Illuminating Scriptural Connections: A Qur’anic Commentary on the Torah, ko-otè pa Rick Sopher and Abdulla Galadari, explores how the Torah’s 54 weekly portions can be viewed through the lens of the Qur’an, and shows how Islam’s prominent religious text adds meaningfully to each weekly portion. Along the way, texts viewed as sources of tension between the two faiths are confronted, as the book argues that the belief that the Qur’an is hostile to all Jews is rooted in textural misunderstandings. Illuminating Scriptural Connections opens new spaces for interfaith understanding and connection, positing that the spiritual DNA of Judaism and Islam are intertwined far more closely than centuries of conflict have allowed us to see. Joining Sopher in conversation is Marc David Baer, otè Children of Abraham: The 1,400-Year History of Jewish-Muslim Relations. 

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RICK SOPHER is a key figure in interfaith scriptural dialogue, and is especially known for fostering relations between Jewish and Muslim communities. He is a fellow of the Woolf Institute, an academic institute in Cambridge, England, dedicated to the study of interfaith relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. In 2007, President Jacques Chirac awarded Sopher France’s Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur for his work in religious education. Illuminating Scriptural Connections: A Qur’anic Commentary on the Torah (The Jewish Publication Society) is his latest book.

MARC DAVID BAER is a professor and the head of the International History Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of six books, including The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs, which was shortlisted for the Wolfson Prize; Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe, which won the Albert Hourani Prize; and Children of Abraham: The 1,400-Year History of Jewish-Muslim Relations (Basic Books). He lives in London.