The Dispersion Of Christianity In Pre-islamic Arabia

The Dispersion of Christianity in pre-Islamic Arabia is the most important and typical issue,and is also the research object of this thesis.The thesis aims to analyze the historical background,the ways of dispersion and the main characteristics of Arab Christianity through the significant historical events with which the Christian missionaries had to meet when they introduced the monotheism religion into the different pars of Arabia,to discuss all the influences came with the spread of Christianity,and to conclude the features of communication between Christianity and the Arab tradition.All of these issues illustrate the mutual accommodation and blend of eastern and western civilization.The thesis contains introduction,text and conclusion.The main body has three parts which divide into nine chapters.The first part outlines the development trajectory and big changes of Christianity in the Arab region since its birth,which are derived from the movement of political power,rather than the apostles or the church.During this process,Aramaic culture,Jewish tradition and Greek philosophy persistently contributed to the localization of Christianity.But at the same time,there still have some difficulties partly from the urban character of Christianity,which is not appropriate the culture of Arabian peninsula and the moral and spiritual of Arabs.The second part describes the different challenges faced by Christianity during its spreading across the Arabian peninsula.In the northern part of the Arabia,there has three important Arab kingdoms,Palmyra,Ghassan and Lakhmid.These three Kingdoms belonged to different political affiliations in different times,which determined the fortune of Christianity in this area.In the middle and eastern part of the Arabia,there has many Arab nomadic tribes.These tribes acted as the clients and allies of empire appearing on the scene in the context of the confrontation and rivalry between the Byzantine and Sassanid.At the same time,the Nestorian church gain a firm stand in Sassanid,which made the eastern part of Arabia and the gulf coast experienced the transformation from paganism to Christianity.In Yemen sect,the Christians mainly centered on Najr?n from 4th to 6th century.Both the east African kingdom Aksum and Himyar were swing chaotically between hostile or compromise during a long period,and eventually led to the Christians massacre event in 520 s,which brought the intervention of the empires in the later half century and gave rise to some destablizing factors of Arabia.The third part analyzes the impacts of Christianity on Arabian from three aspects.Politically,its influence mainly manifested in prompting the formation of the tribe alliances of Arab Christians and the development of political-society structure.When the Gospel permeated into all levels of Arab society,the Christian regimes and social communities became more and more powerful,which moulded the new identity of tribal men with Christian culture.From the spiritual aspect of Arabs,Christianity had effects on poetry and belief in people's daily life,especially on the hanif movement,from which we can discover the connection between the Gospel and the Arab monotheism.However,it was still a peripheral issue as far as people's ideology.It can be seen that Christianity has not really entered the spiritual life of ordinary people.The influence of Christianity on early Islam is mainly reflected in some behavior and concepts of prophet Muhammad and many doctrines of Islam.In Hij?z where Christianity was relatively prosperous,it is possible for Muhammad himself to be influenced by Christian theology,and Christianity also played a very important role in promoting the perfection of early Islamic theology system.The dispersion of Christianity to the Arabian peninsula in pre-Islamic times is one of the most representative historical phenomena.The collision and fusion of Christianity in the process of spreading to the peninsula revealed the complex and diverse social and cultural forms in Arab region.Although Christianity constantly adjusted itself and achieved a temporary prosperity,it was finally restricted by many factors,such as the inherent Arab traditional customs,multi-cultural differences and also the division of sects within the Christianity itself,so it was difficult to form a religious dominance in the Arabian peninsula.But Christianity undoubtedly left a rich religious legacy in this region,explaining the intermingling of eastern and western civilizations.