Qur’ānic Anbiyā’: Homiletic Appropriation of a Christian Polemic?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66362/iji.v1i1.3Abstract
The Qur'ān mentions a number of individuals, including some familiar from biblical tradition - both the Jewish "Old" Testament, and the Christian "New" Testament. These qur'ānic mentions range from detailed narratives to brief allusions. Sometimes, the individuals are identified as a “messenger” (rasūl, which occurs 332 times in the qur’ānic text) and/or “prophet” (nabiyy, 75 times).
For the concept of "prophet(s)", the Qur'ān employs the singular form (nabiyy), as well as two plural forms: the broken Arabic plural (anbiyā') and the common Semitic plural (nabiyyūn/nabiyyīn). The plurals occur in three earlier (i.e. Meccan) passages (Q 19:58; 17:55; 39:69) and 18 later (i.e. Medinan) passages (Q 2:61; 2:91; 2:136; 2:177; 2:213; 3:21; 3:80; 3:81; 3:84; 3:112; 3:181; 4:69; 4:155: 4:163; 5:20; 5:44; 33:7; 33:40). While later Arabic literature on the prophets commonly uses anbiyā’ (as in the literary genre “Stories of the Prophets” - qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā’ , and even a qur’ānic sūra, Q 21, is entitled Sūrat al-Anbiyā’), the Qur’ān prefers the sound – and common Semitic – plural form of the word, employing nabiyyūn/nabiyyīn 3x more frequently than anbiyā’.
References
A. Neuwirth, "Locating the Qurʾan and Early Islam in the 'Epistemic Space' of Late Antiquity" in C, Bakhos and M. Cook (eds.), Islam and Its Past: Jahiliyya, Late Antiquity, and the Qur'an (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017): 165-185, 166. For some attempts at precising geographic and other allusions found in the Qur’ān see T. Tabataba’i, “The Place of Archaeological Studies and Historical Geography in Contemporary Interpretations,” Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences, 6112 (2022): 442-457. On the importance of (initial) audience for understanding a text, see e.g. S. Mason, "Of Audience and Meaning: reading Josephus’ Bellum Iudaicum in the context of a Flavian audience." in J. Edmondson, S. Mason and J. Rives (eds.), Josephus and Jewish history in Flavian Rome and Beyond (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005), 71-100.
A. Neuwirth, “Qur'an and History–a Disputed Relationship. Some Reflections on Qur'anic History and History in the Qur'an,” Journal of Qur'anic Studies 5/1 (2003): 1-18.
E.g. Tabari ad Q 3:21; Tafsīr Jalālayn, ad Q 2:61; Rāzī ad Q 3:183; Reynolds, “Killers of the Prophets”, 24- 25; for the identity of Zechariah in Jewish and Christian tradition, see also S. Blank, "The Death of Zechariah in Rabbinic Literature." Hebrew Union College Annual 12 (1937): 327-346. The Gospel of Matthew appears to have conflated two Zecharaiahs – the father of John and the one in 2 Chron 24. On this conflation, see e.g. I. Kalimi, “The Story about the Murder of the Prophet Zechariah in the Gospels and its Relation to Chronicles,” Revue Biblique 116/2 (April 2009): 246-261. My thanks to Steve Mason for bringing this discussion to my attention. Examples of the variety of glosses are: Ahl al-Kitāb, Bānī Isrā’īl, according to al-Tabari, ad Q 3:21; for Q 3:21 in relationship to Christian divisions (e.g. Jacobites and Nestorians), see the Tafsīr of al-Hawārī ad loc; according to Muqātil, ad Q 3:21, those who disbelieved in the signs of God were the kings of the Banī Isrā’īl from the Jews who did not read the book. In his reading, Muhammad is instructed to warn the Jews of the punishment that awaits them because they were of the religion that first killed their prophets and those who ordered justice.
E.g. al-Rāzī ad Q 2:61; Tabari ad Q 2:61.
