Venerable Anastasios of Sinai on Islam

Venerable Anastasios of Sinai on Islam[1]

Priest George Maksimov

From the Life

Little is known about the life of the Venerable Anastasios. He was born in Alexandria, according to other information on Cyprus, around 640. The Venerable Anastasios was abbot of Mount Sinai. From there he more than once traveled through Syria, Arabia, and into Egypt, with polemical and missionary purposes. He was a prominent theologian and exegete, an active opponent of the Monophysites and Monothelites; his contemporaries called him “a new Moses.” He died after 700.

Works

The principal work of the Venerable Anastasios is the “Guide” (Hodegos). It is composed of separate chapters and letters in which Anastasios examines general and particular objections of the Monophysites of various tendencies, on the basis of Scripture and according to the testimony of the ancient Fathers. Of the same character is also the book “Questions and Answers.”

The Disputation Between Saint Cyril the Philosopher and the Muslims

In chapter six of the Life of Constantine-Cyril, the author speaks of an invitation being sent by the Arabs to Constantinople to hold a religious disputation, with particular reference to the Holy Trinity and belief in one God. The emperor thereupon is said to have convoked the Senate in order to deliberate as to what should be done. He asked Constantine, known in the text as the Philosopher, at that time only twenty-four years old, to go to the Arabs, probably in Samarra near Baghdad which was the residence of the Caliph, and to take part in the religious discussion. The year this reportedly took place was in 851.

Life of Constantine

(Ch. 6)

Afterward the Hagarites, who were called Saracens, blasphemed the single Deity of the Holy Trinity, saying: “How is it, O Christians, that you, while holding that God is one, further divide Him into three, saying He is Father, Son, and Spirit? If you can explain clearly, send us men who can speak of this and convince us.”