Humaniora Islamica: Volume 2 1974 [Reprint 2020 ed.] 9783112312827, 9783112301661

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HUMANIORA ISLAMICA II

HUMANIORA ISLAMICA An Annual Publication Islamic

Studies

of

and the

Humanities

Volume 11/1974

Edited by

HERBERT W. MASON University Professor of Islamic Studies Boston University Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

RONALD L. NETTLER Associate Professor of Religion Carleton University Ottawa, Canada

MERLIN L. SWARTZ Associate Proffessor of Islamic Studies Boston University Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

JACQUES WAARDENBURG Department of Religious Studies University of Utrecht The Netherlands

M O U T O N • THE H A G U E • PARIS

Manuscripts for the next volumes may be submitted, in English, to the Editors of Humaniora Islamica at the following addresses: Within the U.S.A. and Canada: Suite 500, Boston University, 270 Bay State Road, Boston, Mass. 02215. Outside North America: c/o J. D. J. Waardenburg, University of Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 2, Utrecht, The Netherlands. No specific length 'is prescribed for contributions, but authors must confine themselves to the minimum required by the subject matter, and the same applies to tables and footnotes. All tables, illustrations, and footnotes should be together at the end, with indications in the text as to where they are to be located. Three copies of the typescript, in double spacing, should be sent to the Editors.

Subscriptions, single or back issues may be ordered through any bookseller or subscription agent, or direct from the publishers: MOUTON, P.O. Box 482, The Hague, Netherlands 7 rue Dupuytren, 75006 Paris, France Distribution in the U.S.A. and Canada: The Macfarland Company 1716 East Second Street, Scotch Plains, N.J. 07076. Cheques, bank drafts, money orders and Unesco coupons will be accepted in payment and should accompany orders. ISBN 2-7193-0608-8 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-81811 Cover design by Helmut Salden © 1974 The Editors Printed in Hungary

Contents

PART 1. ON EARLY AND MEDIAEVAL ISLAM

Quran and Quran exegesis, by Ilse Lichtenstadter

3

The Denizens of Paradise, by Charles Wendell

29

The Hanbali School and Sufism, by George Makdisi

61

Mamluke painting at the time of the 'Lusignan Crusade', 1365-70: A study of the Chester Beatty Nihayat al-Su'l wa'l-Umniya... etc., Ms of 1366, by David James 73 'The Parrot and the Merchant': Adapted from the Persian poem 'Hekayat Tuti va Bazargan' by Rumi (1207-1273), by Herbert Mason 89 PART 2 . ON MODERN ISLAM

Nagib Mahfuz and secular man, by A. Wessels

105

Islam and Christianity: A study of Muhammad Abduh's view of the two religions, by Mahmud Ayyub 121 Some new al-Muwailihl materials or the unpublished Hadith 'Isa ibn Hisham, by Roger Allen 139 Glimpses from the life of Mawjud 'Abd al-Mawjud, by Yusuf al-Sharuni 181 PART 3 . REFLECTIONS

On 'citizenship' in the Near East, by John H. Marks

V

197

VI

Contents

PART 4 . METHODOLOGY: ON HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE STUDY OF ISLAM

Islam as a religion, by Ronald L. Nettler

209

Islam and the impact of the French colonial system in Morocco: A study in historical anthropology, by Dale F. Eickelman 215 The politics of Islamic egalitarianism, by Clive S. Kessler

237

Religious experience, sacred symbols and social reality: An illustration from Egypt, by Cynthia Nelson 253 Islam studied as a symbol and signification system, by Jacques Waardenburg 267 Notes and comments, by Ira M. Lapidus

287

Index

301

PART 1

On early and mediaeval Islam

ILSE LICHTENSTADTER

Quran and Quran exegesis

I The Quran, the holy Book of the Muslims, proclaims, in oft-quoted verses, that its surahs (chapters) were revealed in "clear, unequivocal verses" (e.g., Surah 41, v. 2; Surah 3, v. 5). Though this statement merely referred to the fact that this Scripture was revealed to the Arabs in their own language they hitherto had no revealed book of their own - the Prophet's followers almost immediately realized how far this claim was from reality. The Quran is not an uncomplicated book in spite of the simplicity of the environment in which it arose and the inconspicuous life its mouth-piece, the Prophet, led before his Call. In his youth, Muhammad shared the customs of his contemporaries; this fact led later generations to speculate about his conduct during his pre-Revelation life in the period the Arabs called al-Jahiliya, i.e., "Time of Ignorance" (i.e., of the Unity of God) during which he participated in the idolatrous cult centered in the Ka'ba, the sanctuary in his native city of Mecca. It seemed inconceivable to the later Muslims that their Godchosen Prophet should have participated in pagan abominations. Therefore his involvement in any activities connected with the Ka'ba cult, such as allegedly helping to rebuild this edifice, had to be explained by later legend as foreshadowing his mission. He was endowed, according to tradition, with miraculous powers, for only he was able to lift up the Black Stone and replace it in its proper place in the eastern corner of the Ka'ba. Legend had it that angels purified his heart of sin in his childhood; a Christian monk publicly acclaimed his holy destiny long before it became apparent; the trees bowed to him and the rocks whispered his name in greeting when he passed. Even before his birth, a shine of glory surrounded his mother Amina during her pregnancy by which one could see the spires of faraway Busrah. The Quran does not contain any evidence of these miracles. On the contrary, the Prophet himself asserted his human character: "Say, I am but a mortal like yourselves" (surah 41, V.5). The only difference which he acknowledged and on which he established his claim to the veracity of his message was his conviction of having been chosen, "called", by God to be a "Warner" to his fellow Arabs, to guide them on the right path, to call 3

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them to Islam, the "whole-hearted service of the one and only God." This task was assigned to him in immediate encounters with a messenger from God whom he saw standing "at the lotus tree of the farthest horizon covering it with what covered it", and who was "as close as two bows' length or even closer still" (surah 53, v. 5 ff ). In contrast to the Torah which the Jews believed to have been revealed to Moses in one awesome moment on Mount Sinai, the Quran was acknowledged to have been revealed in many separate revelations. The ayat or "verses" were memorized and written down as the Prophet proclaimed them, on whatever writing material was at hand, potsherds, bones, or parchment. Through the peculiarity of the Arabic script, where many sound are represented by identical characters which only much later were distinguished by auxiliary means (the so-called "diacritical points"), these notes were often misread and misunderstood; the resulting variants were able to distort the meaning of the Quranic text. Even after the Prophet's death, when the notes were assembled into surahs, or "chapters", divergences remained. Only 'Uthman, the third caliph (Khalifa, "successor" to the Prophet) established an "authorized", "canonical" version of the Holy Book.He invalidated any and all existing collections and ordered all privately held transcriptions and manuscripts destroyed (though some seem to have survived unofficially for quite a time after this edict). This 'Uthmanic assembly of the Quran is to this day the textus receptus, its authorized, generally accepted version. The Gospels openly admitted to have been written by men identified by name who recorded Jesus' words and gave witness to the overwhelming events of His life, death, and resurrection. Islamic dogma, on the other hand, affirms Muhammad's claim that the Quran is the Word of God which was "revealed" to him by God and that God Himself, not the Prophet, is the speaker throughout, Muhammad only His mouthpiece. The very word ayat chosen in the Quran for its verses, is testimony to the divine origin of the Book, for it holds the connotation of "miracle", or "sign" (while the choice and meaning of the term surah for its chapters, also found in the Quran, is still not definitely established). The contents of the Quran reflect various phases in Muhammad's development. Muslim tradition acknowledges two separate stages. The first, in his native Mecca, represents the awakening and early phases of his "prophetic consciousness" (a phrase often used by Josef Horovitz); the other, beginning with his Hijra, or "Emigration" to Medina, that of the mature leader of his community, the Ummat al-Islam. Each Surah of the Quran carries at its head an indication of its presumed Meccan or Medinan origin. In reality, however, the surahs assemble revelation of either period. A more precise attribution to the time of their revelation is only possible by scrutinizing the ideas expressed in them. Western scholars, beginning with Theodor Noel-

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5

deke's (1836-1930) penetrating analysis of the various themes contained in the Quran, distinguish between three Meccan periods, followed by ten years in Medina (from the Prophet's Hijra in 622 A.D. to his death in 632 A.D.). Many of the revelations during the Medinan years can be connected with historical events with a rather high degree of certainty. This attribution was attested to by eyewitness accounts at a fairly early time; these were incorporated into the chronicles of later historians whose works have survived. The analysis and chronological attribution of the Meccan surahs is far more difficult. One difference between the Meccan and Medinan surahs strikes even the most casual observer. The former are mostly short, rhythmic cadences ending in spontaneous rhyme; they are often ecstatic and visionary utterances and full of religious fervor. In contrast, the ayat of Medinan origin, even in their original Arabic, are lengthy sentences, explanations, admonitions and exhortations; they lack rhythm, but have a rhyming phrase attached to conform with the saj' (rhymed prose) style of the Quran. This difference in style caused Western critics to consider Muhammad a prophet in Mecca, a "politician", at best a statesman, in Medina. This facile judgement, often intended to be derogatory, is not justified. The Prophet remained throughout his life convinced of his divine mission and to the very end sincerely felt his pronouncements to be divinely inspired. The Meccan revelations reflect several phases in the Prophet's development. A period of quiet solitary meditation preceded his public activity. The Quran itself is silent about this time of preparation; only the Sira, the prophetic biography, and later legends lay stress on it. But his emergence from solitude and contemplation is vividly reflected in the early chapters of the Quran. In visionary language, calling the sun, the moon and the stars, the firmament and the mountains to witness, he calls on the Meccans to relinquish their idol worship and to believe in the One and Only God, the Lord of the Universe. Threatening them with the fate of the unbelievers of past ages if they refused to hear his call, he depicts the rewards of Paradise for those who believe in his mission and threatens those who fail to do so with the punishment of hell fire. He proclaims that all mankind shall be called before God's Throne on Judgement Day to account for their good and evil deeds. A dominant theme in the early revelations is his certainty of resurrection after death; he repudiates the vividly expressed doubts of his Meccan listeners in such an event, hitherto never experienced, by pointing to the ever-repeated death and rebirth of nature in their own familiar environment. His belief in the sequence of birth, death, and resurrection is constantly reaffirmed in the Meccan surahs and touched upon repeatedly in the Medina. Gradually the visionary appeal gave way to urging and argument. In the

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second Meccan period Muhammad used the so-called Legends of Divine Punishment, showing the utter destruction of peoples of the past, as warning examples of the fate that awaited his Meccan contemporaries if they persisted in refusing to follow him. In this phase, the Quran points to pre-Islamic legends, to "historical" personalities of the Bible, such as Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron, and (in Christianity) to Jesus ( l Isa), Zakariyah, and Maryam (Mary). Some time later, Abraham and his son Ishmael (Ibrahim and Isma'il) acquired heightened importance. As ancestors of the Arabs, they were emphasized in their role as presumed builders of the Ka'ba and founders of the pre-Revelation worship of Allah as the only God. Muhammad saw himself as restorer of the ancient monotheistic veneration and interpreted the rites of its cult as stations in the original monotheistic worship established by Abraham, whom he called an Ifanif (worshipper of God before Revelation). In this way, the Prophet was able to integrate an ancient Arabian cult into his strict monotheism and reconcile it with his implacable refutation of idolatry and his dethronement of the pagan idols and the destruction of their statues and images. In the Medinan period not only the style, but also the contents of the surahs changed. No longer was the call to Islam the dominating theme; instead, the problem of what to do and what to avoid in order to be a Muslim occupied center stage. The requirements of the Fast, the ceremonies of the pilgrimage to the Ka'ba, the distribution of booty in warfare, the alms tax, were established, the problems of war in the months of sacred peace were discussed; regulations concerning permitted and prohibited degrees of kinship in marriage were introduced. Inheritance laws, the prohibition of usury, these were the problems that beset the new community of Islam and that were brought before the Prophet to be solved. Yet, throughout the Medinan period, he remained sincerely convinced that all his ordinances or laws were revealed by God whose mouthpiece he continued to consider himself.

II Concurrent with these comparative simple religious ideas and pronouncements, the Quran contains statements which were to offer grave problems to the searching minds of later pious men. The very phrases and images used in the Quran gave rise to misunderstandings and speculations. What is the meaning of such simple expressions as "His hands", "His face", "His foot?" How could the Prophet reconcile such anthropomorhisms with his insistence on the transcendence of God ? Or, in some revelations, the Quran warns the sinner of the inevitability of his fate - eternal hell fire - while other verses urge him to repent and turn away from his evil ways in order to be saved?

