Where the World Religions Were Placed: A Journey Across the Atlas Regions

The land between the Tigris and Euphrates holds the oldest recorded religion the atlas covers, Mesopotamian Religion, alongside Mandaeism and Yazidism, two living traditions of the same ground. The atlas notes that the Yazidi placement is geographic, since the tradition also connects north into Kurdish Anatolia.

Ancient Egyptian Religion is placed in the Nile valley, together with Gnosticism, Hermeticism and Neoplatonism. The atlas points out that the last three were formed in Greek-speaking Alexandria, and that the Hermetic texts were long taken as ancient Egyptian wisdom until Isaac Casaubon dated them to the early Christian centuries in 1614.

Judaism, Christianity, Samaritanism, the Druze Faith and Canaanite Religion are placed on the eastern Mediterranean coast, making it the densest region in the scheme. The atlas stresses that the Hebrew Bible's quarrel with Baal was between neighbours who shared a language and much of a pantheon.

The Iranian plateau holds Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and the Bahai Faith, three very different situations across some three thousand years. Manichaeism began here and reached both the Roman world and China before dying out, while the largest Zoroastrian community is now the Parsis of India.

Ancient Greek Religion is placed here, understood as the Aegean world and its coastal settlements rather than the modern state. The atlas observes that the region is too small for what it produced: Pythagoras was born on Samos but taught in southern Italy, and the philosophical schools did their most consequential work in Alexandria.

Roman Religion, Mithraism and Pythagoreanism are placed on the Italian peninsula, and the atlas admits that two of the three are argued. Mithraism looks Persian, but David Ulansey and others have argued that the Roman mystery cult was a new construction using Persian names, which is why it sits here rather than under Persia.

Islam is placed on the Arabian Peninsula on the strength of Mecca and Medina, so the region marks a birthplace and almost nothing else. The atlas notes that Islam's intellectual centres moved within a century to Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba, and that pre-Islamic Arabian religion has no separate entry.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are placed here, making it the most productive single region in the scheme. The atlas flags the strain of Bon, which is Tibetan, and notes that Buddhism outgrew the region almost immediately and is now largest well outside it.

Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese Folk Religion are placed along the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. The atlas explains that the boundary problem is one of export: Confucianism shaped Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese society so deeply that calling it Chinese describes where it began and not where it lived.

Shinto and Tenrikyo are placed in the Japanese archipelago, and both are effectively confined to it, which is unusual in this scheme. The atlas notes that Shinto's modern shape owes much to the Meiji state's separation of it from Buddhism after 1868 and to the Allied directive of 1945 that ended its official status.