Eastern Christianity

== Role of Christians in Arabic culture ==
{{See also|Christian influences in Islam}}
{{Christian culture}}
Scholars and intellectuals agree [[Christian influences on the Islamic world|Christians have made significant contributions]] to Arab and Islamic civilization since the introduction of [[Islam]],<ref name="Hill, Donald 1993">Hill, Donald. ''Islamic Science and Engineering''. 1993. Edinburgh Univ. Press. {{ISBN|0-7486-0455-3}}, p. 4</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Legend of the Middle Ages|author=Brague, Rémi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8YjEkLPXNYC|isbn=978-0-226-07080-3|page=164|year=2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press }}</ref> and they have had a significant impact contributing the culture of the [[Middle East and North Africa]] and other areas.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pacini|first=Andrea|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMfYAAAAMAAJ|title=Christian Communities in the Arab Middle East: The Challenge of the Future|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-19-829388-0|pages=38, 55|access-date=21 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310101859/https://books.google.com/books?id=KMfYAAAAMAAJ|archive-date=10 March 2021|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Jews, Antisemitism, and the Middle East|first=Kail|last= C. Ellis|year= 2017| isbn=978-1351510721| page =173|publisher=Routledge}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Secular Nationalism and Citizenship in Muslim Countries: Arab Christians in the Levant|first=Michael |last=Curtis|year= 2018| isbn=978-1351510721| page =11|publisher=Springer|quote=Christian contributions to art, culture, and literature in the Arab-Islamic world; Christian contributions education and social advancement in the region.}}</ref> [[Byzantine science]] played an important and crucial role in the [[Greek contributions to the Islamic world|transmission of classical knowledge]] to the [[Muslim world|Islamic world]].<ref>{{cite web|author=George Saliba|author-link=George Saliba|title=Islamic Science and the Making of Renaissance Europe|website=[[Library of Congress]]|date=2006-04-27|url=https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3883|access-date=2008-03-01|archive-date=29 June 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060629204411/https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3883|url-status=live}}</ref>

Christians, especially Nestorians, contributed to the Arab Islamic Civilization during the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyads]] and the [[Abbasids]] by translating works of [[Greek philosophers]] to [[Syriac language|Syriac]] and afterwards to [[Arabic language|Arabic]].<ref name="Hill, Donald 1993"/> They also excelled in philosophy, science (such as [[Hunayn ibn Ishaq]], [[Qusta ibn Luqa]], [[Masawaiyh]], [[Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria|Patriarch Eutychius]], [[Jabril ibn Bukhtishu]] etc.) and [[theology]] (such as [[Tatian]], [[Bar Daisan]], [[Babai the Great]], [[Nestorius]], [[Toma bar Yacoub]], etc.) and the personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] Christians such as the long serving [[Bukhtishu]]s.<ref>Rémi Brague, [http://www.christiansofiraq.com/assyriancontributionstotheislamiccivilization.htm Assyrians contributions to the Islamic civilization]</ref><ref>Britannica, [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/409819/Nestorian Nestorian]</ref> Many scholars of the [[House of Wisdom]] were of Christian background.<ref>Hyman and Walsh ''Philosophy in the Middle Ages'' Indianapolis, 1973, p. 204' Meri, Josef W. and Jere L. Bacharach, Editors, ''Medieval Islamic Civilization'' Vol. 1, A–K, Index, 2006, p. 304.</ref>

A hospital and medical training center existed at [[Gundeshapur]]. The city of Gundeshapur was founded in AD 271 by the Sassanid king [[Shapur I]]. It was one of the major cities in [[Khuzestan]] province of the Persian empire in what is today Iran. A large percentage of the population was Syriacs, most of whom were Christians. Under the rule of [[Khusraw I]], refuge was granted to Greek [[Nestorian Christian]] philosophers including the scholars of the Persian School of [[Edessa, Mesopotamia|Edessa]] ([[Urfa]]), also called the academy of [[Athens]], a Christian theological and medical university. These scholars made their way to Gundeshapur in 529 following the closing of the academy by Emperor Justinian. They were engaged in medical sciences and initiated the first translation projects of medical texts.<ref>''The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 22:2'' Mehmet Mahfuz Söylemez, ''The Jundishapur School: Its History, Structure, and Functions'', p. 3.</ref> The arrival of these medical practitioners from Edessa marks the beginning of the hospital and medical center at Gundeshapur.<ref>Gail Marlow Taylor, ''The Physicians of Gundeshapur'', (University of California, Irvine), p. 7.</ref> It included a medical school and hospital (bimaristan), a pharmacology laboratory, a translation house, a library and an observatory.<ref>Cyril Elgood, ''A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate'', (Cambridge University Press, 1951), p. 7.</ref> Indian doctors also contributed to the school at Gundeshapur, most notably the medical researcher Mankah. Later after Islamic invasion, the writings of Mankah and of the Indian doctor Sustura were translated into Arabic at [[Baghdad]].<ref>Cyril Elgood, ''A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate'', (Cambridge University Press, 1951), p. 3.</ref> [[Daud al-Antaki]] was one of the last generation of influential Arab Christian writers.

[[Arab Christians]] and Arabic-speaking Christians, especially [[Maronites]], played important roles in the [[Nahda]], and because Arab Christians formed the educated [[upper class|upper]] and bourgeois classes, they have had a significant impact in politics, business and culture, and most important figures of the Nahda movement were Christian Arabs.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131019093522/http://miradaglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1643%3Amarcha-historica-de-los-arabes-iel-tercer-momento&catid=27%3Apolitica&Itemid=16&lang=en] "The historical march of the Arabs: the third moment."</ref> Today [[Arab Christians]] still play important roles in the Arab world, and Christians are relatively wealthy, well educated, and politically moderate.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-belt/pope-to-arab-christians-k_b_203943.html |title=Pope to Arab Christians: Keep the Faith |work=[[The Huffington Post]] |access-date=20 April 2016 |date=15 June 2009}}</ref>