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Previous Christian assessments of the Prophet Muḥammad generally fall within two categories. The first asks whether or how he may be considered a post-canonical prophet. In the second, both Christians and Muslims sidestep the inquiry and advocate for the 'two Words' analogy (comparing Muḥammad to Mary and the Qur'an to Jesus the incarnate Word). However, attending to Muslim lived religion in postcolonial and diasporic contexts reveals an alternative, emic account of the meaning of prophecy and revelation in Islam: the embodied, emplaced and enacted experience of Muḥammad through poetry in praise of the Prophet and Prophetic beauty. Theological aesthetics prepares us for decolonizing Christian assessments of the Prophet Muḥammad through Muslim popular piety and vernacular traditions. A decolonial understanding of the experience of the Prophet suggests that his place in the experience of Muslims is unlike the way Christians relate to prophets, generally, and more akin to how Christians relate to Jesus--in both lived religion and elite discourse. While the 'two Words' analogy still has an important role to play, Christians would do well to rethink and decolonize their assessments of the Prophet Muḥammad through the lived religion--and elite discourses--of poetry in praise of the Prophet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on research that presents Jews and Muslims as an integral part of Genoese history, this article analyses the development of Genoese-Muslim interaction in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to understand the challenges of interreligious communication in the pre-modern Mediterranean. It treats the Annals of Genoa as a collective psychogramme that provides insight into the commune's shifting attitudes towards Muslims. While acknowledging the Annals' obvious biases, the article argues that the multiple authors of this work of historiography faithfully depicted the problems encountered by the Genoese in their communication with Muslim interlocutors from the perspective of those in power. Consequently, the Annals allow us to trace how Genoa established cooperative relations with Muslim-ruled North Africa in the wake of the First Crusade and how it successfully weathered turbulences caused by political shifts in the Mediterranean of the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. The Annals suggest that the destabilization of the western Mediterranean and intensifying inner-Christian strife began to jeopardize Genoese communication with Muslim-ruled societies in the 1230s. During the remainder of the thirteenth century, it seems, the commune was torn between different loyalties and thus unable to pursue a coherent communicative approach to Muslim-ruled societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the death of Pope Benedict (formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) on 31 December 2022, many reflected on his legacy and impact. This article aims to examine his contribution to and impact on Islamic-Christian dialogue by examining his writings, most notably the Regensburg address, as well as Dominus Iesus. The essay will also examine the approach to Muslim-Christian dialogue of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, and his successor, Pope Francis, in the process showing how these three pontiffs' approaches to Islamic-Christian dialogue both build on and differ from one another. It will also consider how Catholic-Muslim dialogue continues to develop and how the papacy continues to adapt to changing contexts that shape its relations with Islam. It will look in particular at how Muslim-Catholic dialogue during the pontificate of John Paul II was shaped by Cold War concerns and, in contrast, how Benedict's comments about Islam were shaped by and fed into the War on Terror discourse. It will then briefly make the argument that Francis, through his visits, most notably to Iraq in March of 2021, seems to be engaged in building a post-War on Terror phase of Muslim-Christian relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A passage in the Qur'an's fifth sura (verses 112–15) relates that Jesus's disciples asked him if God could send them a table or meal (māʾida) from heaven. The precise referent of this story and its significance have been the subject of debate in Qur'an scholarship. This study first argues that Q 5.112–5 refers to the institution of the Eucharist, by showing that worship is a central concern of Q 5 and that this passage is connected to earlier verses of the sura that refer to Christian worship. Second, the study provides a brief discussion of Christian conceptions of the Eucharist and of the prayers recited during this ritual in Late Antiquity, suggesting that the qur'anic account and its surrounding verses address critically three main issues: the affirmation of the Christian creed during the Eucharist, the capacity of this rite to bring about forgiveness and salvation, and the related idea of Christ as the prime mediator between God (the Father) and humanity. This critical engagement with Christian worship seems to be a reaction to Christian criticism of the Believers' way of