Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Shalom Goldman, The Wiles of Women/

the Wiles of Men: Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife in Ancient 

Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic Folklore (Albany: State 

University of New York Press, 1995); G. R. Hawting and 

Abdul-Kader A. Shareef, Approaches to the Quran (London 

and New York: Routledge, 1993); John Kaltner, Inquiring 

of Joseph: Getting to Know a Biblical Character through 

the Quran (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2003); 

Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Thalabi, Arais al-majalis fi 

qisas al-anbiya, or “Lives of the Prophets.” Translated by 

William M. Brinner (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002), 181–235.

Judaism and Islam

As Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Islam bear 

significant similarities that testify to a lengthy 

and complex history of dynamic interactions. 

Although it is widely perceived today that the rela-

tionship between these two religions is essentially

one of conflict and opposition, closer examination 

reveals that there have been occasions of extended 

mutual accommodation and shared civilizational 

development in the past that cannot be easily 

dismissed. Indeed, scholars maintain that Juda-

ism and Islam engaged in a “creative symbiosis,” 

whereby each party benefited and changed as 

a result of its contacts with the other. It is also 

the case that in modern times national and geo-

political factors have been more important than 

religious ones. a

rab

-i

sraeli

 

conFlicts

 cannot be 

adequately explained in terms of the 12 centuries 

of Judeo-Muslim interaction that preceded the 

20th-century conflicts. Moreover, though these 

modern conflicts have been horrific, they are 

of a limited scope, confined largely to a part of 

the Middle East region, directly involving only a 

minority of the world’s total Muslim population.

FAMIly rESEMblANCES

There are a number of key similarities that cluster 

together to support the view that Judaism and 

Islam form part of a family of religions, which 

may be called Abrahamic. The foremost of these 

is belief in a unique sovereign deity who governs 

creation. The commonest name for this deity in 

Islam, a

llah

, is historically related to one of the 

divine names in the Hebrew Bible, Elohim, and 

both names are related to a word root for god 

found in other Semitic cultures of the ancient 

Near East (for example, el, il, ilu). Both religions 

reject 

idolatry

, holding that God communicated 

to humanity in history through chosen prophets,

a number of whom are shared by both religions. 

These revelations were captured in scriptures, or 

holy

 

books

. The primary scripture for Judaism is 

the t

orah

 of m

oses

 and for Islam it is the q

Uran

of  m

Uhammad

. These scriptures, written in the 

sacred languages of Hebrew and Arabic, respec-

tively, express key beliefs, ethical principles, sacred 

histories, and rules for worship and everyday life.