Interviewing Religion — Books and Resources

Thanks for your interest in my project Interviewing Religion, where I speak with scholars of Middle Eastern religions about their research, discuss how their work connects to broader public issues, and ask for suggestions for further reading. Each interview includes a wealth of recommendations for books, articles, websites, and more. So much good material.

I’ve compiled these resources below for easy reference, grouped chronologically by interview. Browse through their recommendations and resources, or click on a scholar’s picture to go back to their full interview. And if you want to buy books from our featured scholars, please shop at the links below, knowing that your purchases will support their work and that of this blog. Thank you!

Note: This page contains affiliate links. When you click through and make a qualifying purchase, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Please check out my privacy policy and disclosure page for more information.

Interview#1: Deanna Ferree Womack

• Protestants, Gender and the Arab Renaissance in Ottoman Syria, a book by Deanna Ferree Womack
• Neighbors: Christians and Muslims Building Community, a book by Deanna Ferree Womack
• Middle Eastern and European Christianity, 16th-20th Century: Connected Histories, a collection of essays by Bernard Heyberger
• Alterity and the Evasion of Justice: Explorations of the “Other” in World Christianity, edited by Deanna Ferree Womack and Raimundo Barreto
• A 2021 interview in Christianity Today with the leader of the Middle Eastern Council of Churches
• The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire, a book by Mitri Raheb
• Surviving Jewel: The Enduring Story of Christianity in the Middle East, edited by Mitri Raheb and Mark A. Lamport

• “Christian Communities in the Contemporary Middle East: An Introduction,” an article by Deanna Ferree Womack
• The KalimahPress Blog
• The Ottoman History Podcast
• A History of Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Middle East, a book by Heather Sharkey
• Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World, a book by Ussama Makdisi
• Embracing the Divine: Passion and Politics in the Christian Middle East, a book by Akram Khater
• The Political Lives of Saints: Christian-Muslim Mediation in Egypt, a book by Angie Heo

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Interview #2: Seema Golestaneh

• Unknowing and the Everyday: Sufism and Knowledge in Iran, a book by Seema Golestaneh
• “‘To be Transformed into Thought Itself’: Mystical and Political Becomings within Ali Shariati,” an article by Seema Golestaneh
• MERIP, the Middle East Research and Information Project
• The website Jadaliyya
• Al-Jazeera English
• The Ajam Media Collective website
• The Ottoman History Podcast
• The On Being Project
• The journal Sapiens 
• Sufism: An Introduction to the Mystical Tradition of Islam, a book by Carl W. Ernst

• Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition, translated and edited by Omid Safi
• Knot of the Soul: Madness, Psychoanalysis, Islam, a book by Stefania Pandolfo
• Dreams that Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination, a book by Amira Mittermaier
• Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment, a book by Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
• The Political Lives of Saints: Christian-Muslim Mediation in Egypt, a book by Angie Heo
• Forgiveness Work: Mercy, Law, and Victims’ Rights in Iran, a book by Arzoo Osanloo
• Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity, a book by Daniel Boyarin
• Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks — and What It Can Teach Us, a book by Kim Haines-Eitzen 
• Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings, and Priests: The Culture of the Talmud in Ancient Iran, a book by Jason Mokhtarian 
• The works of Zainab Bahrani

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Interview #3: Scott Lucas

• Scott Lucas’ translation of thirty passages from al-Tabari’s Qur’an commentary, titled Selections from the Comprehensive Exposition of the Interpretation of the Verses of the Qur’an
• “Teaching Islam in Yemen: Insights from Two Forty Hadith Collections,” a book chapter by Scott Lucas
• Beyond Authenticity, Alternative Approaches to Hadith Narrations and Collections, edited by Mohammad Gharaibeh
• “Islamic Theology in Thirty Topics: a Yemeni Zaydī Tradition Preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana,” an article by Scott Lucas
• Handbook of Qurʾānic Hermeneutics (Vol. 4: Qur’ānic Hermeneutics in the 19th and 20th Century), edited by George Tamer, forthcoming in 2024
• “A Zaydī Qur’an Commentary from Yemen: An Introduction to Tajrīd al-Kashshāf maʿa ziyādat nukat liṭāf,” an article by Scott Lucas 
• Islamic Thought: An Introduction, a book by Abdullah Saeed. 
• Islam: A Short Guide to the Faith, edited by Roger Allen and Shawkat Toorawa. 