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Muhammad was neither a philosopher nor a systematic thinker who would weigh his words carefully in order to avoid contradictions in his sermons, or formulations of his ideas that ran counter to his innermost convictions. He was, and remained to the end, a religious visionary whose emotions drove him to speak out, whose mind was filled with the truth of his visions which he had to proclaim when, and as, he felt them. This very lack of concern of his was the cause for many difficulties. They ranged from understanding the Quranic text as such to identification of events and persons referred to in vague allusions; e.g., to determine the specific event to which the words al-nasr wa'l-fath, "help and victory" (surah 110) pointed, or to establish the identity of ar-raqlm, the companion of the so-called "Men of the Cave" (i.e. the Seven Sleepers in surah 18), which was often thought to have been a dog. The impulse to this search was not critical analysis based on doubt, whether of the truth contained in the revelation or its divine origin. Once Islam as a religion was firmly established, the dogma that every word and letter of the Quran was kalam Allah (God's own word) was absolute and irrefutable. The search was rooted in the desire to understand fully every aspect of the text, the better to fulfill its commandments, the more completely to submit to the will of God. The original aim of Quran interpretation was to understand the text as it stood. Many a difficulty - merely to grasp the plain meaning of its verses was embedded in the character of the Arabic language as such. As in all Semitic languages, the basic sense of a word was contained in its "radicals", i.e., the consonants which were retained in their original sequence through all their modifications or derivations from it. All aspects of the basic root, whether active or passive, reflexive or causative, whether noun, verb, or adjective, were formed by internal changes or additions according to fixed patterns, and by various long or short vowels. The latter, as in all Semitic languages, were not indicated in the script. The consonantal frame of many forms, moreover, allowed a word to be read variously as an active or passive, or, sometimes, as a causative; the choice of one or the other could alter the sense of a phrase considerably. Thus, one would have to vocalize it according to its correct, or intended, meaning. In consequence, the Quran "Readers", the men officially entrusted with the recitation of the Quran in the mosques or other religious gatherings, and in general with transmitting the Quran text from generation to generation, were confronted with the task of establishing its correct vocalization. However, even this task might involve dogmatic choices. In the beginning a certain latitude in accepting variant readings was considered permissible as long as they did not change the intended meaning of the aya (e.g. substituting one synonym for another). It was claimed, by way of the common method of Hadith or "Tradition", that the Prophet himself had approved

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this usage. Gradually that freedom was curtailed, and eventually the acceptable variants were limited to the so-called "Seven Ways of Reading the Quran." Confirmed in the accepted manner by a Hadith from the Prophet, the Quran was thought to have been revealed 'alâ sab'ati ahruftn, "in seven different ways of vocalization", each of which was held to have been of divine origin. The perfect Quran reader was supposed to be able to recite the holy text in each of the seven ways, and in so far as such a variant concerned the authorized 'Uthmânic text, it could be taken into consideration for deciding legal and religious problems. In later theological and philosophic conflicts, philology was one weapon used in support of the contending parties' dogmas. At some point in the Prophet's career, his attention must have been drawn - perhaps by Companions who wished to have certain Quranic prescripts clarified, perhaps by adversaries - to certain discrepancies between various revelations uttered at different times. This disclosure caused the revelation of the famous Quran verse of abrogation. "Whatever verse we may annul or cause thee to forget, we will bring a better one than it or one like it; dost thou not know that God is mighty over all?" (surah 2, v. 100; see also surah 87, v. 6.) From early times on, this assertion of abrogated Quran verses posed a difficult problem for the Muslims, particularly since often both the abrogating (Nâsikh) and the abrogated (Mansukh) verses remained in the text. The most striking example of this phenomenon occurs in connection with the three pagan goddesses Allât, Manàt, and al-'Uzzà. It is the substitution of the verses "They are but names which ye have named, ye and your fathers! God has sent no authority for them" (surah 53, vv. 2 2 f f ) for the original "They are the exalted gharànïq (Cranes) whose intercession may certainly be hoped for." This idolatrous assertion, the memory of which and its wording have survived outside the Quran text, was explained as a temptation from the devil and obliterated by Muhammad himself. However, many other contradictory statements, in Islamic terms the Nàsikh as well as the Mansukh, have remained in the 'Uthmânic textus receptus; indeed, often the ancient scholars were in doubt as to which of the opposing verses was the one to be followed. Many old works discussed this subject trying to decide which was the abrogating, which the abrogated verse. Modern Muslim apologists deny that contradiction was implied, the terms said to refer to the abrogation of the earlier revelations, the Tawrat and the Injil, by the last and final one of the Quran. Interestingly, Noeldeke-Schwally 3 sees in this assumption of abrogation an echo of the Christian claim that the Old Testament was abrogated by the Evangelion.

1. See Noeldeke-Schwally, Geschichte des Qorans, vol. I, p. 52.

Quran and Quran exegesis

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However that may be, and whatever interpretation we should give to the abrogation verse, the fact remains that contrary to the Prophet's conviction of giving his people a clear, comprehensible revelation in their own language, the Quran offers many deep-rooted philosophic and theological problems. A prominent issue "stirred the Muslim community and cast doubts on the integrity of the Quran text. It arose through the struggle for the succession to the Prophet's leadership, that is, the problem of the caliphate. This began at the very moment of the Prophet's death, when the representatives of the various factions in the Muslim community vied to become his khalifa, "successor." But for the initiative of 'Umar ibn al-Khattàb, an early convert to Islam, who led the contestants in pledging allegience to Abù Bakr, one of Muhammad's earliest followers and Companions, the Muslim umma would have split up then and there. Even so, a fairly long period of desertion from Islam - the so-called ridda - strife, and civil war ensued. In these conflicts two different strains evolved, one strictly political, the other, though also of political consequences, strongly influenced by the ancient Near Eastern idea of divine kingship. The former was eventually decided in favor of the Umayyad dynasty which finally defeated the Shi'at 'Ali "party of 'All", in the massacre of its adherents at Kerbelà (680 A.D.). This debacle made martyrs, and eventually saints, of 'Ali, his sons Hasan and Husayn, and their descendants, and created the eschatological belief in the hidden Mahdi (the Rightly Guided One, Messiah). The Shi'ite commentators developed a Quran exegesis of their own which aimed at finding in its verses proofs for 'All's privileged and exalted status and for the Prophet's intention to appoint him as his successor. When the verse "thou art a Warner and every people has its guide" (Surah 13, v. 8) was revealed, Muhammad allegedly pointed to himself as the warner and to 'Ali as the guide. Other verses stressing one's obligation to one's kindred were taken to refer to the Prophet's own family, in particular to 'Ali and to Hasan and Husayn, offspring of his marriage to Fatima, and their descendants. Beyond the emphasis on their relationship to the Prophet, the right of 'Ali and the ahi al-bayt, "the holy Family" to the succession was based on the "divine spark", the niir muhammadi that was held to have been shared by Muhammad and 'Ali. A religious cult of'All developed, anchored in the àya "they will swear a most strenuous oath : God will not raise up him who dies - yea ! a promise binding on him, true ! but most men do not know" (surah 16, v. 40). This verse was interpreted as predicting 'All's raj'a or "reappearance" before the Resurrection Day. The Shi'ites claimed further that many more surat and àyàt had been omitted from the 'Uthmanic text that dealt with 'Ali as Muhammad's most intimate Companion to whom he entrusted secret knowledge withheld from all other men. This group even asserted that 'Ali himself had assembled the

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Quran before the efforts of Abu Bekr and his successors led to the establishment of the authorized version under 'Uthman. Alleged copies of 'All's Quran appeared since early times and are, to this day, among the venerated treasures of various Shl'ite mosques and libraries. The Shi'ites accept the authenticity of the textus receptus as such, but claim that it lacks many revelations that were suppressed because of their pro-'Ali contents. Beginning as early as the first century of the Hijra Shl'ite scholars composed Quran commentaries based on the authority of the ahl al-bayt, the so-called Imams, not, as the Sunnite commentaries, on that of the Prophet's Companions. The "Hidden Imam", at his reappearance as the Mahdi, will bring with him 'All's full and authentic Quran which the Prophet himself allegedly gave to his daughter Fatimah. An interesting sidelight to the way in which Shl'ite exegesis worked is their change of the word umma (aaaaaa) "community" which occurs more than sixty times in the Quran, into a'immah (aaaaaa), a broken plural of imam, in Arabic script an easy change, thus inventing numerous references to the Imams. Shl'ite exegesis reads hints to their holy personalities and to the Imam Madhl into the beautiful but mystifying Ayat al-Niir "the Light Verse" (surah 24, v. 35): "God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. His light is as a niche in which is a lamp, and the lamp is in a glass, the glass is as though it were a glittering star; it is lit from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the east nor of the west, the oil of which would well-nigh give light though no fire touched it - light upon light! - God guides to His light whom he pleases; and God strikes parables for men God all things doth know." For the Shi'a the niche and the star are Fatima, the lights Hasan and Husayn, the blessed tree which kindles it and which is neither of the east or the west is Abraham, who, as Hanif, was neither Jew nor Christian. The symbols of the Light Verse intrigued also the Sunnite commentators, in particular the §ufls. Ill Generations of scholars devoted themselves to the task of helping their fellow Muslims to understand their holy Book the better to follow the example of their Prophet. They regarded it as their task to establish an Islamic law and way of life, to determine what was right or wrong, allowed or forbidden, acceptable or unacceptable in Islam. They based their decisions, wherever possible, on the expressed precepts of the Quran, such as the prohibition of riba and of drinking khamr (intoxicating drink), the "law of inheritance", the prohibition of marriage to more than four wives (a limitation of polygamy rather than a licence for it), and several religious institutions, such as the fast in Ramadan, alms-giving and others. Where the Quran had made no

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explicit laws, they had to create them. In order to formulate them in a manner that was in harmony with the basic ethics and religious tenets of the Quran, they developed an ingenious method that alleged to produce an irrefutable link with the Prophet's intentions. They searched for a precedent in Muhammad's own time and environment and solved their contemporary problems by way of qiyás (analogy); a hadith (tale) told on the authority of an eyewitness and supported by a chain of transmitters would provide the Prophet's positive or negative attitude in a situation similar to the contemporary problem. Thus the later generations of scholars linked their own decisions with supposed or real ones by the Prophet. This search for the Prophet's Sunna or "Way" (i.e. attitude) became the accepted method for dealing with contemporary problems. In time it became established practice to produce the alleged hadith of the Prophet's; though its spuriousness was taken for granted, it was tacitly understood that it was a projection of latterday questions back into Muhammad's time and would reflect decisions which the Prophet would have made had he been confronted with a similar problem in his lifetime. This method of Quran interpretation was used in every aspect of Islamic development; it stressed the essential principle of all intellectual phases and branches of Islamic thinking. No tenet, law, or dogma could pass muster unless it acknowledged the Quran as the fundament and the Prophet as the arbiter of all disputes and as the mouthpiece of God's will and His laws. Its motivation was an attempt to develop Islam by creating an "identity in change." At the same time, the necessity of understanding individual passages of the Quran made itself felt and had to be attended to. Some of the uncertainties were inherent in the words used many of which were no longer familiar to later generations. The philologians had to establish their meaning. Aware of the role of poetry in pre-Islamic Arabia, they searched in the diwáns of the ancient poets for verses in which these expressions might occur as shawahid or "witnesses" for their ancient usage and meaning. 'Abdalláh ibn al-'Abbás, the son of the ancestor of the 'Abbásid dynasty and a cousin of the Prophet's, was thought to have recommended this method of Quran interpretation. Though he was only a young lad at the time of Muhammad's death and therefore hardly a knowledgeable authority, the short span of his life spent in the Prophet's entourage qualified him as one of his Companions. He became renowned for his piety and through his scholarship gained a reputation as a valuable source for the Prophet's Sunna as well as for the Quran interpretation. However, he is so frequently alleged to be the ultimate authority in dubious cases, that already ancient Muslim critics cast doubt on the reliability of hadith transmitted in his name. Other types of Quran passages demanded amplification by different autho2 "Humaniora Islamica II."

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rities. Early converts to Islam from Judaism or Muslims of Jewish ancestry were consulted for elaboration and explanation of the Biblical stories in the Quran. Wahb ibn Munabbih, 'Abdallah ibn Salam, and especially Ka'b al-Ahbar (Ka'b of the Rabbis) were frequently asked to implement those surahs that dealt with Biblical personalities. They found, or pretended to find, confirmation of these in the Tawrat (Torah); however, most of their assertions were based either on the Midrash, i.e. Rabbinical explanatory (aggadic) tales about the Pentateuch - often themselves of legendary or homiletic character - or sheer invention. In his Quran commentary, called Tafstr al-Quran, al-Tabari (died 309 A.H./921 A.D.) dutifully reports these implementations of the Quran stories, but adds a skeptical, sometimes even ironical Allahu ialamu (God knows best) to indicate his own doubt as to their credibility. By the middle of the third century of the Hijra a vast body of commentation had accumulated. In his Tafsir, al-Tabari assembled these interpretations by commenting on each surah and its verses, one by one. He discussed the time and circumstances of their revelation, explained the use of specific phrases and their meaning in their context, and, using philological, historical, and dogmatic criteria, tried to elucidate their true meaning and intention. In spite of his reverence for and his acceptance of the Quran's divine origin, he did not shun adding critical analysis of doubtful interpretations; he openly admitted that certain concepts were due to legend and pious tales, therefore to be considered with a grain of salt. But he did relate them as being traditional concepts accepted and current in the Muslim community of his time. Al-Tabari's revered work, the earliest complete Muslim commentary to have been preserved through the ages, is also a record of the way in which Quran exegesis developed. In the accepted method of hadith, al-Tabari records the chain of authorities and, in the text of the hadith itself, the comments made by his predecessors on the Quran passage under discussion. In spite of his reverence for the traditional Quran interpretations of the "Ancestors" (al-salaf) and his faithful adherence to non-speculative exegesis, Tabari not infrequently discussed problems with inherent dogmatic conflicts using arguments that earned him the wrath of the Hanbalis, the adherents of strict orthodoxy. They accused him of Mu'tazilite tendencies, especially in his stand on freedom of will. For he supported the assumption of God's grace; God does not lead man astray, as some Quranic pronouncements would imply, but gives him the choice between good and evil, though not preventing him from pursuing the evil path once he had chosen it. However, on the whole, the accusation of Mu'tazilite leaning was undeserved, for al-Tabari turned against many of their most characteristic tendencies, such as their allegorical and metaphorical interpretation of Quranic anthropomorphisms.

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Mentioning this dilemma of Al-Tabari leads of necessity to a discussion of those problems posed by the Quran that demanded solutions not afforded by mere factual or philological investigation. They concerned questions of deep theological and philosophical investigation. They concerned questions of deep theological and philosophical consequence which could not be answered by adherence to traditional formulations or dogma. The leading group, the so-called Mu'tazila, which wrestled with these problems has in Western essays been honored (or slandered?) by the title of "rationalists"; but their starting point, and even their aim, was not the destruction of faith. Rather, they endeavored to create a purer faith, one more in harmony with the strict monotheism of Islam and an ethics based on the absoluteness of God's grace. That they could be dubbed rationalists was due to their insistence on subjecting traditional dogmas to critical investigation on the basis of 'aql or "rational examination" (literally: "reason"), not to accept them blindly. This point of view they formulated in such statements as "the first condition of knowledge is doubt" or "fifty doubts are better than one certitude" - a Cartesian position centuries before Descartes. The Mu'tazilites presented themselves as the ahl al-'adl wa'l-tahwid, "men who emphasized God's justice and His unity." This appellation stressed their approach to the two most vexing theological problems posed by the Quran, namely, the existence of evil in the world and that of the so-called "attributes of God." God, by definition, is just and desires Good; the dilemma was the reconciliation of the conflict between His justice and the predetermined ultimate fate of each living being assumed by the believers in predestination. The Quran expressed this in many verses, such as "Verily, God changes not what a people has until they change it for themselves. And when God wishes evil to a people, there is no averting it, nor have they a protector beside Him" (surah 13, v. 11). The proponents of Jabar (blind force, fate, unalterable destiny) upheld this point of view most strongly. They imagined that when God created Adam, He created at the same time all future generations and decided their fate, who would be damned and who saved. The adherents of Qadar, however, fought against this deterministic concept. Though this term, too, meant "fate", its adherents turned against conceding qadar unlimited power. God's inherent justice would prevent Him from inflicting such injustice. Man himself could, by his own good or evil deeds, control his ultimate fate. This view too is supported by the Quran, for the holy Book beseeches man over and over again to repent and turn away from his evil ways and thus bring about his own salvation. Thus the Quran stresses the active participation of each human being in shaping his own 2»

