Muḥammad and His Followers in Context: The Religious Map of Late Antique Arabia

By Ilkka Lindstedt

Series: Islamic History and Civilization, Vol. 209

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: November 2, 2023

Hardcover: 372 pages

ISBN: 9789004687127

This title is published in Open Access with the support of the University of Helsinki Library.

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The book surveys and analyzes changes in religious groups and identities in late antique Arabia, ca. 300-700 CE. It engages with contemporary and material evidence: for example, inscriptions, archaeological remains, Arabic poetry, the Qurʾān, and the so-called Constitution of Medina. Also, it suggests ways to deal with the later Arabic historiographical and other literary texts. The issue of social identities and their processes are central to the study. For instance, how did Arabian ethnic and religious identities intersect on the eve of Islam? The book suggests that the changes in social groups were more piecemeal than previously thought.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
  – Prolegomena and Methodological Considerations
  – Ethnic, Linguistic, and Tribal Situation in Arabia before Islam
• 2. Judaism
  – Judaism in Late Antiquity
  – The Arabian Context
  – Conclusions
• 3. Christianity
  – Christianity in Late Antiquity
  – The Arabian Context
  – Conclusions
• 4. Gentiles
  – Introduction
  – Idolatry and Polytheism in Arabia
  – Gentile Monotheism in Arabia
  – The Idea of Abrahamic Descent in Arabia before Islam
  – An Excursus to Later Arabic Historiography: ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s Dream
  – Conclusions
• 5. The Rise of the Gentile Prophet in Mecca
  – Introduction and Methodological Considerations
  – Mecca
  – Excursus: Arabic Historiography on the Meccan Period
  – Conclusions on the Meccan Period
• 6. The Founding and Consolidating of the Community in Medina
  – The “Constitution” of Medina
  – The Believers in the Medinan Qurʾān
  – The People of the Book in the Medinan Period
  – The Jews in the Qurʾān
  – The Christians in the Qurʾān
  – Inna al-dīn ʿinda Allāh al-islām
  – Gentile Purity and Dietary Regulations
  – The Eschaton Postponed?
  – Excursus: Arabic Historiography and the Medinan Era
  – Conclusions on the Medinan Era
• 7. Near-Contemporary Non-Arabic Views on the Prophet and His Community
  – Near-Contemporary Non-Arabic Views on the Prophet’s Community
• 8. Concluding toward Early Islamic Times
  – “No Two Religions”
  – Conclusions

About the Author

Ilkka Lindstedt, Ph.D. (2014), is Lecturer in Islamic theology at the University of Helsinki. He deals with pre-Islamic Arabia, early Islam, Arabic historiography, and Arabic epigraphy. Recent publications include: Ilkka Lindstedt, Nina Nikki, and Riikka Tuori (eds.), Religious Identities in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Walking Together & Parting Ways, Brill 2022.

Source: Brill

Religious and Intellectual Diversity in the Islamicate World and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Sarah Stroumsa (Volumes I and II)

Edited by Sabine Schmidtke and Omer Michaelis

Series: Islamic History and Civilization (Volume 205)

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: January 3, 2024

ISBN (Vol I): 978-90-04-68244-3

ISBN (Vol II): 978-90-04-68693-9

Religious and Intellectual Diversity in the Islamicate World and Beyond is a collection of essays in honor of Sarah Stroumsa, an eminent scholar who through the years has embodied and advanced the possibility of collaboration across borders. The volume is presented to her by scholars working on the study of the intellectual history of the Middle Ages, the intercultural contact and migration of knowledge in the Islamic world, and many other topics.

Contributors

Binyamin Abrahamov, Camilla Adang, Anna Ayse Akasoy, Aleida Assmann, Jan Assmann, Meir M. Bar-Asher, José Bellver, Menachem Ben-Sasson, Haggai Ben-Shammai, Glen W. Bowersock, Rémi Brague, Godefroid de Callataÿ, Jonathan Decter, Michael Ebstein, Hussein Fancy, Carlos Fraenkel, Gil Gambash, Robert Gleave, Miriam Goldstein, Frank Griffel, Jaakko HämeenAnttila, Steven Harvey, Warren Zev Harvey, Meir Hatina, Geoffrey Khan, Gudrun Krämer, Ehud Krinis, Y. Tzvi Langermann, Daniel J. Lasker, Reimund Leicht, Gideon Libson, Menachem Lorberbaum, Maria Mavroudi, Jon McGinnis, Omer Michaelis, Yonatan Moss, David Nirenberg, Sari Nusseibeh, Olaf Pluta, Meira Polliack, James T. Robinson, Marina Rustow, Sabine Schmidtke, Gregor Schwarb, Ahmed El Shamsy, Mark Silk, Uriel Simonsohn, Daniel De Smet, Josef Stern, Guy G. Stroumsa, Sara Sviri, Alexander Treiger, Roy Vilozny, Ronny Vollandt, Elvira Wakelnig, Paul E. Walker, David J. Wasserstein, Tanja Werthmann, Dong Xiuyuan, Arye Zoref

About the Editors

Sabine Schmidtke is a Professor of Islamic intellectual history in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. She has published on topics ranging from Shīʿism (Zaydism and Twelver Shīʿism), intersections of Jewish and Muslim intellectual history, Wissenschaft des Judentums, the Arabic Bible, and the history of the book and libraries in the Islamicate world. Her recent publications include The Beginnings of Shiʿi Studies in Germany: Rudolf Strothmann and His Correspondence with Carl Heinrich Becker, Ignaz Goldziher, Eugeneo Griffini, and Conrelis van Arendonk, 1910 through 1926 (2023), Al-Šarīf al-Murtaḍā’s Oeuvre and Thought in Context: An Archaeological Inquiry into Texts and their Transmission (2022) coedited with Hassan Ansari; Muslim Perceptions and Receptions of the Bible: Texts and Studies (2019), with Camilla Adang; and Traditional Yemeni Scholarship amidst Political Turmoil and War: Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl b. al-Muṭahhar al-Manṣūr (1915–2016) and His Personal Library (2018).

Omer Michaelis is an Associate Professor at Tel Aviv University’s department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud. Specializing in medieval Jewish thought and philosophy in the Islamicate world, he focuses on the dynamics of production, transmission and integration of knowledge in medieval Judaism, and its intersection with parallel processes in the Islamic culture. His recenct publications include Crisis Discourse and the Dynamics of Tradition in Maimonides’ Oeuvre (Magnes Press) and Interiority & Law: Bahya ibn Paquda and the Concept of Inner Commandments (Stanford UP), published in 2023.

Source (Vol I): Brill

Source (Vol II): Brill