• The documentary Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think
• Scott Lucas’ non-credit class “Great Thinkers of the Muslim World: 600-1300”
• “Islamic Theology in Thirty Topics: A Course on Al-Shaykh al-Rassas’ Misbah Al-‘Ulum,” Scott Lucas’ ten-part lecture series on YouTube
• The Zaydi Manuscript Tradition project
• The Islamic Secular, a book by Sherman Jackson
• Slavery and Islam, a book by Jonathan A.C. Brown
• Islam and Blackness, a book by Jonathan A.C. Brown 
• The works of Sajjad Rizvi at the University of Exeter 
• The works of Walid Saleh at the University of Toronto

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Interview #4: Younus Y. Mirza

• “What’s in a Name?”, a blog post by Younus Y. Mirza
• “The Islamic Mary: Between Prophecy and Orthodoxy,” an article by Younus Y. Mirza
• The Bible and the Qur’an: Biblical Figures in the Islamic Tradition, a book by John Kaltner and Younus Y. Mirza
• “Is Mary the New Common Link Between Christians and Muslims?”, a blog post by Younus Y. Mirza
• “The Islamic Mary as a Protagonist and Qur’anic Daughter,” an article by Younus Y. Mirza
• How The Qur’an Interprets the Bible: Comparing Islamic, Jewish, and Christian Scriptures, a book by John Kaltner and Christopher Frechette
• What Do Our Neighbors Believe? Second Edition: Questions and Answers on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, a book by Micah Greenstein, Kendra G. Hotz, and John Kaltner
• Neighbors: Christians and Muslims Building Community, a book by Deanna Ferree Womack

• Qur’ānic Stories: God, Revelation and the Audience, a book by Leyla Ozgur Alhassen
• How the Qur’an Works: Reading Sacred Narrative, a book by Leyla Ozgur Alhassen
• Women and Gender in the Qur’an, a book by Celene Ibrahim
• Women and Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam, a book by Asma Sayeed
• “ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān and the Diffusion of a New Methodology: A Rare Female Contribution to Qur’anic Sciences,” an article by Asma Sayeed
• The Qur’an: A New Translation by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem
• “Sūrat Maryam (Q. 19): Comforting Muḥammad,” an article by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem

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Interview #5: Adam Gaiser

• Muslims, Scholars, Soldiers: The Origin and Elaboration of the Ibadi Imamate Traditions, a book by Adam Gaiser
• Sectarianism in Islam: The Umma Divided, a book by Adam Gaiser
• An Introduction to Ibadism, a book by Adam Gaiser, forthcoming with Cambridge University Press
• The Kharijites in Early Islamic Historical Tradition: Heroes and Villains, a book by Hannah-Lena Hagemann
• The blog Ibadi Studies by Paul Love Jr.
• The French-language website Ibadica

• Ibadi Muslims of North Africa: Manuscripts, Mobilization, and the Making of a Written Tradition, a book by Paul Love Jr.
• The Ottoman Ibadis of Cairo: A History, a book by Paul Love Jr.
• L’archipel ibadite: Une histoire des marges du Maghreb médiéval, a book by Cyrille Aillet
• The Rebel and the Imam in Early Islam: Explorations in Muslim Historiography, a book by Najam Haider

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Note: This page contains affiliate links. When you click through and make a qualifying purchase, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Please check out my privacy policy and disclosure page for more information.

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Interview #6: Sarit Kattan Gribetz

• Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism, a book by Sarit Kattan Gribetz
• “Women as Readers of the Nag Hammadi Codices”, an article by Sarit Kattan Gribetz
• “Discovering Korea Through the Talmud”, an article by Tom Stoelker
• “The Talmud in Korea: A Study in the Reception of Rabbinic Literature”, an article by Sarit Kattan Gribetz and Claire Kim  
• The digital forum “Ancient Jew Review” (AJR)
• Essays by Sarit Kattan Gribetz from AJR’s Pedagogy column
• The website Sefaria.org
• The website TheTorah.com 
• The Podcast of Jewish Ideas
• The podcast Women Who Went Before

• Lectures and panels from Fordham’s Center for Jewish Studies’ YouTube Channel
• Events and lectures from the Katz Center at the University of Pennsylvania (videos are all in English) 
• Lectures and videos from the National Library of Israel (some in English and some in Hebrew)
• The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature, edited by Charlotte Fonrobert and Martin Jaffee
• The Oxford Annotated Mishnah, edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen and Hayim Lapin
• What is the Mishnah? The State of the Question, edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen
• Time: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, edited by Sarit Kattan Gribetz and Lynn Kaye
• Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity, a book by Karen Stern
• Mosaics of Faith: Floors of Pagans, Jews, Samaritans, Christians, and Muslims of the Holy Land, a book by Rina Talgam
• Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae (Vol. 1)

• A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity, a book by A.J. Berkowitz
• Ancient Jewish Magic: A History, a book by Gideon Bohak
• “A Jewish Aramaic Circus Curse Tablet from Antioch”, an article by Margaretha Folmer and Rivka Elitzur-Leiman
• “Who Were the Jewish ‘Magicians’ behind the Aramaic Incantation Bowls?”, an article by Avigail Manekin-Bamberger
• On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture, a book by Mika Ahuvia
• Trans Talmud: Androgynes and Eunuchs in Rabbinic Literature, a book by Max K. Strassfeld
• When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species, a book by Rafael Rachel Neis
• Fractured Tablets: Forgetfulness and Fallibility in Late Ancient Rabbinic Culture, a book by Mira Balgerg
• The Closed Book: How the Rabbis Taught the Jews (Not) to Read the Bible, a book by Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg
• Three Powers in Heaven: The Emergence of Theology and the Parting of the Ways, a book by Emanuel Fiano
• The Secret of Time: Reconfiguring Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a book by Arjen Bakker

