The image of Arabs and Islam in Christian historical sources

Abstract

The Christians historical sources are deemed to be amongst the most important non-Islamic sources that chronicled the early history of Islam, especially concerning the regions of Sham, Iraq and Egypt; be they the events of the Islamic conquest to these areas, the settlement of the conquerors therein, or the Arab ruling of these areas which had previously been under the control of the Byzantines and the Persians. The conflicting beliefs between the Muslim conquerors and the mostly-Christian natives, the difference in conquest methods between force and conciliation, and the disparity in the policies of the conquest leaders and then the successors and governors after the stability of the Arab rule over these territories, and the nature of the political, economic, social, and cultural transformations brought about by their getting under the banner of the Islamic rule, all these have resulted in painting a particular image of the conquerors and the Arab administration amongst Christian groups in general, and the Syriac and Coptic historians in particular. What is then the picture that had been painted in the minds of the Syriac and Copts of the Muslims as conquerors and rulers?