Stories between Christianity and Islam offers an original and nuanced understanding of Christian–Muslim relations that shifts focus from discussions of superiority, conflict, and appropriation to the living world of connectivity and creativity. Here, the late antique and medieval Near East is viewed as a world of stories shared by Christians and Muslims. Public storytelling was a key feature for these late antique Christian and early Islamic communities, where stories of saints were used to interpret the past, comment on the present, and envision the future.
In this book, Reyhan Durmaz uses these stories to demonstrate and analyze the mutually constitutive relationship between these two religions in the Middle Ages. With an in-depth study of storytelling in Late Antiquity and the mechanisms of hagiographic transmission between Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages, Durmaz develops a nuanced understanding of saints’ stories as a tool for building identity, memory, and authority across confessional boundaries.
By:
Reyhan Durmaz
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 28mm
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9780520386464
ISBN 10: 0520386469
Pages: 276
Publication Date: 30 December 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Contents Acknowledgments Note on Translation, Transliteration, and References Introduction Narrating Stories Sorting Stories Remembering Stories 1. Storytelling in Late Antique Christianity Hagiography and Orality A World of Storytelling Storytellers in Late Antique Christianity Hagiographic Interviews and Audience Participation 2. “How Is Muhammad a Better Storyteller Than I?” Who Is Narrating? Storytelling in the Quran The Broader Late Antique Context of Quranic Storytelling Functions of Storytelling in Muhammad’s Preaching Narrating Stories after Muhammad 3. “Ask Him about the Youths”: Narrating the Quran with Christian Saints Q18: The Cave The Companions of the Cave The Rich Man and the Poor Man Moses, the Unnamed Servant of God, and the Two-Horned 4. Christian Saints in Islamic Literature Remembering Saint Antony South Arabian Historiography and Alexander the Believing King Saint George in Al-Tabarī’s History of the Prophets and Kings Looking at Buildings, Narrating Saint Marūthā 5. From Paul and John to Fīmyūn and Sālih Transformation of a Story Ibn Ishāq on the Authority of Wahb b. Munabbih Fīmyūn and S. ālih in Context 6. Stories between Christianity and Islam Monks, Monasticism, and the Islamic Notion of Sanctity Authorship and Transmission of Hagiographic Knowledge Narratives in and of the Family Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index
Reyhan Durmaz is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and co-translator of Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on Women Whom Jesus Met.
Reviews for Stories between Christianity and Islam: Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and Beyond
"""An excellent inquiry into the hagiographic texts of Christianity and Islam from late antiquity. . . . a worthwhile read for students of Christian–Islamic intertextuality, one that raises many questions and thought-provoking arguments."" * Reading Religion *"
