The Christian Migrations in the Early Islamic Times

Abstract

In the early Islamic centuries, in which Muslim governments had continued to have territorial ambitions, we can see not only large quantitative Muslim migrations, but also any number of non-Muslim migrations. This article focalizes on Christian migrations between the seventh and the ninth centuries, because their movements seem to have had relation to change of populations in the Middle East. The more useful sources on this experiment are Middle Eastern Christian documents which give us precious informations neglected by Muslim authors.
Part (1) is composed of a list of records on Christian migrations which have connected with policies and military or administrative purposes of Muslim authorities. All the records are typical in their forms and features.
Then, part (2) examines each form of migrations; captured inhabitants on battles and so on; forced emigrants; forced immigrants; peoples allowed to emigrate; peoples allowed to return to their countries, especially by exchange of captives; people forced to return their countries. And I discussed their features, purposes, and historical backgrounds.
In part (3), I will discuss Christian migrations unrelated to Muslim intentions to compare with the cases in part (1). And part (4) concludes with a analysis of the relations between Muslim rule and Christian migrations, and the influences of these migrations to the Middle Eastern societies.