Le Christianisme des Arabes Nomades sur le Limes

It is well known among scholars of Eastern Christianity that there was a pre-Islamic tradition of Christianity among the tribes of Arab nomads in the Middle East. However, prior to the present study, few scholars have explored the question of how Christianity came to be established among these tribes. In this volume, P. Henri Charles attempts to explain the rise of Christianity among the Arab nomads, primarily by describing the forms of interaction that the nomad tribes would have had with Christians. Charles begins by noting the particular difficulties of such a study, and carefully constructs a methodology to account for such problems. Charles proceeds by describing the various forms of Christianity that would have been most accessible and familiar to Arab nomads, namely the branches of the Syriac-speaking Christian tradition. Charles also points to the competition between the two primary Syriac traditions to recruit new members as one of the compelling factors in the missionary zeal to reach the nomads.