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Islam and the Oriental Churches Islam and the Oriental Churches Their Historical Relations Students' Lectures on Missions Princeton Theological Seminary 1902-3 BY WILLIAM AMBROSE SHEDD, M. A., Missionary of the American Presbyterian Church to Persia NEW YORK YOUNG PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 1908 tics Copyright, 1904, by THE TRUSTEES OF THB PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK Dedicated to THE MEMORY OF BENJAMIN WOODS LABAREE WHO MET A CRUEL DEATH, SALMAS, PERSIA MARCH NINTH, MCMIV A TRUE FRIEND AND A DEVOTED MISSIONARY 2IIENA6MEN02 Preface The following chapters were prepared in response to an invitation from the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary to fill the Student Lectureship on Missions. They were delivered in substantially the form published here. After delivery at Princeton they were given also at Auburn Theological Seminary, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago Theological Seminary, and the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Kentucky. The kind reception accorded them in these places has encouraged me to present them to the general public. I am greatly indebted to the following libraries for the generous loan of books : Case Memorial Library of Hartford Theological Seminary, the Library of Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Foreign Missions Library in New York. The original sources consulted have been Syriac. I am aware that an exhaustive treat ment of the subject must be based on the 230707 iv PREFACE accounts of the Muhammadan as well as the Christian writers. So far, however, as the evi dence of Christian writers mitigates the severity of our judgment of Muhammadan rulers, it can surely be trusted ; and the fact is that the princi pal Syriac writers show few signs of bitterness toward the Arabs. Moreover, the Arabic sources have been used by writers more gen erally than the Syriac sources. It is, perhaps, well to warn the reader that the treatment of the subject is far from exhaustive geographically or chronologically. In particular the histories of the Christians of Egypt and of those under Osmanli rule illustrate the havoc wrought by the principle of limited toleration. A word as to that vexed subject, oriental orthography. I have tried to be consistent and scientific, but I have not attempted to represent in any way the Semitic guttural 'ain, which has no equivalent in our Western tongues. If to some readers the spelling Muhammad appear pedantic, it must be urged that neither of the alternatives Mahomet or Mohammed is uni versally adopted and that both are incorrect. William Ambrose Shedd. CONTENTS Introduction — Islam and the Oriental Churches Importance of the Muhammadan missionary problem. Neglect and misunderstandings of the historical relations of Christianity and Islam. Im portance of studying them. Scope of the present course of lectures I FIRST LECTURE The Influence of Christianity on Muhammad and on the Beginnings of Islam The personality of Muhammad in Islam. Influ ences that prepared for Islam. Jewish and Christian influences ; character, extent, evidence in Arab poetry. Christian influences that affected Muhammad him self. Evidence of personal contact with Christianity, references to Christianity in the Quran, doctrinal in fluences, relation to Christianity as claimed by Mu hammad. Bearing of these facts on the estimate of Muhammad's character. Relation to the Muham madan controversy. Can Islam lead to Christianity ? The failure and fault of the church II SECOND LECTURE The Relation of Christianity to the Development of Muslim Theology Conditions under which Muslim and Christian theology developed. Oriental Christianity. Its division, extent, character, theological differences and agreements. Interchange of religious ideas between Muslims and others. Christian influence in the doc trine of the " foundations " of Islam. The eternal Quran, legendary history in the traditions, the doc- trine of agreement. CONTENTS Christian influence on the Muslim doctrine of God and the apostolate. Chris tian influence on the sects of Islam. Slightness of Muslim influence on Christianity, and limits of Chris tian influence on Islam. Can Islam meet modern conditions ? THIRD LECTURE 45 The Relation of Muhammadan Government to the Oriental Churches General outline and periods of the history A. D., 600-1500. Toleration, in the strict sense, the char acteristic of the policy of Islam to other religions. The origin of the policy. Policies of the eastern Empire and of Persia. Practice of Muhammad. The history of the policy. The constitution of Umar, Arabian Christianity, the attitude of the Christians to the Arab conquest, maintenance of the status quo, Christianity under the Khalifas, conditions under the Mongols, fanatical reaction. The effect on the churches. Spiritual effect of limiting activity, effect of governmental influence in ecclesiastical affairs. Dangers of toleration. Compromise a characteristic of Islam 91 \ FOURTH LECTURE The Expansion of the Faiths