Title:

Ἀπολογίαι τέσσαρες / Λόγοι τέσσαρες κατά Μωαμεθανῶν

Short title

Ἀπολογίαι τέσσαρες / Λόγοι τέσσαρες κατά Μωαμεθανῶν

Title variations

Title in English

Four Apologies / Four Orations against Muhammad

Section

Language

Greek

Creation date

1373

Genre

Treatise

Content

Other

Content table

Formal Expression

Prose

Qur'an quotations

Yes

Original

No

Source

The Greek translation of Contra legem Sarracenorum

Use (macro-category)

Polemical

Use (micro-category)

Polemics against Islam

Bibliographical references

Klaus-Peter Todt, Johannes VI. Kantakuzenos und der Islam: Politische Realität und theologische Polemik im palaiologenzeitlichen Byzanz (Würzburg / Echter: Altenberge / Oros Verlag, 1991); Karl Förstel (ed. and trans.), Johannes Kantakuzenos: Christentum und Islam - Apologetische und polemische Schriften (Altenberge: Oros Verlag, 2005)

Descriptive card

The apologies and orations against Muhammad by John Kantakouzenos were the most read and circulated Byzantine literary pieces of polemical literature not only in the Orthodox milieu but also in Western Christianity. They have been offered in vernacular Greek during the premodern period by the Cretan theologian Meletios Syrigos (1586-1664). There is also a middle Bulgarian Church Slavonic translation (completed during the 15th century) and also a Romanian translation (1669).

Entry author

Octavian Negoita