For examples of rabbinic-qur’ānic linkages, see, e.g. the numerous works of R. Firestone, such as “The Problem of Sarah’s Identity in Islamic Exegetical Tradition” in The Muslim World 80/2 (1990): 65-71.
For a compelling argument that the achronological arrangement of the qur’ānic text may have allowed for interpretive fluidity, see J. Burton, Sources of Islamic Law: Islamic Theories of Abrogation. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019). For a critical approach to qur’ānic exegesis as indicative of the world and concerns of the interpreters see W. Saleh, The Formation of the Classical Tafsīr Tradition: The Quran Commentary of al-Thalabi (d. 427/1035), Texts and Studies on the Quran (Leiden: Brill, 2004).
For some examples of qur’ānic engagement with its milieu, see R. Firestone, "The Failure of a Jewish Program of Public Satire in the Squares of Medina." Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought 46/4 (1997): 439-453; S. Griffith, "Christian Lore and the Arabic Qur’ān: ‘The “Companions of the Cave’ in Surat al-Kahf and in Syriac Christian Tradition”, pp. 109-137 in G. Reynolds (ed.), The Qur’an in Its Historical Context (Routledge, 2007); K. Van Bladel, "Heavenly Cords and Prophetic Authority in the Quran and its Late Antique Context,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 70/2 (2007): 223-246; T. Tesei, “Some Cosmological Notions from Late Antiquity in Q 18: 60–65: The Quran in Light of Its Cultural Context," Journal of American Oriental Society 135/1 (2015): 19-32. For an argument of qur’ānic engagement with pre-Islamic Christian Arabic, see Günter Lüling, Über den Ur-Qurʾān. Ansätze zur Rekonstruktion vorislamischer christlicher Strophenlieder im Ur-Qurʾān (Erlangen: Verlagsbuchhandlung Hannelore Lüling, 1974) and the recent essays on his seminal work, Die Koranhermeneutik von Günter Lüling, ed. G. Tamer (Berlin: DeGruyter, 2019).
For discussion of exegetical use of asbāb al-nuzūl see A. Rippin, "The Function of asbāb al-nuzūl in Qur'ānic Exegesis." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 51/ 1 (1988): 1-20.
For a parallel discussion of Muhammad as rasūl, see W. Saleh, “The Preacher of the Meccan Qur'an: Deuteronomistic History and Confessionalism in Muḥammad's Early Preaching,” Journal of Qur'anic Studies 20/2 (2018): 74-111.
For an introductory overview of the overlap and distinctions of these two concepts, see the Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān articles “Prophets and Prophethood” (by Uri Rubin, in vol. iv: 289-307) and “Messenger” (by A.H. Mathias Zahniser, in vol. iii: 380-383). More recently, see the discussion of qur’ānic prophetology in S. Griffith, “Late Antique Christology in Qur’ānic Perspective,” pp. 33-68 in Die Koranhermeneutik von Günter Lüling, ed. G. Tamer (Berlin: DeGruyter, 2019)
For a general overview, see B. Halpern Amaru, "The Killing of the Prophets: Unraveling a Midrash." Hebrew Union College Annual (1983): 153-180; G. Hawting, “Killing the Prophets and Stoning the Messengers”, in Holger M. Zellentin (ed.), The Qur'an's Reformation of Judaism and Christianity: Return to the Origins (Routledge, 2019), 303-317; Reuven Firestone, "The Problematic of Prophecy: 2015 IQSA Presidential Address." Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association 1 (2016): 11-22.
For a recent overview of the various understandings of this concept in Islamic tradition, see D. Urvoy and M. Urvoy. Enquête sur le miracle coranique (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 2018); on the signs of prophethood in general, see also S. Stroumsa,"The Signs of Prophecy: The Emergence and Early Development of a Theme in Arabic Theological Literature, " Harvard Theological Review 78/1-2 (1985): 101-114.
