In my book Freedom and Orthodoxy I make it clear that the classical world order was radically altered by Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the continent that would later bear the…
Editorials
Jesus Was Not Christian
Not long after I reviewed Reza Aslan’s work on Jesus, I came across Geza Vermes’s excellent study, Christian Beginnings: From Nazareth to Nicaea (2013), that shows how Jesus’ iconoclastic but…
Post-Hassanian Morocco
I remember, vividly, how unsettled I was when I learned of the sudden death of Morocco’s King Hassan II on a hot July day in 1999. Like many people around…
Sultanic Democracy
The 4th of July is the only holiday that means something to me, not only because I am an American citizen, but also because I live in the modern world,…
Islam and the Enlightenment
As Iraq, Syria and other parts of the Arab and Muslim world are engulfed in flames, sectarian strife, social turmoil, and just plain misery, I keep wondering if these warring…
The Impossible Dreams of a Moroccan Prince
A few years ago, I wrote a review/commentary on The Road from Morocco, a thrilling account by Wafa Faith Hallam, a young, modern Moroccan woman who leads a truly quixotic…
The New Fitna
According to official Muslim history, when the Prophet Mohammed died in 632, his followers quickly split into two main camps—those who wanted Ali, the Prophet’s cousin, the first boy to…
The Past and Future of Israel
The moment I heard about Ari Shavit’s book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, I hastened to get a copy, then another one when I joyfully shared…
Whence the Koran?
Much of what Muslims believe is unique to the faith—such as Mohammed being the seal of prophets or besieged believers falling asleep for centuries in a cave—are ideas taken from…
Koran Redux (2)
In “Koran Redux (1),” I noted how the work of John Wansborough made it clear that the Koran doesn’t make sense without the exegetical literature (Tafsir and Hadith) that developed…