Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age: A Sourcebook

Contents
Acknowledgments
Timelines
Maps
General Introduction • The Editors
Part One. The Prophet and the Empires of the Caliphs (ca. seventh–tenth centuries)
	1. Conversion in the Qurʾān • Abdullah Saeed
	2. The Conversion of Khadīja bt. Khuwaylid, by Muḥammad b. Isḥāq • Sean W. Anthony
	3. On Three Jewish Converts to Islam from the Banū Qurayẓa, by Ibn Hishām • Michael Lecker
	4. Women Converts and Familial Loyalty in the Time of the Prophet, by Muḥammad b. Saʿd • Keren Abbou Hershkovits
	5. Reports on Tribal Delegations to the Prophet, by Muḥammad b. Saʿd • Ella Landau-Tasseron
	6. The Spread of Islam in Arabia: Expressing Conversion in Poetry, by Selected Early Arabic Poets • Peter Webb
	7. Early Ḥadīth Touching on Marriage and Conversion, by Ibn Abī Shayba • Christopher Melchert
	8. Practicalities and Motivations of Conversion as Seen through Early Ḥadīth and Law, by ʿAbd al-Razzāq b. Humām al-Ṣan ʿānī and Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Khallāl • Yohanan Friedmann
	9. Christian Conversions to Islam in the Wake of the Arab Conquest, by Anastasius of Sinai • Yannis Papadogiannakis
	10. Jacob of Edessa’s Canonical Responsa about Conversion and Islam, by Jacob of Edessa • Jack Tannous
	11. A Multireligious City in Khurāsān Converts to Islam? by Shaykhal-Islām Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh al-Wāʿiẓ al-Balkhī • Arezou Azad
	12. ʿUmar II and the Treatment of the Mawālī, by Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. Jābir al-Balādhurī, Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, and Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Ḥakam • Gerald Hawting
	13. Mass Conversion of Christians in Northern Mesopotamia, by Joshua the Stylite of Zuqnīn • Christian C. Sahner
	14. Conversion and Martyrdom in ʿAbbasid Damascus, Anonymous • Johannes Pahlitzsch
	15. Three Accounts of Zoroastrian Conversion to Islam, by Muḥammad b. ʿAbdūs al-Jahshiyārī, ʿAlī b. Yūsuf al-Qifṭī, and Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī • Michael Cooperson
	16. Conversion to Islam among the Armenian Elite, by Tʽovma Artsruni • Tim Greenwood
	17. Conversion and Martyrdom in Córdoba, by Eulogius of Córdoba • Kenneth Baxter Wolf
	18. A Christian Intellectual Declines to Convert to Islam, by Ḥunayn b. Isḥāq • Barbara Roggema
	19. The Religious Commitment of the ʿAbbasid “Slave Soldiers,” by Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī and Aḥmad b. Yūsuf “Ibn al-Dāya” • Matthew Gordon
	20. Zoroastrian Priests Offer Legal Advice about Conversion, by Ādurfarnbag son of Farroxzād and Ēmēd son of Ašawahišt • Christian C. Sahner
	21. A Muslim Poet Consoles a Christian Friend Whose Nephew Has Converted to Islam, by al-Qāsim b. Yaḥyā al-Maryamī • Luke Yarbrough
Part Two: The Islamic Commonwealth (ca. tenth–thirteenth centuries)
	22. A Christian Convert’s Examination of His Former Faith, by al-Ḥasan b. Ayyūb • Clint Hackenburg
	23. A Monk’s Conversion to Islam, by Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī • David Cook
	24. The Conversion of the Volga Bulgars, by Aḥmad b. Faḍlānb. al-ʿAbbās b. Rāshid b. Ḥammād • Gerald Mako
	25. Notarial Forms for the Conversion of Non-Muslims to Islam, by Ibn al-ʿAṭṭār • Linda G. Jones
	26. A Monk Deploring the Assimilation of the Christians to the Hagarenes, attributed to a monk called Apollo • Arietta Papaconstantinou
	27. The Foundation of Shaykh Abū Isḥāq Kāzarūnī’s Congregational Mosque, by Maḥmūd b. ʿUthmān • Neguin Yavari
	28. Conversion to Islam under the Fatimid Caliph al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh, by Michael of Damrū (Mīkhāʾīl al-Damrāwī), Bishop of Tinnīs • Mark Swanson
	29. Conversion from Motives of Expediency, by Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī • D. G. Tor
