JSAI 49 (2020)

CONTENTS Y. Friedmann The scholarly oeuvre of Professor Ella Landau- i Tasseron Ella Landau-Tasseron — List of Publications vii Christian J. Robin Allāh avant Muḥammad 1 Haggai BenShammai “The Qurʾān has been brought down in seven modes of 147 articulation”: on possible parallels (or antecedents) to an old Islamic tradition Adam Silverstein Unmasking maskh: the transformation of Jews into 177 “apes, driven away” (Qurʾān 7:166) in Near Eastern context Miklos Muranyi Visited places on the Prophet’s track in Mecca and 217 Medina David Cook Was Kaʿb al-Aḥbār a prophet in Syria? 231 Jonathan Brockopp Ar. 3001 and the apotheosis of Mālik b. Anas 249 Andreas Görke Criteria for dating early tafsīr traditions: the exegetical 275 traditions and variant readings of Abū Mijlaz Lāḥiq b. Ḥumayd Amikam Elad Al-Masjid al-Aqṣā during the Umawī period: seven 339 miḥrābs with seven domes Petra M. Sijpesteijn The Arabic script and language in the earliest papyri: 433 mirrors of change REVIEWS Yaacov Lev New studies on Aghlabī and Fāṭimī history: a review 495 article Vera B. Moreen Roberta Casagrande-Kim, Samuel Thrope and Raquel 501 Ukeles, eds. Romance and reason. Islamic trans-formations of the classical past ALLĀH AVANT MUḤAMMAD Christian Julien ROBIN CNRS Abstract Epigraphic evidence proves the existence of a polytheistic god named al-Lāh in preIslamic Arabia. Numerous theophoric personal names were formed with it. This proper name was probably derived from the general noun al-ʾilāh (“the god”). In Arabian onomastics, the predominant god is originally ʾĪl (the Arabian form of ʾĒl, the supreme god of the western Semites in 2nd millennium BCE). This name was gradually replaced in some areas by al-Lāh. It seems that al-Lāh was simply an Arabic translation of ʾĒl. In the 5th and 6th centuries CE, Christians whose mother tongue was Arabic called the monotheistic God al-ʾIlāh and shortened his name into Allāh, at least in Najrān. In addition, Quraysh endorsed the polytheistic god al-Lāh as the main deity of the temple of Mecca. It seems that the idea that this polytheistic god was identical to the monotheistic God of the Christians began to take form. On the one hand, it allowed people of Mecca to resist more effectively the monotheistic pressure of the Christian mission; on the other, it was likely to attract Christian pilgrims to the Meccan temple, as well as to fairs associated with this pilgrimage. Keywords Arabia, pre-Islamic period, history of religions, God, Allāh, Arabian epigraphy, polytheism, monotheism “THE QURʾĀN HAS BEEN BROUGHT DOWN IN SEVEN MODES OF ARTICULATION”: ON POSSIBLE PARALLELS (OR ANTECEDENTS) TO AN OLD ISLAMIC TRADITION* Haggai Ben-Shammai The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Abstract According to an early Islamic tradition, the Qurʾān has been brought down (unzila) in seven “modes of articulation” (aḥruf). It has been quoted, discussed, and interpreted for many centuries, starting in the second century AH, in several branches and genres of Islamic literature: collections of traditions (ḥadīth), Qurʾān exegesis (tafsīr), traditional “Qurʾān sciences” (ʿulūm al-Qurʾān), works on the history of the text of the Qurʾān, and biographic  Je remercie Laïla Nehmé, Guillaume Dye et Andreas Kaplony qui ont bien voulu relire ce texte et me faire part de leurs observations. Je dois également à Jérôme Norris plusieurs références aux épigraphies du nord de l’Arabie et diverses corrections. * This article is presented to Ella Landau-Tasseron, a colleague and friend for several decades and an innovative scholar, with much appreciation and warm wishes. An early (Hebrew) version of this paper was delivered as the annual Shlomo Pines Lecture at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, in January 2001. I am very much indebted to my colleagues and friends Profs. Etan Kohlberg and Meir Bar-Asher for kindly reading a draft of this paper and for their remarks. I am also indebted to the anonymous reviewer for the helpful remarks. lexicons. A review of these sources as well as approaches of modern research may lead to the conclusion that there are two possible options for the “original” meaning of the term aḥruf: 