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With the expansion of Muslim territory in the ninth century, non-Muslim communities' reactions to the denials of the prophethood of Muhammad created an impact on the development of Islamic prophetology. Vigorous refutations from non-Muslim community, specifically the Jews, Christians and Brahmins urged Muslims to develop a solid mechanism in defence of the status of their beloved Prophet. One of the works that has been recognized as an apparatus to defend the Prophet Muhammad veracity is al-Din wa al-Dawla composed by Ibn Rabban, a physician of the Caliph's court. This study analyses the novelty of his approaches in exploring Sira Nabawiyya and defending the prophethood of Muhammad. The study employed a descriptive, comparative and critical approach where it analyses and extracts the author original approach in explaining the legitimacy of Muhammad's prophethood and enlightening the Prophet's biography. The study argues that most of Ibn Rabban arguments in this work are actually developed from the foundations of Biblical scripture. His style of interpreting Biblical passages indicates a possible dependence on Ibn al-Layth's letter. However, the way in which he presents Quranic references seems not to be in accordance with Ibn al-Layth's perspective. This is where the novelty of his approach is distinguished. As a result, the study also affirms that Ibn Rabban imposes his own standards of selection and interpretation of Quranic verses when he applies it as reference to the Prophet's life.

This article compares three literary-historical texts—two from the Jewish world and one from Mongolia—that record prophecies given to military commanders asserting that they will become the rulers of great empires and civilizations. In his The Jewish War, Josephus tells us that he prophesied that Vespasian would become emperor, an act that appears to have saved his life. A rabbinic tradition, related in several versions, similarly recounts that R. Johanan b. Zakkai prophesied that Vespasian would rise to power—he, too, thus being granted his freedom and the opportunity to rebuild his life and community in Yavneh. I compare Josephus and R. Johanan’s prophecies in the light of The Secret History of the Mongols. A chronicle describing the life of Temüjin, the founder of the Mongol Empire who gained fame as Genghis Khan (1162–1227), this tells how Temüjin, the young commander, was predicted to unite all the Mongol tribes and rule over a vast empire. The article analyzes the three prophecies, which occur in diverse genres, in the light of their historical background, hereby demonstrating the way in which written sources can serve anthropological phenomenological research and shed new light on ancient Jewish texts.

At a moment when U.S. labor seems its most weak and vulnerable, a wave of teacher strikes and demonstrations led and carried out primarily by women shows promise of revitalizing the movement. Critics allege the strikes and demonstrations are “unseemly,” but popular support for them appears to be growing. Historically, militant strikes and demonstrations have met with significant and sometimes violent resistance from corporate and political entities hostile to labor, and contemporary women in the movement should prepare for pushback. In the past, anti-labor forces have used the law and physical aggression to squeeze labor activists out of public space. Labor has a history of fighting back, beginning with the free speech fights of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in the early twentieth century. These campaigns were the first in U.S. history to claim a First Amendment right to use public space. IWW organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn led several of these free speech fights. She and other women free speech fighters played an essential if often overlooked role in popularizing the idea that ordinary people have right to public space. Their tactics and experiences can inform and inspire women at the forefront of a contemporary labor militancy.

ʿAlī ibn Sahl Rabban aṭ-Ṭabarī's health manual, which is edited and translated here, was written in the middle of the 9th century CE for a lay audience and represents the earliest extant Arabic text of its kind.

Abstract Biblical predictions of the advent of the Prophet Muĥammad are rarely adduced in the theological writings of Muʿtazilite authors and those who referred to them clearly considered this to be a secondary strategy at best. Zaydī Muʿtazilites were less hesitant than their Sunnī counterparts to employ scriptural materials. This was possibly due to the influence of the Imām al-Qāsim b. Ibrāhīm al-Rassī (d. 246/860) who was intimately familiar with Christian theological notions and with the Bible, from which he quoted freely in some of his writings. Among the Zaydīs of Iran, scriptural passages allegedly foretelling the advent of Muĥammad have been adduced by the Imām al-Muʾayyad bi-Llāh (d. 411/1020), by his companion, the later Imām al-Muwaffaq bi-Llāh (d. after 420/1029), and by Aĥmad b. Muĥammad al-Sammān (fl. early 5th/11th century). An analysis of the texts suggests that the three authors were drawing on source(s)/translation traditions preceding or parallel to that of ʿAlī b. Rabban al-Ṭabarī's (d. 251/865) al-Dīn wa-l-dawla and Ibn Qutayba's (d. 276/889) Aʿlām al-nubuwwa.

Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner study the points of comparisons and contrast between formative Christianity and Judaism. By identifying three categories of authority in each of the two religious worlds, they show how they have both worked in compelling or failing to get someone to do a given action. The arguments are introduced by a general discussion of the founding figures of the two religions, Moses and Jesus, and how their inherent authority distilled itself through the structure of their religious institutions and intellectual thoughts. Jacob Neusner is Distinguished Research Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida and Professor of Religion at Bard College, New York. Bruce Chiltern is Bernard Idding Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College, New York.

During the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the famed rabbinic leader Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai (c. 30 BCE-90 CE) escaped the walls of the city and met the Roman military commander Vespasian. At this meeting Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai made three modest requests, one of which was the preservation of the city of Yavne and its scholars. Vespasian granted his requests and the center of Torah moved from Jerusalem to Yavne, saving it from the destruction that would befall the capital city (B. Gittin 56b). This center later moved from Yavne to Usha in the north. Under the leadership of Rabban Gamliel II, the Sanhedrin returned from Usha to Yavne. At that time, scholars came from around the country to study together, to delve into the texts of our Tradition and to debate matters of Jewish law. It was in these circumstances that the sages Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yose, Rabbi Nehemia and Rabbi Eliezer the son of Rabbi Yose Haglili arrived in Yavne (B. Brachot 63b). As one commentator explained, the comparison to a vineyard need not be limited to the seating arrangements (Rabbi Yisrael Lipschuetz, 19th century, Germany): The Talmud compares Torah scholars to grapes (B. Hullin 92a) and the Torah they study to wine (B. Ta'anit 7a-b; see also B. Brachot 57a expounding Proverbs 9:5). The place of study where the grapes - that is, the Torah scholars - are cultivated is called \"the vineyard,\" and the product, the wine of Torah, indeed gladdened the heart as wine does (see Psalms 104:15).