	30. Conversion, Confession, Prayer, and Apostasy, by Ibn Rushd al-Jadd al-Qurṭubī • Maribel Fierro
	31. The Conversion of the Turks, by Michael the Syrian • Maria Conterno
	32. The Tribulations of a Converted Man’s Daughter, by Bar Hebraeus • Maria Conterno
	33. A Polemical Treatise by a Twelfth-Century Jewish Convert to Islam, by Abū Naṣr Samawʾal b. Yaḥyā al-Maghribī • Gregor Schwarb
	34. Anecdotes about Conversion in Twelfth-Century Syria, by Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, Ibn Rajab, and Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn al-Maqdisī • Daniella Talmon-Heller
	35. Selections from Two Armenian Martyrologies, Anonymous • Sergio La Porta and Zaroui Pogossian
	36. A Letter of Maimonides about Conversion and Martyrdom, Attributed to Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides) • Ryan Szpiech
	37. Apostasy in Jewish Responsa, by the Geonim of Babylonia and Abraham Maimonides • Oded Zinger
	38. Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam, Anonymous • Moshe Yagur
	39. Conversion to Islam in the Period of the Crusades, by John of Ibelin, Odo of Deuil, Pope Alexander III, and Anonymous • Uri Shachar
	40. Conversion Tales in the Vita of Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh al-Yūnīnī, the Lion of Syria, by Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad ʿUthmān • Daphna Ephrat
Part Three. Sultans, Conquerors, and Travelers (ca. thirteenth–sixteenth centuries)
	41. The Conversion of Medieval Ghāna as Narrated by a Later Ibāḍī Scholar, by Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Saʿīd al-Darjīnī • Luke Yarbrough
	42. Cheraman Perumal and Islam on the Malabar Coast, Anonymous • Luke Yarbrough
	43. The Conversion Miracles and Life of the Dervish Sarı Saltuq, by Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. al-Sarrāj • A. C. S. Peacock
	44. The Providential Conversion of the Mongol King of Iran, by Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Qāshānī and Rashīdal-Dīn Faḍl Allāh Abū al-Khayr • Jonathan Brack
	45. The Conversion of ʿAbd al-Sayyid, a Damascene Jew, by Quṭbal-Dīn Mūsā b. Muḥammad al-Yūnīnī • Yehoshua Frenkel
	46. An Account of the Conversion of Egypt’s Copts under Duress at the End of the Thirteenth Century, by Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī • Frédéric Bauden
	47. A Syriac Communal Lament over Apostasy, Anonymous • Thomas A. Carlson
	48. Conversion to Islam in South Asia as Transformation of the Heart, by Ḥażrat Khwāja Niz. ām al-Dīn Awliyā and Amīr Ḥasan ʿAlā Sijzī • Raziuddin Aquil
	49. A Jurist’s Responses to Questions Regarding the Conversion of One Spouse, by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya • Antonia Bosanquet
	50. Anselm Turmeda/ʿAbd Allāh al-Tarjumān: A Former Mallorcan Franciscan in the Service of the Ḥafṣids in North Africa, by Anselm Turmeda/ʿAbd Allāh al-Tarjumān • Clint Hackenburg
	51. Three Stories of Conversion from the Life of Sayyid Aḥmad Bashīrī, a Sufi of Timurid Central Asia, Anonymous (or Nāṣir b. Qāsim b. Ḥājjī Muḥammad Turkistānī Farghānaʾī) • Devin DeWeese
	52. The Conversion of the Kingdom of Pasai, Indonesia, Anonymous • Alexander Wain
	53. A Tract against “Unbelieving Believers” in West Africa, by Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī • Ulrich Rebstock
	54. Conversions to Islam in a Late Medieval Chronicle from Damascus, by Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Ṭawq and Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ṭūlūn • Tamer el-Leithy
	55. Documentary Records of Conversions among Ottoman Palace Personnel, by Ottoman Officials and Elite Servants of the Sultan • Sanja Kadrić
	56. A Conversion Tale from Java, Indonesia, Anonymous • Ronit Ricci
	57. The Story of Master She Yunshan’s Conversion in Changzhou, China, by Zhao Can • Suofei Liu and Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Appendix: Sources
List of Contributors
Index