Mona Siddiqui's second lecture of her Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Women's Rights at the University of Cambridge, March 2014. strategicdialogue.org/humanitas The theological and Christological conversations between Christianity and Islam have historically centered on Jesus as either prophet or messiah. But Mary or Mariam, mother of Jesus is also mentioned more times in the Qur'an than in the entire New Testament. Some consider her role to be a bridge between the two faiths, an icon of purity and piety. But there is no cult of Mary in Islam and as some have pointed out, her virginal status does not represent the ideal of the feminine in Islamic cultures. Yet Mary as both a woman and devotee, enjoys a distinct position in Islamic thought even if ultimately it is Jesus who became the star of the story. * Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge designed to bring leading academics, practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) and in Oxford by the Humanities Division.

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