ABSTRACT
The Arab invasions of the seventh century marked the beginning of a dramatic change in the heartland of Eastern Christianity. The Arabs’ style until that time had been to overrun and pillage the landscape, and then, just as quickly, to withdraw to their desert. At this time, however, things were different. They called their new invasion :hijra, that is, Immigration,1 and the Syriac people called them :Mhaggrayê, that is, Immigrants. In the present paper I will ask how the Syriac Christians responded when the Mhaggrayê settled in this conquered land. How did they view the Mhaggrayê historically, religiously, and ethnically in the seventh century?
