The series “Dialogue” was created in 2024 with the assistance of Ibn Sina Foundation. Now it includes three books that are especially precious for specialists in the area of religion and culture, theologians, philosophers and everyone who is interested in the issue of interconfessional polemics.
The first book of the series is the work “Comparison of the Muslim Teaching on the Divine Names With the Christian Teaching on Them” by G.S. Sablukov. The book is provided with a critical scientific apparatus and a foreword that explains the role of this work in the history of Islamic studies. Its executive director is Faris Osmanovich Nofal, a research scholar at the Department of Islamic World Philosophy of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The book was prepared and published in cooperation with the Kazan Orthodox Spiritual Seminary and the Ufa University of Science and Technologies.
The second book contains a critical text of the Samaritan mystical literature monument of the XVI century, the treatise “The Path of the Heart to Comprehending the Lord” (Sair al-Qalb Fi Ma’arfat al-Rabb) by Ibrahim al-Qabasi from Damascus. Published in Russian for the first time, the writing of al-Qabasi demonstrates the dependence of some author’s concepts on Arab-Muslim religious and philosophical context. The book was prepared for publication with the assistance of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences based on the results of Ibn Sina Publishing Grant Competition-2025. The work is accomplished by F.O. Nofal, its executive editor is I.R. Nasyrov.
The third book is “Instructions For Those Perplexed About Answers to Jews and Christians” is a basic apologetic work by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (1292-1350) containing the results of seven centuries of Islamic-Christian and Christian-Jewish dialogue. Published in Russian for the first time, the treatise by Ibn Qayyim is provided with introductory research works, critical commentary and a new review of sources and argumentation used by this Sunni theologian, as well as with commentaries that can help a reader to comprehend the text. The Kazan Orthodox Spiritual Seminary supported publication of the book.
