ABSTRACT
Syriac authors of the seventh through ninth centuries discussed Muslims in theological tractates, inscriptions, apocalypses, manuscript colophons, ecclesiastic letters, canon collections, universal chronicles, scriptural exegesis, hagiographies, pseudepigrapha, martyrologies, local histories, prayers, and scientific treatises. Their texts constitute the largest surviving corpus of early Christian writings on Islam. In addition to containing essential data for the history of early Islam, these sources allow for a more nuanced understanding of early Christian-Muslim relations. They also suggest that in the first centuries after Mu?ammad’s death, there was much greater hybridity and overlap between the categories ‘Christian’ and ‘Muslim’ than has commonly been acknowledged.