Difficulty of the subject. Some conditions of the expansion. Character of the Muslim propaganda. Divisions of the subject. Converts to Christianity from Islam and Christian apologies. The Syriac- speaking peoples. Failure of Islam to gain them, proselytes from them to Islam. The Iranians. Ex tent of Christianity among them, extension after rise of Islam, means of extension, Nestorian monasticism and monastic missions, failure of Christianity to win the Iranians, Muslim propaganda and success. The Turks and Mongols. Christianity in China, Uighurs, Keraits, means of extension, character of the Chris tians, failure of Christianity, propaganda and success of Islam. The relation of Muslim missions to polit ical movements. Estimate of the Nestorian missions. Religious and national movements 139 CONTENTS vii I FIFTH LECTURE The Downfall of Christianity in the Common Ruin I Tragic character of the course of the history and the relation of the Christians to it. Geographical dis tribution of the Christians and the fortunes of the centers of Christian population. Service of faith in the dark days 189 SIXTH LECTURE The Light of the Past on the Future Missionary Conflict Incentives from the failures of the past. Place of the oriental churches. The missionary character of the Syrian churches. Our duty to them. The Christianity that can conquer. Its methods, its theo logical character, its vital relation to Christ .... 205 APPENDIXES 227 Introduction Importance of the Muhammadan missionary problem. Neg lect and misunderstandings of the historical relations of Chris tianity and Islam. Importance of studying them. Scope of the present course of lectures. Islam and the Oriental Churches INTRODUCTION The problem of Islam is so vast and so com plex and, furthermore, is of such vital interest to all who desire the coming of the kingdom of Christ on earth, that no apology is required for making it the subject of a course of lectures on missions. To say that the most elaborate inves tigation ever made into the statistics of Islam resulted in the conclusion that the Muhamma- dans number two hundred and sixty millions, or over fifteen per cent, of the population of the globe, is dealing in figures too large to be defi nitely significant to the mind.1 The geographical distribution will be clearer if we remember that there are large bodies of Muhammadans in every country in Asia,■ — Siam, Japan, and Korea excepted, — that among the Malays there are thirty millions of this faith, and 1 Dr. H. Jansen, Verbreitung des /slams, Berlin, 1897. 3 4 ISLAM AND THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES that about three eighths of the inhabitants of Africa are followers of the Prophet of Arabia. As various as the races represented are the de grees of culture, from the savage just emerged from heathenism to the most refined philosoph ical pantheist, yet all profess reverence to the same book and the same name. To the follower of Christ and especially to the student of Christian history Islam possesses a melancholy interest peculiar to it amortg the religions of the world. It alone can claim to have met and vanquished Christianity. Islam arose in a region accessible to Christianity, for Mecca is only eight hundred miles from Jeru salem over a road traveled by Muhammad in his youth. It arose at a time when Christianity should have evangelized Arabia, for in the six centuries by which the gospel of Christ preceded the creed of Muhammad, Christianity had spread to the borders of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans; had revolutionized the greatest empire known to ancient history, and had created a vast literature and a new learning. Why did it lose in Asia? What were the causes of defeat? Why was it possible for Muhammad to arise in that age of the world? Why did his religion INTRODUCTION 5 take root and flourish in lands sacred in Chris tian history? To ask and seek an answer to these and other such questions is the duty of the apologist, who defends the faith. The mission ary should seek, in this dark and well-nigh for gotten past, light on the present battle in the world-wide field. Another reason that gives the study of this department of history a special claim is that it has been neglected or misunderstood. Church history has very little to say on the subject, and the statements in church histories and in mis sionary literature are often far wide of the truth. One error is to enroll the eastern church en masse in the list of martyrs, as in the following sentence from the latest English history of eastern Christianity : " For long years past the existence of the eastern church has been one continued martyrdom." ' Similarly, Neale says : " The empire of the Caesars was vanquished (by the Arabs), and limited, and contracted : the spiritual dominion of the eastern church stooped not to the victor. Many a noble victory was won for Christ: many a glorious athlete was sent to ' See Hoare's Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church. 6 ISLAM AND THE ORIENTAL CHUBCHES martyrdom.
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