Younus Y. Mirza, "The Islamic Mary: Maryam Through the Centuries" (Fortress Press, 2025)
August 12, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readIn the late 1960s, after Egypt’s devastating loss in the war with Israel, both Christians and Muslims in Cairo began reporting visions of Mary. She appeared on church domes and in the streets of the Zeitoun district—a figure of comfort in a moment of collective sorrow, witnessed and accepted by adherents of both faiths. That modern episode, recounted by scholar Younus Y. Mirza, captures something essential about the figure at the center of his new book The Islamic Mary: Maryam Through the Centuries (Fortress Press, 2025). Maryam, as she is known in Islam, is not merely a shared name between two religious traditions. She is a figure who has sustained centuries of theological debate, mystical devotion, popular storytelling, and contemporary political reinterpretation—and she continues to function as a genuine bridge between Muslims and Christians today.
Why Maryam Matters in Islam
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:35) **Introduction and Guest Background** - Host Morteza Hajj Zad introduces Dr. Yunus Mirza and his book *The Islamic Mary: Maryam Through the Centuries*.
- 2 (06:41) **Why Maryam Is Central to Islam** - The book’s core argument: Maryam is an essential and unique figure in Islamic thought, not just a minor character.
- 3 (10:10) **The Quranic Maryam vs. the Biblical Mary** - Dr. Mirza outlines key differences in the Quranic story, emphasizing elements absent from the New Testament.
- 4 (15:17) **Early Islamic Scholars’ Interpretation: Was Maryam a Prophet?** - Medieval scholars debated whether Maryam was a *nabiyya* (prophetess) or a *waliyya* (friend/saint of God).
- 5 (19:03) **Medieval Portrayals: Ideal Piety and Womanhood** - Both Christian and Islamic medieval traditions saw Maryam as a model of piety, but with distinct emphases.
- 6 (21:40) **Maryam and the Female Mystic Rabi’a** - The story of Rabi’a al-Adawiyya illustrates how Maryam’s model of solitary devotion influenced later Sufi spirituality.
- 7 (26:10) **Sufi Interpretations: Miracles and Divine Connection** - Sufis focused on the miraculous, intimate moments in Maryam’s story, unlike mainstream theologians who debated her prophetic status.
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Show Notes
Mary, the mother of Jesus, has been historically revered throughout the Islamic tradition. This began already in the Qur'an, where she is called by the name "Maryam." The Islamic Mary: Maryam Through the Centuries (Fortress Press, 2025) examines the varied appearances of Maryam in different Islamic cultural and theological contexts. The chapters in this history extend from Maryam's scriptural mentions in the Qur'an and the biography of the Prophet Muhammad, her appearances in medieval debates regarding prophecy, citations of her virtuous model in Sufi discussions of piety, presentations in art and film, through to her role in modern interfaith relations.
Younus Y. Mirza is the Founding Director of the Barzinji Institute for Global Virtual Learning at Shenandoah University. He defended his dissertation in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Georgetown University and has taught at Millsaps and Allegheny Colleges. His research focuses on the relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an and the shared stories between them
Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature.
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