Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis / Edition 1

by Reuven Firestone

Overview

Scholars have long pointed to the great affinity between stories found in the Bible and the Qur'an, yet no explanation has been proposed that satisfactorily explains the odd combination of incredible likeness and unique divergence. Firestone provides a refreshing, new approach to scriptural issues of textuality, exegesis, and the origins and use of legend.

This book clearly presents the full range of Islamic legends from the Qur'an and early Islamic exegesis about Abraham's journeys and adventures in the Land of Canaan and Arabia, many of them available for the first time in English translation. The author examines this broad sample of Islamic legends in relation to those found in Jewish, Christian, and pre-Islamic Arabian communities, and postulates an evolutionary journey of the literature. He presents a thorough textual analysis of the material and proposes a model for understanding early Islamic narrative based in literary theory, approaches to comparative religion, and the history of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic Middle East.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791403327
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	07/05/1990
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	265
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	1550L (what's this?)

About the Author

Reuven Firestone is Assistant Professor of Hebrew language and literature in the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literature at Boston University.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Transliterations

Abbreviations

Part One: Background

1. Biblicists and Arabs
2. The Nature of the Literature

Part Two: The Syrian Prologue

3. Abraham's Emigration
4. The Tyrant
5. The Birth of Ishmael
6. Beersheba
7. The Angels Visit

Part Three: The Meccan Sequence

8. The Transfer to Mecca
9. The Jurhum
10. Abraham's Visits
11. Building the Ka'ba
12. The Pilgrimage

Part Four: The Sacrifice

13. Prelude to Sacrifice
14. The Sacrificial Act
15. The Redemption
16. Isaac or Ishmael?
Conclusion

Part Five: Appendices

1. The Exegetes and Their Sources
2. Traditionists Naming Isaac or Ishmael as the Intended Sacrificial Victim

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Reuven Firestone discusses the relationships among Jewish, Christian, and Islamic treatments of Abraham and Ishmael without resorting to the older and invidious terms of borrowing and dependency. He is sensitive to the individual genius of each tradition while still demonstrating that they all operate in a shared universe of religious ideas. Firestone's work should become one of the models that future students of comparative religions will look to for this type of study." — Gordon Newby, North Carolina State University

"I have done some work in the same field and found myself constantly reacting with growing excitement and enthusiasm to the author's approach, methodology, and conclusions. His division of the sources into biblist, pre-Islamic Arabian, and Islamic, is in itself, a very new and useful approach." — William M. Brinner, University of California at Berkeley

From the Publisher

Examines and compares the legends of Abraham's journey and adventures in the Land of Canaan and Arabia, as found in the Quran, the Bible, and the literature of early Islam, pre-Islamic Arabia, and Jewish and Christian communities. Many of the texts have not been previously described in English. Paper edition (unseen by Book News), $16.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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