This book offers a new approach to the vexing question of how to write the early history of Islam. The first part discusses the nature of the Muslim and non-Muslim source material for the seventh- and eighth-century Middle East and argues that by lessening the divide between these two traditions, which has largely been erected by modern scholarship, we can come to a better appreciation of this crucial period. The second part gives a detailed survey...

Despite its reputation for religious intolerance, the Middle East has long sheltered many distinctive and strange faiths: one regards the Greek prophets as incarnations of God, another reveres Lucifer in the form of a peacock, and yet another believes that their followers are reincarnated beings who have existed in various forms for thousands of years. These religions represent the last vestiges of the magnificent civilizations in ancient history:...

Featuring a unique, consistent, and modular chapter structure --"Teachings," "History," and "Way of Life" -- and numerous pedagogical features, "Invitation to World Religions", Third Edition, invites students to explore the world's great religions with respect and a sense of wonder. This chapter structure enables students to navigate each religion in a consistent and systematic way and to make comparisons between religions. The book describes the...

2500 years ago Zoroastrianism was the world's most powerful religion and a major influence on the development of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Today it is one of the smallest, practiced in only a few tiny pockets around the planet. Host Tevya attends a sacrosanct New Year's party and partakes in the sacred coming of age ceremony, Navjote, in the presence of the Zoroastrian's most revered symbol - a fire that has been burning for 3,500 years.

The Silk Road is as iconic in world history as the Colossus of Rhodes or the Suez Canal. But what was it, exactly? It conjures up a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different-and far more interesting-as revealed in this new history. In The Silk Road, Valerie Hansen describes the remarkable archeological finds that revolutionize our understanding of these trade routes....

Amish, Buddhists, Christians, Deists, Episcopalians, Free Masons, Gnoses, Hindus, Islamics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Kimbanguists, Lutherans, Mormons, Neo-Pagans, Occultists, Pagans, Quadri, Rastafarians, Satanists, Taoists, Unitarian Universalists, Vaishnavites, Wiccans, Xintiandi, Yezidis, Zoroastrians, and all that was not mentioned with or without a category-welcome to my story, soon to be yours.

In the mid-3rd century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria, which resulted in the creation of the Septuagint. It is generally accepted that there were several versions of the ancient Hebrew and Samaritan scriptures before the translation of the Septuagint. The two books of Ezra were translated into Greek and added to the Septuagint before 200 BC when a large...

In the aftermath of the seventh-century Islamic conquest of Iran, Zoroastrians departed for India. Known as the Parsis, they slowly lost contact with their ancestral land until the nineteenth century, when steam-powered sea travel, the increased circulation of Zoroastrian-themed books, and the philanthropic efforts of Parsi benefactors sparked a new era of interaction between the two groups. Tracing the cultural and intellectual exchange between Iranian...

Continue exploring the importance of the Silk Road, but progress to a discussion of religions spread and practiced along the route. Learn why Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and above all, Buddhism, were appealing to nomadic populations, and the impact these faiths had on these people and their caravan cities.