Jerusalem in the Islamic Tradition

Doc. Attila Kovács, PhD., graduated in Religious Studies (1999) and History–Hungarian Language and Literature (1998) from Masaryk University in Brno. During his studies, he spent a year at ELTE in Budapest (1993–1994) and at the University of Jordan in Amman (1997–1998). He completed his doctorate at the Department of Comparative Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava (2004), where he also obtained his habilitation (2011). His interests include contemporary Islam; Islamic reformism and radicalism in the Arab Middle East; religious and political leadership and concepts of statehood in Islam; visual, mass-media and online forms of Islam; the visual culture of radical Islamic movements; and the anthropology of Islam. He has undertaken several research visits to Muslim countries and written numerous articles and studies on Islam.

Jerusalem is sacred to all three Western monotheistic religions. For Jews, it was the site of the Temple and the seat of Kings David and Solomon. For Christians, it is where Jesus taught and was crucified, ascended to heaven and will return at the end of time. These associations are familiar in our region, whereas Jerusalem's place in Islamic tradition is less well known. Jerusalem, al-Quds (‘the Holy’) in Arabic, is no less important in Islam. The lecture explores the city's Muslim face, from the Qur'an and Muhammad's miraculous Night Journey through the early Islamic and Crusader periods to the present. Particular attention is paid to Muslim monuments such as the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, and to Jerusalem's place in the ideology of Islamist movements.

Lecture venue:
Cultural and Educational Centre, State Scientific Library in Košice, Pribinova 1, Košice
https://goo.gl/maps/UiU21w5RLz52

Lecture date and time: 28. 2. 2018 at 16:30 – 18:00