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ISLAMO-CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION Richard W

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ISLAMO-CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION Richard W A joint publication from the POLICY BRIEF Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and the British Council DECEMBER 2012 ISLAMO-CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION Richard W. Bulliet The phrase “Islamo-Christian civilization” first appeared Protestants, and many Protestants and Catholics find it in 2004 in the book The Case for Islamo-Christian difficult to grant full acceptance to Mormonism, Christian Civilization by historian Richard W. Bulliet. It was coined Science, and other comparatively recent interpretations with a two-fold purpose. First, in the aftermath of the 9/11 of Christianity. Within Islam, it is difficult to assign terrorist attacks, it was proposed as a way of focusing on chronological priority to either Sunnism or Shi‘ism; the shared history and characteristics of the Islamic and however, Sufi organizations and branches of Shi‘ism Christian religious communities, rather than on past and that emerged at comparatively late dates, such as the current episodes of enmity between them. It followed Nusairis and the Druze, initially encountered hostility the pattern of “Judeo-Christian civilization,” a phrase from the older versions of the faith. Interpretations that that came into vogue in the 1950s as an oblique avowal have emerged even more recently, such as the Baha’is of the post-Holocaust mood of interfaith reconciliation and the Ahmadis, still face widespread rejection as in Europe and America. Second, it was proposed versions of Islam. as a way of encouraging historical and conceptual For later versions of a faith to encounter difficulty investigation of the great extent of overlap and parallel in establishing their legitimacy in the eyes of those growth between the two religions that had manifested who adhere to earlier versions is normal in religious itself in myriad ways over many centuries. It took as an history. But this generally does not prevent the sundry axiom this notion: The greater the recognition of a sibling versions being gathered under a single umbrella for relationship between Islam and Christianity, the better purposes of identification. That is to say, when people the prospects for peaceful coexistence in future years. speak of Christianity today they group Catholics, Half of the people in the world profess either Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants together despite Christianity or Islam. Each of these vast communities the undeniable histories of enmity within Christendom, contain variant interpretations the stray far from the just as estimates of the world Muslim population group earliest versions of the faith. As a rule, believers who Sunnis and Shi‘is together despite their manifest define their faith by adherence to what they understand differences and, in some contexts, murderous hostility. those earliest versions to be, exhibit hostility toward, or This being the case, how difficult can it be to look beyond at most grudging toleration of, interpretations that came the historical episodes of Muslim-Christian warfare and into being at a later point in time. Within Christianity, vilification, which were no greater in dogmatic intensity Catholics went through centuries of militant opposition to or bloodthirstiness than those between Catholics and DECEMBER 2012 POLICY BRIEF ABOUT THE AUTHOR of Jesus. Scholars sometimes use the term “believers” (Arabic: mu’minun) for Muhammad’s earliest followers and refer to the early community that formed around Jesus’ disciples after the crucifixion as “the Jesus RICHARD W. BULLIET movement.” In this way, they seek to account for the time that elapsed before the words “Muslim” and “Christian” became fixed as the signifiers of new faith communities. Exactly when Islam’s distinctiveness became universally recognized remains a matter of debate. In fact, medieval Richard W. Bulliet is a professor of history at sources reflecting Christian viewpoints on the matter Columbia University who specializes in the history expressed ambivalence for several centuries. To medieval of Islamic society and institutions, the history of Christians, it seemed quite possible that Islam was a technology, and the history of the role of animals Christian heresy, just as Protestantism would seem to in human society. He first visited the Middle East in be to Roman Catholics a millennium later. After all, many 1965. On his many subsequent trips he has spent Germanic peoples followed the Egyptian bishop Arius time in virtually every region of the Middle East, in his Unitarian teaching that Jesus was not truly or fully North Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia. Bulliet God, but rather a man who became divinized at the time has given several hundred interviews to the print of his baptism. Yet the Arians are always classified as and broadcast media. His commentaries have Christians, albeit of