In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire - читать бесплатно онлайн полную версию книги автора Tom Holland (ч. 58)

6 More Questions Than Answers

Daniel: 7.7.

Sebeos: 142.

From an anonymous anti-Christian pamphlet. Quoted by Sizgorich (2009), pp. 1–2.

For the evolution of the word “Muslim” from its original Qur’anic usage, see Donner (2010), pp. 57–8 and 71–2.

Qur’an: 47.4.

Ibid.: 4.133.

This suggestion has its roots in traditions that are even older than the first Muslim biographies of the Prophet. A Christian chronicler, Jacob of Edessa, for instance, writing at the end of the seventh century, referred to him as going “for trade to the lands of Palestine, Arabia and Syrian Phoenicia” (quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 165).

This has been most radically argued by Günter Lüling, who proposes that the Meccans were largely Christian, and that the original core of the Qur’an consisted of Christian hymns. For the suggestion that Jews had settled in Mecca, and powerfully influenced Muhammad, see Torrey.

Armstrong, p. 68. The thesis derives, via Montgomery Watt, from the Jesuit—and scabrously Islamophobic—scholar Henri Lammens.

Qur’an: 6.92. Muslim tradition takes for granted that the phrase refers to Mecca, but there is nothing in the Qur’an itself that would justify such a presumption. Adding to the general fog of mystery enveloping it is the fact that the phrase literally means the “Mother of Settlements.”

See Crone (1987a), p. 6, and for the implausibility of Mecca as a great trading hub, the entire book.

See Cosmas Indicopleustes.

Most striking of all is the absence of any mention of Mecca in Procopius, since in one passage of

The History of the Wars

(1.19), the historian provides a remarkably detailed survey of the western coast of Arabia. This is testimony to the range and depth of Roman knowledge of the peninsula, and to the seeming lack of any Meccan sphere of influence.

Qur’an: 48.24.

As Crone (1987a, p. 134) points out, the silence “is so striking that attempts have been made to remedy it.” For the forced nature of these attempts, see ibid., pp. 134–6.

The Byzantine-Arab Chronicle

: 34. The dating of the

Chronicle

to 741 is based on its latest references, but Hoyland (1997, p. 426) suggests that it may well be truncated, and floats the possibility that it may actually date from 750.

See “The Letter of John of Sedreh,” the record of a discussion about holy texts held in 644 between the patriarch and an Arab emir, a full translation of which appears in Saadi. Although Saadi himself dates the document to the mid-seventh century, others place its composition in the early eighth century. If correct, the later dating makes the absence of any reference to the Qur’an even more striking. See Reinink (1993).

John of Damascus: 769B.

Qur’an: 24.2.

Quoted by Lester, p. 283.

A useful list of the earliest-known Qur’ans in existence—not all of which were found in Sana’a—is at

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Mss/

Admittedly, Wansbrough—one of the principal proponents of this thesis—was typically tentative when he suggested that the Qur’an reached its final form only towards the end of the eighth century. Scholars of the calibre of Gerald Hawting and Andrew Rippin still argue that it took decades, at least, for the holy text to reach anything like its final form.

Qur’an: 3.7.

Ibid.: 111.3. The punishment is a pun on Abu Lahab’s name, which means “Man of Flame” in Arabic.

Ibid.: 50.16.

For a detailed and intellectually thrilling exposition of this point, see

The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam

by Gerald Hawting: a ground-breaking work that has resulted in a paradigm shift in the way that scholars understand the role of the

Mushrikun

in the Qur’an.

Qur’an: 43.19.

Ibid.: 10.66.

Ibid.: 7.74.

Ibid.: 30.1.

Ibid.: 18.83.

For the dating and political context of the Syriac story of Alexander, see Reinink (1985 and 2002).

“A Christian Legend Concerning Alexander”: 146, in

The History of Alexander the Great.

For a detailed analysis of the strikingly precise correspondences between the two stories, see Van Bladel, pp. 180–3. As he conclusively demonstrates, “they relate the same story in precisely the same order of events using many of the same particular details” (p. 182).

Qur’an: 82.1–5.

