Related Papers
RQR (5) 2 2019
Review of Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires by Juan Cole
2019 •
Ayman Ibrahim
This is my review of Juan Cole’s ambitious book on Muhammad. Many devoted Muslims will likely find Cole’s depiction of Muhammad fanciful and unacceptable. While the book is easy-to-read and accessible, I have strong objections to Cole’s historical methodology. The book suffers from significant selectivity in treating both non-Muslim and Muslim primary sources. I think historians of religion in general, and Islamicists in particular, will indeed find his thesis reductionist, inconsistent, and contradicted by much of the evidence we do possess.
RQR | Review of Qur'anic Research (with minor revisions)
David Powers
Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought and History Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought and History Religion: Oxford Research Encyclopedias
Asma Afsaruddin
and Keywords In both popular and scholarly literature, jihad is primarily assumed to be a monovalent concept referring to " military/armed combat, " and martyrdom (shahada) is inevitably understood to be of the military kind. This assumption facilitates the discussion of jihad and martyrdom as terms with fixed, universal meanings divorced from the varying sociopolitical contexts in which they have been deployed through time. Such a monovalent understanding of these two concepts emerges primarily through consultation of the juridical literature and official histories that were produced after the 2nd century CE (8th century AH) and that are unduly privileged in academic discussions of this subject. In contradistinction to this approach, a more holistic and historical approach to the term jihad can be undertaken by focusing on the changing significations of jihad from the earliest formative period of Islam to the contemporary period, against the backdrop of specific social and political circ*mstances which have mediated the meanings of this critical term. This larger objective entails canvassing a more varied genre of texts to recreate a more multifaceted understanding of jihad and martyrdom as dynamic discursive terms through time. Such sources include Qurʾan exegetical works (tafsir), early and late works of hadith which purport to contain the sayings of the prophet Muhammad, the excellences of jihad (fadaʾil al-jihad) and the excellences of patience (fadaʾil al-sabr) literatures, which are often not consulted on this topic. Furthermore, the comparison of early and late sources and texts from these genres allows one to chart both the constancies and changes in the spectrum of meanings and repertoire of activities included under the terms jihad and shahada. This recovery of a broader semantic landscape undermines exclusively martial conceptualizations of both these terms and has important implications for the contemporary period.
Islamochristiana
Review of Juan COLE (2018) Muhammad Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires
2019 •
Diego Sarrió Cucarella
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 164/1 (2014), 65-96.
“The Seal of the Prophets and the Finality of Prophecy,”
Uri Rubin
Arab Christians and the Qur'an from the Origins of Islam to the Medieval Period
"They Find Him Written with Them": The impact of Q 7:157
2018 •
Gordon D Nickel
Q 7.157 mentions the Torah and the Gospel and claims, "they find him written with them" in those scriptures. This article explores the understanding of this verse in the Islamic Interpretive Tradition and asks whether that understanding has influenced the ways in which Muslims have interacted with Arab Christians in daily life. My research suggests that Q 7.157 encouraged both claims for prophecies of Islam's messenger in the Bible and accusations that Jews and Christians have erased or changed the prophecies. I am posting the pre-publication version of the article in accordance with Brill's rules. But the article was published earlier in 2018 in Arab Christians and the Qur'an from the Origins of Islam to the Medieval Period, edited by Mark Beaumont.
"When did the consonantal skeleton of the Quran reach closure?", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 77 (2014): 273–292, 509–521.
Nicolai Sinai
Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 28 (2003), 40-64. [Reprinted in: Uri Rubin, Muhammad the Prophet and Arabia, Variorum Collected Studies Series (Ashgate, 2011), no. VIII]
“The life of Muhammad and the Qur'an: the case of Muhammad’s hijra”
Uri Rubin
The biblical and midrashic background of Muhammad’s shelter in the cave (Q 9:40).
Islamic Rulings on Warfare
Sherifa Zuhur
he global war on terror (GWOT) and the battles with specific Islamist groups is, to some degree, a war of ideas. With a better understanding of Islamic concepts of war, peace, and Muslim relations with non-Muslims, those fighting the GWOT may gain support and increase their efficacy. The authors explain the principles of jihad and war and their conduct as found in key Islamic texts, the controversies that have emerged from the Quranic verses of war and peace, and the conflict between liberal or moderate Islamic voices and the extremists on matters such as the definition of combatants, treatment of hostages, and suicide attacks.
Journal of Qur'anic Studies
Slavery, Indenture, and Freedom: Exegesis of the 'mukātaba Verse' (Q. 24:33) in Early Islam
2019 •
Ramon Harvey
Slavery was a significant part of society within the seventh-century Arabian context of the Qur’an. An intriguing verse is Q. 24:33, which has been universally interpreted by Muslim exegetes as the basis for a contract of mukātaba (indenture) that allows slaves to work to pay for their freedom. This article examines the exegesis of Q. 24:33 against the background of the first two centuries of Islam, examining the way that its ambiguous language was interpreted in the light of socio-economic change and diverse theologico-political circles of scholarship. It is argued that an initially dominant emancipatory reading of the verse as an obligation within early Medina is preserved for over a century in Mecca, finding a home in Basran Ibāḍī scholarship of the late second/eighth century. In contrast, the dominant proto-Sunnī approach (and related proto-Zaydī tradition), centred in Iraq, adopts the formerly minority opinion that the mukātaba contract is merely permissible. By examining related legal questions, it is concluded that this shift in commentary on Q. 24:33 from the first/seventh to the second/eighth centuries reflects a broader change in the conception of the slave: from a valid economic actor on a continuum of servitude, to an item of property.
