From the ‘Brethren of Purity’ to Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, al-Mu’ayyad fi l-Din al-Shirazi and Naser-e Khosrow, a number of Ismaili authors engaged Judaism and Christianity and their respective scriptures in ways that notably departed from the established Islamic modes of controversy and polemic. For one, the arguments proffered derived from an increased familiarity with such scriptures themselves, at times even including quotations from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in Syriac (cf. Paul Kraus and Paul Walker on al-Kirmani). Second, the Ismaili use of figurative interpretation (ta’wil) rendered earlier divine dispensations—as well as philosophical doctrines—diaphanous as to truths hidden from merely exoteric readings (cf., e.g., Daniel de Smet). Thus for the quoted writers, the dialectic of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’, concerning biblical truth as opposed to the Christian creed, operated on a different level than in the Koran, even if rejection of the Christian doctrine of incarnation remained the ultimate point of convergence(not to forget al-Hakim’s—passing—destructive aggressiveness, for which cf. Heinz Halm). The presentation here to be introduced will focus on Naser-e Khosrow, at the same time anchoring him in and contrasting him with the Ismaili tradition (cf. Carmela Baffioni) and specifically, preceding Ismaili representations of Christianity. Naser’s variant observations on things Christian, including as they do a charge of tritheism (in Jame´o l-hekmateyn) as well as an admiring—and glossing over doctrinally contentious issues—account of the Holy Sepulchre (in Safarname; cf. Alice Hunsberger) in their turn raise the intriguing, if not outright troubling question of the internal coherence of his works—a question to be discussed and, it is hoped, advanced in conclusion.

Memorizing at least part of the Qur’Án was the essential, if not the sole purpose of the standard education of Muslim children in the medieval Middle East. The recitation of the Qur’Án, as well as attendance at sessions of recitation, were a central component of personal piety and of the communal liturgical calendar. Qur’Án recitation (often supported by waqf endowments) took place at daily sessions in mosques, at various ceremonies and assemblies, on graves and during funerals, in times of crisis and on festive days and special nights (such as niÒf Sha`bÁn). While the proper, ceremonial reading of the Torah had always required the written text; more specifically – a scroll written by professional scribes according to strict prerequisites of purity; reading "from memory" has absolute precedence in Muslim ritual. Early sources (such as Hasan al-Basri and Malik ibn Anas) indicate, however, that recitation by heart, rather than reading from the book, was debated among Muslims in Umayyad times. My paper will examine and illustrate medieval attitudes towards memorization and recitation of the Qur’Án and the Torah, and the meanings and functions attributed, by Jews and by Muslims, to rituals such as the initiation of boys to the study of scripture, the completion of a reading cycle, and “talismanic” reading. The source material for this study includes 12th-14th century legal works and didactic literature, biographical dictionaries, chronicles and travelogues pertaining especially to Syria and Egypt. The methods of analysis are drawn from the fields of social history, ritual studies, and comparative religion.

By drawing on Egyptian historical texts such as Ibn Abd al-Hakam’s Futuh misr and the History of the Patriarchs, several Copto-Arabic apocalypses are situated within their historical contexts. Although eleven texts belong to his genre, particular emphasis is placed on Ps-Athanasius, Ps-Samuel, and Ps-Shenoute, which span the eighth to thirteenth centuries CE. Three aims are reached by this paper. Initially, the goal is to provide a contextual historical reading of such apocalyptic texts, accomplished by placing them within the framework of medieval apocalypses in general (both Islamic and Byzantine) and by identifying the particular discourse they represent. It is demonstrated that while retaining a number of topoi that are ubiquitous to the apocalyptic genre, the details of these Egyptian texts are clearly in sync with their geographic and temporal settings. Additionally, it is argued that some of the more peculiar aspects of the genre, such as extensive references to the Kingdom of Ethiopia, betray the ideological concerns of both Christians and Muslims living in Egypt. Also demonstrated is the utility of apocalyptic texts in studying social transformations pertaining to the processes of Islamization and the formation of new communal identities. In that regard, it is shown that these Christian texts, which often seem atemporal, are clearly tethered to and reflective of their Islamic environment and reflect contemporaneous social concerns. Finally, the utility of these popular, nonofficial texts as historical sources that inform our understanding of inter-communal interactions under Caliphal rule is explored.

A letter written around 800 C.E. by Jewish merchants trading in Inner Asia was recently discovered in Western China. This unpublished document provides us with valuable information about Jewish, Islamic, Iranian, and Inner Asian history, as well as the development of Iranian languages. Currently in the National Library in Beijing, the letter appears to be one of the earliest New Persian texts in existence. It is written in Judeo-Persian, a literary form of New Persian specific to Jewish texts. The presentation will begin with a look at the document itself--when and where it may have been written, how it was discovered--as well its relationship to a fragmentary Judeo-Persian letter discovered in 1901 and now in the British Museum. The second part of the talk will discuss the social and historical information contained in the letter. This information sheds light on the cultural identities, trade practices, and political activities of Jewish merchants on the Silk Road during early Islamic times.