For examples of other possible resonances with the Qur’ān, see e.g. J. Witztum, "Variant Traditions, Relative Chronology, and the Study of Intra-Quranic Parallels," pp 1-50 in Islamic Cultures, Islamic Contexts. Essays in Honor of Professor Patricia Crone, edited by A. Ahmed, B. Sadeghi, R. G. Hoyland, and A.Silverstein (Leiden: Brill, 2014). A tentative connection to traditions known to the Liber Graduum is mentioned on page 26, note 89. C. Segovia, "Reimagining the Early Quranic Milieu" also discusses the Book of Steps. R. Kitchen, "Making the Imperfect Perfect: The Adaptation of Hebrews 11 in the 9th Mēmrā of the Syriac Book of Steps," pp. 227-251 in The Reception and Interpretation of the Bible in Late Antiquity, edited by L. DiTommaso and L. Turcescu (Leiden: Brill, 2008).
Griffith, “Late Antique Christology,” 48; see also Acts 7:52; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15.
G. Stroumsa "From Anti-Judaism to Antisemitism in Early Christianity?" pp 1-26 in Contra Iudaeos: Ancient and Medieval Polemics between Christians and Jews, edited by O. Limor and G. Stroumsa (JCB Mohr, 1996).
G. Hawting, "Were There Prophets in the Jahiliyya?” in Bakhos and Cook, Islam and Its Past, 186-212; see also Hawting, “Killing the Prophets”; G. Hawting, The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam: From Polemic to History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); G. Reynolds, “On the Quran and the Theme of Jews as ‘Killers of the Prophets’” al-Bayān 10/2 (Dec 2012): 9-32 (for a fuller discussion of the nuances of the prophet-killing charge, including discussion of the traditions surrounding Muhammad’s relations with the Jewish groups of Yathrib).
In the exegetical literature, the qurbān of Adam’s sons is linked to that in Q 3:183, in which those who refuse the messengers God sends them demand that the messenger bring a sacrifice devoured by fire. See the extensive discussion of this theme in S. P. Brock, Fire from Heaven: Studies in Syriac Theology and Liturgy (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006).
In addition to the prophet-killing mentions, the Qur’ān also alludes to various instances in which individuals, including prophets, have been threatened with stoning: Noah, Q 26:116; Abraham, Q 19:46; Moses, Q 44:20; Shu’ayb, Q 11:91; one of the “companions of the cave” expresses fear of this punishment, Q 18:20; and it is also a punishment threatened (Q 36:18) to the messengers (al-mursalīn) in the parable of the “companions of the settlement” (ashab al-qarya , Q 36:13f.).
Joseph Horovitz, "Jewish Proper Names and Derivatives in the Koran." Hebrew Union College Annual 2 (1925): 145-227, p. 223.
Kitchen and Parmentier, Book of Steps 1, 186-188
Kitchen and Parmentier, Book of Steps 3, 66
Kitchen and Parmentier, Book of Steps 3, 100
On the “rhymed prose” of the Qur’ān, see e.g. Devin Stewart,”Sajʿ in the" Qurʾān": Prosody and Structure,” Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 15/2 (2013): 22-64. For discussion of Dibacchius: Clausulae and Qur'anic Rhythm” the origins of nabiyy see T. Izutsu, “Revelation as a Linguistic Concept in Islam,” Studies in Medieval Thought 5 (1962): 122-167, 154.
On Late Antique Christian interest in the biblical prophets, see, e.g. D. Satran, Biblical Prophets in Byzantine Palestine: Reassessing the Lives of the Prophets (Leiden: Brill, 1995)
On which, see D. Powers, Muhammad is not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).
Q 2:61, 91 and 4:155 are in passages relating to Moses and his people; the pericope containing Q 3:181 indicates that the prophet-killers said, among other things, that God had made them promise not to believe in a messenger unless he brought a qurbān consumed by heavenly fire (Q 3:183), a claim that resonates with 1 Kings 18:24.