1) modes of understanding or interpretation of the Qurʾān; 2) dialects of the language spoken by the Arab tribes at the time of Muḥammad. A Rabbinic homily on the revelation of God at Mount Sinai includes an interesting explanation of the term “voices” (Exodus 20:15) in the plural as a description of the voice of God which the Israelites heard at this occasion. Accordingly, the voice was indeed one, but each person heard a message that suited his or her individual capacity. This homily, which exists in various compilations, could have been available in an Arabic version at a relatively early date in places with a considerable Arabic speaking Jewish population. It could have also reached the attention of Muslims, and consequently lead to the acceptance of a variety of meanings and explications to one officially recognized text. This could later open the door to legitimizing non-official variant readings described as representatives of tribal dialects (lughāt). Keywords aḥruf, Qurʾān, articulation modes, variant readings, tafsīr UNMASKING MASKH: THE TRANSFORMATION OF JEWS INTO “APES, DRIVEN AWAY” (QURʾĀN 7: 166) IN NEAR EASTERN CONTEXT Adam Silverstein The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Abstract This article seeks to contribute to our understanding of the Qurʾānic idea that a group of Jews were punished for desecrating the Sabbath by being turned into apes and driven-away (Qurʾān 7:166). First, I survey and engage critically with recent studies that treat this topic. Following this, I attempt to broaden the framework of enquiry considerably by showing that for Near Eastern monotheists on the eve of Islam, the divine transformation of sinners into “driven away animals” resonated loudly. A selection of Near Eastern materials that have not hitherto been drawn on in this context is introduced, including The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Prayer of Nabonidus, the Biblical Book of Daniel (both the Masoretic Text and Greek versions thereof), Midrashic of the Biblical Book of Esther, and Jacob of Serug's Homily on Daniel 4. Taken together, these sources allow us to demonstrate that on the eve of Islam, Jews and Christians were well aware of the idea that God can punish the disobedient by  It is a pleasure to offer this article in honour of Prof. Ella Landau-Tasseron, who has set an inspiring example as a scholar and as a supportive colleague. I would like to thank Christopher Melchert and Uri Rubin for commenting on a draft of this article. animalizing and banishing them. It is within this broad context that Qurʾān 7:166 is to be understood. Keywords Qurʾān, Jews, monkeys, Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 4, animalization, banishment AR. 3001 AND THE APOTHEOSIS OF MĀLIK B. ANAS Jonathan Brockopp Pennsylvania State University Abstract Mālik b. Anas (d. 179/795) is much more than a famous jurist from Medina and the author of al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, he is also known as a larger-than-life figure who founded the Mālikī school of law. His followers recorded the most mundane details of his life, and he even appeared in dreams after his death, continuing to guide his devotees. In this article, I hope to trace some of the process by which Mālik attained this extraordinary status. It is my contention that whatever Mālik’s personal gifts may have been, scholarly authority is ultimately produced by a community of followers. It is their selective memory of his life, and their transmission of his words, that help to establish his authority. In the case of Mālik, this process coincides with the transformation of scholarly writings into books, in which the master’s words were carefully preserved verbatim and transmitted to future generations. Eventually, as Mālik’s authority increased, so also devotion to his Muwaṭṭaʾ increased. We can see this process in the physical copies of this text, preserved in manuscript. While the earliest manuscripts are simple, utilitarian vehicles for recording words, later manuscripts, such as the magnificent volume preserved in the Chester Beatty library in Dublin, display impressive techniques of calligraphy and illumination, normally reserved for