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destiny: "Those who fulfill God's covenant, and those who attain what God has bidden to be attained, and dread their Lord's face, and are steadfast in prayer, and expend in alms of what We have bestowed upon them secretly and openly, and ward off evil with good - these shall have the recompense of the abode, gardens of Eden" (surah 13, v. 20ff). In fact, the Quran urges man to obviate God's decree and reverse his fate by turning away from sin. On Judgement Day, man would stand before God's throne waiting for his good and evil deeds which the recording angels had entered in the book during his lifetime to be weighed in the scales (surahs 10, v. 22; 47, 29; 23, 105). This image implies the possibility of choice: condemnation to Hell fire or reward with Paradise is laid into his own hands. God's role was not to interfere with man's own choice, not to lead him directly towards evil. The conflict in these contrasting Quranic positions was obvious to thinkers of varied convictions who, however, differed in their applications. The Kharijites, the group that had seceded from the main camp of Muslims during 'All's fight for the caliphate against Mu'awiyah, were extreme determinists. For them, repentence did not exist; once a sinner, always a sinner. In spite of their frequent interference in political and social conflicts, neither their rigid dogmatic stand nor their insistence on the equal qualification of any Muslim for the office of caliph, could maintain them as an influential religious group within the Muslim community. Their sect remained small and survives today only as the so-called Abadis (Ibadis) in the Maghrib and 'Uraan in Arabia. Besides theological dogma, political considerations came into play. The Umayyad dynasty stirred dissatisfaction among the religious leaders because of their preoccupation with worldly affairs and their disregard, if not neglect, of the religious and spiritual duties involving the caliphate. They faced the task of consolidating the conquests of the Muslims and of organizing the Muslim state. To achieve that aim, they were not overly preoccupied with the principles of the SharVa (Muslim law) which, in any case, was, during their era, still in the process of evolving. They thus became, in the eyes of the orthodox, the epitome of irreligiosity and were attacked and vilified. Pious people deemed them sinners whose leadership should be cast in doubt, if not resisted. They identified the impious Umayyads with the "accursed tree" of surah 17, verse 62, which the traditional exegesis joined to the Zaqqum tree whose fruit those condemned to Hell fire would be forced to eat while drinking boiling water (surah 37, v. 61-66). Remnants of this hostility towards the Umayyads are still alive in certain modern Muslim circles. Another group, the Murji'ites, supported these rulers by refusing to condemn them outright. They insisted on "delaying" judgement (the literal

Quran and Quran exegesis

15

implication of their name), for the ultimate decision belonged to God alone on Judgement Day. These defenders - often suspected and accused of being in their pay - found their best support in the Quran. The worldliness of that dynasty was predicted in the Quranic exclamation "Dost thou not see those who exchanged God's favors for disbelief and have made their people to alight at the abode of perdition? in Hell they shall broil" (surah 14, v. 33). The verse was connected with two godless clans of the Quraysh, the Banu Mughira (or Makhzum) and the Banu Umayya. The former were punished for their sins at Badr; the punishment of the Banu Umayya was still being delayed by God. The Qadariya turned against the idea, promoted by the Murji'ite partisans of the Umayyads that their impious demeanor and their often cruel acts were predetermined. They opposed the Umayyads' claim that they could therefore not be called before a human tribunal to defend their actions or be held responsible for them. The Qadariya, in contrast to the apparant implication of its name, held man to be the shaper of his own destiny through his actions and fully responsible for them. The Mu'tazila which developed from and beyond this position of the Qadariya ruled out predestination by their insistence, as ahl al-adl "people of justice" on the absolute justness of God. This demanded man's full freedom of action, so that he would be responsible for it and could be called to account on the Day of Judgement. They solved the conflict between the controversial dyat of the Quran by a compromise between their dogma of God's justness and the Quranic thesis of His omniscience; an additional factor involved His maslahah, His consideration of what was "beneficial for the ultimate furtherance of His aim" for the world. God knew from the beginning the path each individual would take in a confrontation with good and evil; the actual choice between them, however, was left to him. God did not lead him astray, He merely did not interfere with his choice. This interpretation was partly based on the above-mentioned equivocacy and resulting variation in meaning of unvocalized words in the Quran text. In the face of strictly deterministic Quran utterances, as, e.g., in surah 5, v. 45, "whom God wishes to lead astray.. ."they point to God's /«//"grace" which would support man in his search for the right way. One could pray for His help, for support in making the right choice; yet, the ultimate decision remained one's own. Another assertion in the Mu'tazilite slogan was tawhid, "the absolute oneness" of God. This seemed to be contradicted by the many attributes of God and the frequent anthropomorphic phrases in the Quran. God is knowing, God is merciful, God is omnipotent, and similar expressions abound; His hands, His foot, His face, His thigh are mentioned frequently. Such attributes of God, though conceived as eternally inherent qualities, presuppose beings eternally co-existing with God; His Oneness would be thus

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denied, and shirk (associating other beings with God) would result. The Mu'tazila reasoned that such qualities were inseparable from His essence; they denied their independent existence and postulated that to say "God is omnipotent" or "knowing" or "merciful", is simply to proclaim that God exists. In this way they tried to preserve His Unity. They sought to avert the danger to God's transcendence, which they sensed in the many anthropomorphic expressions of the Quran, by figurative and allegorical interpretations and repudiated the literal ones of their orthodox opponents. The utmost concession the latter made to avoid too close a similarity with the human prototype was to admit the impossibility of defining their actual qualities; they defied description, or, as they put it, the attributes were bi-la-kayf (without a howness.) The Muslim theologians had to cope with yet another problem. The Quran claimed to be a replica, in the Arabic language, of the eternal Umm al-Kitab, "the Mother of the Book", the Ur-Offenbarung which was resting at God's throne. This prototype of all revelation was uncreated; the Tawrat (Torah), the Injil (Evangelion), and the nameless Book of the Sabfun, the third group of the Quranic ahl al-kitab, (people of the Book) were its exact counterparts. It was His kalam (speech) and as such an eternal attribute of God, just as His power, His knowledge, His mercy, and other such attributes were qualities of his eternal essence. This raised the question whether this quality of eternal uncreatedness was shared by the individual copy of the holy Book or by the Quran recitation in the mosques. The Mu'tazilites, in accordance with their strict adherence to tawhid, denied this assumption, but affirmed the hypothesis of uncreated, eternal word of God. This distinction was raised to the status of dogma by the caliph al-Ma'mun and his successor al Mu'tasim, in whose reigns any deviation from it was threatened with severe punishment, torture, and even death. The great orthodox theologian Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the eponym of the Hanbali rite, the least liberal school of Sunni Islam, became the most prominent victim of the mihna (inquisition) during that period. The orthodox fought against the denial of the uncreated Quran: "The recitation in the mosques" and "what is between two covers" is "the Word of God", i.e. it is, like the Umm al Kitab, uncreated. This doctrine was held to be extreme by the more moderate, though not Mu'tazilite, schools; al-Ash'ari (died 241 A.H./855 A.D.) and his disciple al-Maturidi (died 333 A.H./944 A.D.) proposed a compromise thesis: God's speech was eternal, but this assertion refers only to His "spiritual speech" (kalam nafsi) as an eternal attribute of His which had no beginning and no end; however, the revelation to the Prophets, the recitation in the mosques and the written texts in the hands of the Muslims did not partake of this exalted character. But al-Ash'ari who was regarded as a moderate is said to have regretted this aberration on his death bed, and even

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17

before, in his work al-Ibanah 'an Usui al-Diyana (The Elucidation of Islam's Foundation) declared his firm belief in the uncreatedness of the Quran. 2 The tenor of the whole treatise shows his adherence to the strict orthodox beliefs of Ahmad ibn Hantfal and his school. Thus, a deep conflict raged between the orthodox and the Mu'tazilite factions. The latter, in their use of "dialectics" (kalam) perhaps went too far during the reign of al-Ma'mun and his successors. However, the school of al-Ash'ari attempted, and to a high degree achieved, mediation between the extremes; they adopted kalam so thoroughly that in the end it became their characteristic trade mark. This moderate school of thought to this day dominates Quran interpretation and Muslim thought. Yet, the problems continue to disturb Muslim philosophers. In particular, the great Indian thinker and poet Muhammad Iqbal (1873-1938) tried to come to grips with these fundamental questions in his Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam; but, as will be discussed later on, even he failed to propose a truly acceptable solution. V The Mu'tazila and related schools of theology concentrated their attention on the interpretation of those problems that were inherent in the words of the Quran. But from the very beginning of Islamic development, many people were not content with dogmatic speculation which affected only the intellect but did not move their hearts. Piety demanded a deeper immersion into its spiritual secrets in order to live in conformity with the ethical demands of their new religion, to fill their hearts with religious emotions and, above all, to penetrate more deeply into the mysteries of revelation. This endeavour led to the rise of ascetism and pietism, to a large extent under Christian influence. So-called bakkSun (weepers) and zuhhad (ascetics) devoted their lives to religious exercises, fasting, prayers, and solitary meditation on the futility of life - an attitude not really based on Quranic concepts and even less in harmony with the spirit of the time. The Quran mentions it as an alien institution: wa-rahbaniyatan-ibtadaiuha, "monkdom, they invented it" (surah 57, v. 27); and the Prophet was called upon as witness against this tendency in the alleged statement "there is no monkdom in Islam", "la rahbaniya fi'l-Islam." In another Tradition he is said to have chided a pious man for having allowed his admiring entourage to take care of his daily needs while he was preoccupied with his devotions. In spite of this prophetic opposition, the search for the batin (the inner, hidden meaning) of Holy Writ, in contrast to its zahir (the plain, apparent 2. See

al Ibanah,

translated by W. C. Klein, p. 81.

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sense) went on. Tafsir, the explanation of explicit wording, gave way to ta'wil, i.e., finding its esoteric meaning, though not entirely succumbing to it. Both terms are in fact taken from the Quran. Tafsir occurs only once, in surah 25, verse 35, ta'wil in several passages of which surah 18, verses 77 and 81 are the most characteristic, since the term is there used in the context of "interpreting" the puzzling events in the Musa/Dhu'l-Qarnayn legend. The adherents of esoteric interpretation, commonly referred to as alBatinlya (their opponents being called al-?ahiriya) approached their task in two main ways. The first group which called itself Ikhwan as-Safa (Brethren of Purity) derived their thought essentially from Neo-Platonism; the other, though imbued, too, with Neo-Platonic ideas, had indigenous Oriental roots as well. Both continued and intensified the allegorical way of Quran interpretation already favoured by the Mu'tazila. In a collection of essays (rasa'il) written by anonymous authors, the Ikhwan as-Safa comprehensively stated their world view which was based on the Neo-Platonic doctrine of emanation. In the context of this article, only their Quran exegesis need be considered. In this sphere they were convinced that only those who can penetrate into the intrinsic truth of the Quranic revelations and grasp their allegorical meaning are able to reach eternal bliss. They maintained that "the holy Books contain plain revelations" (tanzllat zahira), that is, words to be read and heard as such. But they also contain secret, hidden explanations (ta'wilat khafiya batina)', these are the meanings that must be comprehended by applying reason (al-ma'ani alma'qulat). The same applies also to the prescripts of the (divinely inspired) law-givers; they, too, contain explicit laws and hidden, esoteric secrets (asrar). Those who fulfill the explicit laws will attain happiness on earth; those who understand the hidden secrets will gain salvation for their resurrection and eternal life.3 The Quran offers a rather large number of stories lending themselves to indulgence in esoteric interpretation, such as those of Jonah and the Fish, the People of the Cave, the Wall of Gog and Magog, or things that provoke allegorical interpretation, such as Joseph's manycolored coat, and many more. All these expressions and stories have to be understood on two levels, the apparent one of the words that are "read" or "heard" (maqriC and masmu') and the essential truth that is accessible and intelligible only to the initiated. The Sufi's approach to the Quran is epitomized in Ibn al-'Arabi's (560-638 A.H./1165-1240 A.D.) Quran exegesis. He claimed to have seen God twice in a dream and to have encountered His prophets from Adam to Muhammad in a vision sent by God; thus he felt called upon to transmit these personal experiences and the ensuing penetration into the mysteries to his disciples. 3. Translated from Goldhizer,

Richtungen,

p. 192.

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This he did in a number of works, the Fusus al-Hikam (Gems of Wisdom) and Tarjuman al-Aswaq (Interpreter of Longing), a collection of mystical poems. Ibn al-'Arabi accepts the thesis of mystics that each verse of the Quran had "an external and inner sense, each expression (harf) has a limit (ihadd) and that there is an ascent from every limit" to higher understanding. His comment on the story of the Flood exemplified this approach very clearly. He stressed his acceptance of the story on its face value, which is "reality and has to be believed; it is truth and has to be confirmed as an actual event." This is its tafslr; but it allows also ta'wil, symbolic and allegoric interpretation. The Flood represents the ocean of matter which swallows those engulfed in its flood. Salvation is possible only by boarding the ship of divine law. He affirmed the Quran to be the treasure house from which all ideas expressed in his works were derived; he averred that he "was given the key to its comprehension and to using it as the basis for his instruction." In his exegesis, he made frequent use of allegory and symbolism. Thus he explained the ark (tabut) in which Musa was exposed as his human-ness (,nasutuhu) with its physical senses and mental potentialities; the water in which it drifted represented spiritual knowledge which enabled Musa to attain highest spiritual perception, just as it would do for every human being. The bird which Jesus moulded from clay (surah 5, v. 110) and into which he breathed life, Ibn al-'Arabi interpreted as the soul which yearns for truth, but which can reach it only through purification by the Sufi Way. The story of Yusuf and that of Musa in the "sacred valley" (surah 20, v. lOff) before God offered this mystic a wide scope for allegory. The two shoes which Musa took off were interpreted as the prescribed rituals which he discarded in exchange for spiritual preparation for his impending vision of God. The prison and the personalities in the Yusuf story (surah 12) were interpreted by allegories derived largely from Neo-Platonic philosophy. Even those parts of the Quran that deal with social and moral precepts and laws did not escape this kind of interpretation. Both the Ikhwan as-Safa and the Sufis thus strove to lift their interpretations of the Quran from an exercise in philology, logic and dogmatic theology to an inner experience of the spiritual contents as a step towards attaining an intimate relation to God. But there was one decisive difference between these two groups. In spite of their speculative attitude, the Ikhwan remained involved in worldly pursuits, including political affairs. Through their doctrine of emanation, they had a close affinity with the religio-political movement of the Fatimids whose philosophic theories they shared, if not, indeed, they furnished them. In contrast, the Sufis turned away from the world, they denied its values and neglected its affairs. The Brethren still remained conscious

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of their task within the community; the Sufis strove towards self-fulfillment and disregarded their communal obligations. The philosophic involvement of the Brethern in the political movement of the Isma'ili Qarmatians proved destructive; but the Sufi withdrawal from participation in their society and their absorption in the search for individual bliss through ultimate union with God, without regard for the uninitiated masses, endangered the socioreligious foundations of the Muslim community by corrosion from within. Only a Ghazali was able to prevent Sufism from causing the dissolution of Islam. Al-Ghazali (died 505 A . H . / l l l l A.D.) occupied a high position in the ranks of theologians when he passed through a spiritual crises. After resigning his professorship at the Nizamiya university in Baghdad, he wandered for some ten years as a $ufi through Muslim countries. From this period he emerged acclaimed as Muhyi al-DIn (a spiritual reviver). This title was ostensibly a play of words on the title of his great work Ihya 'Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences) written after his wanderings; but he merits it because through his work he saved Islam from the twofold threat of being destroyed by accepting either the arid dogmatism of the theologians or losing itself in the asocial visionary world of Sufism. As he became the "moderator" in the philosophical concepts of Islam, he also took a middle position in his approach to Quran interpretation. He did not discard the literal understanding (zahir) of Quranic ayat entirely, but combined it with the allegoric (batin) idea. Thus, e.g., in the aforementioned story of Musa in the sacred valley, he maintained that the prophet did shed his two shoes but he also understood the symbolic meaning of this action. God asked him to banish all thoughts of both worlds - this world and the Beyond - from his soul. For al-Ghazali, only the combination of both aspects encompassed the full understanding of the holy text. However he distinguished sharply between the mere tafsir (explanation) and its ma'na (its "true understanding"). The former is accessible to any philologist and limited to the obvious literal meaning of the phrases. The Quran itself demands deeper penetration into it as expression of the divine will; in support of this opinion al Ghazali referred to the term yastanbitunahu (those of them that would elicit it) in surah 4, verse 85 (82). He objected, however, to the use of symbolic exegesis for the sole purpose of tendentious support for dogmatic theological positions. Al-Ghazali as well as Ibn al-'Arabl upheld the prescriptions of the shari'a, "religious law", as the indispensible basis for the conduct of life as a Muslim. Their aim was to endow the ritual acts with richer spiritual contents, to perform them with their "heart" not as mere pious exercises. Al-Ghazali, in particular, emphasisid the need for involving the emotions and for the interaction between 'atrial (act) and iman (faith).

