ABSTRACT
Arising when Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity were still in the process of fi rmly establishing themselves institutionally, Islam traces its origins to Arabia of the seventh century. Revolving around a prophet named Muh. ammad with a scripture called the Qurʾ ān, Islam became the ideology which served to unite the Arab empire that asserted itself fi rst in the area of the Fertile Crescent and Egypt, and then across North Africa and Persia. In doing so, it displaced to a large extent the older religions of Judaism and Christianity in its multiple forms, as well as the faith of ancient Persia, Zoroastrianism. e signifi cance of this transformation was of enormous consequence in the unfolding of world history. Arabian society became integrated within the larger framework of the Near East, and a reciprocal integration of Near Eastern peoples into the new political and religious identity took place.
