ABSTRACT
Michael Bonner points out that there was much apocalyptic writing in the second half of the seventh century by Jews and Christians as well as Muslims. Then, around 700, 'this speculation began to cool down, especially since the Arabs and Muslims were clearly there to stay'. The rejection of the Arab invaders as 'blasphemers' was the first polemical response to their religious views. Anastasius of the monastery of Mt Sinai wrote a Guidebook in Greek, Hodegos, between 680 and 690. In his collection of stories from his visits to Cyprus, Damascus, Jerusalem and Egypt between 650 and 690, he attempts to encourage Christians to remain firm in their faith and not embrace Islam. The most popular account of the Christian influence on the production of the Qur'an, judging by the large number of extant manuscripts, is in the so-called Apology of al-Kindi, written in Arabic probably in the early ninth century.