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The era of intense creativity in Muslim scholarship and thought was followed by several centuries of relative stagnation in which hardly any independent thinkers arose and scholarly activity was limited to restating old ideas and supplementing the works of the ancient or commenting on them. Faith demanded orthodox compliance with religious law, fulfillment of rituals and adherence to the Sunna of the Prophet as established during the classic age. The characteristic literary productions of these later centuries were compendia and supercommentaries. The fresh impulse needed for the revival of independent Muslim thought did not come from within the Muslim sphere, a phenomenon that resembled the stimulation which Greek philosophy gave to Muslim thought in its heyday. However, the two periods differ in character. The ancient philosophers took Greek philosophy as a starting point for creating a philosophical Weltbild within the framework of Islamic ideas and ideals. The modern Muslim had to defend the very fundament of their world view against intrinsically incompatible concepts. The intrusion of the West into the Muslim world brought with it not only political conflicts, but forced it to review its essential attitudes critically and through alien eyes. The dynamic approach of the West clashed with the static view of the Muslim, Darwin's theory of evolution fought with the belief of the Quran in a creation by Fiat in one moment. The Muslim theologians had to cope with this problem on two fronts. In the secular, social, and political sphere they had to catch up with the Western colonizer in modern knowledge, especially the sciences, technology, and economics. Though that was difficult, it was not impossible, for it required only a re-orientation of education towards secular techniques and scientific problems. Already the Khedive Muhammad 'All, in Egypt, realized that need and inaugurated a program of instruction in Western languages and sciences for his military forces; in India, the challenge was accepted by Sayid Ahmad Khan who founded, in 1875, the "Anglo-Muslim College" in Aligarh for the education of Muslim youth. Science as such had always been honored in the Muslim world, lately, even with boastful pride; and though there was some resistance from orthodox quarters against the changes wrought in traditional life and social patterns, some progress was made. To adjust religious attitudes and traditions was far more difficult. The religious leaders could choose to fight against accommodation with the modern ways, which many held to be identical with forsaking Islam, or they could help in the adjustment by fresh interpretation of the fundaments of their faith. As in the ancient days, justification of, and encouragement for, the new approach had to be found in the Quran. The leaders in this

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movement, though called by the West "reformers" regarded themselves rather as restorers of the true, unadulterated faith and as searchers for the right understanding of the Quran. To find the original intention of the divine Word, it was necessary to free it from the wrong interpretation. It is characteristic that the leading group of reformers were known as the Salafiya, a title taken from their intention to follow the teachings of the salaf "forefathers", rather than their orthodox distorters. The "modernists" asserted that many traditional attitudes had lost their validity with the changes in social conditions; a good example for this assertion was offered by the institution of polygamy which, however justified it may have been in ancient times, had lost its value under modern conditions. The Quran, far from being hostile towards progress, rather encouraged it by enjoining the study of natural phenomena as well as of history. The leading authorities invoked in support were al-Ghazali who centuries ago had fought against much the same abuses and against the mechanical observance of rituals, and Ibn Taymiya (died 728 A.H./1328 A.D.) who had fought bid'a (innovation) and the excess of popular religiousity, e.g., the veneration of saints and the belief in their efficacy. As in medieval times, the revival affected both the cultural and the political sphere. In the latter, opposition against Western domination was led by Jamal-al-Din al-Afghani (1839-97) who through his propagation of PanIslamism and by using religious issues and ideas tried to arouse the Muslim world against the imperialist powers which dominated it. The religious issues were mainly formulated by his disciple Muhammad 'Abduh (1849-1905). Together they published, for some time, while in exile in Paris, a clandestine journal called al-Urwah al Wuthqa (The Indissoluble Bond) (see surah 2, v. 257; 31, v. 21) with many contributions from 'Abduh's pen. During his later years in his native Egypt, holding high office, including responsibilities at the Azhar theological university, 'Abduh exerted deep and lasting influence on the development of modern Muslim thought. Through his writings and sermons, he became the foremost interpreter of Muslim tenets in the light of modern social and natural sciences. In the journal al-Manar (The Lighthouse), the mouthpiece of the reform movement, he published a continous series of homilies on Quranic ideas and religious tenets. His disciple Rashid Rida, with 'Abduh's approval, published a partly augmented collection of these sermons, which later was also translated into French. In this commentary 'Abduh stressed the ultimate compatibility of change through new insights with conservation of the fundamental truth of the Quranic revelation. The rigid adherence to ancient dogmas established by the four orthodox madhahib (rites) had drained Islam of its original vitality and prevented it from adapting to the demands of changing circumstances. Only the Quran and the genuine Sunna of the Prophet should be consulted in order to re-establish Islam's validity for all

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ages and under any external conditions. This concept formed the basis for the demand, characteristic of the reform movement in all Muslim countries, for "re-opening" the door of Ijtihad, i.e., the reconstitution of "independent investigation" and the discarding of taqlid (imitation), i.e., blind following of precedent. One of the most far-reaching effects of 'Abduh's criticism of the prevailing rigidity was the intense discussion in all Muslim circles, whether hostile or approving, of the demand for "the re-opening of the door to Ijtihad." Without giving up firm belief in the supremacy of the Quran,' Abduh asserted the compatibility of modern scientific insight into the laws of nature with the Quranic cosmogony. The Quran aimed at making man aware of the miracle of creation and the wisdom of the Creator; it did not make scientific statements about the character of the natural phenomena and their causes. It urged the study of nature in such verses as: "Verily in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, and in the ship that runneth in the sea with what profits man, and in what water God sends down from heaven and quickens therewith the earth after its death, and spreads abroad therein all kinds of cattle, and in the shifting of the winds, and in the clouds that are pressed into service betwixt heaven and earth, are signs to people who can understand" (surah 2, v. \ 5 9 f f ) . In the same manner those chapters that deal with historical events and social circumstances illuminate the historical progress of mankind and the development of man's behavior under varying social circumstances. Even ethical and moral precepts provided only basic principles, while the practical application may vary with the heightened awareness of social and moral obligations. Thus the customs of polygamy and slavery which the Quran deplored but took for granted as prevailing, even necessary, in the Prophet's time and environment, have no validity in modern times and can, without damaging the spiritual continuance of ancient precepts, be changed or abolished. The same holds good for the prohibition of riba from the ancient character which affected the personal well-being of individuals to the modern, more impersonal institution which is indispensible in modern commerce. Though 'Abduh's influence was intellectually far-reaching and his ideas stimulated intense discussion of both sides of the argument, few, if any, revolutionary changes in official Muslim religious law ensued. But he did open the way to a slow evolutionary reshaping of Muslim attitudes, as evidenced by increasing opposition to the practice and acceptance of polygamy (legally prohibited so far only in Turkey and Tunisia, but increasingly frowned upon in all Muslim countries), stricter regulation of divorce or a second marriage, and certain changes in the law of inheritance (e.g., establishing the legal right of a child to inherit his deceased father's share from his grandfather's estate). However, all such changes had to conform with

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the spirit of Quranic commandments, with their emphasis on their maslahah or "common weal"; no change could be sanctioned unless it would conform with Quran and Sunna. Sheikh Muhammad 'Abduh was not the only Muslim leader to realize the need for some accommodation with modern needs. In India, too, similar currents were at work. Sir Sayed Ahmad Khan (died 1898) answered the need for preparing a generation of educated Muslims for the future leadership of the Indian Muslim community by founding the Anglo-Muslim College in Aligarh. This institution was to combine solid grounding in Muslim faith and scholarship with a sound education in modern secular fields. He succeeded to an amazingly high degree in this purpose, for it produced several generations in the subcontinent of intellectual leaders in politics, law, and literature. Muhammad Iqbal (1873-1938) provided the philosophic justification, anchored in Islamic beliefs and Western psychology, for Sayyid Ahmad's originally rather pragmatic program. In his Six Lectures on the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, first held before a Muslim audience, later repeated in England, Iqbal offered an examination of the spiritual forces of Islam ana their philosophical interpretations by the ancient Muslim thinkers; he analysed their validity in the light of modern psychology and the scientific discoveries and hypotheses of modern times. More poet and philosopher than Quran interpreter in the ancient sense, he tried to fill the traditional Islamic concepts with intense spiritual content based on what he called "Higher Sufism", i.e., immersion in the spiritual values offered by the Quran and the faith derived from it. In his Lectures, he tried to achieve this goal by a step-by-step analysis of Islamic development from Quran, via Hadith and philosophic speculation to the established creed; in his poetry, he used familiar Muslim institutions, such as the Ka'ba or the Wanderer (Khadir, Khidr) as symbols for the search of the Believer for Faith and Truth. In spite of his enlightened use of modern psychology and science - he based his arguments on Einstein and Heisenberg, on Bergson, Whitehead, and Jung, whose ideas, in contrast to 'Abduh, he was equipped through his studies in Europe to understand and use judicially - Iqbal emerges as a true Believer, and a Sufi at that. Like all those who attempted to examine Islam's tenets philosophically, Iqbal supported his analysis and exegesis by Quran verses; but like all interpreters in the past and in modern times, he too chose those ayat that supported his views, and often injected forced meanings to fit his views. Sir Hamilton Gibb summed up his work in this judgement: "Iqbal aimed to reconstruct the established theology of Islam; but the theology which he attempts to restate is not, in fact, the orthodox theology, but the Sufi theology." 4 4. Gibb, Modern Trends, p. 82.

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The name of Mawlana Abu'l-Kalam Azad (born in Mecca, 1888, died 1958) must be added to those of the illustrious scholars already mentioned. He, too, was an Indian Muslim, but while deeply involved in the fight for Indian Independence, he dissociated himself from the aspirations for a Muslim state (unlike Iqbal, who is credited with creating the idea of Pakistan). His main activity and greatest influence lay in the political arena, as the editor of the journals al-Hilal and later al-Balagh; he opted for India and became eventually its Minister of Education. His internment by the British in consequence of his political activities prevented him from carrying to completion his planned commentaries on the Quran, even in Urdu, his native language. Only two of the planned three volumes of his Tarjuman al-Qur'an (Commentary on the Quran) were published; two other works, a Muqaddima (Introduction) and Tafslr al-Bayan (a "detailed commentary") never appeared. An English translation of the Surat al-Fatiha (The Opening surah) prepared by Dr. Syed 'Abdul-Latif was published in 1962 as the Tarjuman al-Qur'an, Volume I. Abu'l-Kalam Azad used the Fatiha, which contains only seven verses, as a vehicle for conveying his religious philosophy and theology by way of homilies on the ideas each verse contains; his objective was "to present not a detailed commentary on the traditional lines, but to give out all that is essential to an easy grasp of the Qur'anic meaning" (p. xl). He discussed his approach in the preface (dated 1930) to the first (Urdu) edition.5 In effect it is a declaration of war against the "misinterpretations" to which the simple text of the Quran was subjected in the course of centuries. Not only did it lose its "charm" but was "given an artificial mould" into which "the Qur'anic thought could not fit." He blamed the -generations following the "first one", that is, the Companions of the Prophet, for their "love of inventiveness" which rendered them unable to appreciate the original "simplicity" of the Quran. Furthermore, the foreign elements introduced by converts to Islam and, even worse, by the "commentators (who), obsessed by the philosophy and logic of Greece... thought they were honoring their Prophets by turning them into dialecticians. They sought to demonstrate the greatness of the Qur'an by pressing it into the framework of Aristotelian logic." He was as opposed to the Sufis as he was to the attempt of making the Quran "support and endorse every new discovery of scientific knowledge". An attempt, therefore, was made to read therin an argument in favor of the Ptolemic system even as the present-day dispensers of intelligence who write commentaries of the Qur'an try to interpret it in terms of every new development in the "Science of the Cosmos"(p. xxxvi). In this manner he was attacking also "the latest examples of interpretation attempted by a certain type of 5. Azad, Tarjuman al-Qur'an, translated by Syed Abdul LatTf, p. xxv ff.

