This presentation will explore the nature of the Elijah
traditions in rabbinic literature and their connection to the
wisdom tradition. By examining the diverse Elijah traditions in
connection to the wisdom and apocalyptic traditions, I aim to
shed...
For a political scientist, the contradictory themes surrounding
the Arabs and their region before the coming of Islam often seem
strange and incomprehensible. Although there are no major barriers
posed by rivers or mountain ranges, numerous...
Ethiopia is unique in the world for the incomparable prominence
of the cross in the life of its Orthodox Christian population.
Crosses of unparalleled intricacy and sophistication are
extensively used in religious and magic rituals, as well as
in...
When, on an autumn Medina night in 61/680, the night that saw
al-Ḥusayn killed, Umm Salama was torn from her sleep by an
apparition of a long-dead Muḥammad, she slipped effortlessly into a
progression of her co-religionists who, irrespective of...
Competing theories about the origins of the cosmos have always
entailed distinctive and often antithetical conceptions of who, or
what, caused it. Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī developed his doctrine of
creation at a particularly poignant moment in Islamic...
I will discuss how I came to write The Last Empire of Iran and
why. My main motivation was to portray the Sasanian state as the
great world power that it was, and to situate it properly between
Rome and the nomad powers of Inner Asia. The talk will...
Discussions of the widespread appeal of the cult of Isis in
antiquity often omit any mention of the Nubian priests who served
the rulers of the Kingdom of Meroe (located south of Egypt in the
Sudan) and the royal donations of gold that they...
