Ibn Hazm on the Incarnation of God and Confessional Divisions in Christianity

Abstract

The polemical treatise by Ibn Hazm (994-1064), the famous Andalusian Muslim author, has a section on the Incarnation of God, in which the author provides a critical survey of doctrinal divisions in Christianity. Similarly to other Muslim authors, Ibn Hazm describes three main Christian denominations: the «Melkites», the «Jacobites», and the «Nestorians». Thus, the Greek Chalcedonians and those of the Latin West were virtually combined into the same denomination. The article discusses Ibn Hazm's arguments against the main Christian dogma with a special reference to the probable influence of the polemical works of the medieval Muslim scholars on the relationship between the two Chalcedonian groups.