Ibid.: 30.56. It is telling, perhaps, that the phrase appears as the conclusion to the sura which opens with God’s prophecy that the Romans will emerge victorious in their war against the Persians.

Ibid.: 7.34.

Ibid.: 18.26.

Ibid.: 18.13.

The Qur’an refers to them as

al-Majus

, or Magians (22.17): the word applied by the Greeks to Persian priests since the time of Cyrus.

Qur’an: 4.136.

Ibid.: 3.3.

Justinian Code: 1.5.12 (summer 527).

Qur’an: 9.29. The precise meaning of this verse is notoriously problematic. For a sample of the various attempts to make sense of it, see Ibn Warraq (2002), pp. 319–86.

Qur’an: 5.82 and 9.34.

Ibid.: 5.47.

Ibid.: 5.116.

Ibid.: 4.157.

Ibid.: 85.4.

Irfan Shahid, the leading expert on the martyrs of Najran, is studiedly agnostic about the possibility: see (1971), p. 193.

See, for instance, Bishop and especially Philonenko.

Qur’an: 6.59.

Ibid.: 87.18–19.

Ibid.: 52.24. Not surprisingly, this verse has always featured prominently in the Muslim homoerotic tradition.

Ibid.: 44.54.

For more on this, and other parallels between the Greek and Qur’anic notions of paradise, see the brilliant online article by Saleh. As he points out (p. 54)—albeit possibly with tongue in cheek—the very word used in the Qur’an to signify the heavenly maidens—

hur—

has an echo of Hera’s name.

According to much later Muslim sources, Mani’s followers actually termed him “the Seal of the Prophets”—but this is most likely to have been a backward projection. Manichaeans did use the word “seal” to refer to Mani—but implying “confirmation” rather than “terminus.” See Stroumsa (1986b).

Quoted by Lieu, p. 86.

The words are supposedly those of Mani himself. Quoted by Boyce (1975b), p. 29. Manichaeism had reached North Africa within a few decades of Mani’s death, and China by the mid-sixth century.

See de Blois (1995).

From an imperial edict of either 297 or 302. Quoted by Dignas and Winter, p. 217

Synodicon Orientale

, p. 255.

Al-Aswad bin Ya’fur, in Alan Jones (1996, Vol. 1), p. 148.

Qur’an: 53.19–21.

All but one of the mentions of idols in the Qur’an feature in the context of its retelling of biblical stories. The one allusion to contemporary “idolatrous beliefs” (22.30) seems to refer to blood spilled on sacrificial altars, rather than idols

per se

. See Crone (2010), pp. 170–2.

Qur’an: 53.27.

See, for instance, his letter to the Colossians: 2.18.

Canon 35 of the Council of Laodicea.

Crone (2010), p. 171.

Qur’an: 4.119, 6.138 and 6.121, respectively.

Ibid.: 4.121.

Qur’an: 6.99. Mecca, in the laconic phrase of Donner (1981), “is located in an area ill suited to agriculture” (p. 15).

Ibid.: 56.63–4.

The poem is exceedingly obscure. A commentary by a later Muslim commentator sought to explain its meaning: “Badr and Kutayfah are two places, the distance between which is vast. It is as though they have come together due to the speed of this camel.” Poem and commentary alike appear in

Six Early Arab Poets

, p. 95. My thanks to Salam Rassi for the translation.

Qur’an: 3.97.

Khuzistan Chronicle

: 38 (translation by Salam Rassi). The authorship is dated to the 660s.

Qur’an: 3.96.

Qur’an: 3.97. The Arabic for “place” in this verse is

maqam

Ibid.: 2.125.

For the difficulty of squaring the Qur’anic accounts of the

Maqam Ibrahim

with the stone of the same name in Mecca, see Hawting (1982)—an essay to which this chapter is hugely indebted. Although Hawting himself does not allude to the sanctuary at Mamre, he cites an intriguing Muslim tradition in which Abraham is guided to the House at Bakka by three heavenly beings. As Hawting points out (p. 41), “this is reminiscent of Abraham’s three visitors in the Genesis story, one of whom could be identified with the Lord before whom Abraham ministered in the

maqom

”—which took place, of course, at Mamre.

Qur’an: 37.133–8.

