Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, 1st ed. 2018 Encyclopedia of Indian Religions Series

The earlier volume in this series dealt with two religions of Indian origin, namely, Buddhism and Jainism. The Indian religious scene, however, is characterized by not only religions which originated in India but also by religions which entered India from outside India and made their home here. Thus religious life in India has been enlivened throughout its history by the presence of religions of foreign origin on its soil almost from the very time they came into existence. This volume covers three such religions?Zoraoastrianism, Judaism, and Islam . In the case of Zoraostianism, even its very  beginnings  are intertwined with India, as Zoroastrianism reformed a preexisting religion which had strong links to the Vedic heritage of India. This relationship took on a new dimension when a Zoroastrian community, fearing persecution in Persia after its Arab conquest, sought shelter in western India and ultimately went on to produce India?s pioneering nationalist in the figure ofDadabhai Naoroji ( 1825-1917), also known as the Grand Old Man of India. Jews found refuge in south India after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E. and have remained a part of the Indian religious scene since then, some even returning to Israel after it was founded in 1948. Islam arrived in Kerala as soon as it was founded and one of the earliest mosques in the history of Islam is found in India. Islam differs from the previously mentioned religions inasmuch as it went on to gain political hegemony over parts of the country for considerable periods of time, which meant that its impact on the religious life of the subcontinent has been greater compared to the other religions. It has also meant that Islam has existed in a religiously plural environment in India for a longer period than elsewhere in the world so that not only has Islam left a mark on India, India has also left its mark on it. Indeed all the three religions covered in this volume share this dual feature,that they have profoundly influenced Indian religious life and have also in turn been profoundly influenced by their presence in India.

Zayn Kassam is the John Knox McLean Professor of Religious Studies at Pomona College in Claremont, CA.  The winner of three Wig Awards for Distinguished Teaching, she has also won the national American Academy of Religion award for Excellence in Teaching and the Theta Alpha Kappa Kathleen Connolly-Weinart Leader of the Year Award. Kassam has authored a volume on Islam (Greenwood Press, 2005), and also edited a volume titled Women and Islam (2010).  She has published articles on religion and migration, on pedagogy, feminist Muslim hermeneutics, and Muslim Women and globalization. Her current research investigates contemporary challenges facing Muslim women.  She teaches courses on women in Islam, Islamic mysticism, Islamic thought, as well as contemporary Muslim literature.  More recently, she has also been teaching courses on religion and the environment. 
Dr. Kassam's service to the profession includes serving on American Academy of Religion national steering committees for the Study of Islam; Childhood Studies in Religion; Liberal Theologies; Religion and Migration; and the Islam, Gender, Women Group. She is also a board member for the highly acclaimedJournal of Feminist Studies in Religion, as well as a consulting editor on Twentieth Century Religious Thought: Vol II, Islam.

Yudit Kornberg Greenberg is the George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Endowed Chair of Religion and Founding Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Her fields of teaching and research include modern and contemporary Jewish thought, comparative religion, women and religion, and cross-cultural views of love and the body.  Dr. Greenberg is the author of Better than Wine: Love, Poetry and Prayer in the Thought of Franz Rosenzweig, the 2 volume Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions, nominated for the American Academy of Re