Review by Booklist Review
While this book starts by comparing Muhammad to Moses, it spends more time comparing Islam to Judaism and discussing how believers of both faiths have coexisted and even aided each other throughout history. Chronologically arranged chapters begin by highlighting the similarities between the prophets along with the challenges they faced. Then Akyol outlines the cooperation between Jews and Muslims in Medina, highlighting the religious tolerance, freedoms, and rights Medinans enjoyed. As Islam evolved into an empire, the essence of Medinan governance remained. Akyol focuses on how Muslim and Jewish communities relied on and aided each other and how the religious traditions of each faith influenced the other, extending this notion to mutual cultural exchange between both. The final three chapters are set against the backdrop of antisemitism and colonialism. Highlighting positive aspects of Muslim-Jewish relations from the era of Prophet Muhammad to contemporary times, the narrative is detailed (perhaps to a fault) and extensively referenced through footnotes. Recommended for readers looking for examples of sustained positive relations between Muslims and Jews.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Akyol (The Islamic Jesus) draws theological, philosophical, and cultural links between Islam and Judaism in this innovative study inspired by the prophet central to both faiths. Framing Moses, who is mentioned 137 times in the Quran, as the "historic precedent for Muhammad," Akyol traces an "Judeo-Islamic" tradition that began in seventh-century Medina when Jews introduced monotheism to their polytheistic Arab neighbors, paving the way for their eventual acceptance of Islam. While tensions flared as the two faiths lived side-by-side, their traditions continued to enrich one another across history, according to Akyol. Examples include how Islamic theology (kalam) informed Jewish theological study in the eighth and ninth centuries and how some present-day Muslims draw on Jewish models for adapting certain religious practices to Western societies (certain Muslim communities in the U.K. have established sharia councils, "which clearly follow the example of the Halakhic courts called beth din"). The parallels Akyol draws fascinate, including a detailed dissection of how the two religions each experimented with "strict textualism" versus "rationalist" approaches in their codes of law. Elsewhere, Akyol examines how present-day Jews and Muslims living in Western societies might join together to protect shared religious practices, including kosher and halal animal slaughter and circumcision. It's a thought-provoking challenge to those who see only deep divisions between the faiths. (Sept.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The largely untold story of Jewish and Islamic cooperation. Akyol continues to challenge modern, divisive religious views by highlighting what he calls the "Judeo-Islamic tradition." In this work, the author asserts that Jews and Muslims often had a cooperative, even collaborative relationship until the end of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. Emulating the approach of his earlier book,The Islamic Jesus, which described largely ignored ties between Islam and Christianity, Akyol uses the figure of Moses to explore ties between Islam and Judaism. Arabs in cities such as Medina, he states, were open to Islam in part because their Jewish neighbors had introduced them to the concept of monotheism. Beginning during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad, Jews aided and even encouraged the burgeoning Muslim movement. Similarly, as Islam spread, it gave Jews a protected and equal status. As Islam continued to advance westward with the conquest of the Ottoman Empire, Byzantine Jews who had long suffered under the remnants of Roman rule found far more freedom and tolerance under Muslim governance. Some "even saw the advent of Islam as the beginning of a Messianic age." In contrast with Russia and Europe, where Jews lived in separation and fear, Ottoman Jews were protected. In fact, the empire often welcomed persecuted Jews from areas such as Spain. Akyol goes so far as to refer to this relationship as a "Muslim and Jewish symbiosis." However, with the conflicts of the first half of the 20th century and the advent of Zionism, culminating in the state of Israel, this symbiosis rapidly unraveled. Nationalism, rather than purely religious issues, Akyol argues, has been behind the conflicts that ravage Jewish-Muslim relations to this very day. A timely, accessible, and eye-opening new approach to a centuries-old story. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
