A Christian Arabic Response to Manichaeism: Eighteenth Chapter of the Ninth-Century al-Jāmiʿ wujūh al-īmān

al-Jāmiʿ wujūh al-īmān is an apologetic compendium of 25 chapters on diverse theological issues, preserved in nine manuscripts, the earliest of which are dated to the ninth century and only partially edited so far. Chapter 18, entitled “On the Issues of the Community of Monotheists and Dualists,” devotes considerable attention to debates between Christians and Manichaeans, including theodicy, free will, the origin of darkness, and the nature of Satan. Its engagement with what is argued here to be the Manichaean challenge is significant, offering one of the earliest Christian Arabic perspectives on Manichaean doctrines and a valuable source for understanding Christian–Manichaean polemics under Islamic rule. By situating the author's approach within the broader theological and polemical context of the ninth-century Abbasid world, this paper explores how a Christian engaged with the challenge posed by Manicheism within the early Islamic milieu, reflecting wider patterns of interreligious intellectual exchange.