Doctrina Jacobi

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The Doctrina Iacobi nuper baptizati^[1] or Doctrina Jacobi^[2] is a 7th century Greek Christian anti-Jewish tract written in the Middle East between 634 and 640 A.D.^[3] It supposedly records a July 13, 634 discussion between a compulsory convert to Christianity, Jacob, and some Jews about the condition of the Byzantine Empire in light of the recent Arab conquests.^[4] The manuscript provides one of the earliest external accounts of Islam, presenting a significantly different Islamic historiography than found in traditional Islamic texts.^[5] It also shows Jacob comparing the Byzantine Empire to the fourth beast of the prophecy of Daniel from Christian eschatology. Although not unfamiliar imagery, it marks one of the earliest occasions of trying to reconcile Islam with the apocalyptic vision.^[6]

It records a prophet in Arabia during the birth time of Islamic tradition proclaiming the advent of a Jewish Messiah. The document contradicts the notion in Islamic tradition that the prophet was dead at the time of the conquest of Palestine but agrees with some traditions of other peoples of the time.^[7]

When the candidatus was killed by the Saracens, I was at Caesarea and I set off by boat to Sykamina. People were saying "the candidatus has been killed," and we Jews were overjoyed. And they were saying that the prophet had appeared, coming with the Saracens, and that he was proclaiming the advent of the anointed one, the Christ who was to come. I, having arrived at Sykamina, stopped by a certain old man well-versed in scriptures, and I said to him: "What can you tell me about the prophet who has appeared with the Saracens?" He replied, groaning deeply: "He is false, for the prophets do not come armed with a sword. Truly they are works of anarchy being committed today and I fear that the first Christ to come, whom the Christians worship, was the one sent by God and we instead are preparing to receive the Antichrist. Indeed, Isaiah said that the Jews would retain a perverted and hardened heart until all the earth should be devastated. But you go, master Abraham, and find out about the prophet who has appeared." So I, Abraham, inquired and heard from those who had met him that there was no truth to be found in the so-called prophet, only the shedding of men's blood. He says also that he has the keys of paradise, which is incredible. ^[8]

[edit] Quotations

• "What is significant here is the possibility that Jews and Arabs (Saracens) seem to be allied together during the time of the conquest of Palestine and even for a short time after" ^[9]
• "This document is plausibly one of the most archaic elements of the Islamic tradition, its agreement with the earliest external accounts of the origins of Islam is highly significant" ^[10]
• "To be sure, the picture given in the Doctrina Iacobi seems garbled, and many of its details disagree with the traditional account (for example, in seeming to describe the prophet as leading the armies of the Saracens himself). ... Yet one could hardly expect a Byzantine source from this early and turbulent period to get all the details right. Even later, most Byzantine sources displayed gross misunderstanding of matters Islamic, just as Muslim sources generally did of matters Byzantine." – Colin Wells.^[11]

[edit] References

• Patricia Crone and Michael Cook. Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977. ISBN 0-521-21133-6
• Robert G. Hoyland. Seeing Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam). Darwin Press, Incorporated, 1998. ISBN 0-87850-125-8
• Walter Emil Kaegi, Jr. "Initial Byzantine Reactions to the Arab Conquest." Church History, Vol. 38, No. 2. (Jun., 1969), pp. 139-149.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Crone, 152²
2. ^ David Ross. "Doctrina Jacobi." Accessed 3 Dec. 2006
3. ^ Crone, 3, It is set in 634 and was "in all proability written in Palestine within a few years of that date". 152³, Crone and Cook argue F. Nau's date of 640 is too late.
4. ^ Kaegi, Jr., 141
5. ^ Crone, 4
6. ^ Kaegi, Jr., 142
7. ^ Crone, 3-4
8. ^ Doctrina Jacobi V.16, 209. [p. 57]
9. ^ (Patricia Crone-Michael Cook 1976)
10. ^ (Patricia Crone-Michael Cook 1977)
11. ^ Wells, Colin (2004-02-17). Yehuda D. Nevo, Judith Koren, Crossroads to Islam: The Origins of the Arab Religion and the Arab State.. Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Retrieved on 14 December, 2006.