%0 Journal Article
%T Islam and the Arabs in the work of a Maronite scholar in the service of the Catholic church (Abraham Ecchellensis)
%A Heyberger
%A Bernard
%J Al-Qantara : Revista de Estudios Arabes
%D 2010
%I Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient¨ªficas
%X As an expert in Arabic documents in the ¡°Republic of Letters¡±, Abraham Ecchellensis devoted himself in his work to an attempt at synthesis that was characteristic of his time: he tried to reconcile contemporary scholars¡¯ expectations of specialised knowledge both with his Catholic and controversialist commitments and with his status, in his role as a Maronite, as a spokesman for Arabic and even Muslim culture. Ecchellensis provided the public with translations of Arabic Muslim philosophical and scientific texts which he deemed to have drawn on universal ¡°wisdom¡±. However, a disinterested curiosity concerning Islam could not be publicly advertised and had to be cloaked in the form of anti-Protestant controversy or Catholic apology. In the work of Ecchellensis this stance was accompanied by an expurgation of all Islamic terminology from the Arabic language and by a recourse to the Christian Arabic literature writen during the first centuries of the Hijra. [fr] Expert en documents arabes dans la   R¨¦publique des Lettres  , Abraham Ecchellensis se livre dans son oeuvre ¨¤ un essai de synth¨¨se caract¨¦ristique de son temps : il tente de concillier l¡¯attente de connaissances des savants de son temps avec son engagement catholique et controversiste, et avec son identification, en tant que maronite, comme porte-parole de la culture arabe, y compris musulmane. Il fournit au public des traductions de textes philosophiques et scientifiques arabes musulmans qui lui paraissent participer d¡¯une   sagesse   universelle. Mais une curiosit¨¦ d¨¦sint¨¦ress¨¦e pour l¡¯islam ne peut s¡¯afficher : elle doit prendre les formes de la controverse anti-protestante ou de l¡¯apologie catholique. Chez Ecchellensis cette posture s¡¯accompagne d¡¯une expurgation de toute terminologie islamique dans la langue arabe, et d¡¯un recours ¨¤ la litt¨¦rature arabe chr¨¦tienne ¨¦labor¨¦ aux premiers si¨¨cles de l¡¯H¨¦gire.
%K Arabic language
%K History of Arabs
%K Science
%K Islamology
%K Catholic-Protestant controversy
%K Christian-Muslim controversy
%K Maronites
%K Christian Arabic literature
%K langue arabe
%K histoire des Arabes
%K science
%K islamologie
%K controverse catholiques-protestants
%K controverse chr¨¦tiens-musulmans
%K maronites
%K litt¨¦rature arabe chr¨¦tienne
%U http://al-qantara.revistas.csic.es/index.php/al-qantara/article/view/240/233