The Role of Ioudaioi and Ioudaismos in the Polemic Against the Ishmaelites in John of Damascus and Theodore Abu Qurra

This lecture will explore the role and place of Jews in early Christian polemics against Islam, in which Muslims were represented as a Christian heresy: the “heresy of the Ishmaelites”. Jews already occupy an important place in the Qur’anic polemic against Christians: for example, Christians are portrayed as having been misled by the Jews through the “corruption” of Scripture, or as having fallen into errors similar to those of the Jews. Christian authors were aware of these accusations and responded by seeking both to dismantle them and to turn them against their opponents. Three texts will be examined in particular: chapter 100 of John of Damascus’s On Heresies, dedicated to the “Ishmaelites” and their heresiarch, Muhammad; the Dialogue between a Saracen and a Christian, an heresiological dialogue attributed to John of Damascus; and the 8th-century Disputation with a Saracen, composed by John’s disciple Theodore Abu Qurra. By examining these texts, the lecture will ask how the Ioudaioi and Ioudaismos are positioned within the Christian–Muslim debate: are they excluded from this polemical encounter, or do they constitute an “included” third? It will consider, in particular, how Jewish figures are used in Christian responses to Islam and, in certain respects, how some polemical motifs are “co-produced” among these different groups.