Religious law in the Abrahamic traditions: halakhah, canon law and the sharīʿah
Jewish halakhah, Christian canon law, the Islamic sharīʿah and the Mandaean rules of purity: what each is, where it comes from, and what the…
Journal
Explainers and essays on the history, scripture and thought of the Abrahamic traditions. Browse every topic.
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The symbols of the four traditions
The Star of David, the Mandaean banner, the cross and the crescent: where each came from, how old each is, and why Islam, strictly,…
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Where was Abraham from? Ur, Harran and Urfa
Genesis names Ur of the Chaldeans. Archaeologists point to southern Iraq, others to the north, and Urfa claims him by tradition. The evidence, and…
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The parting of the ways: how Christianity separated from Judaism
Jesus and his disciples were Jews. How did their movement become a separate religion? From Acts and Paul to the two wars with Rome…
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What language did Abraham speak?
Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew or Arabic? The world of Abraham, the Jewish and Muslim traditions about his language, and the Qur’anic principle that joins them.
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Ḥirāʾ and Qubāʾ: where the revelation and the first mosque began
Where the revelation began and where the first mosque was built: the cave of Ḥirāʾ above Makkah and the mosque of Qubāʾ at Madinah,…
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The stations of the Hajj: Minā, ʿArafāt and Muzdalifah
From Makkah to Minā, ʿArafāt and Muzdalifah and back: the stations of the Hajj, day by day, and the call to Abraham that every…
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Hagia Sophia: cathedral, mosque, museum and mosque again
Cathedral for nine centuries, the first mosque of the Ottoman state, a museum, and a mosque again: the history of Hagia Sophia and the…
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The five great sees of the early church
How Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem came to head the church of the Roman empire, and what became of the arrangement after the…
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Nicaea, 325: the council, the creed and the church beneath the lake
Archaeologists at Iznik have found the earlier church beneath the lakeside basilica. What the Council of Nicaea decided there, how it ranked the great…
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The Abrahamic family tree and what the traditions share
Who descends from whom, and what the traditions hold in common: the family of Abraham and the beliefs Judaism, Christianity and Islam share, in…
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The Sabians in classical Muslim scholarship
Three classical Muslim scholars on the Sabians, and why al-Shahrastani read Abraham’s argument with the stars as a case against them.