5. Eastern Mary—Byzantium and Islam

Abstract

‘Eastern Mary—Byzantium and Islam’ examines Marian ideals in Byzantine Christianity as well as the Islamic view of Maryam, which reflects and rejects the Byzantine worldview from which Islam partly emerged. It was in the east that Christians celebrated the first Marian festivals and dedicated the earliest Marian churches. A Byzantine icon serves to illustrate key ideas about Mary as they developed in the east, where the first Marian relics were also discovered and venerated. Muslims revere Al-ʿAdhraʾ (the Virgin) as a model of piety, following the lead of the Prophet Muhammad, who stated that Maryam was one of the four spiritually perfect women in Paradise. There are a number of famous texts in the Qur’an devoted to Mary, a significant factor in Islam’s high regard for Mary and Jesus.