Islam

From the podcast of the journal Renovatio: Journal of Zaytuna College. Juan Cole’s Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires (2018) retells the history of the prophetic period in seventh-century Arabia through the context of a brutal war between the Iranian Sassanian Empire and the Roman Empire in the Near East. In this […]

Assyrians

When Christians First Met Muslims (Emir-Stein Center Talk)

Emir-Stein Center

Michael Penn | Emir-Stein Center | Video Clip and Transcript | – If history matters, then getting right the history of the first encounters of the world’s two largest religions—Christianity and Islam—really matters. In this fascinating video, Prof. Michael Penn, the Teresa Hihn Moore Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, sheds light on the […]

Islam

Glowing Review of Cole’s “Muhammad: Prophet of Peace” in “American Diplomacy”

Juan Cole

Career foreign service officer, Benjamin Tua, who served in Brazil, Japan and Muslim-majority countries such as Kyrgyzstan, reviews my new book Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires for American Diplomacy. Tua writes, that it “is perfect for the reader who knows little about Mohammad’s life and origins as a member of a […]

Islam

Islam, the Oud and American Jazz Prodigy Ahmed Abdul-Malik

Shalom Goldman

(Informed Comment) – On John Coltrane’s breakthrough album Live at the Village Vanguard album (1961) there were many musical innovations, and the sound of an instrument new to jazz, the oud. The oud, staple of Middle Eastern music – and ancestor of the lute and guitar – was played by Coltrane’s bassist, Ahmed Abdul-Malik. Just […]

Shiites

What is Ashura? How this Shiite Muslim holiday inspires millions

The Conversation

By Noorzehra Zaidi | – Tens of millions of Shiite Muslims from around the world will visit Iraq on Sept. 10 this year to see the shrines of Hussain, grandson of Prophet Mohammed, and his brother Abbas on the day of “Ashura.” Ashura in Syria. Tasnim News Agency, CC BY-SA This annual pilgrimage marks the […]

Featured

The Saudi Axis and Israel’s Drone War on the Shiite Crescent

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the past week, Linah al-Saafin at Al Jazeera English points out, an Israeli drone hit a Hizbullah target in Lebanon, Israeli fighter jets bombed a base in Syria with Iranian personnel, and Israel somehow hit bases of a Shiite militia in Iraq, including one on the Syria-Iraq border, killing […]

Islam

Jazz Great John Coltrane and the Enchantment of Islam

Shalom Goldman

(Informed Comment) – In his childhood and youth in rural North Carolina John Coltrane absorbed the musical traditions of African-American worship. His parents were active in the local African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. John’s paternal grandfather was a minister in that church and John’s mother sang and played piano in the gospel choir. In 1943 […]

Islam

Juan Cole on the Prophet Muhammad in War and Peace (Emir-Stein Center Video)

Juan Cole

Emir-Stein Center | Juan Cole on Muhammad | – Click below to go to YouTube and watch a 7-minute video–with maps, historical graphics and animation– where I summarize my new book, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires: Here’s the link for the video: Emir-Stein Center presents Juan Cole on the Prophet Muhammad […]

Feminism

Cole in Time Magazine for the Fourth of July on Lydia Maria Child and Islam

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Time Magazine does an annual feature on unsung moments in American history for their 4th of July edition. This year they asked me to submit one of the 15 vignettes. Influenced by the work of Jeffrey Einboden on Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), I suggested as my unsung moment the 1855 […]