The contributions in this volume deal with crucial subjects of political and theological dialogue and controversy that characterized the varying responses of the Christian communities in the Byzantine Eastern provinces to the Islamic conquest and its subsequent impact on Byzantine society and history.

Emmanouela Grypeou has a Ph.D. in Languages and Cultures of the Christian Orient, and is a Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations (Cambridge, UK). Her previous publications include Das vollkommene Pascha: Gnostische Bibelexegese und gnostische Ethik (2005, Wiesbaden).
Mark N. Swanson received his doctorate from the Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d'Islamistica (PISAI) in Rome, Italy. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Christian History and Islam, and Director of the Islamic Studies Program, at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He has authored numerous articles and chapters in Arabic Christian studies.
David Thomas, Ph.D. in Islamic Studies, University of Lancaster, is Reader in Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham. He has published extensively on Christian-Muslim relations, most recently Early Muslim Polemic against Christianity (2002, Cambridge), Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule (2003, Leiden), and Muslim-Christian Polemic during the Crusades. The Letter from the People of Cyprus and Ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Dimashqī's Response (with R.Y. Ebied, 2005).