Ilkka Lindstedt on Pre-Islamic Arab Christian Poets

 The issue of pre-Islamic Arabic Christian poetry revisited
 

Abstract
Why is so little distinctly Christian poetry preserved in Arabic from pre-Islamic times? While distancing myself from Louis Cheikho’s (1859–1927) view that almost all pre-Islamic poets were Christians, I contend in this article that some of them were indeed that. I begin by discussing the current evidence (in particular, epigraphic record) on the existence of Arabophone Christians before Islam. The documentation at hand suggests that Christianity had spread to all parts of Arabia. At least hypothetically, I note that Christians formed the majority among Arabic-speaking groups on the eve of Islam. I then proceed to discuss the surviving corpus of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and pinpoint (often overlooked but explicit) Christian themes in it.

Download the entire article here.