Sacred Orientation in Late Antiquity and Early Islam

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration
Abbreviations
Introduction..........................................................................................1
Ritual Performance..........................................................................5
Sacred Geography..........................................................................12
Interrreligious Encounter..................................................................17
Chapter Outline.............................................................................25
A Disclaimer................................................................................29

Chapter 1. "Each One has a Direction to which They Turn"
Sacred Orientation in the Qur?an and Religions of Late Antiquity....................32
Late Antique Background: Lenses.......................................................39
Rabbinic Judaism...........................................................................41
Early Christianity...........................................................................52
Other Religious Cultures of Late Antiquity.........................................,...61
Islam and the Qur?an.......................................................................65
Conclusion..................................................................................78

Chapter 2. Becoming the 'People of the Qibla:'
The History of an Unusual Phrase and "Big Tent" Islam........................82
Sinners Among the 'ahl al-qibla:' The Mechanics of the Term
as used in Tafsir...................................................................87
Sunni Creeds................................................................................95
Some Shi?i Writings .....................................................................105
Implications of Inclusion Among the 'ahl al-qibla'.................................114
The Origins of the 'People of the Qibla'..............................................117
'Ahl al-qibla' in Heresiographical Descriptions of
Kharijites and Murji?ites...............................................121
'Ahl al-qibla' in Ummayad-Era Revolts
as Portrayed in Historiographic Literature...........................127
'Ahl al-qibla' in the Teachings of Umayyad-Era Traditionists............131
Late First-/ Early Eighth-Century
Theological Texts Using 'Ahl al-qibla'..............................134
Conclusion.................................................................................146

Chapter 3. Does God's Mind Change? The qibla in Tenth-Century Interreligious Polemics.............................................................................................149
Did the Jews Change their qibla? ......................................................150
The qibla as a Symbol of Naskh in Early Islamic Literature........................157
The qibla as a Symbol in Medieval Islamicate Christian Literature...............174
Revisiting Three Jewish Authors on the qibla........................................193

Chapter 4. A New Direction in Qibla Studies: Reconsidering Alignment and "Misalignment" of early Mosques in light of Identity....................................208
Identity.....................................................................................211
Identity as Imagined.............................................................213
Identity as a Process.............................................................216
Identity as Inexhaustible........................................................220
Sacred Geography and Identity in Early Islam.......................................225
Early Mosque Orientations
The Hermeneutics of Architecture and Identity..............................229
The Inexhaustible qibla: A Kind of Conclusion......................................252

Bibliography.......................................................................................256

INDEX