Tradition and Renewal in 18th-Century Arabic Theology: ʿAbd Allāh Zākhir’s Al-burhān al-ṣarīḥ on the Trinity and Christology

Abstract

This article examines Al-burhān al-ṣarīḥ (The Evident Proof), a theological treatise written in 1721 by ʿAbd Allāh Zākhir, a key figure in the 18^th-century Melkite Church. Composed in Arabic at the request of a Muslim jurist and later printed at Shuwayr in 1764, the work stands as a rare and significant example of systematic theology articulated in the Arabic Christian tradition during a period marked by both Islamic dominance and rising Catholic influence. While Zākhir adopts the vocabulary and tone of Eastern Arabic Christian theology, his method reveals a distinctly scholastic orientation, particularly through the use of Aristotelian logic and Thomistic structure. This paper argues that Al-burhān al-ṣarīḥ is more than an apologetic defense: it is a catechetical synthesis that bridges the Antiochian theological heritage with early modern Catholic intellectual currents. By boldly reasserting the notion of taʾalluh (deification) within a context where such language was often suppressed to avoid Islamic accusations of shirk, Zākhir revives a core Eastern doctrine and marks a turning point in the history of Arabic Christian thought. This study thus reassesses Zākhir’s work as a foundational moment in the Melkite theological resurgence following the 1724 split, and as theological synthesis across traditions and contexts.