Geography, Religion, Gods, and Saints in the Eastern Mediterranean (Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East)

__Geography, Religion, Gods, and Saints in the Eastern Mediterranean__ explores the influence of geography on religion and highlights a largely unknown story of religious history in the Eastern Mediterranean. In the Levant, agricultural communities of Jews, Christians, and Muslims jointly venerated and largely shared three important saints or holy figures: Jewish Elijah, Christian St. George, and Muslim al-Khiḍr. These figures share ‘peculiar’ characteristics, such as associations with rain, greenness, fertility, and storms. Only in the Eastern Mediterranean are Elijah, St. George, and al-Khiḍr shared between religious communities, or characterized by these same agricultural attributes – attributes that also were shared by regional religious figures from earlier time periods, such as the ancient Near Eastern Storm-god Baal-Hadad, and Levantine Zeus. This book tells the story of how that came to be, and suggests that the figures share specific characteristics, over a very long period of time, because these motifs were shaped by the geography of the region. Ultimately, this book suggests that regional geography has influenced regional religion; that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are not, historically or textually speaking, separate religious traditions (even if Jews, Christians, and Muslims are members of distinct religious communities); and that shared religious practices between members of these and other local religious communities are not unusual. Instead, shared practices arose out of a common geographical environment and an interconnected religious heritage, and are a natural historical feature of religion in the Eastern Mediterranean. This volume will be of interest to students of ancient Near Eastern religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, sainthood, agricultural communities in the ancient Near East, Middle Eastern religious and cultural history, and the relationships between geography and religion. This book explores the influence of geography on religion and highlights a largely unknown story of religious history in the Eastern Mediterranean. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of figures 9 Acknowledgments 10 Chapter 1 Geography and religion in the Eastern Mediterranean 12 Part One: St. George and al-Khiḍr among Christians and Muslims in the Levant 12 Geography, religion, Gods, and Saints in the Eastern Mediterranean 18 Why does this matter? 24 Summary 27 Notes 29 Chapter 2 Levantine geography, history, and agrarian religion 35 Part One: Levantine geography 35 Part Two: Levantine political, religious, and linguistic history 46 Part Three: Levantine agrarian religion 48 Notes 61 Chapter 3 Ancient Near Eastern religion and the storm-god Baal-Hadad 66 Part One: Introduction 66 Part Two: Storm-god Baal-Hadad Text – the Baal Cycle 70 Part Three: Storm-god Baal-Hadad image: The Baal Stele 88 Part Four: The storm-god Baal-Hadad site – Baalbek 91 Part Five: Conclusion – The motifs of Baal-Hadad and the Levantine common pool 94 Notes 95 Chapter 4 The Hebrew Bible and Elijah 107 Part One: Introduction 107 Part Two: The Hebrew Bible tradition in context 109 The fates of Canaanite deities in the Hebrew Bible and within regional history 115 Part Three: Elijah text: The Elijah (and Elisha) Cycles in the Book of Kings 115 Part Four: Rabbinic-era, Christian-tradition, and Islamic-tradition Elijah 131 Part Five: Elijah image: Judaic traditions and Christian Saint Elias 134 Part Six: Elijah site – Mount Carmel 137 Part Seven: Elijah and the Levantine common pool 140 Notes 142 Chapter 5 Early Christianity and Saint George 146 Part One: Introduction and historical backgrounds of Christianity 146 Part Two: Saint George text: Acts of Saint George 158 Part Three: St. George icons 180 Part Four: Conclusion: St. George and the Levantine common pool 187 Notes 190 Chapter 6 The emergence of Islam and Al-Khiḍr 198 Part One: Introduction and the emergence of Islam in late antiquity 198 Part Two: al-Khiḍr Text: Q 18:60–82 216 Part Three: al-Khiḍr images and al-Khiḍr in the Eastern Mediterranean Al-Khiḍr in Islamic tradition 234 Part Four: Conclusion: al-Khiḍr and the Levantine common pool 239 Notes 240 Chapter 7 Eastern Mediterranean shared religious history 251 Geography of religion: Using a geographical lens 253 The relationships between these figures as suggested by this book 257 Geographical contextualization: Agrarian religion and the slow development of canonical religion in the Levant 259 Where we see agrarian religion 260 Where we see the interconnections between Levantine religions, and the slow development of orthodoxies 261 Monotheism in the Levant: Contradistinction in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam 263 Continuity and gradualism: Religious traditions are not born ‘fully formed’ 264 Eastern Mediterranean shared religious culture 265 Modern implications 267 Notes 269 Bibliography 274 Index 291 Gods;,Saints;,Eastern,Mediterranean;,Levantine,geography;,Levantine,history;,Ancient,Near,Eastern,religion;,Baal-Hadad;,Hebrew,Bible;,Elijah;,Early,Christianity;,Saint,George;,emergence,of,Islam Gods,Saints,Eastern Mediterranean,Levantine geography,Levantine history,Ancient Near Eastern religion,Baal-Hadad,Hebrew Bible,Elijah,Early Christianity,Saint George,emergence of Islam "Geography, Religion, Gods, and Saints in the Eastern Mediterranean explores the influence of geography on religion and highlights a largely unknown story of religious history in the Eastern Mediterranean. In the Levant, agricultural communities of Jews, Christians, and Muslims jointly venerated and largely shared three important saints or holy figures: Jewish Elijah, Christian St. George, and Muslim al-Khiḍr. These figures share 'peculiar' characteristics, such as associations with rain, greenness, fertility, and storms. Only in the Eastern Mediterranean are Elijah, St. George, and al-Khiḍr shared between religious communities, or characterized by these same agricultural attributes - attributes that also were shared by regional religious figures from earlier time periods, such as the ancient Near Eastern Storm-god Baal-Hadad, and Levantine Zeus. This book tells the story of how that came to be, and suggests that the figures share specific characteristics, over a very long period of time, because these motifs were shaped by the geography of the region. Ultimately, this book suggests that regional geography has influenced regional religion; that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are not, historically or textually speaking, separate religious traditions (even if Jews, Christians, and Muslims are members of distinct religious communities); and that shared religious practices between members of these and other local religious communities are not unusual. Instead, shared practices arose out of a common geographical environment and an interconnected religious heritage, and are a natural historical feature of religion in the Eastern Mediterranean. This volume will be of interest to students of ancient Near Eastern religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, sainthood, agricultural communities in the ancient Near East, Middle Eastern religious and cultural history, and the relationships between geography and religion"-- Provided by publisher Chapter One: Geography and Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean -- Chapter Two: Levantine Geography, History, and Agrarian Religion -- Chapter Three: Ancient Near Eastern Religion and the Storm-God Baal-Hadad -- Chapter Four: The Hebrew Bible and Elijah -- Chapter Five: Early Christianity and Saint George -- Chapter Six: The Emergence of Islam and Al-Khidr -- Chapter Seven: Eastern Mediterranean Shared Religious History