Founding Gods, Inventing Nations: Conquest and Culture Myths from Antiquity to Islam [Core Textbook ed.] 9781400840069

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Founding Gods, Inventing Nations

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Founding Gods, Inventing Nations conquest and culture myths from antiquity to islam William F. McCants

princeton university press princeton and oxford

Copyright © 2012 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved ISBN 978-0-691-15148-9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McCants, William Faizi, 1975   Founding gods, inventing nations : conquest and culture myths from antiquity to Islam / William F. McCants.    p. cm.   Includes bibliographical references and index.   ISBN 978-0-691-15148-9 (hardcover)   1.  Middle East—Civilization—Historiography.  2.  Middle East—Civilization— Philosophy.  3.  Civilization—Philosophy.  4.  Mythology, Middle Eastern.  5.  Middle East— Intellectual life.  6.  Middle East—Colonization.  7.  Greeks—Middle East— History.  8.  Romans—Middle East—History.  9.  Arabs—Middle East— History.  10.  Acculturation—Middle East—History.  I.  Title.   DS57.M434 2012   939'.40072—dc22      2011009295 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Palatino Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

F or m y father , who loves to tell the story of the founding of his nation, Texas

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Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction

ix 1

One Gifts of the Gods: The Origins of Civilization in Ancient Near Eastern and Greek Mythology

10

Two The Beneficent Sky God: Cultural History in the Qur’an

29

Three Who Was First? Protography and Discovery Catalogs

57

Four Inventing Nations: Postconquest Native Histories of Civilization’s Origins

85

Five “The Sciences of the Ancients”: Speculation on the Origins of Philosophy, Medicine, and the Exact Sciences

120

Conclusion

145

Bibliography

149

Index

167

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Acknowledgments

thanks to Michael Cook, who advised the dissertation that became this book and encouraged me to publish it; to Peter Brown, who helped me develop its Hermetic kernel; and to Patricia Crone, who gave generously of her time and insight and introduced me to classicists with similar interests at a seminar on postcolonial ethnic chauvinism in antiquity. The seminar came too late to incorporate their thoughts into my dissertation, but I have now referenced their published work throughout. Thanks also to my editor at Princeton University Press, Rob Tempio, for sticking with the project; to Ben Holmes and Dalia Geffen for ironing out the wrinkles; and to Princeton’s anonymous reviewers, whose criticisms made the book much better. Any errors that remain are, of course, mine. I am grateful to my family (Mom, Dad, David, Halleh, Martha, and Sina) and scholarly friends who kept the wind at my back. Of the latter, I want to thank Vahid Brown, Michael Doran, Najam Haider, Thomas Hegghammer, Stephanie Kaplan, Stephen Lambden, Todd Lawson, Afshon Ostovar, Sam Parker, and Farzin Vejdani. A special thanks to Michael Horowitz, who provided very helpful feedback at the last minute. This book could not have been written without the support of my wife, Casey, and my colleague and friend Sholeh Quinn. With two little daughters, Ariana and Eva Daisy, and a full-time nonacademic job, I had no spare moments to work on the manuscript. Casey, determined that I should publish it, gave me every Sunday as “Book Day.” Sholeh, equally determined, showed me how to make the revisions without making a mess. Thank you both from the bottom of my heart.

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Founding Gods, Inventing Nations

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Introduction

In the ninth century AD, Abū Ma