John Zaleski
Humanities Research Fellow
Education: BA, Dartmouth College; MA, Harvard University; PhD, Harvard University
Research Areas: Asceticism, Sufism, Syriac Christianity, Monasticism, Muslim-Christian Interaction, Scriptural Exegesis
About John
John’s research examines Christian and Muslim writing on ascetic practice within the early Islamic world. His work in this field began at Harvard University, where he defended his doctoral dissertation in April 2019. John’s studies have also led him to archival research at mosque libraries in Cairo, Fes, and Istanbul, as well as at Western European manuscript libraries.
As a fellow at NYUAD, John will complete a monograph tentatively entitled A Common Tongue: Muslim-Christian Exchange and The Formation of a New Language of Asceticism in Early Islam. This book will show how Muslims and Christians responded to each other’s understandings of piety, eventually developing a shared, but often contested, set of terms, stories, and ideals concerning asceticism. The book will also help uncover the legacy of Syriac Christian authors within the Islamic world, including several authors from the Gulf region who played a major role in developing Christian ideals of piety during the formative years of Islam. In addition, John will continue separate projects in the fields of Muslim and Christian scriptural exegesis and soteriology.
Publications
Journals
Zaleski, John. "Universal Salvation in Christian and Islamic Thought: The Arabic Reception of Isaac of Nineveh." Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies 5, no. 1 (2022): 71-94.
Zaleski, John. "On Condemnation of Pride and Self-Admiration. Kitāb dhamm al-kibr wa’l-ʿujb. Book XXIX of The Revival of the Religious Sciences. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, written by Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and translation with introduction and notes by Mohammed Rustom." Journal of Sufi Studies 11, no. 1 (2022): 141-144.
Zaleski, John. “Sufi Asceticism and the Sunna of the Prophet in al-Junayd’s Adab al-Muftaqir ilā Allāh.” Journal of Islamic Studies 32, no. 1 (2021): 1-26.
Zaleski, John. "Who is the Man on the Camel?: Historical Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible and Christian-Muslim Debate." Medieval Encounters 26, no. 1 (2020): 49-80.
Book Chapters
Zaleski, John. “The Treasures of God: Abū Sa‘īd al-Kharrāz and the Ethics of Wealth in Early Sufism.” In Mysticism and Ethics in Islam, eds. Bilal Orfali, Atif Khalil, and Mohammed Rustom, 53-71. American University of Beirut Press, 2021.
Zaleski, John. "The Corner of Europe and the Fabric of the World: Pius II’s Bull and Sermon for the Canonization of Catherine of Siena." In Mendicant Cultures in the Medieval and Early Modern World: Word, Deed, and Image, eds. Sally Cornelison, Nirit Debby, and Peter Howard, 271-95. Brepols, 2016.
Zaleski, John. "Religion and Roman Spectacle." In A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity, eds. Paul Christesen and Donald Kyle, 590-602. Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
Conference Proceedings
Zaleski, John. “‘The Nous is the Head of the Soul’: Remaking Origen’s and Evagrius’s Anthropology for the Church of the East.” In Origeniana Duodecima, ed. Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony et al, 789-804. Peeters, 2019.
Interview
“A Common Tongue: Muslims, Christians, and The Formation of a New Language of Asceticism in Early Islam”
