Ilkka Lindstedt

Ilkka Lindstedt is University Lecturer in Islamic theology at the Faculty of Theology. He holds a PhD and title of docent in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Helsinki. He has worked on early Islam, Arabic historiography, and Arabic epigraphy.

His research looks at early Islam through theories of identity formation and group behavior. He utilizes in particular the social identity approach, a framework developed in social psychology. 

The argument put forward is that the Quran and Arabic epigraphy of the seventh century CE do not yet evince a distinctively Islamic identity or rites but, rather, the “Believers” (the name of the ingroup in the early sources) included some Jews and Christians. The Quran and epigraphy feature instances of intercommunal and intracommunal discourse and polemics that help to trace aspects and developments of the nascent identity.