Quoted in S. Brock, “Disputations in Syriac Literature,” pp. 159-174 in Disputation Literature in the Near East and Beyond, edited by E. Jiménez & C. Mittermayer, (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2020), 169.
R. Tottoli, Biblical Prophets in the Qur'an and Muslim Literature. Routledge, 2013; B. Wheeler, "Arab Prophets of the Qur'an and Bible." Journal of Qur'anic Studies 8/2 (2006): 24-57; G. Reynolds, The Qur'an and Journal of Arabic Literature (1990): 101-139. On qur’ānic meter, see e.g. D. Stewart, “Divine Epithets and the some additional reflections. its Biblical Subtext. (Routledge, 2010).
See e.g. W. Wright, A Grammar of the Arabic Language. Translated from the German of Caspari and Edited with Numerous Additions and Corrections. Third Edition. Revised by W. R. Smith and M.J. de Goeje. 2 vols. (Cambridge: The University Press, 1898), I, 169–70, 234–35, II, 234–35. The possibility of the Qur’ān reflecting different numbers of prophetic killings was first proposed to me at the Mu’minūn bi-lā hudūd conference in Marrakesh (April 2019). My thanks to the participants and organizers of that conference, and to Prof van Gelder, for his ever-helpful and patient guidance in Arabic grammar and literature.
See Wolfdietrich Fischer’s Grammatik, in the English translation by Jonathan Rodgers, A Grammar of Classical Arabic (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002) Revised 3rd ed., 54: “As a result of numerous analogical formations that have occurred in the system of plurals, in usage classical Arabic has given up the distinction among plurals largely in favor of a general plural category: collective plurals can replace individual plurals; the plural of a small number can function as a general plural.” My thanks to Prof. van Gelder for this reference.
See e.g. Rāzī ad Q 3:21 (in which the charge of prophet killing employs the sound plural in the phrase wa- yaqtulūna l-nabiyīna).
See the recent edition and translation, in 3 volumes: R. Kitchen and M. Parmentier (eds.), The Syriac Book of Steps: Syriac Text and English Translation (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press 2004; 2011; 2014). For discussion of its various aspects, see the essays in K. Heal and R. Kitchen (eds.), Breaking the Mind: New Studies in the Syriac Book of Steps (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2014). See also J. Corbett, "They Do Not Take Wives, or Build, or Work the Ground: Ascetic Life in the Early Syriac Church." Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 3/1 (2009): 3-20; R. Kitchen, “Becoming Perfect: The Maturing of Asceticism in the Liber Graduum, Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 2/1 (2009): 30-45.
See e.g. the discussion of J. L. Kugel, Traditions of the Bible: A Guide to the Bible as It Was at the Start of the Common Era (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1998)
S. Günther, "Muḥammad, the Illiterate Prophet: An Islamic Creed in the Qur'an and Qur'anic Exegesis." Journal of Qur'anic Studies 4/1 (2002): 1-26.
S. P. Brock, "Two Syriac dialogue poems on Abel and Cain." Le Muséon 113, no. 3 (2000): 333-375.
This paper was initially delivered at the International SBL in Berlin (9 August 2017) as part of the panel on Biblical Prophets, Muslim Prophets organized by the project on Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. My thanks to Camilla Adang for her invitation and subsequent support, the participants in the session for their helpful comments, and to Devin Stewart and Steve Mason who gave substantial feedback at a later stage. Any errors are my own. An expanded version appeared as “’Prophets’ and their Wrongful Killing: Homily or Hymn? Hearing a Qur’ānic Term and Refrain in the Light of Syriac Tradition” in SARA 3 (2023): 33-68. The present piece is an abridged version of the SARA publication, with some additional reflections.
William Graham, "The Earliest Meaning of' Qur'ān', “’Prophets’ and their Wrongful Killing”." Die Welt des Islams 23/1-4 (1984): 361-377.
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