Christians by Continent - African Christians, Asian Christians, Kurdish Christians, Afonso I of Kongo, Constantine the African (Paperback)

Chapters: African Christians, Asian Christians, Kurdish Christians, Afonso I of Kongo, Constantine the African. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 18. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Kurdish Christians (Kurdish: ) are Kurds who follow Christianity and mostly live in the Kurdistan region. The word is derived from the Greek words () and (). The Arabic word is also sometimes used. Kurdish Christians should not be confused with other historical Christian communities living in the area such as the Assyrians or Armenians. The total number of Kurdish Christians today is uncertain but is probably in the tens of thousands, most of them living in Turkey. According to Coptic documents, the earliest Christian missionary works among the Kurds are attributed to St. Andrew . Christianity began to become a main religion in the central part of Kurdish regions from the fifth century onwards. Mar Saba succeeded in converting some sun-worshipping Kurds to Christianity in the fifth century. Many Kurdish Christians converted to Islam after the Arab conquest of the Sassanid Empire. However, there were Kurdish converts to Christianity even after the spread of Islam. In the ninth century, a Kurd named Nasr or Narseh converted to Christianity, and changed his name to Theophobos during the reign of Emperor Theophilus and was emperor's intimate friend and commander for many years. During the same period, the Kurdish prince Ibn-ad-Dahhak, who possessed the fortress of al-Jafary, abandoned Islam for Orthodox Christianity. There were many Kurdish Christian communities and tribes reported by medieval writers as late as the 10th and 13th centuries AD. In the late 11th and the early 12th century AD, Kurdish Christian soldiers comprised 2.7% of the army of fortress city of Shayzar in present-day Syria.. In the 19th ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4428450