The Struggle for Jerusalem and the Holy Land Between Judaism and Islam ― A New Inquiry into the Qur?好 and Classic Islamic Sources on the People of Israel, Their Torah, and Their Links to the Holy Land

In recent generations, the Muslim and Arab world has been suffused with publications on the subject of the People of Israel, its Torah, and this people’s affinity to the Land of Israel. Most of these publications are tendentious, written with a hostile attitude toward Jews and Judaism; indeed, some of them are tainted with antisemitism. The Qur’an, the Holy Scripture of the Muslims, also deals with the question of the status of Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel. Many of its exegetes, following in the tracks of Islam’s holy book, have done so as well. Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, these Islamic sources express an approach asserting that this land is promised exclusively to the People of Israel. This book explores these sources and discusses them in light of the recent developments.

Nissim Dana (Ph. D. Dropsie College, Philadelphia) is a chairman of the Multi-Disciplinary Department of Social Sciences and Humanities at Ariel University. He has served for decades as Head of the Department for Religious Minorities in Israel’s Ministry of Religions. Professor Dana taught in Bar-Ilan University (1982-2011) and Haifa University (1996-2002). Among his publications are The Druze, A Religious Community in Transition (Jerusalem-London-Montreal: Turtledove Publishers, 1980), Sefer Ha-Maspik Le’Ovdey Hashem (Kitab Kifayat al-‘Abidin) of Rabbi Abraham ben Moshe ben Maimon (Jerusalem: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1989, in Hebrew), The Druze (Jerusalem: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1998, in Hebrew), and The Druze in the Middle East (Sussex: Sussex Academic Press, 2003).