Jewish-Christianity and the Origins of Islam: Papers Presented at the Colloquium Held in Washington DC, October 29-31, 2015 (8th Asmea Conference)

Among all the different theories that currently explore the religious milieu of Late Antiquity to elucidate the origins of the Islamic religion, there are a large group of scholars that come away from the Qur'an with the impression that Jewish-Christianity must have played a role in its formation, reviving the question of a potential link between Early Islam and the beliefs and practices of those followers of Jesus that maintained or adopted certain Jewish beliefs and practices, either Jews that believed in the messianism and/or the prophecy of Jesus (groups whose existence and nature is still a matter of debate). Many of Qur'an scholars argue against the Jewish-Christian thesis with strong arguments or simply ignore it. In any case, the question is still subject of passionate debate among specialists. This volume collects the papers of a two-day colloquium held in Washington DC in October 2015 about this question and highlights the vitality of this field of studies. The contributions included here cover a broad range of topics, and they offer new ideas, interpretations and understandings of the question.