![]() The first apology, or defense, goes toe to toe against iconoclasts who accuse those praying through icons of idolatry. His most famous work is Three Treatises on the Divine Images. John of Damascus was a prolific writer, and he used his formidable intellect to defend the worship of images during the period of Orthodox iconoclasm and mounting Islamic prohibitions against images. His grandfather likely served as Byzantine governor and then Umayyad court official John himself may have served as a functionary for the early caliphs, which is understandable in that he would have been fully fluent in both Arabic and Greek. Born Yuhanna ibn Mansur ibn Sarjun, he was part of an elite Christian family. His life gives a sense of the multicultural milieu of the early Islamic city and its diverse population of Christians and Muslims, Arabs and Greeks. This manuscript includes quotations attributed to John of Damascus, as well as his full-length portrait (folio 208v, right margin).įew figures embody the transitional spirit of the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (Grec 923). ![]() ![]() ![]() Black, red, and brown ink on parchment 394 folios. ![]() Sacra Parallela, folios 207v–208r, 9th century. ![]()
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