Paul of Antioch

Paul of Antioch ( Latin form of name : Paulus of Antioch; also called: Paul of Sidon ; Arabic Būluṣ al-Rāhib al-Anṭākī ) (* probably 12th century; † probably 13th century) was a Melkite bishop in Sidon .

Little is known about the historical person of Paul. It is believed that he was a monk in the monastery of Saint Simeon in what was then the principality of Antioch before he became bishop of Sidon. He became known through a letter probably written in Arabic at the beginning of the 13th century, also known as "Letter to the Muslims", which promoted the Christian faith and was rejected by the Egyptian lawyer Qarafi . The arguments of this letter are taken up in a "Letter from Cyprus" about a hundred years later, which was then discussed and rejected by Ibn Taymiyya . In his letter, Paul advocates recognizing reason as the only means of Christian-Islamic dialogue.

Fonts

• Paul Khoury : Paul d'Antioche. Traités théologiques . ( Corpus Islamo-Christianum , Series Arabica, 1) 2nd edition, Echter Verlag, Würzburg / Oros Verlag, Altenberge 1994.

literature

• Paul Khoury: Paul d'Antioche, évêque melkite de Sidon (xiie s.) . Beirut 1964.
• Samir Khalil Samir : Notes on the 'Lettre à un musulman de Sidon' de Paul d'Antioche . In: Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 24 (1993), pp. 179-195.
• David Thomas: Paul of Antioch's Letter to a Muslim Friend and The Letter from Cyprus . In the S. (Ed.): Syrian Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years . Brill, Leiden 2001, pp. 203-221.
• Sidney H. Griffith: The Melkites and the Muslims: The Qur'ān, Christology, and arab orthodoxy . In: Al-Qantara 33 (2012), pp. 413-443.