New Evidence of the Circulation of Eastern Christian Apologetic Works in al-Andalus

Abstract

In addition to the “Mozarabic text of world history” made known by G. Levi Della Vida, the codex of Andalusi origin Raqqāda 2003/2 (olim Great Mosque of Qayrawān 120/829) contains three Christian texts of an apologetic-polemical nature: an Arabic version of the well-known dialogue between the Nestorian patriarch Timothy I and the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdī, a controversy between two interlocutors who are referred to as al-kathūliqī and al-a‘rābī, and a testimonia collection. This paper discusses the influence of Eastern Christian theological works on these three texts, which is noticeable in the arguments, the biblical quotations, and the vocabulary used in them.