Tradurre la fede. I Cristiani letti dall’Islām nel Libro delle religioni e le sette di Muḥammad Tāǧ al-Dīn al-Šahrastānī

Abstract

The Kitāb al-milal wa'l-niḥal (The Book of Religions and Sects) by Aḥmad Tāǧ al-Dīn al-Šahrastānī (b. in 467 h. /1074 or in 479 h. /1086) is a doxographic text and encyclopedic that offers a condensed but exhaustive overview of the "doctrines of the people of the universe", a true distillation of information. This study presents in particular the "section on Christians and their beliefs" as observed by one of the most important historians of religions of the medieval Islamic era. The treatise provides outlines of Christology and Trinitarian theology followed by a theological-doctrinal account relating to the three main Christian confessions: the Melkite, Nestorian and Jacobite. Peculiar within the disquisition is the citation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Arabic version which testifies to the circulation of the fundamental attestation of Christian faith in Islamic land.