Religious Identities in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

Ilkka Lindstedt, Ph.D. (2013), University of Helsinki, is a University Lecturer in Islamic Theology. He has published widely on early Islamic history and classical Arabic literature, including a chapter on the medieval Islamic world in The Cambridge History of Atheism. Nina Nikki, Th.D. (2015), University of Helsinki, is a postdoctoral researcher in Biblical Studies. She is the author of Opponents and Identity in Philippians (Brill, 2019) and co-editor of Magic in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021). Riikka Tuori, Ph.D. (2013), University of Helsinki, is a University Lecturer in Jewish studies. Tuori has published articles on Hebrew literature and Karaite Judaism, including ‘Renewal and tradition in devout Hebrew poetry’ (Zutot, 2019). Contributors are Antti Lampinen, Elina Lapinoja-Pitkänen, Ilkka Lindstedt, Joonas Maristo, Janne Mattila, Nina Nikki, Anna-Liisa Rafael, Antti Vanhoja, Jarkko Vikman, Holger Zellentin.

Notes on Contributors



1 Introduction

 Ilkka Lindstedt, Nina Nikki, and Riikka Tuori



2 A Merchant-Geographer’s Identity? Networks, Knowledge and Religious Affinity in the Expositio Totius Mundi et Gentium

 Antti Lampinen



3 Reconstructing the Identity of the Bacchic Group in Athens: οἱ Ἰόβακχοι and IG II² 1368

 Elina Lapinoja-Pitkänen



4 Signs of Identity in the Quran: Rituals, Practices, and Core Values

 Ilkka Lindstedt



5 Sabians, the School of al-Kindī, and the Brethren of Purity

 Janne Mattila



6 Righteous Sufferer, Scheming Apostate: Traditions of Paul from a Cultural Evolutionary Perspective

 Nina Nikki and Antti Vanhoja



7 Death in the “Contact Zone”: An Analysis of Ibn Ḥanbal’s Hadith about a Hairdresser-Mother and Her Sons (Ḥadīṯ al-Māšiṭa)

 Anna-Liisa Rafael and Joonas Maristo



8 Little Big Gods: Morality of the Supernatural in Lydian and Phrygian Confession Inscriptions

 Jarkko Vikman



9 “One Letter yud Shall not Pass Away from the Law”: Matthew 5:17 to Bavli Shabbat 116a–b

 Holger Zellentin



Index