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University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2016 Continuity and Contradistinction: A Geography of Religion Study of the Ancient Near Eastern Storm-God Baal-Hadad, Jewish Elijah, Christian St. George, and Muslim Al-Khiḍr in the Eastern Mediterranean Erica Ferg Muhaisen University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the History of Religion Commons, Islamic World and Near East History Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Muhaisen, Erica Ferg, "Continuity and Contradistinction: A Geography of Religion Study of the Ancient Near Eastern Storm-God Baal-Hadad, Jewish Elijah, Christian St. George, and Muslim Al-Khiḍr in the Eastern Mediterranean" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1167. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1167 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. CONTINUITY AND CONTRADISTINCTION: A GEOGRAPHY OF RELIGION STUDY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN STORM-GOD BAAL-HADAD, JEWISH ELIJAH, CHRISTIAN ST. GEORGE, AND MUSLIM AL-KHIḌR IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN __________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Denver __________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________ by Erica M. Muhaisen June 2016 Advisor: Andrea L. Stanton ©Copyright by Erica M. Muhaisen 2016 All Rights Reserved Author: Erica M. Muhaisen Title: CONTINUITY AND CONTRADISTINCTION: A GEOGRAPHY OF RELIGION STUDY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN STORM-GOD BAAL-HADAD, JEWISH ELIJAH, CHRISTIAN ST. GEORGE, AND MUSLIM AL-KHIḌR IN THE EASTERN MEDITERANEAN Advisor: Andrea L. Stanton Degree Date: June 2016 ABSTRACT For at least the past 800 years in the Eastern Mediterranean, communities of Muslims, Christians, and Jews have venerated three important figures: Christian St. George, Muslim al-Khiḍr, and Jewish Elijah. This is paradoxical, considering that common wisdom, and even religious studies discourse, suggests that Muslims, Christians, and Jews are distinct and separate, and particularly in the contentious Levant. Moreover, the figures there also share ‘peculiar’ characteristics: associations with rain, greenness, and fertility. One past study of this phenomenon argued that the figures’ similarities arose from the fact that they were each a continuation of an important earlier regional religious figure: the Syrian Storm-God, Baal-Hadad. This study also considers the figure of Baal- Hadad, but not within a genealogical framework. Traditionally, each of the figures in this study has been investigated from what is known as a World Religions perspective – studied from within their particular religious traditions. This study critiques that perspective and proposes instead the approach of Geography of Religion, which it argues is a more efficacious framework for understanding the figures and the phenomenon. A fundamental precept of Geography of Religion theory is the notion that religions are always geographically contextualized – that is, they are always a product of both the time and place in which they emerge or exist. In this project, each of the figures' earliest and/or canonical religious texts, common images, and important geographical ii sites are investigated and compared for evidence within them of contemporaneous religious, political, and geographical influences, in order to produce a view of each of the figures from within their specific temporal and geographical contexts at the time when that text or image or site was created. This fruitful methodological approach demonstrates the enduring influence of geography upon a continuity of agricultural motifs which all four figures share; it illuminates a common pool of compelling figures, narratives, and motifs in the Near East; it argues for monotheism as a specific strand of religious thought that characterized Jews, Christians, and Muslims in contradistinction to one another and to the majority pagan traditions of the Near East; and it demonstrates that these religious traditions are distinct but not in fact separate, underscoring the significance of the phenomenon involving St. George, al-Khiḍr, and Elijah as a belonging to the authentic historical heritage of the Eastern Mediterranean, and to the region’s shared religious practices. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like specifically to thank the individuals with whom I have worked in the University of Denver-Iliff School of Theology Joint Doctoral Program; in particular, the members of my committee who have inspired and assisted me to this point. I thank especially Andrea Stanton, Nader Hashemi, Scott Montgomery, and Albert Hernandez for their invaluable intellectual contributions and kind mentoring over the years, and I thank as well Greg Robbins and Mark George for their generous and erudite assistance with this project. I thank also Amy Balogh, for whose insightful comments and unflagging camaraderie I am grateful, as well as Micah Saxton and Eric Smith for their helpful contributions to this project. Most of all I would like to thank my family and friends for their loving support and encouragement, and I dedicate this work to my extraordinary husband, without whom this dissertation would not be the same. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 Part One: Introduction............................................................................................. 1 Traditional Narratives of these Figures....................................................... 5 A Traditional Religious Studies Perspective .............................................. 7 A Geography of Religion Perspective ........................................................ 9 Using a Geographical Lens ....................................................................... 10 Past Studies ............................................................................................... 12 Part Two: Methodology ........................................................................................ 14 Scope ......................................................................................................... 15 ‘Fishing from a Common Pool’ Model ..................................................... 17 Thesis ........................................................................................................ 20 Comparative Method ................................................................................ 21 Method of Textual Analysis...................................................................... 26 Historiographical Method ......................................................................... 27 Part Three: Significance ........................................................................................ 28 Conceptual Inspiration .............................................................................. 28 Significance............................................................................................... 29 Chapter Structure ...................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER TWO: LEVANTINE GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY ................................ 36 Part One: Geography............................................................................................. 36 Geology ..................................................................................................... 36 Climate ...................................................................................................... 38 Geography of the Levant: Regions, Mountain Ranges, Rivers, and Flora 41 Agriculture ................................................................................................ 45 Changes over Time to Land and Agricultural Practices ........................... 49 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 52 Part Two: Near Eastern Political, Religious, and Linguistic History ................... 53 10,000 – 1,600 BCE: ................................................................................. 55 Neolithic, Copper Age, and Early and Middle Bronze Age Political Formations ................................................................................................ 55 1550 – 1200 BCE: Late Bronze Age ........................................................ 58 1200 – 539 BCE: Iron Age ....................................................................... 65 539 – 332 BCE: Persian Period ................................................................ 71 332-63 BCE: Greek Period ....................................................................... 73 Common Era ............................................................................................. 76 63 BCE – 636 CE: Roman and Byzantine Periods ................................... 76 636 CE – Present: Islamic Era .................................................................. 79 Summary: Levantine Political History...................................................... 84 Summary: Levantine Religious History.................................................... 86 Summary: Levantine Linguistic History ..................................................

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