The Byzantine Empire’s Stance on the Qur’an between the 7th and 12th Centuries

A Critical Analysis of Theological and Political Dialectics

Abstract

This study critically examines the Byzantine Empire’s engagement with the Qur’an within the historically intricate period spanning the 7th to the 12th centuries CE (1st to 6th centuries AH). It situates this engagement within the broader context of the military, political, and religious encounters that unfolded in the aftermath of Islamic expansion into Byzantine territories. Central to this inquiry is the Qur’an, not merely as a sacred Islamic text, but as a potent epistemological and symbolic axis around which much of the interreligious dialectic revolved. The research adopts a discourse-critical methodology grounded in a comparative historical framework. It integrates the analysis of theological texts with an in-depth exploration of Greek translations of the Qur’an, examining their ideological function and exegetical implications. The study is structured into three main chapters, preceded by a theoretical introduction. Findings indicate that these translations did not arise from purely hermeneutic or scholarly motivations. Rather, they were shaped by a strategic theological intent to assimilate the Islamic text critically—an act of “critical assimilation”—to undermine its doctrinal authority while reinforcing the Christian polemical stance. These renderings often reflect theological distortions and selective readings, heavily influenced by the Syriac and Coptic traditions of Christian-Muslim disputation. This suggests that the Byzantine approach was not isolated but enmeshed within a broader network of Eastern Christian engagements with Islam.