Conceptions of Holy War in Biblical and Qur’anic Tradition (original) (raw)

Disparity and Resolution in the Qur’anic Teachings on War: A Reevaluation of a Traditional Problem

The Journal of Near Eastern Studies 55 (1997), 1 19, 1997

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Justice, Jihad and Duty: The Qur’anic Concept of Armed Conflict

Islam and Civilisational Renewal, 2018

The Qur’an is among the most widely read books on earth, yet it is also commonly misunderstood and misquoted. Islam’s critics say that it contains exhortations of violence against non-Muslims and a concept of war that is far more unbridled and indiscriminate than the western Just War theory. This study is not a general overview or critique of the Islamic laws of war, which are the varied and sometimes contradictory opinions of medieval Islamic jurists ? mainly from the ninth to thirteenth centuries CE. Instead, this study analyses only the Qur’anic text itself and, by putting its verses into historical context, attempts to explain its codes of conduct in order to determine what it actually requires or permits Muslims to do in terms of the use of military force. It concludes that the Qur’an is clear: Muslims must not undertake offensive violence and are instructed, if defensive warfare should become unavoidable, always to act within a code of ethical behaviour that is closely similar to the western Just War tradition. This study attempts to dispel any misperceptions that Islam’s holy book advocates the subjugation or killing of non-Muslims and reveals that, on the contrary, its key and unequivocal concepts governing warfare are based on justice and a profound belief in the sanctity of human life.

Reconsidering Holy War in Islam

It is never easy - and often remains unconvincing - to distinguish religion (beliefs, practices) from ideology (power, interests), but in the case of jihad, or holy war, it is imperative, and this essay is an effort to make that distinction both productive and durable.

Divine Warfare and Yhwh's Wars: Religious Ideologies of War in the Ancient Near East and in the Old Testament

2011

The term "holy" is not used as an epithet characterizing war in the Old Testament nor in Ancient Near Eastern documents dating to the first 1 st millennium BCE. 1 Nevertheless, people in antiquity were convinced that wars were initiated and waged by the Gods and that the people and their leaders were merely executing divine will during warfare. 2 In Old Egyptian thought the king was seen as a manifestation of 1 The expression "holy war" was first applied to the description of divine wars in ancient Israel by the orientalist Friedrich Schwally, in his book: Semitische Kriegsaltertümer: Der heilige Krieg im alten Israel (Leipzig, 1901). Gerhard von Rad argued that-in opposition to the "profane" interests of war-the Israelites had a special religious ritual, vis. the performance of "amphictyonic wars" that should be termed "holy war" (Der Heilige Krieg im alten Israel [first published in 1951; English version: Holy War in Ancient Israel, Translated and edited by M. J. Dawn; Grand Rapids, 1991]). This theory was rejected by M. Weippert who showed that all motifs in the biblical texts dealing with records or rituals of war had parallels in ancient near eastern texts ("'Heiliger Krieg' in Israel und Assyrien", ZAW 84 [1972], pp. 460-493). For further information on the term and its applications cf. C. Colpe,