440 Dominik Schlosser
Roman emperors’ persecution of Christians^94 means that he intended
with these descriptions to evoke sympathy with the Christians in his
Muslim readership – an impression that might arise if one read these
passages out of context – would be to mistake his intention completely.
Rather, they show that Ibn al-Qayyim, without explicitly saying so
in this context, adduces the early recognition by individual rulers as
an argument for the superiority of Islam over Christianity: it was not
until three centuries after its birth (the argument can be traced) that
a ruler in the person of Constantine, adopted the Christian religion.
By contrast, Islam and Muḥammad’s status as prophet were already
acknowledged during the latter’s lifetime by individual regents, like
the Amharic Negus and the Byzantine emperor Heraklios, as is found
in reports on the early period of Islam that Ibn al-Qayyim mentions in
other passages of the Hidāyat al-ḥayārā.^95
In Ibn al-Qayyim’s description, which is dependent on Ibn
Taymiyya’s work,^96 the reign of Constantine appears as a watershed in
the history of early Christianity in two ways. First, he points out that
the state persecution of Christians ended with Constantine’s official
adoption of Christianity, which, in his presentation, was owed solely
to a vision of the cross in the sky. In this connection, the Damascene
theologian argues that due to Constantine’s conscious fostering of the
Christian confession, Christianity was even able to establish itself.^97
Ibn al-Qayyim also regards Constantine’s reign as the period in which
the already previously emerging tabdīl, the deformation of the “origi-
nal” religion of Jesus finally solidified under changed conditions – the
Christians now had their own state^98 – finally prevailed. Ibn al- Qayyim
then contends that 15 years after the beginning of Constantine’s rule,
the dispute over Christological questions openly broke out, and the
emperor convened the First Council of Nicaea (325 A. D.).^99
After noting this, Ibn al-Qayyim shifts to treat the further devel-
opment of Christianity, which he traces until the year 691/692 A. D.,
primarily against the background of the councils and the doctrines
debated in them. At least in regard to the Council of Ephesus, he there-
94 Ibid., pp. 543–548.
95 Ibid., pp. 257–263, 275–286.
96 See Ibn Taymiyya, al-Jawāb al-ṣaḥīḥ, vol. 3, pp. 20–25. On this, see the passages
in Ibn al-Baṭrīq, Annales, vol. 1, pp. 123–129.
97 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Hidāyat al-ḥayārā, p. 552.
98 Ibid., p. 573.
99 Ibid., p. 552.
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