Book of the councils

Title(s):
  • Book of the councils
  • كتاب المجامع
    (kitāb al-majāmi‘, Book of the councils)
  • Réfutation de Saīd ibn Batriq (Eutychius)
Period covered:
Creation-7th c.
Language:
Arabic
State of Preservation:
Full
Genre:
  • Sacred history
  • Exegesis
Remarks:
Part 1 and 3 of this apologetic treatise contain, respectively, an overview of the history of the world form the Creation to the advent of Christ and an overview of the history of the church up to the reign of Heraclius and the Islamic conquests, with particular focus on the Ecumenical councils. Part 2 and 4 contain the doctrinal arguments in defence of the miaphysite creed. The text also contains an Appendix on the reckoning of the day of birth of Christ. In the preface it is said that the treatise was written to refute what Eutychius of Alexandria (Said ibn-Batriq) wrote in his Annals about the Jacobite church, which led the editor to publish the text with the title ‘Refutation of Eutychius’. Breydy (1983, 84-85) has argued that the preface, preserved only in one of the three manuscripts, is probably a later interpolation and that nothing in the text itself leads to think that the work was written in response to Eutychius of Alexandria.
Edition - Translation:
  • P. Chébli (1906) Sévère Ibn-al-Moqaffa‘: Réfutation de Sa‘īd ibn Batriq (Euthychius) (Patrologia Orientalis, 3.2). Paris: 121-242.
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Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • M. Breydy (1983) Études sur Sa‘īd ibn Baṭrīq et ses sources (Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 450: Subsidia, 69). Leuven.
  • M.N. Swanson (2010) 'Sāwīrus ibn al-Muqaffa‘'. In: Christian-Muslim relations: A bibliographical history. Volume Two: 900-1050, ed. D. Thomas - A. Mallett (The history of Christian-Muslim relations, 14). Leiden - Boston: 491-509.