Blurred Boundaries and Novel Normativities

This article discusses critical issues surrounding the Jewish-Muslim encounter, framed as an evaluation of the approach and conclusions of two recent publications by Aaron W. Hughes: Shared Identities: Medieval and Modern Imaginings of Judeo-Islam (2017) and Muslim and Jew (2019). Hughes’s works pr...

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Autor principal: Michael E. Pregill
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Publicado: Columbia University Libraries 2021
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:941b39960dd94eb989d770d836d5858e2021-12-05T18:56:56ZBlurred Boundaries and Novel Normativities10.52214/uw.v29i1.89031068-1051https://doaj.org/article/941b39960dd94eb989d770d836d5858e2021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/alusur/article/view/8903https://doaj.org/toc/1068-1051 This article discusses critical issues surrounding the Jewish-Muslim encounter, framed as an evaluation of the approach and conclusions of two recent publications by Aaron W. Hughes: Shared Identities: Medieval and Modern Imaginings of Judeo-Islam (2017) and Muslim and Jew (2019). Hughes’s works present a critique of the established historiography on Jewish-Muslim relations and exchanges, examining such subjects as the Jews of late antique Arabia, the Jewish matrix of the Quran and formative Islam, and the Judeo-Islamic synthesis of subsequent centuries. I interrogate Hughes’s use of sources, treatment of previous scholarship, and privileging of the specific lens of the “religionist” in approaching the historical evidence. Both of the works under consideration here exhibit numerous problems of conception and argumentation that undermine their value for broadening current horizons of research or refining prevailing pedagogies. Ultimately, although they provoke numerous important questions and deftly expose the conceptual and ideological underpinnings of older scholarship, the books fail to offer a constructive path forward for specialists or stimulate a meaningful paradigm shift in the field. Michael E. PregillColumbia University LibrariesarticleHistory of AsiaDS1-937Medieval historyD111-203ENAl-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā, Vol 29, Iss 1 (2021)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic History of Asia
DS1-937
Medieval history
D111-203
spellingShingle History of Asia
DS1-937
Medieval history
D111-203
Michael E. Pregill
Blurred Boundaries and Novel Normativities
description This article discusses critical issues surrounding the Jewish-Muslim encounter, framed as an evaluation of the approach and conclusions of two recent publications by Aaron W. Hughes: Shared Identities: Medieval and Modern Imaginings of Judeo-Islam (2017) and Muslim and Jew (2019). Hughes’s works present a critique of the established historiography on Jewish-Muslim relations and exchanges, examining such subjects as the Jews of late antique Arabia, the Jewish matrix of the Quran and formative Islam, and the Judeo-Islamic synthesis of subsequent centuries. I interrogate Hughes’s use of sources, treatment of previous scholarship, and privileging of the specific lens of the “religionist” in approaching the historical evidence. Both of the works under consideration here exhibit numerous problems of conception and argumentation that undermine their value for broadening current horizons of research or refining prevailing pedagogies. Ultimately, although they provoke numerous important questions and deftly expose the conceptual and ideological underpinnings of older scholarship, the books fail to offer a constructive path forward for specialists or stimulate a meaningful paradigm shift in the field.
format article
author Michael E. Pregill
author_facet Michael E. Pregill
author_sort Michael E. Pregill
title Blurred Boundaries and Novel Normativities
title_short Blurred Boundaries and Novel Normativities
title_full Blurred Boundaries and Novel Normativities
title_fullStr Blurred Boundaries and Novel Normativities
title_full_unstemmed Blurred Boundaries and Novel Normativities
title_sort blurred boundaries and novel normativities
publisher Columbia University Libraries
publishDate 2021
url https://doaj.org/article/941b39960dd94eb989d770d836d5858e
work_keys_str_mv AT michaelepregill blurredboundariesandnovelnormativities
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