Byzantine theology and IslamBogataj, Jan Dominik (Avtor) Christian-Muslim dialogueJohn Damasceneinterpretation of QuranpolemicsapologeticsFor the West, Islam has generally been seen as a typical example of exotic, dan-gerous and unknown culture, whereas for the Byzantines, Islam was much better known, since they had to live together with Muslims for centuries and therefore their attitude could not have been uniformly hostile but consisted of manifold attempts to hold a (theological) dialogue. The paper presents some key features of the heterogeneous Byzantine theology of Islam within the corpus of the theological polemical works which have been produced from 7th to the 13th century. After examining John Damascene (app. 676–749), the first Byzantine theologian who wrote on Islam and gained knowledge of Islam at first hand as a civil servant in the court of the Umayyad Caliph in Damascus, the present study examines a relatively unknown work, Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend (MS Sinai Arabic 448; 531). The text of this Melkite bishop of Sidon was written in Arabic somewhere around 1200 and is one of the most authentic contributions to the Byzantine-Islam polemics about Paul’s irenic approach and his interpretation of Qur’an. Although it still applies a clear apo-logetic approach, Paul’s Letter may be viewed from the perspective of the theological dialogue between Christians and Muslims. 20192020-08-18 13:13:16Neznano118065sl