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.
Topic
Scripture
The sacred texts of the Abrahamic traditions and how they are read.
-
-
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…
-
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,…
-
Paul and Peter: two missions in the early church
Paul’s own letters describe a real conflict with Peter at Antioch. A later letter, in Peter’s name, makes peace.
-
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?
-
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.
-
Mary across the traditions
The only woman named in the Qur’an and the mother of God incarnate in Christian doctrine: Mary in scripture.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Kedar, the Arabs and the prophets
Kedar in the Hebrew Bible, the Arab tribes of the north, and the figure the oracles point to.
-
Understanding the Bible and the Qur’an in historical context
How scholars approach the historical and literary settings of these sacred texts.