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commentators both in India and Egypt in the name of reorientation of the Qur'anic thought, as if the Qur'an was delivered over 1,000 years ago just to endorse, in advance, in the form of riddles, what, centuries after, men, like Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, H. G. Wells, could find out for themselves without the aid of any revealed scripture - riddles reserved to be noticed and unravelled by the presentday commentators of the Qur'an'Xp. xl). This is obviously an attack on Muhammad 'Abduh and his school, and on Iqbal. The more recent writers, e.g., the Pakistani Ghulam Ahmad Perwez (1903-) are still faced with the same problem of reconciling the results of modern research in the natural and social sciences with their ingrained belief in the supremacy of the Quran. They often try to force modern explanations on its pronouncements, but are unable to solve the conflict perhaps because it is unsolvable without sacrificing belief in the eternal validity of God's Word. Others, like Sayyid Abu'l-'Ala Mawdudi (1903-) abandon the attempt at conciliation and oppose change in traditional attitudes and customs. At least brief mention should be made of the Quran exegesis of the Ahmadiya movement, a recent sect founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1839-1914) which takes refuge in interpretations that are partly allegory, partly spiritual sermonizing. The most striking facet in modern exegesis is its apologetic character. Its proponents are torn between their deep devotion to their faith, as expressed by their Prophet (whom no Muslim would mention without invoking God's blessing on him) and their awareness of the discrepancies between the Quranic world view and the insights afforded modern man by the scientific exploration of nature and the universe. They share this dilemma with their medieval counterparts. Abu'l-Kalam Azad tried to solve it by disavowing the speculations of the medieval scholars, even of such a great man as ar-RazI, urging the return to the "simple" text. Muhammad 'Abduh, though equally aware of the problem, seemed to be more courageous in bringing Quranic concepts into harmony with modern theories, though he lacked, as Azad rightly felt, sufficient scientific knowledge. Among all attempts at "reconstruction" of Muslim thought, that of Muhammad Iqbal ranks highest, for it is neither a flight into the pristine state of "simplicity" that Azad yearns for, nor an interpretation of Quranic concepts "in the light of modern knowledge." Iqbal intended, and presented, a philosophic rethinking of the fundamental problems posed by religion as such (as expressed in the title of his seventh, additional, lecture, "Is Religion Possible?" He succeeded, in spite of inevitable criticism, to a remarkable degree, in showing, if not the solution, at least the path any attempt at reaching a solution must travel. Among the modernists, Iqbal had the greatest influence on the development of Indo-Pakistan Muslim intellectuals; his affirmation of faith, combin-

Quran and Quran exegesis

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ed with his positive and scholarly approach to modern science and philosophy made him the most stimulating thinker among the Muslim theologians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Bibliography Andrae, Tor (1936,1955), Mohammad, sein Leben und sein Glaube. Trans, as Mohammad: The Man and his Faith, by Theophil Menzel, New York. - (1918), Die Person Mohammeds in Lehre und Glauben seinen Gemeinde, Stockholm. al-Ash'arl, Abfl'l-Hasan 'Ali ibn Isma'Il (1940), al-Ibänah 'an Usül al-Diyänah A Translation, with Introduction and Notes, by Walter C. Klein (American Oriental Series, vol. 19), New Haven, Conn. Baljon, J. M. S. (1961), Modem Muslim Koran Interpretation (1880-1960), Leiden. Corbin, Henry (1969), Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi. Trans, from the French by Ralph Manheim. (Bollingen Series XCI.) Princeton. Fazlur, Rahman (1958), Prophesy in Islam, London. Gätje, Helmut (1971), Koran und Koranexegese, Zurich und Stuttgart (Die Bibliothek des Morgenlandes). Gibb, H. A. R. (1947), Modern Trends in Islam, Chicago. Goldziher, Ignaz (1920), Die Richtungen der Islamischen Koranauslegung. Leiden, photomech. reprint, 1952. - (1910), Vorlesungen Über den Islam, Heidelberg. Gruenebaum, G. E. von (1946), Medieval Islam, Chicago, 4th e.d. 1954. Guillaume, Alfred (1924), The Traditions of Islam. An Introduction to the Study of the Hadith Literature. Oxford. Reprinted Beyrouth, 1966. Hamidullah, M. (1959), Le prophète de l'Islam, 2 vols., Paris. Horovitz, Joseph (1926), Koranische Untersuchungen, Berlin-Leipzig. Iqbäl, Muhammad (1930), Six Lectures on the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Lahore. Lichenstadter, Ilse (1956-65), 'Origins and Interpretation of Some Qur'änic Symbols', (I.) in: Studii Orientalistici in Onore Giorgio Levi Delia Vida, vol. II, pp. 58 ff, Rome 1956; (II.) in: Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honor of Hamilton R. A. Gibb, Leiden, 1965. - (1958), Islam and the Modern Age, New York. - (i.p.), 'A Note on the Biblical Stories in the Koran', in: volume in memory of Arthur Upham Pope (in press). Macdonald, Duncan B. (1903), Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory, New York. Noeldeke, Theodor, and F. Schwally (1908-38), Geschichte des Qorans. 2nd ed., Leipzig, Repr. Hildesheim, 1961. Paret, Rudi (1950), Grenzen der Koranforschung, Stuttgart (Bonner Orientalistische Studien, Heft 27). Prophet, Life of the - al-Sirah al Nubuwwiyah li-Ibn Hishäm, 4 vols. Cairo, 1936 ff. - Sîrah The Life of Muhammad, Trans. A. Guillaume, Oxford, 1958. Quran (References to Quran verses are given according to Fluegel's edition of the text.) - (Abduh, Muhammad) Rashld Ridä, Tafsir al-Manär, Cairo, 1926-34. Cf. J. Jomier, Le Commentaire Coranique du Manar, Paris, 1954. - Àzâd, Abü'l-Kaläm, The Tarjumän al-Qur'än, ed. and rendered into English by Syed 'Abdul-Latif. 2 vols. Bombay, 1962, 1967. - Arberry, A. J., The Koran Interpreted. 2 vols. London, 1955. Rosenthal, Franz (1965), Das Fortleben der Antike im Islam. Zurich und Stuttgart (Die Bibliothek des Morgenlandes). 3

"Humaniora Islamica n . "

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Schacht, Joseph (1964), An Introduction to Islamic Law, Oxford. Schimmel, Annemarie (1963), Gabriel's Wing. A Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbäl, Leiden. - (1962), 'The Place of the Prophet of Islam in Iqbal's Thought.' In: Islamic Studies, vol. I no. 4, pp. I l l ff. Karachi. Smith, W. Cantwell (1957), Islam in Modern History, Princeton. Watt, W. Montgomery (1970), Bell's Introduction to the Qur'än, Edinburgh (Islamic Surveys, no. 8). Williams, John Alden (1971), Themes of Islamic Civilization, Berkeley.

CHARLES WENDELL

The Denizens of Paradise

This paper 1 is intended as endorsement and sustaining argument for what seems to be the minority viewpoint among Islamists generally, on the question of the hür ghilmän of the Muslim Paradise. In keeping with a strong tendency to deny to Islam any originality whatsoever, and to reduce every Qur'änic doctrine to one more "borrowing" from Jewish, Christian or Zoroastrian sources, this most Arabian of all the paradisiacal features of the world to come has also been largely relegated to the grotesquely overswollen sack of foreign loot which Islam seems to represent to far too many scholars. It is true that this tendency was more prevalent in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries than it is today; nevertheless enough of it survives to warrant an attempt at administering the coup de grâce to this single detail, if nothing more. There is a well known Prophetic tradition which should be taken rather more seriously than it has been in the past. In the course of describing his childhood among the Banü Sa'd, and his acquisition of the pure Arabic of the desert, the Prophet is said to have made the following remark to his fellow-Qurayshites : "I am the most Arab of you" (and a'rabukum):2 a statement, I am convinced, which is as "weighty and trenchant" as the well known alternatives offered by the Assassins to their Sunnï opponents. The older view was characteristically expressed by E. Berthels in a lengthy article on the theme to be discussed presently, when he said : "1st also die Vorstellung von der paradiesischen Jungfrauen vermutlich entlehnt, so müssen wir ihr Vorbild wohl notwendigerweise in einer der drei folgenden Religionen: Christentum, Judentum oder Zoroastrismus suchen." 3 Briefly, 1. The nucleus of this article was a paper read before the Seminar in Oriental Cultures of the University of California in Santa Barbara on March 1,1972. 2. Muhammad b. Sa'd, Kitäb al-fabaqat al-Kablr, ed. Eduard Sachau (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1905-1940), I, 71. 3. E. Berthels, 'Die paradiesischen Jungfrauen (IJûrïs) im Islam', Islamica 1 (1925), p. 263. On p. 287, he cites two other works in English brought to his attention by A. Fischer, supporting his thesis of a Zoroastrian origin for the hür- theme: E. Sell's The Faith of Islam, and St. Clair Tisdall's The Original Sources of the Qur'än. 3*

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once having discarded A. Wensinck's hypothesis that the fyür were adopted from Christian angelology, because the sexual aspect is altogether missing and unthinkable for Christianity,4 he argues for a Zoroastrian origin in the Daená, or personification of the "good deeds" of the devout believer as a beautiful maiden, and the first spiritual being encountered by the soul after death. 5 The sinner, on the other hand, meets a repulsive, stinking hag, the personification of his "evil deeds." Berthels suggests that since each personification corresponds to the life-pattern of the deceased, it may be regarded as his reward or punishment in the next world - though he takes care to indicate that this is not in accord with official Zoroastrian teaching. Nor, he admits, is there the remotest indication of any "spiritual marriage" (geistiger Hochzeit) of the soul with the Daená.® His somewhat lame conclusion is that a Zoroastrian origin cannot be proved, but that the possibility of such a borrowing exists.7 Tor Andrae, in his turn, showed not the slightest hesitation in claiming a very daringly specific Christian origin for the Mr in the Hymns of Paradise of the Syrian monk Afrem. He asserted: "As a proof of the religious inferiority of the Arabian Prophet, Christians have often pointed out that Mohammed depicts eternal bliss merely as an endless and unrestricted satisfaction of extremely primitive sensual desires. The polemical ardour should be damped by what seems to me to be the irrefutable fact [italics mine] that the Koran's descriptions of Paradise were inspired by the ideas of this Christian Syrian preacher." 8 E. Beck has, however, completely demolished this "find," and has demonstrated conclusively that it is based solely on a misreading of the Syriac text by Andrae. 9 Louis H. Gray, in his discussion á propos of the Daena-figure, rejected the notion of a Zoroastrian origin for the hür,10 though several decades later one can still find A. Jeffery upholding the banner. "Western scholars are in general agreed that the conception of the Houries of Paradise is one borrowed from outside sources, and the prevalent notion is that the borrowing was from Persia."11 One can only wonder at the curiously perverse view so many 4. Berthels, 'Die paradiesischen Jungfrauen', pp. 263-264. 5. Ibid., pp. 266-267. 6. Ibid., p. 267. 7. Ibid. 8. Tor Andrae, Mohammed: The Man and his Faith, transí. Theophil Menzel (New York: Barnes and Noble, n.d.), p. 87. 9. E. Beck, 'Eine christliche Parallele zu den Paradiesesjungenfrauen des Korans?', Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 14 (1948), pp. 398-405; idem, 'Les Houris du Coran et Ephrem le Syrien', Melanges de /'Instituí dominicain d'études orientales, 6 (1959-1961), pp. 405-408. 10. Louis H. Gray, 'Zoroastrian Elements in Muhammedan Eschatology', Le Muséon, 3 N.S. (1902), p. 158. 11. Arthur Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1938), p. 119.

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otherwise reasonable scholars seem to have adopted with respect to this particular feature of Muslim eschatology. If there is any single aspect of Qur'änic style and doctrine which stands out clearly enough for even the casual reader to see, it is the love of parallelism, or balanced symmetry, everywhere lavishly displayed, from the stereotyped lives of the prophets and apostles down to paired proper names such as Härüt and Märüt, Tälüt and Jälüt, Zanjabil and Salsabil. When one considers the symmetrically designed structures of Paradise and Hell in the Qur'än, as, for example in Q.37:41-44:12 For them [the saved] awaits a known provision, fruits - and they high-honoured in the Gardens of Bliss upon couches, set face to face, followed shortly by verses 64-66, contrasting the hideous fruit of the hellish tree Al-Zaqqüm with the delicious fare of Paradise: It is a tree that comes forth in the root of Hell; its spathes are as the heads of Satans, and they [the sinners] eat of it, and of it fill their bellies, it does not seem too far-fetched to assume that any direct or even indirect influence from Zoroastrianism would almost surely have induced the introduction of the "stinking hags" as fit companions for the sinners at an eternal banquet of the damned. They, together with the attendant fiends, would have produced a perfect inverse image of the joys promised the true believer, who is to be regaled for eternity by the hür and his attendant ghilmän. Even more strikingly similar are the heavenly and infernal plans contrasted in Q.56:27-38; 39-56, and so on through-out the Book wherever the suffering of the sinners and the pleasures of the saved are described in any detail. That this picturesque "equivalent" is nowhere to be found is a strong enough argument in itself against any hint of Zoroastrian influence. Other arguments for a Jewish or Christian origin seem equally labored and unconvincing. D. Künstlinger goes to impressively erudite lengths to prove that the Mr are derived from an earlier, less spiritualized stage of Jewish belief, according to which sexual pleasures were part and parcel of the paradisiacal reward.13 His ingenious derivation of the word itself, from the 12. This and succeeding quotations from the Qur'än will be taken from Arthur J. Arberry's The Koran Interpreted (2 vols.; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1955). 13. D. Künstlinger, 'Einiges über die Namen und die Freuden des Kuränischen Paradie ses', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 6 (1930-1932), pp. 630-631.

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ancient Semitic HWR, "hollow, orifice" - hence "female" - later confused with a similar root meaning "white," 14 will, I believe, be refuted by the discussion to follow. He too prefers to seek any route, however tortuous, which will lead to the unveiling of one more foreign loan, than to consider seriously what the Prophetic hadith cited earlier states in clear tones, and which is the point d'appui of my argument. This is simply the proposition that the Prophet Muhammad, without any question of derogation of his personal genius, was a creature of his environment and a man living within a specific cultural tradition. Outstanding among those who have dealt with the problem at hand from this commonsense, but so frequently disregarded, standpoint are G. Jacob 15 and more importantly, J. Horovitz. 16 Both of these scholars are convinced that Muhammad found a source of inspiration for many of the details of his Paradise-imagery in the travelling canteens that made their way to the tribal gatherings and great religious fairs of Pagan Arabia, or indirectly, in the Bacchic vignettes depicted so frequently in Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. 17 D. Künstlinger somewhat grudgingly admits the influence of the poetic vocabulary, though insisting that such terms were already part of the common language of the people as a whole by the time of the Prophet's advent. 18 For reasons not altogether clear, he finds it difficult to believe that Muhammad could have been affected even indirectly by the poetry itself.19 There is, however, no logical reason to eliminate this very strong possibility, since Muhammad is certainly known to have attended the Pan-Arabian annual fairs held in the neighborhood of Mecca, at which poetic recitations were an important part of the proceedings. He is indisputably correct in his assumption that "die Freuden, die der Gläubigen im Paradies harren, sind natürlich nach der Hoffnung, dem Verlangen, auch der übertriebenen phantastischen Sehnsucht des in Diesseits geplagten Menschen gezeichnet." 20 I would merely add to this that not only are the various paradises man has conceived at different times and places endowed with the most sought-after

14. Ibid., pp. 629-630. 15. Georg Jacob, 'Zur Geschichte des Bänkelsangs', O. Harrassowitz,LitteraeOrientales, 41 (1930), p. 8, where he cites T. Nöldeke as being in basic agreement with himself as to much of the Qur'änic Paradise-imagery stemming from the practices and personnel of the travelling wine-shops of Pre-Islamic Arabia. 16. Josef Horovitz, 'Das koranische Paradies', Scripta Universitatis atque Bibliothecae Hierosolymitanarum, Orientali et Judaica, 1 (1923), pp. 1-16; idem, 'Die paradiesischen Jungfrauen im Koran', Islamica 1 (1925), p. 543. 17. Jacob, 'Bänkelsangs', p. 8; Horovitz, 'Das koranische Paradies', p. 16. 18. Künstlinger, 'Einiges über die Namen', p. 631. 19. Ibid., where he says: 'Soviel wir Muhammad hennen, wissen wir, dass trotz seiner Schwächen, er ein überaus ernster Mann gewesen ist. Es ziemt sich daher kaum anzunehmen, er habe von "Bänkelsänger-Bildern" sein Paradies sich ausgemalt.' 20. Ibid., p. 627.