worship, which is referenced earlier in the sura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ambrosian Library in Milan has preserved thirteen very interesting folios written in an archaic semi-Kūfī Arabic script, describing an encounter between the second caliph of Islam ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and an unnamed monk. We demonstrate how the anonymous author of this manuscript was familiar with the ṣulḥ agreements, the covenants of the Prophet Muḥammad, and historical and anecdotal accounts of encounters between ʿUmar and ecclesiastical authorities. We postulate that our author composed his narrative on the basis of his own historical imagination from sources that probably belonged to monastic archives to which he had access. The author aimed to deliver a subtle political message, highlighting the archetypal relationship between a Muslim ruler and a Christian subject living under Islam. Two adaptations of our text have been found in Islamic sources, the first in al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī's Al-zuhd wa- al-raqāʾiq, and the second in Ibn ʿAsākir's Tārīkh madīnat Dimashq, which we argue reflect a later re-working of the original narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Often, interreligious and political engagements by religious communities are hampered by internal disunity. This article examines efforts by the Ghanaian Muslim community to establish umbrella bodies to facilitate religious and socio-political engagement on behalf of the national umma. Focus is given to the inter-sectarian Office of the National Chief Imam (ONCI) and the role of the National Chief Imam, Sheik Osman Nuhu Sharubutu. The article first sets out the nature of fragmentation within the Muslim community and the religion– state relational context that inspires the establishment of such multiple bridge-building and advocacy groups. Whereas rapid failure was a prominent feature of previous Muslim councils, the Sheik Sharubutu led ONCI has been relatively successful at mediating intra– and inter-religious dialogue as well as socio- political engagement of Ghanaian Muslims for over three decades since 1989. Whilst highlighting the legacies and success factors of Sheik Sharubutu in this regard, the article also critiques the institutional weaknesses of the ONCI and discusses the feasibility of adopting for the ONCI the structures of a Christian ecumenical body as proposed by some of the Muslim leaders interviewed. The discussion is then broadened to generally examine some essentials for an effective Islamic umbrella body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iranian Revolution, the 9/11 attacks, the Arab Spring, the appearance of the Islamic State movement and other similar events have caused a shift in inter-faith engagements such that inter-religious dialogue, maintaining a balanced politico-religious discourse, has become imperative in international relations. This imperative is reshaping world politics. We observe that inter-religious engagements in response to such political events have had a steady katechontic character. The katechon, originally a biblical concept, refers to political institutions and cultural mechanisms used by sovereign actors, be they religious bodies, churches or states, to restrain [apocalyptic] chaos. Katechontic mechanisms essentially diffuse messianic zeal within a given community while redrawing how its members imagine the shape of things to come. Given the current trends in global culture, the katechontic character of inter-faith dialogue makes it most likely that, in the future, the world will be mainly animated by numerous simultaneous inter-cultural and inter-faith relations and modes of engagement, while the major political players seek to formulate a new vision for the future of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to explain the existence of a large indigenous Muslim population in Bosnia have resulted in two main academic trends, both subject to politicized and biased representations of the area's history. The first, originating mostly in Serbian nationalist historiography, claims that Bosnian Christians were forcibly converted and has been used since the nineteenth century to galvanize support for Serbian expansionist ambitions in the shape of its 'Greater Serbia' project. The second and long the most popular view holds that the majority of Bosnian Christians who converted to Islam belonged to a heretical 'Bogomil' institution of the Bosnian Church. Although this theory has been questioned over time, one of its central premises – that there are similarities between the theology and practice of Bogomilism and those of Islam – has never undergone any scrutiny. This article examines both this crucial premise of the Bogomil Theory, and the theory's provenance, and argues that, just as we should dismiss the Serbian (and Croatian) nationalist theories on the subject, we should also recognize the Bogomil Theory as a mythicized account of history, motived by both the personal prejudice and imperialist-colonialist agendas of its nineteenth-century authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its inception in 1920s British