By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 5 July 2025
Roman Eastern Foederati and Arab Monotheism Before Islam
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Tag Archives: Jews
Assessing the Historicity of Abu Bakr, Islam’s First Caliph
Review: “The Sacred City” (2016)
Was Islam’s Ka’ba Always in Mecca?
A Note on the Mu’tazilites and the Office of the Caliph
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 4 June 2025
Muslim belief is that the Qur’an is “uncreated” (ghayr makhluq). While the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad over twenty-three years (610-32 AD), the “speech of God” (kalam Allah) in these revelations had existed co-eternally with God. This was once a point of serious dispute in Islamic theology, and the outcome of that debate was an important waymarker in the development of Islam.
Gerald Hawting on the Mystery of the Ka’ba
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 1 June 2025
Below is a reproduction of an academic book chapter by G.R. Hawting, “The Origins of the Sanctuary at Mecca”, in G.H.A. Juynboll [ed.] (1982), Studies on the First Century of Islamic Society, pp. 23-47.
Ahmad al-Shara Met Donald Trump, and the Islamic State is Not Pleased
What Iran’s Leaks Really Tell Us About Syrian “Interim” President Ahmad al-Shara’s Past with the Islamic State
Did 27 Million Soviet Citizens Die Fighting the Nazis?
A Note on Viktor Zemskov’s Estimate of Soviet Fatalities in the Second World War
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 12 April 2025
Russian historian Viktor Zemskov estimated in 2012 that total Soviet losses in the “Great Fatherland War” were sixteen million (11.5 million military casualties and 4.5 million civilian deaths), a far lower total than the official Soviet claim since 1990, inherited by the Russian Federation, of twenty-seven million.
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