heretical belief. appeared in Newsday, The Los Angeles Times, The Gospel of Barnabas, an account of Jesus’ life The Boston Globe, and The Arizona Republic, dating in the extant Italian and Spanish versions to the and he has served as a consultant on Islamic sixteenth century, provides evidence that some Christians matters for Time Magazine. His books include and/or Muslims—the actual author is unknown—never The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization (2004, gave up the idea that the two religions were one. Not in press), The Columbia History of the Twentieth only does this “gospel” mirror the details about Jesus’ life Century (ed., 1998), The Encyclopaedia of the contained in the Qur’an while including the substance of Modern Middle East (co-ed., 1996), Islam: The the New Testament gospels, but it explicitly “predicts” the View from the Edge (1994), Conversion to Islam coming of Muhammad, as when God says: “When I shall in the Medieval Period (1979), The Camel and send thee into the world I shall send thee as my messenger the Wheel (1975), and The Patricians of Nishapur of salvation, and thy word shall be true, insomuch that (1972). heaven and earth shall fail, but thy faith shall never fail.” Mohammed is his blessed name (Barnabas 97:10). Was it political and military success that reified Islam’s position as a separate faith? Or was it perhaps the Protestants or between Sunnis and Shi‘ites, and group Christians’ bewilderment and fear who saw the majority Christianity and Islam together as a single Islamo- of their brothers and sisters in faith absorbed within the Christian civilization that encompasses half the world? Muslim caliphate, ultimately to convert in large numbers If we go back to the early days of Islam, it is apparent to Islam over a period of some four centuries? There is that the first Muslims were no more certain that they were no way of telling. If one looks, however, at the earliest pioneers of a new religion than were the first followers widespread public avowal of Islam accessible to people ISPU Islamo-Christian Civilization DECEMBER 2012 POLICY BRIEF of all faiths, namely, the gold and silver coinage in Arabic and will be in you (John 14: 16–17). script that began to be issued in 76 AH, it is easier to see Eminent Muslim scholars repeatedly interpreted these the caliphate as an economic power focused on the passages as predictions of the coming of Muhammad, Arab people than as the institutional embodiment of a or as intimations of the End Times, when a Messiah new religion. There was no iconic equivalent of the cross (“anointed one”), known to both Sunni and Shi‘ite Muslims to symbolize doctrinal difference, and the words of the as the Mahdi (“the right guide”), would come to redeem Qur’an that appeared on the coins would have conveyed a sinful world. In that eschatological context, which very little to most people in an era when fewer than five was elaborated upon extensively in the collections of percent of the caliphate’s population could actually read Muhammad’s sayings (the Hadith literature), Muslim the Arabic script. tradition strongly affirmed that Jesus would return in the What would have made Islam seem like a branch of End Times to combat and defeat the demonic Antichrist, Christianity rather than an absolutely separate religion? known to Muslims as the Dajjal, and thus pave the way First and foremost, the Qur’anic revelation portrayed for the arrival of the Mahdi, who would preside over a Jesus as a divine messenger who brought a sacred book millennium of peace and justice. to the Israelites and predicted the coming of Muhammad: Christian theologians, naturally, did not share these Jesus, the son of Mary, said: “O children of Israel! Behold, Muslim interpretations. Instead, they saw John’s verses I am an apostle of God unto you, [sent] to confirm the dealing with the Paraclete as references to the Holy Spirit, truth of whatever there still remains of the Torah, and one of the three components of the Trinity, despite the to give [you] glad tidings of an apostle who shall come implication in the cited verses that the Paraclete had after me, whose name shall be Ahmad [i.e., Muhammad]” not yet arrived while the Holy Spirit had already figured (Sura 61: 6). The virginity of Mary was similarly affirmed. in Jesus’s baptism. But the effort of the Muslims to Jesus’ death on the cross was denied, but that was not see Muhammad’s coming as something predicted in an unheard of view among early Christians who followed the Bible, both in the old and the new testaments, was the so-called Docetist heresy. parallel to the systematic Christian effort to interpret the Muslim readers who read the New Testament closely Old Testament as a prediction of the coming of Jesus further pointed to passages that could be taken to Christ and his church. Both Muslims and Christians, in imply that Jesus would send another “Comforter” or other words, sought to portray their spiritual founders as “Intercessor.” The Greek used here is parakletos, fulfilling prophecies found in earlier scripture.
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