Title Artillery of heaven : American missionaries and the failed conversion of the Middle East / Ussama Makdisi

Published Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2008

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 262 pages) : illustrations, maps Series The United States in the world United States in the world. Contents Mather's America -- "The grammar of heresy" : coexistence in an Ottoman Arab world -- The flying of time -- The artillery of heaven -- An Arab puritan -- The apotheosis of American exceptionalism -- The vindication of Asʻad Shidyaq Summary The complex relationship between America and the Arab world goes back further than most people realize. In Artillery of Heaven, Ussama Makdisi presents a foundational American encounter with the Arab world that occurred in the nineteenth century, shortly after the arrival of the first American Protestant missionaries in the Middle East. He tells the dramatic tale of the conversion and death of As'ad Shidyaq, the earliest Arab convert to American Protestantism. The struggle over this man's body and soul-and over how his story might be told-changed the actors and cultures on both sides. In the unfamiliar, multireligious landscape of the Middle East, American missionaries at first conflated Arabs with Native Americans and American culture with an uncompromising evangelical Christianity. In turn, their Christian and Muslim opponents in the Ottoman Empire condemned the missionaries as malevolent intruders. Yet during the ensuing confrontation within and across cultures an unanticipated spirit of toleration was born that cannot be credited to either Americans or Arabs alone. Makdisi provides a genuinely transnational narrative for this new, liberal awakening in the Middle East, and the challenges that beset it. By exploring missed opportunities for cultural understanding, by retrieving unused historical evidence, and by juxtaposing for the first time Arab perspectives and archives with American ones, this book counters a notion of an inevitable clash of civilizations and thus reshapes our view of the history of America in the Arab world Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In English Print version record Subject Shidyāq, Asʻad, 1798-1830. SUBJECT Shidyāq, Asʻad, 1798-1830 Shidyāq, Asʻad, 1798-1830 fast Šidyāq, Asʻad, 1798-1830. idsbb Subject American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. SUBJECT American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions fast American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions gnd Maroniten. idszbz Subject Missions, American -- Lebanon -- History -- 19th century Missions, American -- Middle East -- History -- 19th century Religious pluralism -- Middle East -- History -- 19th century Maronites -- Lebanon -- History -- 19th century Christianity and other religions -- Islam. Islam -- Relations -- Christianity. HISTORY -- United States -- 19th Century. RELIGION -- Christian Ministry -- Missions. Christianity Interfaith relations Islam Maronites Missions, American Religious pluralism Mission Mission -- amerikanische -- Naher Osten -- Geschichte 19. Jh. Mission -- Evangelische Kirche -- Naher Osten -- Geschichte 19. Jh. Evangelische Kirche -- Mission -- Naher Osten -- Geschichte 19. Jh. Maroniten -- Konversion (Relig.) -- Libanon -- Geschichte 19. Jh. Konversion -- (Relig.) -- Maroniten -- Libanon -- Geschichte 19. Jh. Protestantische Kirche. Religiöse Verfolgung. Konversion (Religion) Kulturkontakt. Mission. Lebanon Middle East USA Naher Osten Midden-Oosten. USA. Libanon. Amerikaner. Araber. Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 2007029232 ISBN 9780801458989 0801458986 0801457742 9780801457746

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