Daniel and Islam by Ida Glaser

Daniel and Islam by Ida Glaser

Daniel and Islam: Muslim Traditions, Christian Readings and Apocalyptic Speculation examines the place of the Book of Daniel in Muslim and Christian traditions, exploring its significance for apocalyptic thought, interreligious relations, and contemporary interpretations of conflict in the Middle East.

The first of two volumes, this book establishes the historical and contextual foundations for a subsequent chapter-by-chapter reading of Daniel in an Islamic context. Bringing together Islamic and Christian perspectives, it explores traditions concerning the prophet Daniel in Sunni and Shiʿite Hadith, as well as the oral histories and devotional practices associated with Daniel shrines in Susa, Iran, and Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It then examines historical Christian interpretations of Daniel in relation to Islam and analyses contemporary Christian and Muslim apocalyptic discourse through case studies of American dispensationalist YouTube content, the New Apostolic Reformation movement, and official speeches from Hamas’s military branch. The final section considers how the Book of Daniel might contribute to Christian-Muslim relations through two contrasting Christian perspectives, including experiences of teaching Daniel to Arabic-speaking students across the Middle East and North Africa.

This book will appeal to students and scholars of Islamic studies, Christian-Muslim relations, biblical studies, religious studies, and Middle Eastern studies, as well as readers interested in apocalypticism, eschatology, and contemporary interreligious dialogue.

Azadeh Rezaie (Ph.D., Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran) is a visiting scholar at the School of Religious Studies, McGill University, Canada. She has taught courses on comparative religions and mysticism at several Iranian universities, including Alzahra University in Tehran. A scholar trained in the academic study of religion; she writes from within an Iranian cultural and intellectual context shaped by the lived intersection of Islamic tradition and modern scholarship. Her work focuses on apocalypticism, Shī‘ite Ḥadīth literature, and Sufism. Her recent publications include “The Biography of Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Nuʿmānī” in the Journal of Intellectual History of the Islamicate World, as well as a Persian translation of The Old Testament: A Very Short Introduction.

Ida Glaser (Ph.D., University of Durham, UK) is the founder and Director of the Center for Muslim and Christian Studies Houston, USA as well as Director Emeritus of the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies Oxford, UK, whence she continues to direct the 'Reading the Bible in the context of Islam'. She is series editor of ‘Routledge Reading the Bible in Islamic Context’ and of Langham ‘Windows on the Text: Bible Commentaries from Muslim Contexts’. Her publications include The Bible and Other Faiths: What does the Lord require of us? (2005), Thinking Biblically about Islam: Genesis, Transfiguration, Transformation (2016) and Genesis 1-11: Bud of Theology, Grandmother of the Sciences, Seedbed of the Holy Books (2022).