See Chapter 4, n. 90, above.

Qur’an: 2.128.

The Quraysh, along with Mecca, Muhammad and someone called Majid, are mentioned in the final line of the papyrus fragment that also name-checks the Battle of Badr for the first time. Its editor dated this fragment to the mid-eighth century (Grohmann (1963), text 71). A group of people called the Qrshtn are mentioned in a south Arabian inscription dating from the AD 270s, and some scholars have interpreted this as a possible allusion to Qurayshi women. However, that theory is most implausible, because the Qrshtn seem to be ambassadors on a trade mission.

This is mentioned by a ninth-century historian named Ibn Qutayba, and is quoted by Shahid (1989), p. 356. It is indicative of an enduring ambiguity in the Muslim sources that Qusayy, although supposedly born in Mecca, is described as having been settled on the Palestinian frontier.

See Margoliouth, p. 313. It is telling that a theory floated by Muslim commentators suggests that “Quraysh” derived from the Arabic word

taqarrush

—“gathering”—another word that powerfully conveys a sense of

foederati

. The great scholar al-Azraqi wrote, “It is said that the Quraysh were so named on account of [their] gathering (

tajammu

) around Quşay … For in some dialects of the Arabs,

tajammu

(= meeting/gathering) is referred to as

taqarrush

” (p. 108; translation by Salam Rassi, to whom I am also indebted for the reference from Margoliouth).

See, for instance, Shahid (1995), p. 788, for the strong likelihood that Arethas could speak Syriac.

Qur’an: 10.61.

By and large, commentators on the Qur’an explained the summer and winter trips as being to Syria and Yemen, respectively. However, there was a raft of alternative explanations, too. See Crone (1987b), pp. 205–11.

Jacob of Edessa: 326.

Qur’an: 2.198.

Ibid.: 47.10.

Zukhruf

, a word that is used to mean “ornamentation” in the Qur’an, has been plausibly derived from

zograpsos

—a Greek word meaning a “painter of shields.” See Shahid (1989), p. 507.

Qur’an: 1.6.

Ibid.: 6.25.

Ibid.: 8.31, 25.5 and 46.17, for instance.

Ibid.: 26.192–6. Muslim commentators invariably equated the phrase “the Trustworthy Spirit” with the angel Gabriel—but the Qur’an never actually states that the Prophet received his revelations from Gabriel. Indeed, to anyone familiar with the much later tradition that Muhammad was addressed by an angel over the course of his prophetic career, visions of light and supernatural voices are notable by their absence from the Qur’an. As Uri Rubin (1995) has argued, “the basic tale of Muhammad’s first revelations accords with biblical rather than quranic conventions, and the story was initially designed to meet apologetic needs” (p. 109).

Ibid.: 41.17.

Ibid.: 4.100.

100

Ibid.: 8.1–2.

101

Ibid.: 8.26.

102

Ibid.: 2.119.

103

Ibid.: 33.9.

104

For a tracing of its likely evolution, see Crone (1994).

105

Qur’an: 4.99.

106

As with virtually every aspect of the Arab invasions, precision is impossible. One source claims that the task force numbered three hundred, another that it amounted to five thousand.

107

It is typical of the murk of the sources for the Arab invasions that in one account he is named “Bryrdn.”

108

The unusually specific time and date derive from a notice in a Syrian chronicle written some time around the year 640, and which in turn seems to draw on a near-contemporary record. See Palmer, Brock and Hoyland, pp. 18–19.

109

Procopius:

On Buildings

, 2.9.4.

110

For the decayed state of towns in Syria and Palestine in the wake of the plague, see Kennedy (1985).

111

Sozomen: 6.38.

112

Anastasius of Sinai: 1156C.

113

As with the origins of the Qur’an, so with the course of the Arab conquests: the range of scholarly opinion is dizzying. Christian sources are contemporary, but too patchy to provide anything like a coherent narrative; Arabic sources are plentiful, but frustratingly late. The contradictory nature of the evidence from Arab historians for the Battle of the Yarmuk is best set out in Donner’s magisterial survey of the Islamic conquests (1981, pp. 133–48). However, even he comes across as a model of guarded optimism when compared to Lawrence Conrad, whose ground-breaking essay on the conquest of the obscure Levantine island of Arwad served as a landmine beneath the entire project of reconstructing the Arab invasions from Muslim sources. For the most recent attempt to clear up the mess, see Howard-Johnston (2010), who locates the decisive Roman defeat not at the Yarmuk but near Damascus.

