Bennett lecture: The Qur’an and Arabian Jews at the beginning of Islam

What can the Qur’an teach us about the Arabian Jews at the beginning of Islam?

Abstract

In 1979, Meir and Menahem Kister used Muslim sources to illuminate the unique character of Arabian Jews at the dawn of the Islamic era. Since then, the academic landscape has shifted considerably. Divergences and interactions between the Jewish communities of Palestine and Iraq have been further explored, as have the history of the Qur’an and early Islam. Furthermore, recent and forthcoming studies have shown that Palestinian traditions are essential for understanding the Qur’an’s relationship to rabbinic Judaism, with examples ranging from the Mishna and Midrash to the Jerusalem Talmud, and from piyyut to Toledot Yeshu.

In this lecture, Zellentin summarises recent research and seeks to confirm the Kisters’ hypothesis based specifically on the qur’anic evidence for the Jews of Yathrib (Medina, in West Arabia). Thereby, it opens a new chapter in the study of the Jews of Yathrib, while simultaneously providing a new perspective on Palestinian rabbinic culture at the turn of the seventh century CE. 

About the speaker

Holger Zellentin is an award-winning scholar of Late Antiquity, with a focus on Talmudic and Qur’anic studies. He combines literary, legal and historical approaches in order to understand shared and diverging patterns within Jewish, Christian and early Islamic cultural traditions.

He has received funding from the European Research Council, the British Academy, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), and has been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize (2014) as well as an ERC Consolidator Grant, The Quran as a Source for Late Antiquity (2020-2025). He currently serves as the chair of the board of the International Qur’anic Studies Association, and has previously served on the steering committee of the British Association for Jewish Studies. In 2019, he joined the University of Tübingen, where he now lives, climbs and cycles.

Practicalities

The John & Mary Bennett Lecture is hosted by the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. It will take place at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Please use the link above to register to attend (via Eventbrite.com, free).