Seyedeh Mahsa Bagheri; Seyed Behshid Hosseini; Mahmoud Arzhmand
Abstract
Extended AbstractBackground and Objectives: Religions do not develop in isolation; instead, they emerge within cultural, social, and geographical contexts. Islam and Judaism both originated ...
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Extended AbstractBackground and Objectives: Religions do not develop in isolation; instead, they emerge within cultural, social, and geographical contexts. Islam and Judaism both originated in regions characterized by specific cultural, social, and geographical factors. Rather than rejecting these contexts, these religions often engaged with and, over time, influenced by elements that were compatible with their respective beliefs. This adaptation was driven by the need to foster empathy with the local people and facilitate the acceptance of the new faith. Consequently, religious places gradually took shape, and formed by the existing contexts. This study carries out a comparative analysis of the impact of cultural, social, and geographical factors in the birthplaces of Islam and Judaism on the development of their first religious places. It seeks to investigate the role of cultural, social, and geographical contexts in shaping the first religious places in Islam and Judaism?Methods: This research uses a qualitative, interpretive-analytical approach and utilizes a comparative methodology to investigate how the cultural, social, and geographical contexts in the birthplaces of Islam and Judaism influenced the formation of their early religious places. Data collection relies on extensive library resources. The case studies selected for examination include the Kaaba, the Medina Mosque, and the first Islamic mosques for Islam, and the Tabernacle, the Temple in Jerusalem, and the earliest synagogues for Judaism. The research treats cultural, social, and geographical contexts as interpretive and comparative units. It begins by identifying these contexts in the regions of Islam and Judaism’s origins and then assesses their impact on the formation of the first religious places in these two religions. Findings: The findings of this study revolve around an analysis of how the cultural, social, and geographical contexts in these regions influenced the development of the first religious places in Islam and Judaism. In the cultural context, aspects such as artistic expressions, beliefs, individual values, and convictions originating from previous or new religious influences were examined. The social context encompassed political, economic aspects, customs, collective habits, societal norms, and values, while the geographical context included the climate and the physical location of the birthplaces of these religions and their relationship with the formation of religious places. Specifically, the study evaluated how these aspects and contexts influenced the creation of the Kaaba, the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, and the first mosques in Islam, as well as the Tabernacle of the Covenant, the Temple of Jerusalem, and the earliest synagogues in Judaism.. Conclusion: The results reveal that Islam and Judaism differed in terms of the extent to which each context influenced them. In the comparison of cultural contexts and aspects, including beliefs, individual values, and beliefs derived from previous or new religions, it became evident that both religions were influenced by the preexisting beliefs of the land. For instance, Islam embraced concepts such as the interaction between the present life and the afterlife, monotheism, and the rejection of polytheism, while Judaism adopted beliefs in the sanctity of stones and directions. In the comparison of social contexts and aspects, Islam prioritized collective worship and equal access to religious spaces for all members of society, as seen in the Kaaba and the Medina Mosque. Conversely, Judaism, influenced by beliefs in social hierarchies, exhibited spatial divisions and social hierarchies in accessing inner spaces, as witnessed in the Tabernacle of the Covenant and the Temple of Jerusalem.
