Source in the Spotlight
Co-producing the End. The Use of Jewish Exegesis in Paul Alvar’s Apocalyptic Interpretation of Islam
In the 8th–9th centuries, some Christian authors identified Islam and Muhammad with the Antichrist. In his Indiculus luminosus, Paul Alvar goes further, combining Christian exegesis with Jewish interpretations and the Islamic calendar to predict the imminent end of Islamic rule – an example of apocalyptic ideas “co-produced” across religious traditions.
Latest Case Study
Why did the Christian Shrine-Keeper Poison the Muslim Astronomer? The Co-Production of Theology and History in al-Wathiq’s Expeditions to Confirm the Truth of the Qurʾan
Around the middle of the ninth century a man named Muhammad ibn Musa “The Astronomer” was poisoned by the wicked keeper of a Christian shrine. It happened (if it happened) deep inside a small mountain somewhere near the ancient city of Ephesus, on the southwestern coast of modern Turkey, in what was then the territory of East Rome. Thankfully for the history of science, Muhammad vomited up his poisoned lunch and survived the ordeal.
![Constantinople. 985. Miniature Minology Vasily II. Vatican Library. Rome. Authors of Menologion of Basil II (circa 985 AC, Constantinople), Byzantine manuscript illuminators[1]: Pantoleon with Georgios, Michael the Younger, Michael of Blachernae, Symeon, Symeon of Blachernae, Menas, and Nestor (Online on Vatican site) - http://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1613/0143?sid=a7590df9b8aca22111c8359533716419&zoomlevel=4](/img/asset/Y2FzZV9zdHVkaWVzL3NldmVuX3NsZWVwZXJzXyhtZW5vbG9naW9uX29mX2Jhc2lsX2lpKS5qcGc/seven_sleepers_%28menologion_of_basil_ii%29.jpg?w=1200&s=596e62fc851b571e6045436580deab7b)
Event: International Conference and Workshop
Insular Entanglements: Malta, 300-1700
International Conference in Valetta, June 16-19th, 2026
Organizers: Mohamad Ballan (Stonybrook University) and Katharina Heyden (University of Bern)
Our upcoming conference "Insular Entanglements: Malta, 300-1700" examines Malta as a case-study of Mediterranean entanglement from Late Antiquity through the Early Modern period. The notion of entanglement that we propose is quite capacious, encompassing not only (nor even primarily) quotidian interreligious interactions but ideas of connections, polemics, memory, histories, and texts more broadly. This will include intellectual networks, economic and political connections, language, cultural encounters, religious thought and polemics, as well as the relationship between the local (Malta) and regional (Mediterranean). The idea of frontiers and borderlands will constitute an important theme of the conference, but we will also explore questions of materiality and material culture in early Christianity, the complex (and ever-changing) relationship between religious and cultural traditions, and the larger political transformations taking place across the medieval and early modern Mediterranean world.
Event: International Interdisciplinary Workshop
Interreligious Co-production and Islam
Organized by SherAli Tahreen, David Nirenberg, and Katharina Heyden
Latest Publication
Co-produced Religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Harvard Theological Review 118 (2025), 159-180.
About
Who we are
The project is coordinated by Katharina Heyden, Professor for Ancient History of Christianity and Interreligious Encounters at the University of Bern (Switzerland), and David Nirenberg, Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (U.S.), and includes a network of collaborators across North America, Europe, and the Middle East.