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pleasures of his earthly existence, though raised to an unimaginable pitch of refinement and intensity, and protracted throughout eternity (however this may be defined or qualified); they are also unmistakably modeled on the actual life of the reigning aristocracy and the joys of an existence unknown save by hearsay to the bulk of mankind. Hence, the sociological referents of the Muslim Paradise can no more be overlooked in evaluating the Qur'änic evidence, than they can in elucidating the facts of the Prophet's struggle with the Pagans of Mecca or the Jews of Medina, as these too are reflected in the same sacred text. To be sure, one can find no trace of Pagan belief in anything resembling the Qur'änic Paradise in the surviving remains of PreIslamic literature and tradition, and therefore no hint of paradisiacal hür and ghilmän.21 Nevertheless, despite this fact on which all scholars must be in accord, there is no compelling reason to resign one's self to Berthel's stringently phrased choice of alternatives: "Daher müssen sie [the hür] entweder von Muhammad selbständig erfunden oder aus irgendeiner anderer Religion entlehnt worden sein. Die erste dieser Möglichkeiten ist aber höchst unwahrscheinlich."22 Horovitz found the true key to this problem, and removed the necessity for further learned guess-work when he pointed out the salient fact that in both the Qur'än and Pagan poetry, the hür are invariably depicted in scenes of festivity and drinking.23 Another bit of tell-tale evidence unmentioned by him is that the ghilmän, or youthful male servitors, are also taken for granted as figuring in the same environments, albeit far less often specified in both sources. A few passages from the Qur'än and early poetry will make clear to what extent the paradisiacal picture was indebted to its earthly counterpart. Those are they [the "outstripped", al-Säbiqün] brought nigh the Throne in the Gardens of Delight (a throng of the ancients and how few of the later folk) upon close-wrought couches reclining upon them, set face to face immortal youths going round about them with goblets, and ewers, and a cup from a spring (no brows throbbing, no intoxication) and such fruits as they shall choose, 21. J. Horovitz readily grants this much to Berthels in ''Die paradiesischen Jungfrauen", p. 543, but finds himself unable to see any indication of Zoroastrian Provence. 22. Berthels, "Die paradiesischen Jungfrauen", p. 263. 23. Horovitz, "Die paradiesischen Jungfrauen", p. 543.

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Charles Wendell and such flesh of fowl as they desire, and wide-eyed houris as the likeness of hidden pearls, a recompense for that they laboured.24 So God has guarded them [the believers] from the evil of that day, and has procured them radiancy and gladness, and recompensed them for their patience with a Garden, and silk; therein they shall recline upon couches, therein they shall see neither sun nor bitter cold; near them shall be its shades, and its clusters hung meekly down, and there shall be passed around them vessels of silver, and goblets of crystal, crystal of silver that they have measured very exactly. And therein they shall be given to drink a cup whose mixture is ginger, therein a fountain whose name is called Salsabil. Immortal youths shall go about them; when thou seest them, thou supposest them scattared pearls, when thou seest them then thou seest bliss and a great kingdom.25 And We shall succour them [the believers] with fruits and flesh such as they desire while they pass therein a cup one to another wherein is no idle talk, no cause of sin, and there go round them youths, their own, as if they were hidden pearls.26

With these, the following extracts from some Pre-Islamic and early Islamic odes may be compared. By us was an amphora with the seal broken off, like the runnel of a cistern-head which has been broken down by the tramplings of the press of camels coming to drink, and by it a water-skin with its spout tied up to its neck, And a flagon of shining silver, with its top bound round, above the plaster that stopped it, with a wreath of sweet basil;

24. Q.56:11-24. 25. Q.76:11-20. 26. Q.52 : 22-24. This concludes those passages in the Qur'an in which the ghilman figure.

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Cooled was the wine by mixing with water, and between the amphora and the flagon was a mixing-bowl, like the middle of a wild ass, pierced with a hole [from which to pour the wine when mixed]; And the flagon was full, overflowing with foam atop, and a roast quarter of a sheep lay by, transfixed with a spit; Busy therewith was a servant, active, his garments girt up, above our table, and in a wooden dish were all kinds of spicery.27 Time was I went every night, hair combed, to sellers of wine, and squandered lightly my wealth, compliant, easy of mood. Yea, once I played, and enjoyed the sweetest flower of youth, my wine the fruit of the grape, mingled with purest of rain Wine bought from one with a twang in his speech, and rings in his ears, a belt girt round him: he brought it forth for good silver coin. A boy deals it to our guests, girt up, two pearls in his ears, his fingers ruddy, as though stained deep with mulberry juice, And women white like the moon or statues stately to see, that softly carry around great cups filled full with the wine White women, dainty, that shoot the hearts of men [with their eyes], fair as a nest full of ostrich eggs betwixt rock and sand.28 how many a taverner's hoisted flag I have visited, when the wine it proclaimed was precious dear, And I've forked out a pretty penny for an old, brown wineskin Or a pitch-smeared jar, newly decanted and seal broken, For the pleasure of a song on a wet morning, and a charming girl plucking With nimble fingers the strings of her melodious lute.29 One phenomenon, noticeable in both Qur'anic and poetic citations, is the insistence on the quality of "whiteness" as a desirable, and desired, attribute of the beauty, male or female. To express this idea, the roots HWR and BYD ared used in frequently interchangeable fashion, as we shall see in the examples to follow. Hur, as the common plural of ahwar (fem. fiawm'), is the source of the relative adjective hurl (whence English "houri," etc.), a secondary formation used more often in the feminine, hiiriyya, in post-classical 27. From an ode by 'Abda b. al-Tablb. Charles J. Lyall, The Mufadclallyat (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918-1921) II, 97-98. 28. From an ode by Al-Aswad b. Ya'fur. Ibid., p. 162. 29. From the "Mu'allaqa" of Labld. Arthur J. Arberry, The Seven Odes (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1957), pp. 145-146.

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Arabic for the singular, than the more formally correct hawra\ In the Qur'an, only the common plural is employed in the following places: Q.44:54; 52:20; 55:72; 56:22, and in three of these, Q.44:54; 52:20 ; 56:22, the expression hur 'in, "wide-eyed houris," is found, with the common plural 'in, from a'yan (fern. 'ayna'), appended as a qualifier or appositive to the substantivized adjective hur. Nowhere does the post-Qur'anic construct phrase hur al-'in, which may be rendered as "the white-complexioned of those with eyes," appear. (There is also another possible translation for this phrase to be discussed in due course.) Both the ghilman and the hur are described as being "like hidden pearls" (ka amthali 'l-lu'lu'i 'l-maknun), in Q.56:23 where the reference is to the hur; and in Q.52:24 where the reference is to the ghilman. In Q.76:19, the ghilman are depicted as "scattered pearls" (lu'lu'an manthur), while in Q.37:48-49, the "wide-eyed maidens restraining their glances" (qasiratu 'l-tarfi 'in), a periphrastic expression denoting the hur in some suras, are compared with "hidden eggs" (baydun makniin).30 The root BYD31 enjoyed a rather different semantic evolution from that of its sometime synonym HWR, in that it very often went beyond its original color-designation and took on the connotation of "glorious, noble, aristocratic," particularly when it was used of men. It is, however, apparent that this more abstract meaning owes its ultimate origin to the paler skin tones of the better sheltered and better clothed Pagan aristocracy, and it is this older, concrete meaning which we generally find preserved in the poetry when reference is made to carefully nurtured women, whether the daughters of princely families or the well-trained, costly and beautiful slave-entertainers of the "taverns." For example, the "white women" in Lyall's translation of the ode of al-Aswad b. Ya'fur are "al-bid,"32 as they

30. Here too Arberry translates this phrase as ''hidden pearls", though the comparison of the complexions of aristocratic, secluded women with the creamy white shells of ostrich eggs is an old piece of Pre-Islamic flattery often found in the poetry. The metaphor occurs in verse 23 of Imru' al-Qays' "Mu'allaqa": Many's the fair veiled lady, whose tent few would think of entering, I've enjoyed sporting with, and not in a hurry either, Arberry, Seven Odes, p. 62. In the original, the phrase "fair vailed lady" is baydatu khidr, literally "the egg of the bower." See also the verses of al-Aswad b. Ya'fur cited above. Abu Sa'Id 'Abd Allah b. 'Umar al-BaydawI interprets Q.37 : 49 as referring to the color of the ostrich egg in Beidhawi Commentarius in Coranum, ed. H. O. Fleischer (2 vols.; Osnabriick: Biblio-Verlag, 1968) II, 171. See also Horovitz,''Das koranische Paradies", p. 13. 31. Curiously enough, A. Morabia discusses a number of adjectives denoting '"white", especially the root BYD, as well as the [symbolism of this color among the Arabs, in his article, "Recherches sur quelques noms de couleur en arabe classique", Studia Islamica, 21 (1964), pp. 72-73 and 89-90, but overlooks the root HWR entirely. 32. Lyall, Mufa44aliyat, I, 353-354.

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are in his superlatively lovely translation from the Hamasa of a poem by Sulm b. Rabl'a: White women statue-like that trail rich robes of price with golden hem.33 The singular, bayda', is the "white one" in his rendering of a poem by Bakr b. al-Nattah from the same anthology: A white one: she rises slow, and sweeps with her hair the ground. 34 And by another translator, in a poem by Qays b. al-Hudadiyya: Well-proportioned, white-complexioned [bayda'], she shows to thee A good nature, in spite of coldness and timidity in her heart. 35 When bid is used of men in the ancient poetry, the commentators almost always note that in such a context, it describes qualities arising from aristocratic descent and nobility of character, and occasionally, this will also hold true for women. In the "Mu'llaqa" of Tarafa, the first hemistich of verse 48 contains the words My boon-companions are white [bid] as stars.. , 36 where the qualities of color and loftiness are combined in a brilliant simile.37 Verse 2 of an ode by Yazid al-Harithi, And I came to one illustrious [abyad], his ample robe trailing behind him, Sufficing any council [of nobles], when he takes the place of the absent; evokes the following gloss by al-Marzuqi on the first hemistich: "He means: 'I visited a free man, noble in quality [rajulan kariman hurrari], his reputation untouched by blemishes [naqiyya 'l-hasabi mina 'l-'uyub].' " 3 8 And finally, 33. Charles J. Lyall, Translations ofAncient Arabian Poetry, Chiefly Pre-Islamic (London: Williams and Norgate, 1930), p. 64. 34. Ibid. p. 73. 35. S.M Hussain, Early Arabic Odes (Dacca: University of dacca, 1938), p. 66 and p. 72 of the Arabic text. 36. Arberry, Seven Odes, p. 85. 37. Both al-Tibrizi and al-Anbari comment only on the word "stars" (al-nujum) in the pertinent prhase, glossing it as "chieftains, prominent men" (a'lam). See Charles J. Lyall, A commentary on Ten Ancient Arabian Poems (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1894), p. 41, and 0. Rescher, ( Tarafa's Mo'allaqa (Stamboul: Imprimerie "Nefaset," 1911), p. 84. It is quite obvious, however, that both adjective and noun fortify one another's surface as well as metaphorical meanings. 38. Shark Diwan al-Hamasa li abi 'All Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Marzuqi, eds. Ahmad Amin and 'Abd al-Salam Harun (Cairo: Matba'at al-Ta'Hf wa '1-Tarjama wa '1-Nashr, 1951-1953), IV, 1756.

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the occurrence of abyad in a verse by Zuhayr is glossed with another in praise of a woman, employing the feminine baydci': A glorious one, illustrious [abyad], open-handed, striking off The fetters from the hands and necks of captives.39 Here Tha'lab defines "glorious" (agharr) as: "possessing a white-complexioned face, i.e. patently of noble character, without a blemish. Abyatf has exactly the same meaning, when he says: Your mother is an illustrious woman [bayda'] of Quda'a, in The house within whose tent-ropes refuge is sought." Supplementing the verses of the poets 'Ad! b. Zayd, Qa'nab, and al-A'sha cited by Jeffery and Horovitz,40 in which the plural hur seems to be used substantively to mean "white-skinned maidens," 41 a number of others can be found in the early poetry to illustrate the evident equivalence of hur and bid as epithets of color. In an ode of Abu Dhu'ayb, hur describes the outer corners of the eyes of the wild cow: Amidst a herd of pearl-hued [kine], white [hur] the angles of their eyes, As if they were hailstones on the two slopes of Harba. 42 And Imr' '1-Qays says: Do you not see their litters setting out in early morning, [lofty] as date-palms of Shawkan at harvest-time. White maidens [hur], their skins scented with saffron-tinged perfume, pale-complexioned [bid al-wujuh], their bodies softly tender.43

39. Sharh Diwan Zuhayr b. Abi Sulma li Abi VI- Abbas Ahmad b. Yafiya al-Shaybani Tha'lab, (Cairo: al-Dar al-Qawmiyya li '1-Tiba'a wa '1-Nashr, 1964), p. 52. 40. Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary, p. 118; Horovitz, "Das koranische Paradies", p. 12. 41. In one verse, that of 'Abid b. al-Abras, cited by both Jeffery and Horovitz, the extended expression hur al-'uyiin is found. This would come very close to substantiating one of the standard lexical definitions of the verbal noun hawar, the adjective of color hawar, etc., as, for example, in Edward W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon (London: Williams and Norgate, 1863-1893), Vol. I, Part 2, p. 666: "Intense whiteness of the white of the eye and intense blackness of the black thereof." Nevertheless, some of the examples to be discussed would appear to indicate that the quality of "whiteness" may have been the original meaning, and the notion of sharp contrast a secondary, derivative idea. 42. Sharh Ash'ar al-Hudhaliyyin san'at Abi Sa'id al-Hasan b. al-Husayn al-Sukkari,tds. Abd al-Sattar Ahmad Farraj and Maljmud Muhammad Shakir (Cairo: Maktabat al'Urtiba, n.d.),1,61. al-Sukkari defines hur as: "white [bid], as though they were hailstones in their whiteness." 43. Diwan lmrV al-Qays, ed. Muhammad Abu '1-Fadl Ibrahim (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1963), p. 115.

