banū isrāʾīl, ahl al-kitāb, al-yahūd wa-l-naṣārā: The Qur’anic Community’s Encounters with Jews and Christians

Abstract

This paper argues for a new understanding of the Qur’an’s view of Jews and Christians based, firstly, on their developing role in Qur’anic discourse, and, secondly, on the Qur’an’s continuous understanding of the three designations for Jews and Christians: banū isrāʾīl, “the children of Israel,” ahl al-kitāb, “the Scripture People,” and al-yahūd wa-l-naṣārā, “the Jews and the Christians.” Whereas there is a scholarly consensus that the term ahl al-kitāb designates both Jews and Christians, I offer two correctives: first, the term banū isrāʾīl equally designates the Qur’an’s Jewish and Christian contemporaries (or, more often, their common ancestors), and, second, the predominantly collective usage of al-yahūd wa-l-naṣārā shows that the three designations for Jews and Christians most be understood both in their continuity and in the increasing internal differentiation of Jews and Christians from each other.