the Qurʾān. Keywords Mālik b. Anas, Islamic law, Arabic manuscripts, authority, Muwaṭṭaʾ  Support for this research came from the History Department, the Center for Humanities and Information, and the Center for Global Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. I have presented portions of this paper at two meetings of the American Academy of Religion, at a workshop at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and at a workshop at the University of Maryland. I am particularly grateful to Anna Bigelow, Sheila Blair, Antoine Borrut, Barry Flood, Kambiz Ghanea Bassiri, Leor Halevi, Gudrun Krämer, Nicola Denzey Lewis, Richard McGregor and the reviewer of this article for their constructive comments. WAS KAʿB AL-AḤBĀR A PROPHET IN SYRIA? David Cook Rice University Abstract Kaʿb al-Aḥbār’s many apocalyptic prophecies as recorded in the early Syrian collection of Nuʿaym b. Ḥammād, and mainly focused around the middle Syrian city of Ḥimṣ raise the question: on what authority did he issue these prophecies? This article examines some of these prophecies, and comes to the conclusion that Kaʿb was most likely viewed as a prophet or at least with prophetic capabilities. Keywords Prophecy, Syria, early Islam, apocalypticism, judgement AL-MASJID AL-AQṢĀ DURING THE UMAWĪ PERIOD: SEVEN MIḤRĀBS WITH SEVEN DOMES* Amikam Elad The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Abstract This article deals with one of the architectural components of the Umawī al-Masjid al-Aqṣā1 during ʿAbd al-Malik’s reign (r. 65/685-86/705), namely, the existence of seven miḥrābs under seven domes, most probably in the southern part (wall?) of the mosque. It also discusses the controversy among early Muslim scholars, who flourished from the end of the first/seventh to the mid-second/eighth century, regarding the miḥrāb (pl. maḥārīb) in the mosques, mainly according to ḥadīth literature. Keywords Early Umawīs, Muʿāwiya, ʿAbd al-Malik, ḥadīth literature, Arculf/Adomnán, miḥrāb, early Islamic mosques, The Dome of the Rock, al-Aqṣā Mosque, Mediaeval Islamic Jerusalem * I sincerely thank the anonymous reviewers for critically reading the manuscript. Their valuable comments were helpful and stimulating and have been partially incorporated in this work; I would also like to extend my thanks to the late Prof. Patricia Crone for her detailed criticism and important comments on my article and to the invaluable help of Professors Harald Motzki and Andreas Görke, who read the last part of the article. 1 By this phrase I refer to the congregational (Friday) mosque on the Ḥaram, which is often termed in the early, as well as later sources, “al-Masjid alAqṣā”; noteworthy is that this term also means the entire Ḥaram in Jerusalem: see Kaplony, The Ḥaram, pp. 35-36, 224, 373-375; Rosen-Ayalon, al-Ḥaram al-sharīf, p. 5; al-Ratrout, al-Aqṣā mosque, pp. 151, 209; Nees, Early Islamic art in Jerusalem, p. 10. CRITERIA FOR DATING EARLY TAFSĪR TRADITIONS: THE EXEGETICAL TRADITIONS AND VARIANT READINGS OF ABŪ MIJLAZ LĀḤIQ B. ḤUMAYD Andreas Görke University of Edinburgh Abstract The question of the beginnings of Qurʾānic exegesis has been highly controversial in Western scholarship for more than a century, with positions ranging from a beginning of exegesis at the time of the Prophet Muḥammad to its emergence not before the first half of the second/eighth century. The opposing positions arise from very different approaches to the sources taken by different scholars as well as the underlying assumptions that guide their research. This article aims to overcome these differences by developing criteria that allow for the dating of allegedly early exegetical traditions and for the assessment of the reliability of their ascription to specific authorities of the first/seventh century. These criteria will then be applied to the exegetical traditions attributed to Abū Mijlaz Lāḥiq b. Ḥumayd, a Baṣran scholar who died sometime before 110/728. The article will show that the traditions circulated in the name of Abū Mijlaz must be considered to go back to him and thus allow us to get an insight into Qurʾānic exegesis in the first century. It will also demonstrate that the focus on minor