflect briefly on whether or not Abū Qurrah and al-Ṭabarī are valid examples of comparativist theologians for the early medieval/middle Byzantine era and, if so, what kind of “comparative theology” they seem to be presenting in their legacies. First, let me start with a comparative reading of their texts from the perspective of the three above-mentioned aspects. How do we verify a religion? Abū Qurrah and al-Ṭabarī both wrote their Arabic treatises at a time when Christians and Muslims were deeply involved in attempts at defending their faiths in the most effective and efficient theological, philosophical, and textual methods they could think of.

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