Einboden/Qur'an and Kerygma, 2.“Verily have I Found Allāh Oft-Returning”

Shifting from poetic translation to personal autobiography, Chapter 2 advances forward two centuries, reading the 11th-century Dīwān of Palestinian lyricist and Orthodox bishop, Sulaimān al-Ghazzī. Confessional in poetics and polemics, al-Ghazzī’s qaṣā’id are yet shaped by Qur’ānic contributions, voicing their Christian apologetics in verses that ironically echo the Muslim scripture. Recalling al-Qūṭī’s psalter in their ecumenical audacity and aesthetics, al-Ghazzī’s Arabic compositions are, however, uniquely individual, inscribing Qur’ānic fragments into Christian odes that are not only doctrinally concerned, but also intimate in experience.