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The dietary laws spelled out in the Qurʾān, the holy book of Islam, also illustrate the relationship of such laws to the establishment of a sense of social identity and separateness. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was, among other things, a political leader who welded a nation out of the mutually warring tribes of Arabia. His religious ideology legitimated both the unification of these autonomous tribes and his own paramount rule over them. The main religious tenets of Islam were derived from Judaism and early Christianity, and it is clear from the Qurʾān that Islam was intended to encompass all ...(100 of 8382 words)
