Giudei, cristiani e musulmani in Oriente: fonti cristiane di VII e VIII secolo

The paper analyzes literary sources from the 7th and 8th centuries that shed light on the relations between different religious groups in some areas of the Byzantine East. These sources present particular problems due to the profound changes that occurred in those territories since the reign of Giustiniano. The 7th century, in fact, was a period of radical transformations – or from a certain point of view a real rift – for the Byzantine Empire, especially for the Middle Eastern regions, which were overwhelmed by the invasions of Persian soldiers and Arabs: a transformation that involved every aspect of social, economic, religious and cultural life. The sources reveal how, especially between the end of the 7th century and the beginning of the 8th, forms of controversy intensified between Jews and Christians who, in some respects, also extended to Muslims. The Christian authors, for more than a century after the Arab conquests, however, did not directly address the question of the doctrines of Islam, but continued to turn their attention, even more than in the past, to the Jews.