India, the Tablighi Jama'at (TJ) has grown into a global movement of faith renewal, animating grassroots Muslim communities around the world. Based on sustained ethnographic fieldwork with the British branch of the movement, this article proposes a concept of 'intra-religious conversion' to capture a key modality of its impact in everyday Muslim lives. By this is denoted a shift from a nominal form of Islamic practice to one of passionate devotion. Multiple interview narratives are presented to dissect the conversion experience through a series of precipitating push and pull factors, of which 'affective ties' and 'intensive interaction' emerge as key. Three key reasons for TJ's enduring appeal to British-born male Muslims are suggested: (1) its propensity to transform the individual's relationship with his religion from a 'passive consumer' to an 'active purveyor'; (2) its fostering of strong bonds of belonging and brotherhood; (3) its ability to offer certainty in a world of flux. The findings challenge previous scholarship on British TJ by demonstrating its ongoing popularity among successive generations of Muslims, though reasons why followers may drift away from the movement after undergoing life-changing intra-religious conversion experiences are also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is an attempt to think about, and think with, liberal critiques of Muslim religious commitments. Through an analysis of Akeel Bilgrami's critique of Muslim identity, together with a consideration of the virtue of open-mindedness, the article turns to the qur'anic parable about the companions of the cave in chapter 18 of the Qur'an (The Cave) to find the lineaments of a temporal conception of Muslim subjectivity, a conception that allows for a theologically informed possibility, or rather imperative, of the virtue of open-mindedness and also hope. The essay uncovers the theological-ethical implications implicit in the qur'anic pericope about the companions of the cave and models how religious ethics can help recover resources within religious traditions (in a qur'anic parable in the present case and especially the apparently puzzling verses of Q 18.23–4) that can allow for more humane possibilities of living authentically Muslim lives in liberal, secular contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the use of Islamic sources in a fragmentary text, the Tathlīth al-waḥdāniyya ('Trebling the Oneness'), written by an anonymous Jewish convert to Christianity. The author's aim was to demonstrate – using an ontological approach – the inconsistent nature of the arguments employed by his Muslim opponents, and at the same time to highlight the unacceptable practices of Muslims with regard to divorce and adultery. The fragments have survived thanks to their being quoted in a text by a Muslim author, who sought to counter each of the theological views expressed therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a critique of the descriptive power of subjectivity in studies of contemporary Muslim ethics. After Saba Mahmood and others, subjectivity has become perhaps the dominant analytical tool for the description of the ethical qualities of modern religious life. It is responsive to both the reflexivity held to be newly characteristic of modernity, and to the need to allow for the sheer diversity of modern religious life. However, through a multisite ethnographic study of the Shi'i Muslim khums, an obligatory 20% 'tithe' or tax on annual income, the article argues that approaches to ethics in terms of subjectivity have been insufficiently attentive to the ethical gravity of the thing itself. The special characteristics of khums payment, administration and disbursement between fieldsites in Australia and Iran, serve to foreground issues neglected in a literature that has focused almost entirely on a Sunni 'orthopraxy'. Methodologically, the article argues for a greater attentiveness to the materiality of the things of ethics and, conceptually, for a shift towards relations between persons and things as the locus of ethical investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medieval Muslim scholars wrote substantial apologetic and polemical treatises to present and defend the truth of their religion and to invite people of different faiths to Islam. These texts belong to the so-called radd ('refutation') literature. It is still interesting today in so far as many radd authors avoided rhetorical polemics and sought serious rational arguments that provide deep insights in the dogmatic differences and peculiarities of various religions. An outstanding, because strongly argumentational, example is Kitāb al-radd ʿalā al-Naṣārā ('Book of refutation of the Christians') by Ṣāliḥ ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Jaʿfarī (d. 668/1270). This article introduces al-Jaʿfarī's life and work, outlines methodological premises for a critical analysis of radd arguments, gives an overview of al-Jaʿfarī's most important arguments and an example of the analysis of such arguments, and indicates what the examination of these old texts can contribute to today's interreligious discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]