figures, rather than on major authorities, is the most promising approach to unearthing authentic traditions from the first century of Islam. Keywords Qurʾānic exegesis, tafsīr, methodology, early Islam, Abū Mijlaz Lāḥiq b. Ḥumayd, variant readings, qirāʾāt VISITED PLACES ON THE PROPHET’S TRACK IN MECCA AND MEDINA Miklos Muranyi Bonn Abstract To my knowledge, it was Ignaz Goldziher in his Muhammedanische Studien who dealt with the consecration of memorial places (“Gedenkorte”) in early Islam for the first time, on the assumption that these places had been neglected in the earliest times.2 As outlined  A special note of thanks is due to Prof. Yohanan Friedmann for his reading and correcting this article with numerous questions and suggestions. 2 Muhammedanische Studien (Halle 1890), vol. 2, p. 305 et sqq. elsewhere,3 we have textual evidence supporting the consecration or veneration of some well-known places, where the Prophet took a rest or was active, already at the end of the first century AH. The evolution of such spots to celebrated places after Muḥammad’s death have been primarily transmitted in the topographical reports about Mecca and Medina, i.e., in the essential work by al-Azraqī (d. about 250/865): Akhbār Makka wa-mā jāʾa fī-hā min al-āthār,4 in the Taʾrīkh al-Madīna al-munawwara by ʿUmar b. Shabba (d. around 264/877)5 and also in collections of ḥadīth. Keywords ḥajj, ablution, muṣallā, Baqīʿ, ḥums, ḥill, Namira, ʿArafa ARABIC SCRIPT AND LANGUAGE IN THE EARLIEST PAPYRI: MIRRORS OF CHANGE Petra M. Sijpesteijn Leiden University Abstract With the arrival of the Arabs in Egypt in the mid-seventh century CE, Arabic became the third administrative language, joining Greek and Coptic, in which most Egyptians continued to operate. Arabic papyri produced by the Muslim administration use standardised administrative formulae, which were shared throughout the Islamic empire, but which were consistently different from local practices. This suggests that these formulae have a common origin and that the Arab conquerors introduced them. The script and orthography in the Arabic papyri, however, do not show a similar consistency, pointing to the introduction of various scribal practices representing local Arabian customs. As scripts continued to develop, one writing style appears to have become dominant, but this was not a linear process. Archaic and newer letter forms existed side by side, sometimes even in the same document. The role of the chancery, where interaction with Coptic and Greek practices took place as well, was crucial. The development of a uniform chancery writing style also led to a divergence between the way texts were penned in different social domains, depending on the legal, political and commercial/private context. One striking example is the development of the Muranyi, “The emergence of holy places in early Islam…,” JSAI 39 (2012): 165-171. See Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (Leiden, 1967), vol. 1, p. 344. 5 See ibid., vol. 1, pp. 345-346.  This work was supported by the European Research Council under Grant number 683194. The article is based on a paper delivered in April 2013 in Paris at the conference entitled ‘Le contexte de naissance de l’écriture arabe: écrit et écritures araméens et arabes au 1er millénnaire après J.-C.,’ organised by Laïla Nehmé, Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet and Muriel Débie. I would like to thank Abdullah AlHatlani, Robert Hoyland, Ahmad al-Jallad, Fokelien Kootstra, Michael Macdonald, Marijn van Putten and Khaled Younes for their very useful comments. Any mistakes remain, of course, my own. For the bibliographical abbreviations used throughout the article, see the list of abbreviations in the bibliography. 3 4 logogram that appears in Arabian inscriptions as well as early Arabic papyri and Qurʾān manuscripts with the meaning ‘son of’ and follows the writing of Nabatean bar, ‘son’. This article traces the developments in administrative Arabic writings from Egypt, connecting them to political and social changes taking place in the first hundred years of Muslim rule in the province. Keywords Egypt, Arabia, Arabic, Aramaic, Nabatean, papyri, chancery, administration