Sponsored  by  the  Royce  Family  Professorships  for  Teaching  Excellence  &  the  Department  of  Religious  Studies  

A  Symposium  at  Brown  University  

The  seventh-­‐century  rise  of  Islam  opened  a  new  era  of  religious  “pluralism”  in  the  Middle  East.    Yet,  it  would  be  more  than  a  century  before  early  Muslim  scholars  recorded  the  first  Arabic  accounts  of  the  changes  taking  place.    Syriac  and  Arabic-­‐speaking  Christians,  however,  were  already  producing  and  navigating  their  own  responses  to  the  new  political  and  social  order.    Historically,  linguistically  and  culturally  rooted  in  the  central  lands  of  Islam,  yet  sorely  understudied  as  sources  for  early  Islamic  history,  late  antique  and  medieval  Middle  Eastern  Christians  provide  fresh  perspectives  for  understanding  the  nature  of  religious  and  social  change  in  a  dynamic  era  of  history.  

Symposium  Schedule  

v 2pm:  Sidney  H.  Griffith,  Catholic  University  of  America  “Bible  and  Qur’an:  Memory,  Engagement  and  Difference”    Nancy  Khalek,  Brown  University,  Respondent  

v 3:15pm:  Break  

v 3:45pm:  Michael  Penn,  Mt.  Holyoke  College  “Beyond  Clashing  Civilizations:  Rethinking  Early  Christian-­‐Muslim  Relations”    Susan  Ashbrook  Harvey,  Brown  University,  Respondent  

v 5:00pm:  New  Questions  in  the  study  of  early  Muslim-­‐Christian  Relations  A  roundtable  discussion  with  Jonathan  Conant,  Brown  University;  Steven  Judd,  Southern-­‐Connecticut  State  University;  Sandra  Toenies  Keating,  Providence  College;  Charles  Stang,  Harvard  Divinity  School;  Anthony  Watson,  Brown  University  

Christians and Muslims: Early Encounters A Symposium at Brown University

Sunday, February23, 2014|2-6pm|RI Hall108

Mosaic  depiction  of  Mary  holding  an  Arabic  text,  Convent  of  our  Lady,  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  Sednaya,  Syria