Ze’ev Maghen (PhD.
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...
, 1997) is Professor of Arabic and Islamic History and former Chairman of the Department of Middle East Studies at
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic ...
. He is a senior fellow at the Begin-Sadat Institute for Strategic Studies, as well as the creator of the Middle East and Islamic Studies program at the
Shalem College in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. He lectures regularly at
Reichman University
Reichman University ( he, אוניברסיטת רייכמן) is Israel's only private university, located in Herzliya, Tel Aviv District. It was founded in 1994 as the IDC Herzliya private college, before being rebranded in 2021.
It receives n ...
.
Maghen’s areas of expertise include Revolutionary Iran, Islamism, the Sunni-Shii schism, Qur’anic Exegesis and Medieval Islamic Jurisprudence. He has written two academic books – ''Virtues of the Flesh: Purity and Sexuality in Islamic Discourse'' (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2005), and ''After Hardship Cometh Ease: Classical Muslim Attitudes to Judaism and Jewish Law'' (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2006); as well as numerous articles in peer reviewed journals on these subjects. His essay on “Eradicating the Little Satan: Why Iran should be taken at its word” was the lead article in
Commentary Magazine (January 2009) and his lengthy treatment of “Shiite Messianism and Iranian Foreign Policy” was the lead article in the prestigious
Middle East Journal (Spring, 2008).
Professor has written on Jewish and Zionist subjects, as well, and his essay “John Lennon and the Jews” – published in six languages – has been published as a full length book (John Lennon and the Jews: A Philosophical Rampage, New York: Toby Press, 2014).
Maghen speaks, reads and writes
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
,
Persian,
Russian,
English,
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
and gor a bisel
Yiddish. He lectures regularly in the Israel Defense Forces, as well as at universities and in other frameworks in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
,
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, the Arab World,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
and
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...
. He lives with his wife and four children in
Hod HaSharon
Hod HaSharon ( he, הוֹד הַשָּׁרוֹן, lit. "Splendor of the Sharon plain") is a city in the Central District of Israel. The city is located approximately east of the Mediterranean coastline, south of Kfar Saba, southeast of Raanana ...
. He served in the Tank Corps of the
IDF until his discharge from the reserves in 2005. He was the 1984 International Frisbee Golf Champion (Junior Division).
Selected articles
* “Much ado about Wuḍū’,” Der Islam, 76, Spring 1999, pp. 205-252.
* “Close Encounters: Some Preliminary Observations on the Transmission of Impurity in Early Sunni Jurisprudence,” Islamic Law and Society, 6: 3, Summer, 1999, pp. 348–392.
* "השעוביה החדשה: החייאת פולמוס ישן בקרב מתנגדי הרפובליקה האסלאמית באיראן", המזרח החדש, כרך מ"ב, תשס"א, עמ' 186-208. (Translation: “The New Shu‘biyah: The Revival of an Ancient Polemic by the Opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” The New East, 42
000.
* “Dead Tradition: Joseph Schacht and the Origins of ‘Popular Practice’,” Islamic Law and Society, 10: 3, Fall 2003, pp. 276-347 (as guest editor of this issue, I also wrote the introduction, pp. 267-275).
* “First Blood: Purity, Edibility and the Independence of Islamic Jurisprudence,” Der Islam, 81, Spring 2004, pp. 49–95.
* “Ritual Recycling: Abū’l-Ḥasan ‘Alī al-Māwardī and the Question of Second Hand Ablutions,” Bar-Ilan Studies in Arabic and Islamic Culture, 2, Spring 2006, pp. 121–168.
* “Three Shāfi‘ites in Search of Water: The Indulgence of Tayammum and its Rigorous Preconditions,” Der Islam 82 (2005), pp. 291–348.
* “Strangers and Brothers: The Ritual Status of Unbelievers in Islamic Law,” Medieval Encounters, 12/2 (2006), pp. 173–243.
* “Intertwined Triangles: Remarks on the Relationship between Two Prophetic Scandals,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 33 (2007), pp. 17–92 (Winner of the “Tel-Aviv Prize” for Best Scholarly Article, 2006).
* “See No Evil: Morality and Methodology in Ibn al-Qaṭṭān al-Fāsī’s Aḥkām al-Naẓar bī Ḥāssat al-Baṣar,” Islamic Law and Society, 14 (2007), 52 pp.
* “The Merry Men of Medina: Comedy and Humanity in the Early Days of Islam,” Der Islam, 84 (2007), 74 pp.
* “Occultation in Perpetuum: Shi‘ite Messianism and the Policies of the Islamic Republic,” Middle East Journal, 62 (2008), 34 pp.
* “‘They shall not Draw Nigh’: The Access of Unbelievers to Sacred Space in Islamic and Jewish Law,” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 12 (2007), 41 pp.
* “From Potent Nemesis to Potemkin Village: A Shift in the Iranian Portrayal of the ‘Zionist Regime,’” Israel Affairs, 21 (2006), 27 pp.
* “Davidic Motifs in the Biography of Muḥammad,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 34 (2008), pp. 91–139.
* “That Nature which Contemns its Origin: A Controversial Teachers’ Examination Sheds Light on Transformations in Revolutionary Iranian Islam,” Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review, 8 (2009), 43 pp.
* “Unity and Hegemony: Iranian Attitudes to the Sunni-Shi‘i Divide,” in Tel-Aviv University’s Sunni-Shi‘ Relations Conference volume (eds. Meir Litvak and Ofra Bengio), 2010.
* “Dancing in Chains: The Baffling Coexistence of Legalism and Exuberance in Judaic and Islamic Tradition,” in Judaic Sources in Western Thought: Jerusalem’s Enduring Presence (ed. Jon Jacobs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
* “Jews (and Christians) for ‘Ali: Precedent and Prognostication in al-Majlisi’s Kitab al-Ihtijaj” (forthcoming in JIS)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maghen, Ze'ev
Columbia University alumni
Bar-Ilan University faculty
Date of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
People from Hod HaSharon
Israeli male writers
Israeli essayists
Jewish religious writers
Jewish scholars of Islam
Jewish historians
Year of birth missing (living people)