114

Anastasius of Sinai: 1156C.

115

Baladhuri, p. 210.

116

Given, as Donner (1981) wistfully comments, “the chronologically ambiguous nature of many of the accounts about the conquest, it is impossible to do more than guess at the true dates involved” (p. 212).

117

Sebeos, 137.

118

Tabari: Vol. 12, p. 64.

119

Qur’an: 4.36.

120

Contemporaneous reports on the battle outside Gaza seem to imply that Muhammad was still alive at the time. The first text to mention the existence of an Arabian prophet, and which has been most plausibly dated to the summer of 634, refers to “the prophet who

has

appeared to the Saracens” (

Teachings of Jacob

: 5.16) Another, dated to around 640, and the first to mention him by name, describes the battle as having been won by “the Arabs of Muhammad” (quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 120.) For a survey of later Christian and Samaritan sources that presume the survival of Muhammad into 634, see Crone and Cook, pp. 152–3, n. 7. As they point out, “The convergence is impressive”—and proof of just how slippery is our evidence for the Prophet’s life.

121

The saying is attributed to an early eighth-century scholar, Mujahid bin Jabr (quoted by Hakim, p. 161). Muslim opinion on the virtues—or otherwise—of Umar covers a broad spectrum.

122

Sebeos, 139.

123

Qur’an: 5.33.

124

Constitution of Medina: Document A.9, as reproduced in Serjeant (1978), p. 19.

125

My thanks to Michael Kulikowski for this.

126

It is only fair to point out that Christian authors, looking to explain the defeat of the Romans, cast the Saracen armies as no less teeming. In fact, as Donner (1981) has pointed out, “perhaps the most striking fact about the armies that carried out the Islamic conquest of the Fertile Crescent was their small size” (p. 231).

127

Sebeos, 136.

128

According to the best estimate, Arab

foederati

“may have numbered two to five times the size of the available regular and garrison troops” (Kaegi (1992), p. 43).

129

Sebeos: p. 141.

130

Teachings of Jacob

: 5.16.

131

Qur’an: 5.20.

132

Hans Jansen has suggested, very plausibly, that “these stories about Jews who had entered into talks with the enemies of Islam and were killed as a consequence had as their primary aim the cowing of the Christians of the Middle East” (p. 134). (My gratitude to Liz Waters for the translation.)

133

Sebeos, 135.

134

From the so-called “Secrets of Rabbi Simon ben Yohai,” quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 309. The rabbi had lived back in the second century AD, but the vision of the Arab conquests attributed to him seems to have been contemporaneous with the events it describes.

135

Ibid., p. 311.

136

Subsequent Islamic tradition would explain this as a title bestowed on Umar by Muhammad. However, it is clear—from both contemporaneous Jewish records and later Muslim histories—that the title actually derived from the Jews of Jerusalem and was prompted by Umar’s activities on the Temple Mount. See Bashear (1990).

137

Qur’an: 16.41.

138

John of Nikiu, p. 200.

139

A recently discovered inscription in the Arabian desert south of Palestine reads simply, “In the name of God, I, Zuhayr, wrote [this] at the time Umar died in the year twenty-four.” Quoted by Hoyland (2006), p. 411.

140

Qur’an: 2.177.

141

Sebeos, 175.

142

Qur’an: 49.9.

143

Sebeos, 176.

144

From a Christian tract written around 680 and quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 141. Although the author was a Syrian, Hoyland convincingly argues that his informant was an Arab.

145

Dhu al-Thafinat, quoted by Sizgorich (2009), p. 206.

146

Qur’an: 16.106.

147

Muhamad b. Ahmad al-Malati, quoted by Sizgorich (2009), p. 215.

148

From the Christian chronicle mentioned above, and quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 136.

149

Ibid.

150

Padwick, p. 119.