Iskandar ibn Aḥmad's epistle in refutation of Christians

Year 2012, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 73 - 104, 29.09.2012

Muhammet Tarakçı

https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2012.31.50

Abstract

This paper introduces the short epistle written by Iskandar ibn Aḥmad as an anti-Christian polemic. Iskandar identifies himself as “a philosopher from Trabzon,” a city in the north-east of modern Turkey. No information about him is available other than this detail. The author of the polemic at-tempts to confute the basic Christian idea that Jesus Christ is God using biblical verses. As he refers to biblical verses accurately and in Greek (transliterated into the Arabic alphabet), one can be sure that he is very familiar with the New Testament. In addition to the biblical verses, he also uses log-ical arguments and Qurʾānic verses to show that Jesus Christ is only a human being. This paper starts with a brief history of Muslim anti-Christian apologetics and polemics in the Ottoman Empire and succinct information about Iskandar ibn Aḥmad’s epistle. Then, the paper provides the English translation and Arabic text of the epistle. Because the epistle is a unique copy, it is not possible for us to illustrate the differences among copies of the text. However, the footnotes provide biblical and Qurʾānic references, transliteration of the Greek biblical verses, and the author’s mistakes in the usage of Arabic languages.

References

• Adang, Camilia, "Guided to Islam by the Torah: The Risāla al-hādiya by ʿAbd al-Salām al-Muhtadī al-Muḥammadī," in Camilla Adang and Sabine Schmidtke (eds.), Contacts and Controversies between Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Ottoman Empire and Pre-Modern Iran (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag in Kommission, 2010), 57-72.
• Aḥmad Midḥat Efendī, Mudāfaʿa (Istanbul: Tarjumān-i Ḥaqīqat Maṭbaʿasi, 1300 H [1883]).
• Aḥmad Midḥat Efendī, Tārīkh-i Adyān (Istanbul: Ḥurriyyet Maṭbaʿasi, 1329 H [1911]).
• Aydın, Mehmet, Müslümanların Hıristiyanlığa Karşı Yazdığı Reddiyeler ve Tartışma Konuları [Muslim Polemics against Christianity and the Controversial Issues] (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi Yayınları, 1989).
• Coşan, Mahmud Esad, Risâle-i İslâmiyye: Matbaacı İbrahim-i Müteferrika ve Risâle-i İslâmiyye Adlı Eserinin Tenkitli Metni [Risāla-i Islāmiyya: Ibrāhīm Mutafarriqa, the Printer, and the Critical Edition of His Risāla-i Islāmiyya] (Istanbul: Server İletişim, 2010).
• Esen, Hilal, Sebîlürreşad'da Öteki Dinlerle İlgili Yazıların Değerlendirilmesi [A Study on the Papers concerning Other Religions Published in Sabīl al-rashād] (MA thesis; Sakarya: Sakarya University, 2008).
• Kahraman, Aslı, 1912-1925 Yılları Arasında Sebilürreşad Dergisi'nde Yayınlanan Hıristiyanlıkla İlgili Makaleler ve Tahlilleri [The Papers concerning Christianity in Sabīl al-rashād between 1912-1925 and Their Analysis] (MA thesis; Adana: Çukurova University, 2009).
• Karayel, Elif, Dinler Tarihi Açısından Ahmed Mithat Efendi [Aḥmad Midḥat Efendī in the Science of History of Religions] (MA thesis; Istanbul: Marmara University, 2002).
• Saydishahrī, Maḥmūd Asʿad "Allah'ın Kelamı ve Allah'ın Kelimesi İkileminde Hz. İsa [Jesus in the Dilemma of Kalām Allāh versus Kalimat Allāh] (=Mudāfaʿa: Kalimat Allāh Taʿālā'ya Dāʾir Khuṭba: I [Apology: Sermon on the Kalimat Allāh]" (translated into modern Turkish by Muhammet Tarakçı), Uludağ Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi [The Review of the Faculty of Theology, Uludağ University] VII/7 (1998), 737-752.
• Schmidtke, Sabine, "Epistle forcing the Jews [to admit their error] with regard to what they contend about the Torah, by dialectical reasoning (Risālat ilzām al-yahūd fīmā zaʿamū fī l-tawrāt min qibal ʿilm al-kalām) by al-Salām ʿAbd al-ʿAllām: A critical edition," in Camilla Adang and Sabine Schmidtke (eds.), Contacts and Controversies between Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Ottoman Empire and Pre-Modern Iran (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag in Kommission, 2010), 73-82.
• Schmidtke, Sabine and Adang, Camilla, "Aḥmad b. Muṣṭafā Ṭāshkubrīzāde's (d. 968/1561) Polemical Tract against Judaism," al-Qantara XXIX/1 (2008), 79-113.
• Taşpınar, İsmail, Hacı Abdullah Petrici'nin Hıristiyanlık Eleştirisi [Ḥājī ʿAbd Allāh al-Patrījī's Polemic against Christianity] (Istanbul: İnsan Yayınları, 2008).
• Yumak, Yaşa, İslâm-Hıristiyan Polemiği Açısından Ahmed Midhat Efendi [Aḥmad Midḥat Efendī in the tradition of Anti-Christian Polemics] (MA thesis; Istanbul: Marmara University, 2001).