Whales: Giants of the Ocean
Whales: Giants of the Ocean Whales are among the largest and most remarkable animals on Earth. These marine mammals live in oceans around the…
Journal
Explainers and essays on the history, scripture and thought of the Abrahamic traditions. Browse every topic.
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Haman in the Qur’an
Was the Qur’an’s Haman borrowed from the Bible’s Esther, or is his name an Egyptian priestly title?
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The Cairo Genizah
A synagogue storeroom in Cairo yielded 400,000 medieval fragments and reshaped the study of Jewish history.
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The Amman Message and A Common Word
Two landmark declarations: a modern Muslim consensus on who is a Muslim, and an open letter to Christian leaders.
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Al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd and the limits of reason
The medieval argument over whether philosophy could be trusted, and why it mattered more in Europe than in Islam.
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The preservation and transmission of scripture
How the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Qur’an were each copied, checked and handed down across centuries.
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Mary across the traditions
The only woman named in the Qur’an and the mother of God incarnate in Christian doctrine: Mary in scripture.
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Jesus across the traditions
Lord and Saviour, prophet and Messiah, or a pupil of John who departed from his teaching: how three traditions see Jesus.
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The king and the Pharaoh
Joseph served a king and Moses faced a Pharaoh: how the Qur’an’s two titles for the ruler of Egypt match the Egyptian record.
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The Sabians of the Qur’an
The community the Qur’an names beside the Jews and the Christians, and how Muslim scholars answered the question of who they were.
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Masbuta: baptism in running water
How the Mandaeans baptise: the running water, the priest, the myrtle wreath and the sacraments on the bank.
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John the Baptist in four traditions
The prophet of the Jordan in the Gospels, in Jewish memory, in the Qur’an and in Mandaean tradition.