Gordon (Ari M.), The Sacred Orientation in Late Antiquity and Early Islam: The Qibla as Ritual, Metaphor, and Identity Marker, London, Routledge, (""), 2025, 318 p. ISBN 978-1032135083
Author
Ari Gordon is Director, U.S. Muslim-Jewish Relations, American Jewish Committee (AJC)
Presentation
This book examines the discursive and ritual processes through which qibla-rhetoric and qibla-practice fostered a sense of group belonging and marked boundaries between Islam and other religious communities (mainly Christians and Jews). Through four interlocking projects―spanning Islam’s emergence in Late Antiquity through the Early Middle Ages―this study explicates the subtle ways in which the qibla served as a potent and durable symbol in the construction of Islamic collective identity.