Traces of the Prophets

Adam Bursi is an editorial assistant at Fortress Press. He received his PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Cornell University, and has held research and teaching positions at the University of Tennessee, the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, and Utrecht University. He coedited the collection ‘His Pen and Ink Are a Powerful Mirror’: Andalusi, Judaeo-Arabic, and Other Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Ross Brann (Brill, 2020), and his articles have appeared in the journals Medieval Encounters, Arabica, Studies in Late Antiquity, and elsewhere.

• List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Grave Markers: Rhetoric and Materiality of Relic and Tomb Veneration in Early Islam 2 A Clear Sign: The Maqām Ibrāhīm and Early Islamic Continuity and Difference3 Inverted Inventions: Finding and Hiding Holy Bodies in the First Islamic Century 4 Paradoxes and Problems of the Prophetic Body: Muḥammad’s Corpse and Tomb 5 Places Where the Prophet Prayed: Ritualising the Prophet’s Traces Epilogue Bibliography Index

This engagingly written study replaces stereotypes about Muslim iconoclasm and Christian saint-worship with an absorbing account of late antique debates over the significance of holy remains and the parameters of ritual engagement with them — debates that crossed boundaries between elites and commoners, Sunnis and Shi’ites, and Muslims and non-Muslims.