Pursuing Veritas

Closely connected to this concern with accuracy is the second characteristic of John’s engagement with Islam: his treatment of the Qur’an. John’s works reflect a profound engagement with the Qur’an, as he acknowledges it as a significant religious text and critically examines its claims. He explores various suras, demonstrating familiarity with Islamic scripture and using its own narratives to argue against its theological claims.

John spends several paragraphs in Peri Haereson examining the authority of the Qur’an and scriptural proofs for Islam, engaging not only those which supported Christianity, but also those which were problematic (Beaumont 2005: 198 and Thomas 1996: 29). John paid particular attention to ‘On Woman’ (Surah 4), ‘The Camel of God’ (no parallel[i]), ‘The Table’ (Surah 5), and ‘The Heifer’ (Surah 2), consistently demonstrating his familiarity with even the phraseology of the Qur’an.

While John wrote in Greek, the language of the Melkite Church, his careful use of the Qur’an suggests that he knew Arabic as well (Griffith 2011: 208). Whether or not John was educated like an Arab Muslim as his vitae claim, John seems fully aware of the Qur’an’s status as sacred scripture for Muslims and honored that reality with a thorough reading and understanding of the claims therein (Sahas 1972: 74). In contrast to later Byzantine polemics, John simply refused purposefully misrepresent the Qur’an or Muslim teaching. Instead, he consistently revealed an accurate knowledge of Islamic scripture, avoiding at many points the tension areas that would later become problematic for Muslim-Christian interactions.

[i] Not in contemporary versions of the Qur’an. See Louth 2002: 79f, for a discussion of this passage.