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And again by the same poet: She gazed on you with the eye of a [wild cow] surfeited with grazing, a white one [hawra] turning in loving solicitude toward a calf.44 A contemporary Egyptian scholar, Dr. Muhammad al-Nuwayhi, has some interesting observations to offer on the root HWR as it is used in ancient poetry. His argument, corroborated by at least a minority of the old commentators, would eliminate some of the difficulties raised by the construct phrases in which hur appears. He remarks that in a well known qaslda by al-Hadira from the Mufaddaliyyat, the substantivized adjective hawra', which occurs in verse 4, should be understood in the following manner: 45 In the second of these two verses [i.e. verses 3 and 4], he tells us that her eyes are hawrawani [dual of hawra']. The term hur is one used by many but really understood by but a few. Even al-Asma'! admitted honestly that he had no idea what hur meant pertaining to eyes.46 The commentators are generally content to say that it is "the intense blackness of the eye within its intense whiteness." But if we study the texts and lexicons, collating them carefully, we end up by giving our support to Abu 'Amr when he maintains that the true [quality denoted by] hur is not to be found among mankind, but only in the eyes of gazelles and antelopes, where the entire eye [italics mine] is black. It is only used of women by way of comparing them with gazelles and antelopes.47 Hence, only women the pupils of whose eyes are so large and so black as to reduce the white of the eyeball to a minimum, are rightfully described as "gazelle-eyed" by the epithet hur. This would certainly go far to clarify the use of the word, in construct with 'uyun, in the verse of 'Abid b. al-Abras, cited by Jeffery and Horovitz, unless we simply settle for the tried and true definition found in all the lexicons. It would also give us another plausible rendering of the construct phrase mentioned earlier, hur al-'ln, which by these lights could mean "the gazelle-eyed of those with wide eyes." In any case, Jeffery's translation of the phrase in 'Abid's poem seems to be quite faulty, and in fact meaningless:

44. Ibid., p. 238. 45. This verse is translated by Lyall as: And with the eyes of one whose pupils are deepest black [wa bi muqlatay hawrä'a] - thou wouldst think her gaze heavy with slumber - one fair in the place where the tears flow down. Lyall, Mufaddaliyät, I, 17. 46. Also noted by Lane, Lexicon, Vol. I, Part 2, p. 666. 47. Muhammad al-Nuwayhi, al-Shi'r al-Jähiii (Cairo: al-Där al-Qawmiyya Ii '1-Tibä'a wa '1-Nashr, n.d.), 1,178. See also Lane, Lexicon, Vol. I, Part 2, p. 666 s.v. hawar.

40

Charles Wendell And maidens like ivory statues, white of eyes [hur al-uyûn], did we capture.48

At the same time, the equally strong tradition of hur as the synonym of bid cannot legitimately be ignored. Since it is a term which may have been applied originally only to wild animals of the gazelle and antelope species, in one sense or another, one would do well to consider the following information provided by H.R.P. Dickson in a brief glossary of terms denoting wild life in contemporary Bedouin dialects : Rhim [Classical Arabic ri'm] - This is the biggest and most handsome of the gazelles, and is said to be the best eating. It is sandy-red in colour with white flanks, hind parts and belly: the face is white except for a central band of sandy red which merges into a blackish nose. Seen in the distance the animal looks white.'49 Perhaps the only reasonable solution to the problem is to consider the root HWR as one more item in the category of the addâd, or homonyms with opposite meanings, like JWN, "to be white or black," HWY, "to be dark or green", SH'B, "to gather together or to disperse," etc., however much it may seem a consuel of despair. No altogether satisfactory explanation for the existence of this group has yet been given,50 but the total spectrum of HWR would certainly appear to qualify it for membership in the club. There is in fact no good reason for dismissing the possibility that both extremes of the entire band came simultaneously to mind when the ancient Arabian heard the word "hur," evoking an image of gazelle-eyed and paleskinned beauty.51 This would also explain why the lexicons mainly present the adjective ahwar as they do, insisting on the contrasting coexistence of black and white in the same subject, though it is apparent that this must surely have gone far beyond the limited range of the physical appearance of the human or animal eye. To interpret hur in this fashion as entirely 48. Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary, p. 118; Horovitz, "Das koranische Paradies", p. 12. 49. H. R. P. Dickson, The Arab of the Desert (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1959), pp. 465-466. Lane, Lexicon, Vol. I, Part 3, p. 998, gives as his first definition of ri'm : "The antilope leucoryx or white antilope; an antelope (zàby) that is purely white." He also cites the plural, arâm, as a term of comparison for beautiful women. 50. See especially D. Cohen, "Addâd et ambiguïté linguistique en arabe", Arabica 8 (1961), pp. 1-29, and H. Fleisch, Traité de philologie arabe (Beyrouth: Imprimerie catholique, 1961), I, 393-396; 528-529. His remark on p. 529 seems especially pertinent to the matter at hand: ''D'ailleurs tout mot n'existe â proprement parler que dans une phrase: les mots rangés dans les dictionnaires sont des abstractions coupées de leur trame vivante, auxquelles on s'efforce de rendre vie en citant des exemples: des phrases qui les contiennent." 51. Lane, Lexicon, Vol. I, Part 2, p. 666, s.v. ahwar.''Az [al-Azhari] says that a woman is not termed hawrâ' unless Combining hawar of the eyes with whiteness, or fairness, of complexion.'"

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ambivalent would also be in perfect consistency with the traditional picture of the maidens of Paradise as dark-eyed and white-complexioned beings. On the plane of worldly existence, the originals of the paradisiacal hür are frequently described as "singers" (Sängerinnen) by the poets, as Horovitz observes, noting also that there is no suggestion of such a function of the hür of heaven in the Qur'än. 52 The well known lines of Tarafa in his "Mu'allaqa," leave us in no doubt as to their other chief function as entertainers: and a singing-wench comes to us in her striped gown or her saffron robe, wide the opening of her collar, delicate her skin to my companions' fingers, tender her nakedness. When we say, "Let's hear from you," she advances to us chanting fluently, her glance languid, in effortless song.53 al-Aswad b. Ya'fur also continues in this vein as he describes the "white women" who serve the wine in his qasida: Kind words they speak, and their limbs are soft and smooth to the touch, their faces bright, and their hearts to lovers gentle and mild. Low speech they murmur, in tones that bear no secrets abroad: they gain their ends without toil, and need no shouting to win.54 That these qiyän (female singers and musicians) were far from being common prostitutes, despite their very clearly delineated sexual attractions and functions, is made evident by the high regard in which their purely artistic talents were held: Then did I quaff the tawny fiery wine, tapped now for the first time, sweetest of drinks - such delights bring lightness into life! Pure it was, yet soft as though it had been mixed; and sometimes there pleased us a song brilliant like painters' work set off with gold, borne about [by men for its excellence]; A long-necked songstress, friendly in her manners, trilled out its final vowels: in her voice was a clear enunciation which charmed our company as she sang.55 The "taverns," whether mobile or fixed, could be luxurious enough, especially for a clientele accustomed to the rudeness of daily life in Pre52. Horovitz, ''Das koranische Paradies", p. 12. 53. Arberry, Seven Odes, pp. 85-86. 54. Lyall, Mufaddaliytät, II, 162. 55. More from the ode of 'Abda b. al-Tablb cited earlier. Ibid., p. 98. The ''painters" work' may refer to the jewel-like colors and gold ornamentation or background of a portable Byzantine icon, rather than the ''Persian work" suggested by Lyall. In any case, it is a remarkable example of synaesthesia.

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Charles Wendell

Islamic Arabia. This is made quite clear in 'Abda's description of the wineseller's establishment which he visited with a noble, idle nadim (drinkingcompanion) one morning before dawn: Then we reclined on carpets over which were spread embroidered rugs most sumptuous, with work of many colours; Thereon were to see the pictures of things manifold - fowls of all kinds, and lions lurking within the brake; In a house four-square, which its builders had plastered and beautified, wherein were lamps with twisted wicks that lit up the night.56 The unremitting stress placed on the "nobility" of the companions, the beauty and artistic endowments of the qiyan, and the rich appointments of the "taverns" is rounded off by the frequent mention of the high price of the wine, and hence, of the entertainment generally. All these factors taken together make it seem highly unlikely that any but members of the sayyid-c\ass could afford to regale themselves in such surroundings or by such means. It is well known that one of the Pre-Islamic noble's chief boasts was his generosity, and the poets who clebrated their own lofty qualities often made reference to their lack of concern for worldly goods and material wealth as they lavishly entertained themselves and their select friends at the wine-merchants' hostels. Indeed, a large section of Tarafa's "Mu'allaqa" is taken up by this very theme of money squandered on drunkenness and the poet's indifference to his vanishing wealth as he "soaks himself in his lifetime," immortalizing the carpe diem attitude of the Pagan aristocrat.57 'Antara displays much the same range of ideas albeit more briefly in his "Mu'allaqa," 58 and 'Amr b. Kulthum begins his ode from the same anthology with a brilliant forerunner of the khamriyyat (winepoems) to come from the courtly circles of the mediaval Islamic period that was to follow his age.59 There would surely be little reason to boast of excessive winebibbing with one's coterie of friends if the cost of a night's (or day's) amusement were not almost prohibitive, and hence a sure signpost pointing to the reckless and potlatch-like extravagance through which the great Arab sayyids alone could afford to seek enduring fame. The acme of spendthrift magnificence was reached when the poet could boast of forcing the winemerchant to lower his flag, which acted as a kind of sign, indicating that he had sold all his wares.60 This theme can be concluded with al-Hadira's 56. Ibid., p. 97. 57. Arberry, Seven Odes, pp. 85-87. 58. Ibid., p. 181. 59. Ibid., p. 204. 60. As 'Antara does, for instance, in his''Mu'allaqa," honoring his opponent in battle, and hence himself, indirectly. Ibid., p. 182.

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humorous description of his drunken nudama' lying about like prostrate mourners, after a prolonged drinking-bout: Then, Sumayya, how shalt thou know how many a band of young bloods I have delighted in the morning with a black wine-skin full to the spout Youths whose eyes were bloodshot after the dawn-draught, in a place where they saw and heard life to their hearts' desire? They repaired to me early as the day broke forth, and I gave them to drink of old wine like the blood of a gazelle in colour, tempered with water, While they lay outstretched by the wine-booth, as though they were weeping round a corpse not yet carried away to burial. 61 One need only compare with these descriptions the scenes of felicity presented in the Qur'an as promise and incentive for the true believer, to see that his reward was to be an eternity of delectations and diversions which only a severely restricted group of Arab nobility enjoyed on earth. Surely the godfearing shall be in a station secure among gardens and fountains, robed in silk and brocade, set face to face. Even so; and We shall espouse them to wide-eyed houris, therein calling for every fruit, secure.62 Upon them [the saved] shall be green garments of silk and brocade; they are adorned with barcelets of silver, and their Lord shall give them to drink a pure draught. 'Behold, this is a recompense for you, and your striving is thanked.' 63 This is the similitude of Paradise which the godfearing have been promised: therein are rivers of water unstaling, rivers of milk unchanging in flavour, and rivers of wine - a delight to the drinkers,

61. Lyall, Mufaddaliyät, II, 18. 62. Q.44: 51-55. See also Horovitz, ''Das koranische Paradies", p. 4. 63. Q.76:21-22. 4

"Humaniora Islamica II."

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Charles Wendell rivers, too, of honey purified; and therein for them is every fruit, and forgiveness from their Lord - 6 4 'Eat and drink, with wholesome appetite, for that you were working.' Reclining upon couches ranged in rows; and We shall espouse them to wide-eyed houris.65

In the first and last of the foregoing selections from the Qur'an, the believer is told that he will be "espoused" to the hur. In both siiras, the wording of the relevant verses is identical: "Wa zawwajnahum bi hurin 'inin." That the implication "join, couple them in sexual pleasure" is the correct, if most obvious, meaning of these verses, is borne out not only by other Qur'anic verses, but by the unanimity of the oldest commentaries and hadith-coWcctions. The Qur'anic evidence is quite apparent in the following selections: Perfectly We formed them [the hurl, perfect, and We made them spotless virgins, chastely amorous, like of age for the Companions of the Right.66 Surely for the godfearing awaits a place of security, gardens and vineyards and maidens with swelling breasts, like of age, and a cup overflowing.67 This is a Remembrance; and for the godfearing is a fair resort, Gardens of Eden, whereof the gates are open to them, wherein they recline, and wherein they call for fruits abundant, and sweet potions, and with them maidens restraining their glances of equal age. 'This is what you were promised for the Day of Reckoning; this is Our provision, unto which there is no end.' 68 64. 65. 66. 67. 68.

Q.47 Q.52 Q.56 Q.78 Q.38

: 15. : 19-20. : 35-38. : 31-34. : 50-55.

