Religion in the Middle East: Three Religions in Concord and Conflict

by A.J. Arberry (Editor)

It is generally accepted that the Middle East witnessed the ancient rise of monotheism and its dissemination. The three faiths predominantly concerned - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - have retained their separateness and have been in different degrees torn asunder by schisms; but less well known has been the degree of co-operation between the three faiths and their multifarious sects, throughout history. First published in 1969, Religion in the Middle East aims to give a factual account of these three religions and their sects, in concord and conflict, from an historical perspective. The focus was on the significance of Islam, considered to be the dominant religion of the Middle East since the seventh century. Experts from many parts of the world contributed individual chapters, and the whole work was co-ordinated by a team of leading scholars, making it an erudite study that will be of interest to anyone interested in the historical impact of Islam in the Middle East.

1360 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 1969

About the author

Arthur John Arberry (Portsmouth, May 12, 1905 – Cambridge, October 2, 1969) FBA was a respected British orientalist. A prolific scholar of Arabic, Persian, and Islamic studies, he was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. His translation of the Qur'an into English, The Koran Interpreted, is one of the most prominent written by a non-Muslim scholar, and widely respected amongst academics.

Formerly Head of the Department of Classics at Cairo University in Egypt, Arberry returned home to become the Assistant Librarian at the Library of the India Office. During the war he was a Postal Censor in Liverpool[citation needed] and was then seconded to the Ministry of Information, London which was housed in the newly constructed Senate House of the University of London. Arberry was appointed to the Chair of Persian at the School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS, University of London 1944–47. He subsequently became the Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, his alma mater, from 1947 until his death in 1969. He is buried in Ascension Parish, Cambridge, together with his (by provenance Romanian) wife Sarina Simons/Arberry (1900-1973) whom he had first met in Cairo and then married at Cambridge in 1932.

Arberry is also notable for introducing Rumi's works to the west through his selective translations and for translating the important anthology of medieval Andalucian Arabic poetry The Pennants of the Champions and the Standards of the Distinguished. His interpretation of Muhammad Iqbal's writings, edited by Badiozzaman Forouzanfar, is similarly distinguished.