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Interview #7: Gary Beckman

• The Secret of the Hittites, a book by C.W. Ceram
• The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin edition), an edition by N.K. Sandars
• The Hittite Gilgamesh, an edition by Gary Beckman
• The babilili-Ritual from Hattusa (CTH 718), an edition by Gary Beckman
• The Kingdom of the Hittites, a book by Trevor Bryce
• Life and Society in the Hittite World, a book by Trevor Bryce

• Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise History of the Hittites, a book by Trevor Bryce
• The Hittites: A Civilization That Changed the World, a film directed by Tolga Örnek and narrated by Jeremy Irons (DVD also available on Amazon)
• Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire, a book by Eckart Frahm
• Religion and Ideology in Assyria, a book by Beate Pongratz-Leisten
• The website The Corpus of Hittite Festivals, run by the Universities of Mainz and Würzburg

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Interview #8: Christopher Silver

• Recording History: Jews, Muslims, and Music Across Twentieth-Century North Africa, a book by Christopher Silver
• The website Gharamophone.com
• “Radio Tunis’s The Hebrew Hour (1939-56): A Microhistory,” an article by Christopher Silver
• The music of Salim Halali (ex: these videos on YouTube)
• The documentary El Gusto, by Safinez Bousbia (watch the trailer)

• The film Que Dieu te protège, by Cléo Cohen (watch the trailer)
• Mediterraneans, a book by Julia Clancy-Smith
• Ordinary Egyptians: Creating the Modern Nation through Popular Culture, a book by Ziad Fahmy
• Street Sounds: Listening to Everyday Life in Modern Egypt, a book by Ziad Fahmy
• The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, a book by Jonathan Sterne
• MP3: The Meaning of a Format, a book by Jonathan Sterne

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Interview #9: Roshan Iqbal

• Marital and Sexual Ethics in Islamic Law: Rethinking Temporary Marriage, a book by Roshan Iqbal
• Neighbors: Christians and Muslims Building Community, a book by Deanna Ferree Womack
• The podcast Maydan: History Speaks (start with this episode: “Qur’an/Gender/Feminism”)
• Edward Said on Orientalism, a documentary directed by Sut Jhally
• The Life of the Prophet Muhammad, a BBC mini-series hosted by Rageh Omaar
• “The Silent Theology of Islamic Art,” a lecture by Oludamini Ogunnaike

• Paradise Found, a documentary hosted by Waldemar Januszczak
• Children of Heaven, the 1997 film directed by Majid Majidi
• The Color of Paradise, the 1999 film directed by Majid Majidi
• Baran, the 2001 film, also directed by Majid Majidi
• Women and Gender in the Qur’an, a book by Celene Ibrahim

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Interview #10: Jocelyn Hendrickson

• Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa, a book by Jocelyn Hendrickson
• Al-Mughtaribūn: American Law and the Transformation of Muslim Life in the United States, a book by Kathleen M. Moore
• Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas, edited by Muhammad Khalid Masud, Brinkley Messick, and David Powers
• “Fatwās on Jihād from Premodern Morocco: Introduction and Critical Edition of an Excerpt from al-Zayyātī’s Selected Jewels,” an article by Jocelyn Hendrickson
• “Prohibiting the Pilgrimage: Politics and Fiction in Mālikī Fatwās,” an article by Jocelyn Hendrickson
• Keeping It 101: A Killjoy’s Introduction to Religion, a podcast by Megan Goodwin & Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst
• The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, a book by Maria Rosa Menocal
• Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, edited by Olivia Remie Constable
• Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta, a film directed by Bruce Neibaur
• Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism, a book by Vincent J. Cornell

• The Islamic Law Blog, run by the Program in Islamic Law at the Harvard Law School
• The Islamic Studies podcast channel, run by the New Books Network
• Islamicate Book Reviews, a YouTube channel hosted by Usaama al-Azami and Omar Anchassi
• Stories between Christianity and Islam: Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and Beyond, a book by Reyhan Durmaz
• Beyond Orientalism: Ahmad ibn Qasim al-Hajari between Europe and North Africa, a book by Oumelbanine Nina Zhiri
• On Earth or in Poems: The Many Lives of al-Andalus, a book by Eric Calderwood
• The Wolf King: Ibn Mardanish and the Construction of Power in al-Andalus, a book by Abigail Krasner Balbale
• Revealed Sciences: The Natural Sciences in Islam in Seventeenth-Century Morocco, a book by Justin K. Stearns
• The ShariaSource website, run by the Program in Islamic Law at the Harvard Law School

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Thanks for visiting the reference page for the series Interviewing Religion. As I interview more scholars, I’ll update this page, adding their recommendations and references to this list. I encourage you to use these fantastic resources. And if you do buy books through the links above, know that you’re supporting the great work of these scholars and other academics, while also helping this blog. I appreciate your support!