The Denizens of Paradise

45

It would be difficult to quarrel with Horovitz in his conclusion that: "In all diesen Schilderungen erscheint das Paradies vor allem als ein Ort sinnlicher Genüsse."69 Turning to the commentaries, those passages in which the term hür is used explicitly will be dealt with first. The commentaries consulted are the Tafslr of al-Tabari, the Kashshäf of al-Zamakhshari, and the Anwär al-Tanzll of al-Baydäwi. For Q.44:51-55, al-Tabari says that the hür to whom God "has joined them" (the believers) are "women immaculately white [alnaqiyyät al-bayäd], the [term for the] individual being hawrff ."70 al-Zamakhshari says nothing of particular interest at this point, while al-Baydäwi merely remarks that it is a matter of dispute as to whether the hür 'in are the "wives of this world" or "another": "wa 'khtulifa fi annahunna nisä'u '1-dunyä aw ghayrihä." 71 For Q.52:19-24, al-Tabari says: "We have espoused [zawwajnä] the males of these pious believers [dhukür hä'ulä'i H-muttaqina] as spouses [or "in pairs," azwäjan] with the hür'In among women."' 2 The ghilmän are servingboys, white and clear-skinned like pearls, but the believers will outshine them "like the full moon among the stars." 73 al-Zamakhshari says that at times the pious saved will divert themselves with the hür (mulä'abat al-hür), and at times will enjoy the company of their fellow-believers.74 He also asserts that their progeny (dhurriyyätuhum) will join them as a special privilege, while al-Baydäwi adds that "it is said" (qila) that the ghilmän are the children of the saved who preceded them to Paradise, or if not that, "slaves especially allocated to them" (mamälik makhsüsüna bihim).75 For Q.56:11-38, al-Tabari has amassed quite a bit of material representing conflicting or even irreconcilable viewpoints. The süra itself says quite clearly that the hür are "a recompense for that they [the saved] laboured [in this world]."76 The greater number of the hadiths cited by him attempt to paint a more "respectable" picture of the hür to accord with the much more restrained and politely "bourgeois" scheme of Paradise presented in the later Medinese süras, and perhaps even as far back as the Middle Meccan period, to be discussed below. One attributed to the early proto-Süfi ascetic al-Hasan al-Basri declares that "the hür are the righteous women of man69. Horovitz, ''Das koranische Paradies", p. 5. 70. Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Jarlr al-Tabari, Tafsir al-Qur'än (Büläq: Al-Matba'a al-Amiriyya, 1329 H.), XXV, 81. 71. al-Baydäwi, Commentarius, 11, 248. 72. al-Tabari, Tafsir, XXVII, 15. 73. Ibid., p. 18. 74. Mahmud b. 'Umar al-Zamakhshari, al-Kashshäf 'an Haqä'iq Ghawämid al-Tanzll (Beirut: Dar al-Kitäb al-'Arabi, n.d.), IV, 411. 75. al-Baydäwi, Commentarius, II, 289. 76. Q.56:24. 4»

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Charles Wendell

kind" (al-hur sawalihu nisa!i bani Adam).11 Others, in a curious interpretation of Q.56:35, which Arberry translates as "Perfectly we formed them, perfect," propose a kind of remodeling on the part of God of worthy but unattractive earthly women who were blear-eyed ('umsh) and disfigured by accumulations of matter in the corners of their eyes (rums) on the mortal plane, but who are rewarded by being recreated as eternally beautiful virgins and assigned as permanent companions to the saved. Some say that the hur'in are "your wives on earth, turned by God into affectionate virgins." 78 A minoriy declare that the hur are a special creation, some even saying that they were created from saffron (zdfaran). In any event, the adjective 'urub, which serves as an epithet for the hur in verse 37, is glossed as "duly compliant to their husbands" (hasanat al-taba"uiy9 or "passionately desirous of their husbands," whom they equal in age. al-Zamakhshari has little to add to this, except for giving the specific age of thirty-three and suggesting that the word "furush" (beds, mattresses) in verse 34, translated by Arberry as "couches," is a synonym for the hur, since it is a not uncommon location for "women." 80 He also advocates the notion that the hur are re-created believing women who died gray-haired and bleary-eyed on earth, and who in their paradisiaca form will be perpetual virgins whenever their spouses approach them. He quotes a hadith which depicts 'A'isha as uttering a heartfelt groan of unhappy anticipation (wa waja'ah!) at this point, but as being quickly reassured by the Prophet, who says that there will be no pain in Paradise. 81 al-BaydawI has nothing additional here to supplement the two other commentators. The curious and difficult Surat al-Rahman (55) seems to have been undeservedly mauled by many of the commentators in an attempt to disguise or explain away the very obvious evidence of a separate Paradise for the believing y/«». Throughout the sura, the two groups of mankind and the jinn are addressed simultaneously in the dual, while verses 46-61 are a clear depiction of "separate but equal" provision for the believers of both groups as their heavenly reward. But such as fears the Station of his Lord, for them shall be two gardens O which of your Lord's bounties will you and you deny? abounding in branches therein maidens restraining their glances, untouched before them by any man or jinn 77. 78. 79. 80. 81.

al-Tabarl, Tafsir, XXVII, 102. Ibid. Or perhaps ''adroit at sexual play'"? al-Zamakhshari, al-Kashshäf, IV, 461. Ibid., 462.

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and further along, O which of your Lord's bounties will you and you deny? therein maidens good and comely O which ? houris, cloistered in cool pavilions O which ? 82 untouched before them by any man or jinn "Untouched" (lam yatmithhunna) here means "not deflowered," and in those hadiths which accept the view that "the two gardens" are twin Paradises for men and the jinn respectively, the "maidens restraining their glances" are qualified as "females of humankind" (insaniyyat) for "mankind" (rids), and "females of the jinn" (jinniyyat) for the jinn.83 The problem raised by verse 62: "and besides these shall be two gardens," raising the total to four (?) Paradises, is not germane to this discussion. Suffice it to say that al-Tabari offers the suggestion that these additional gardens are two supplementary, but inferior, Paradises, in which, nevertheless, there will also be found hur "untouched by any man or jinn." 84 al-Zamakhshari supports the interpretation that both groups will have their separate Paradises, and that the maidens are destined for both men and jinn. Since they are "untouched," they are virgins, he says, and therefore we have the evidence of the Qur'an itself that the jinn copulate exactly like mankind. The two additional jannas are for those of the saved who are lesser in rank than the most highly favored. 85 al-Baydawi has nothing of note to add to this. For Q.37:48, where the hur are also called "wide-eyed maidens restraining their glances," some hadiths cited by al-Tabari describe them as "unlike women in this world" (laysa kama yakunu nisa'u ahli 'l-dunya).86 As also in sura 55 above, the confine their glances to their husbands ('a/a bu'ulatihinna), desiring none but them, and looking at none other than them. 87 Both al-Zamakhshari and al-Baydawi more or less repeat al-Tabari here. al-Baydawi comments on their creamy-white color - that of the ostrich egg - as "the best of body-colors" ( f a innahu ahsanu alwani'l-abdani).ss The "maidens restraining their glances" who appear again in sura 38, are in al-Tabari's Tafsir "equal in age" (atrab) to their spouses, though he also cites hadiths which interpret this term as meaning "alike in spirit" (to one another?) or free from contentiousness, dislikes, differences, jealousies, etc. (mutawak82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88.

Q.55 : 46-47; 56; 69-74. al-Tabari, Tafsir, XXVII, 88. Ibid. al-Zamakhshari, al-Kashshaf, IV, 453. al-Tabari, Tafsir, XXII, 36. Ibid. al-Baydawi, Commentarius, II, 171.

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hiydtun la ytabaghadna wa layata'adayna wa layatahasadna wa la yataghayarna).m al-Zamakhshari and al-Baydawi say that they are matched in age with their spouses because love is stronger between people of the same age. 90 For Q.78:33, where the female companions of the saved are "maidens with swelling breasts, like of age" (kawa'iba atraban), both al-Tabari and alZamakhshari merely repeat the Qur'anic terminology or offer the synonym nawahid to gloss kawa'ib, while al-Baydawi makes no comment at all. 91 And with this selection, we have come to the end of what I believe to be the earliest and original version of the hur and the Muslim Paradise in the Qur'an. The following table, in which the passages discussed above are arranged in chronological order based on the conclusions of T. Noldeke and R. Bell, gives a very unambiguous picture of the environment of revelry and feasting in which both hur and ghilman consistently appear. The significant categories under which the relevant verses will be cited are as follows: the hur or a synonym for them; the ghilman or a synonym for them; the rich garments of the saved; wine, goblets, and other drinking paraphernalia. Even where wine is not mentioned as such, the commentators take its existence for granted whenever the word ka?s appears, for as al-Zamakhshari remarks in his gloss on Q.37:45, the term ka\y is used only to mean "wine-goblet," and it is sometimes applied even to the wine itself.92 Numerous hadiths and excerpts from Pre-Islamic poetry are cited to prove this point. The silks and brocades worn by the saved are the appropriate reflex of their earthly models - the splendid, imported fabrics affected by the Arab aristocracy. 93 The sigils EM (Early Meccan), MM (Middle Meccan), LM (Late Meccan), and Med (Medinese) will indicate the relative chronological position of the individual suras according to Noldeke's chronology. Hür (EM) Q. 78

Ghilman

33

Clothing

Goblet 34

(EM) Q. 83

25-27

(EM) Q. 52

20

24

23

(EM) Q. 56

22; 35-37

17

18

(MM) Q. 37

48-49

45-46

89. al-Tabari, Tafsir, XXIII, 112. 90. al-Zamakhshari, al-Kashshaf, IV, 100; al-Baydäwi, Commentarius, II, 190. 91. al-Tabari, Tafslr, XXX, 11; al-Zamakhshari, al-Kashshäf, IV, 690. 92. Ibid., 42. 93. For comments on the numerous foreign terms which occur in this type of context in the Qur'än, see Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary, pp. 58-60, istabräq; 179-180, sundus; 210-211, 'abqari: and 281, namäriq.

49

The Denizens of Paradise (MM) Q. 76

19

(MM) Q. 44

54

(MM) Q. 38

52

12; 21

5; 15-17; 21

53 51

(Med) Q. 47

15

Q. 47:15 appears to be the last specific mention in the Book of wine (khamr) as one of the promised heavenly pleasures, for wine-drinking on earth was first discouraged in Q.2:219, and then definitely forbidden in Q.5:93. This particular piece of divine legislation, therefore, must have had its effect on the general paradisiacal picture as well, though the commentators nowhere ascribe to it any abrogating (nasikh) influence on the earlier presentations. Somewhere in its historical evolution, the Qur'an began to change markedly its plan for Paradise and the heavenly reward. Perhaps as far back as the Middle Meccan period, the suggestive figures of hur and ghilman begin to vanish from the stage, and their place is gradually taken by the earthly wives and children of the believers. The earliest adumbration of this development occurs, indeed, in an Early Meccan sura: And those who believed, and their seed followed them in belief, We shall join their seed with them, and We shall not defraud them of aught of their work; every man shall be pledged for what he earned.94 It is very likely that the confusion of the ghilman, mentioned in this same sura in verse 24, with the children of the saved, came about simply because the youthful servitors appear a few verses after the "seed". Or if not confusion, then a reasoned attempt to remove some of the Pagan odor clinging to the figures of the graceful saqls by converting them into the sons of the saved, and thereby eliminating the unsavory implications of the tavernimage. The next step leaves the question pending in ambiguity: See, the inhabitants of Paradise today are busy in their rejoicing, they and their spouses, reclining upon couches in the shade; therein they have fruits, and they have all that they call for. 95 Who are "their spouses" (azwajuhum)? The commentaries are fairly cautious in defining the term, but al-Tabari does say that "their spouses are of the people of Paradise in Paradise." 96 Both al-Tabari and al-Zamakhshari define 94. Q.52 : 21. See also Horovitz, ''Das koranische Paradies", p. 4. 95. Q.36: 55-57. 96. al-Tabari, Tafsir, XXIII, 14:''hum [the saved] a?ljab al-Janna wa azwajuhum min ahl al-Janna fl '1-Janna."

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the "occupation" of the saved as that of "deflowering virgins" (iftitfatf al'adhara), though the latter also suggests "plucking lute-strings" as an alternative pastime.97 al-Baydawi has nothing to say about the "spouses," contenting himself with the observation that the joy and pleasure of the inhabitants of Paradise cannot be apprehended by the human intelligence (afham) or expressed in earthly language.98 Without actually naming the hur as such, the implication that they are the "spouses" referred to seems rather clear. The next group of verses appear to imply the presence of the earthly wives of the saved just as clearly, though the term designating them remains the same. 'Enter Paradise, you and your wives, walking with joy!' There shall be passed around them platters of gold, and cups, therein being whatever the souls desire, and the eyes delight in. 'And therein you shall dwell forever. This is the Paradise that you have been given for an inheritance for the things that you were doing. Therein you have abundent fruits, whereof you may eat.' 99 Neither al-Tabari nor al-Zamakhshari are of much use for this passage, but al-Baydawi says that "azwaj" here means "their believing wives" (nisa'uhum al-mu'minat).100 No doubt there would be little point in inviting the hur to enter Paradise, since all agree that they are already there, awaiting their masters-to-be of the saved. These verses conclude the stage reached in the new development by the end of the Middle Meccan period. The Late Meccan period presents us with the following scene, which is surely a startling enough departure from the early Paradise-pictures. Gardens of Eden which they shall enter; and those who were righteous of their fathers, and their wives, and their seed, shall enter them, and the angels shall enter unto them from every gate: 'Peace be upon you, for that you were patient.' Fair is the Ultimate Abode.101 All three commentators understand these verses to refer to the earthly families, wives and children of the saved, al-Baydawi adding that all must

97. 98. 99. 100. 101.

Ibid.; al-Zamakhshari, al-Kashshäf, IV, 21. al-Baydäwi, Commentarius, II, 162-163. Q.43 : 70-73. al-Baycjäwi, Commentarius, II, 242. Q.13 : 23-24. See also Q.40: 8, and Horovitz, ''Das koranische Paradies", p. 4.

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be righteous to meet in Paradise, mere biological relationship to the saved being insufficient.102 The references to Paradise from the Medinese period of the Qur'an fall into two groups. In the earlier, Q.2:25; 3:15; and 4:57, the believers are promised "spouses purified" (azwajun mutahharatun), and while the ambience of green gardens and flowing water is retained, there is no longer the slightest hint of the type of masculine conviviality so broadly sketched in the Meccan suras. Q.3:15 may be cited as typical. Say: 'Shall I tell you of a better than that?' For those that are godfearing, with their Lord are gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever, and spouses purified, and God's good pleasure. al-Tabari and al-Zamakhshari characterize the "spouses purified" as being cleansed of all bodily blemishes and defects, i.e. all unpleasant bodily functions and discharges, including child-bearing. al-Tabari defines "spouse" (zawj) as "the man's wife" (imra'at al-rajul). al-Zamakhshari also adds spiritual defects, such as evil, malice, and guile, to the list of earthly faults to be obliterated.103 al-Baydawi repeats all this, adding that eating and marriage in Paradise are not the same as on earth, the terms being used metaphorically ('ala sabll al-isti'ara) in describing the paradisiacal life.104 In the final phase, the familial theme has taken over completely, and without ambiguity. Q.57:12; 48:5; and 9:72, all Late Medinese, promise the joys of the Garden to "the believers, men and women" (al-mifminina wa'l-mu'minat) alike. The last mentioned will suffice by way of example: God has promised the believers, men and women, gardens underneath which rivers flow, forever therein to dwell, and goodly dwelling-places in the Gardens of Eden; and greater, God's good pleasure; that is the mighty triumph. Even here, however, the early Meccan tradition was not forgotten, nor regarded as superseded, by the commentators. al-Tabari quotes a Prophetic hadlth as a gloss on the term "goodly dwelling-places" {masakin tayyiba): "A palace in Paradise made of pearl; in it are seventy mansions [dar] of red ruby; and seventy apartments [bayt] of green emerald in each mansion; and in each apartment, seventy couches [sarlr]." Another tradition adds to the 102. al-Baydawi, Commentarius, I, 480-481. 103. al-Tabari, Tafstr, III, 138; al-Zamakhshari, al-Kashshaf, I, 109, commenting on Q.2 :25. 104. al-Bay