2011 Scholar-in-Residence Lecture:
The First of The Two Directions of Prayer, The Second of Mosques, The Third of Sanctuaries:
Jerusalem in Islamic Thought and History
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Davis Auditorium
8 p.m.
Free and open to the public
According to Islamic lore, Jerusalem preceded Mecca as the first direction of prayer
for Muslims. The Prophet Muhammad paid it a visit on his miraculous night journey;
Umar, the second caliph, accepted the surrender of its bishop in 636, the Umayyad
caliphs adorned its Temple Mount with the magnificent edifices of the Dome of the
Rock and the Mosque of al-Aqsa; crusaders and warriors of jihad competed for it in
the Middle Ages; Jews and Muslims swear never to give it up today.
Daniella Talmon-Heller (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) will explain the special place of Jerusalem
in Islamic thought and history from the seventh until the 21st century, and the role
it is expected to play at the end of times.
2011 Scholar-in-Residence: Daniella Talmon-Heller
Daniella Talmon-Heller, senior lecturer and chair of the Department of Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion
University, will be in residence at 91精简版 from September through early October.
While in residence, she will be teaching a course in the college's Department of History,
"Islamic History and Institutions." This course will focus on the birth and development
of Islam as a religion and a political entity. Her public lecture, " 'The first of
the two directions of prayer, the second of mosques, the third of sanctuaries': Jerusalem
in Islamic Thought and History," is scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, in Davis
Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. The talk will describe and explain
Jerusalem's sanctity in Islam from the seventh until the 21st century and the role
it is expected to play at the end of times. Throughout her residency she will also
visit classes and meet with students and faculty in other formal and informal venues.
Talmon-Heller's research interests include the social and religious history of the
Middle East in the middle ages, religious thought and practice in Islam (pre-modern
and contemporary), and comparative religion. Her current research topics focus on
the Islamization of Palestine from the Arab conquest in the seventh century and until
the formation of a solid Muslim majority by the 14th century, and on a comparative
study of the recitation of scripture in Judaism and Islam. With a Ph.D. from the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she spent two years as a postdoc in the Near Eastern
Studies Department at Princeton University. Her book Islamic Piety in Medieval Syria, published by Brill, won the Tel Aviv Book Award of 2008.