John of Damascus is one of the earliest Christian authors to write about Islam. He had intimate knowledge of Islam as John hailed from Damascus, the capital of the Umayyad Dynasty. John's father had surrendered Damascus to the Muslims in the early days of Islamic expansion and John and his father before him had served as functionaries in the Umayyad administration.
John wrote a systematic theology called 'On the Orthodox Faith'. One section is called 'On Heresies' in which John discusses Islam. He does not quite see Islam as a separate religion so it is included as Heresy 101. John is not really interested in writing an extensive polemic against Islam. The entire text only covers about 6 pages. There are a number of other texts in circulation under John's name against Islam but they don't seem to be genuine. What John says is basically accurate but, of course, his main aim is to discredit Islam. Unlike his contemporaries John saw fit to write in Greek (not Syriac or Arabic) even though he knew these languages.
Sahas was discussing the ideology of Islam years before it was trendy. This is pretty much the quintessential study of the text that has stood the test of time. Brill loves to put out expensive books but this one is worth it!!
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