Coercive Force in Early Arabic True Religion Apologies


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This paper will query the extent to which the True Religion Apologies of the Jacobite theologian Abū Rāʾiṭa al-Takrītī (d. c. 835) and Nestorian theologian ʿAmmār al-Baṣrī (d. after 838) offer a coherent understanding of the relationship between religion and coercive force. Attention is given both to the ‘true religion’ apologies themselves, and also, concerning Abū Rāʾiṭa, to his “Refutation of the Melkites Concerning the Union” (III).