—namely the three: the Nestorians, the Jacobites, and the Melkites—curses the other two.

You and the Jacobites therefore anathematize anyone who says, “Mary did not give birth to a god,” while they themselves maintain, “Mary bore a perfect man and a perfect god.”

Likewise, you and the Nestorians anathematize whoever states that the two are one essence, with one will and one nature, as well as anyone who says that the divine nature suffered—despite your own claim that the divine nature was born of Mary, and that the Christ whom Mary bore died and was crucified.

Your pronouncements are filled with such astonishing, self-contradictory marvels—proving that you are yourselves accursed—that to catalogue them all would take too long. There is not one among you who is not both a curser and accursed. Your cursing of those who hold these doctrines does not establish that you are upon the truth; it only entails that the person holding these doctrines is numbered among those you curse, like one of your own sects.

Christians comprise many sects that differ widely. The three sects that became well-known in later times are but a few of their parties; in reality they are numerous groups, divided over the Trinity and the union of natures.

You will find that every class among them—or among others—records teachings that differ from the reports transmitted by the rest.

Among the most prominent of those who compiled their accounts is Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq, the Patriarch of Alexandria, who lived in the middle of the fourth century of the Islamic era. He undertook a study—claiming it to be exhaustive—to defend their creed; he was a Melkite, and I have already mentioned