booklet of abstracts - Oxford University Byzantine Society

topos which, most notably, comprised anti-Muslim prophecies that were designed tocounteract Islamic religious aspirations.My investigation will show how the hardlinepolemical attitude of the Last RomanEmperor was reused and adapted in subsequentpolemics, but also how it was, at times,de-emphasized in order to accommodatea less aggressive opposition and instead tomake a more subtle argumentation as seen,for example, in John of Damascus’ writingson Islam. In addition, it becomes clear howthis originally Christian theme influenced theMuslim concept of the Mahdī, which eventuallycame to be incorporated into Christianeschatological considerations as seen, forinstance, in the Bahira Legend.Andras Kraft’s current researchfocuses on early Christian reactions to Islam(seventh through ninth centuries). He haspreviously dealt with the theology of Origenof Alexandria, and with Origenism and its relationshipto the Desert Fathers. More recently,he has extensively studied Aristotelianism inthe Muslim East, focusing on the philosophyof al-Ghazālī.The 2011 International Graduate Conference | 27