ABSTRACT
Over the course of at least the past two centuries, scholars have devoted a number of studies to the discernible roles played by ideologies associated with constituents of the “Gnostic World” in the conceptual and historical development of both the Jewish and the Christian religions. Less attention, however, has been given to the ways in which Islam may have interacted with some of these same gnostic movements. The present essay offers a brief survey of this understudied topic. But before addressing questions about possible gnostic currents flowing through early Islam, we need to specify the spatial and temporal parameters of the materials this particular essay will discuss.
