History of Abrahamic Religions
I am interested in finding out more about the history of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Not from the point of view of their followers, but from good scholarly sources which discuss independent sources for the history of the early periods of these religions as well as the history of the Bible and the Quran (based on analysis of their text as well as the history of their compilation etc.) I would like to know what events in the Bible we can confirm independently, for example. I understand that we cannot independently say anything one way or the other about quite a few of the events in the Bible as well as early Muslim history.
A couple of articles related to the Quran were in the NY Times and the Atlantic some time ago. However, one of the biggest problems I have found when searching for material on this topic is that of the author’s bias. There are usually two kinds of people writing in this area: those whose aim is to refute the religion (for example, here), and those who want to defend it (an example is here). Usually, both these groups make outrageous claims. As someone who believes in one’s religion but is not overly religious, I find both approaches highly problematic and not intellectually honest.
I suppose doing research and writing on Islam in this context has also become very difficult in recent years due to the profileration of fatwas for blasphemy that got started with Salman Rushdie. It probably is much easier to write about the history of Judaism and Christianity.
If anyone (Bill Allison, are you reading?) has any reading recommendations, please let me know.
ڈفر Duffer
I’ve started to respond on Ideofact
…but I’ll add more tomorrow. Short answers: Yes, I’m reading, but I probably don’t have too many good books to recommend…
Thanks, Bill. The bias problem really is a major one in this area.
Textual Analysis of Quran
Brian Ulrich points out an article in the Lebanon Daily Star about production of a critical edition of the Quran based on the manuscripts found in a Sanaa mosque in Yemen. A professor of literature and human science at Sousse…
I thought you or your readers might like this book
No God but God by Reza Aslan.
Reza Aslan
Mariam: Thanks. I have fixed the link to his website and added a link to Amazon for the book in your comment.