The Rise of Islam in a Multicultural Setting

The Rise of Islam in a Multicultural Setting

Lecture by Professor Ilkka Lindstedt

Join us for the second lecture of the AKU-ISMC Guest Scholar Programme 2024 in which Professor Ilkka Lindstedt will shed light on the history of pre-Islamic Arabia. Was the rise of Islam a black swan event? That is, was it something completely unexpected and something that totally transformed Arabia? This has recently been suggested by Michael Cook (following Nassim Taleb). In this lecture, Professor Lindstedt will explain what the material evidence (in particular, inscriptions) from pre-Islamic times tells us about the religious map of Arabia. The pre-Islamic inscriptions display a multicultural Arabia, where many languages were spoken and written, where various ethno-tribal identities existed, and where monotheist faiths were spreading. He will argue that, far from being a black swan event, the rise of Islam should be understood as a continuation of the slow but steady spread of forms of monotheism in Arabia.

About the Speaker

Ilkka Lindstedt (Ph.D., University of Helsinki) is 2024 AKU-ISMC Guest Scholar, and Lecturer in Islamic theology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has published scholarly articles on pre-Islamic Arabia, early Islam, Arabic epigraphy, and Arabic historiography. He is particularly interested in changes in religious groups and ideas in late antique Arabia. His monograph Muhammad and His Followers in Context: The Religious Map of Late Antique Arabia was published by Brill in 2023.

The discussion will be followed by a reception.

This is an in-person event and free to attend. However, registration is required.

Host or Publisher AKU-ISMC