How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play (or not play) in this process? This lecture explores how Christians across the early Islamic caliphate slowly converted to the faith of the Arab conquerors and how small groups of individuals rejected this faith through dramatic acts of resistance, including apostasy and blasphemy. Dr. Christian Sahner is associate professor of Islamic history and a fellow of St. Cross College at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Christian Martyrs under Islam: Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World and, most recently, an editor of Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age: A Sourcebook.

This lecture is open to the public and will be presented via Zoom.