When the armies of Islam emerged from Arabia in the seventh century, the first Christians they encountered were not the Greek-speaking Byzantines of Constantinople nor the Latin Christians of Rome, but the Syriac-speaking Christian communities of the Middle East. These Christians—centered in Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Persia—spoke Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic closely related to … Continue reading The Slow Birth of Islam: How Syriac Christians Watched a Religion Take Shape