Acknowledgements
Over the years, I have written various articles on early Islamic identity, as well as pre-Islamic Arabia; this book brings together the different strands of research I have been pursuing. However, writing this book ten or twenty years ago would not have been possible. Much of the (in particular epigraphic) evidence that I rely on has been published in the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. I have had the privilege and pleasure of learning from and socializing with the great Arabian epigraphists, linguists, and historians Ahmad Al-Jallad, Iwona Gajda, Michael Macdonald, Laïla Nehmé, and Christian Robin. I am truly grateful for their collegiality throughout the years and for the painstaking scholarly work that they have done to revolutionize the field. It is a real pity that their work is still not always acknowledged by Arabists and Islamicists.
I am grateful for receiving funding from various outlets. I was working with a research grant from the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation in 2015â2016. During 2016â2019, when the bulk of the research that has resulted in this book was carried out, I was a Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. I have the fondest of memories of the time spent there. My fellowship period allowed for an immersion into the world of Arabic (and more generally Arabian) epigraphy.
In 2019, I joined the Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki. It is here that I have found my intellectual home and received the warmest of welcomes. This book has been written in the framework of the Finnish Cultural Foundation-funded project âThe mediation of identity in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,â led by Jutta Jokiranta. I am extremely grateful to Jutta and the other scholars in the project for valuable feedback that they have given on the manuscript of this book. Extra special thanks to Nina Nikki, who got me interested in the social identity theory in the first place. During the writing of this book, Nina, Riikka Tuori, and I also edited a volume with the title Religious Identities in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Walking Together & Parting Ways (Leiden 2021), which was, in turn, based on a symposium we organized (with Maijastina Kahlos) at and with the kind financial help of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, âIdeas and Identities in Late Antiquity: Jews, Christians, and Muslims,â March 12â13, 2018. The symposium and the volume explored many of the same themes that this book discusses.
My Doktorväter Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila and Kaj Ãhrnberg read the whole manuscript of this book and proffered numerous invaluable comments and suggestions. Without them, I would never have become interested in early Islam; and without their help on the manuscript, this book would have been much less detailed. Jaakko pushed me to engage with Arabic poetry, which I was at first hesitant to do but which, I now think, became significant for my arguments. Throughout the years, Kaj has had the patience to read and comment on my studies. What is more, without his tips, I would have missed many valuable pieces of secondary literature.
I also thank Riikka Tuori, whose brain I picked more than once on Judaism in late antiquity and the medieval era. Anna-Liisa Rafael, always providing an insightful discussion on all things late antique, helped me with, in particular, Syriac texts and expressions, for which I am grateful.
There are many important colleagues at the Faculty of Theology and Faculty of Arts in Helsinki to be mentioned, but I should in particular single out Mulki Al-Sharmani and Teemu Pauha. Mulki has been an extremely important friend and colleague to me. Collaborating and teaching with her has been an absolute joy. Moreover, without her, I would never have gotten interested in modern QurʾÄnic exegesis. Teemu, too, has been such a significant friend and colleague. He has taught me a myriad of things concerning the social identity theory and social psychology more generallyâand I will never forget the hiking and camping trips we have done together, often during the coldest time of the year.
Mikko Autere, Janne Mattila, and Inka Nokso-Koivisto have been significant colleagues and friends for many years. I have discussed with them many facets of Islamic history, including the themes of this book.
I want to thank the wonderful PhD students that I have been supervising. I will especially mention Amira Abou-Taleb and Katja von Schöneman, who both work on the QurʾÄn and its classical exegesis. Working with them has significantly increased my knowledge.
Of particular importance are numerous colleagues outside of Finland whom I have met at conferences or other places and continued to be in contact with via email, Facebook, or other means. I am extremely grateful to, in particular, Sean Anthony, Mohsen Goudarzi, Hagit Nol, Mehdy Shaddel, Tommaso Tesei, Peter Webb, and Marijn van Putten for important discussions concerning the topic of this book (and other matters).
In spring 2021, I taught a course titled âThe biographies of Muḥammad and social memory.â Throughout the course, we discussed how the biographical literature constructs a portrait, or rather many different portraits, of the prophet Muḥammad, and how those depictions aligned, or not, with what scholars have recovered of pre- and early Islamic Arabia. Thanks to the students, it was an extremely rich course. The students put forward ingenious and creative readings of the biographical texts that we went through. Quite a few of the insights presented in this book are due to these inspiring classes.
This book reproduces some passages from my published articles. I am very grateful to the publishers for permission to do this. These articles are: ââ¯âOne Community to the Exclusion of Other PeopleââA Superordinate Identity in the Medinan Community,â published in a book by de Gruyter; and âReligious Warfare and Martyrdom in Arabic Graffiti (70sâ110s AH/690sâ730s CE),â published in a book by the Oriental Institute, Chicago (for exact references, please refer to the bibliography of this book).
I also want to warmly thank Heli Alamaunu and Petteri Koskikallio for their invaluable assistance with the formatting of the book. Without their help, this book would probably have not seen the light of day.
The most influential person with regard to this book is yet to be named: Professor Fred Donner. I spent the year 2014 as a visiting postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago with a grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The importance of Fredâs studies to me is probably visible to every reader of this book, on every page of it: in a way, this book is simply an extended footnote to his research. It took me a long time to start to understand and appreciate the importance of Fredâs studies: when I read his books and articles as a student, in the 2000s, the ideas struck me as rather outlandish. I was so hardwired to read the QurʾÄn as a text that must talk about âMuslimsâ and âIslamâ and cannot say anything good about Jews and Christians. It took me quite some time to see the QurʾÄn, and early Islamic history more generally, with a new set of goggles. However, over the years, Fredâs influence got me thinking of, in particular, social categorizations and their development in early Islamic times.
My stay in Chicago in 2014 had very much importance for my scholarly outlook and thinking. The PhD students that Fred advised comprised the brightest young minds in the study of early Islam. I should mention in particular Suleyman Dost, Richard Heffron, Nathaniel Miller, Jessica Mutter, and Jeremy Vecchi for friendship, discussions, and good times during my sojourn in Chicago.
Fredâs scholarship, learning, hospitality, and kindness characterized my year 2014, forming memories that I often go back to. It is to Fred Donner that I humbly dedicate this book.