CHAPTER IX y THE KORAN THE BOOK OF ALLAH THE year following the death of Muhammad, according to the orthodox view, abu-Bakr, on the recommendation of ‘Umar, who had observed that the Koran memorizers (4uffaz) were becoming extinct, ordered that the scattered portions of the Koran be collected. Zayd ibn-Thabit of al-Madinah, formerly Muhammad's secretary, was entrusted with the task. Fragments from “ribs of palm-leaves and tablets of white stone and from the breasts of men’ were brought together and a text was con- structed. In the caliphate of ‘Uthmin (644-56) various readings jn the current copies arose, due mainly to the defective nature of Kufic script; ‘Uthmn accordingly appointed in 651 the same Zayd as chairman of the committee on revision. Abu-Bakr's copy, then in the custody of Hafsah, daughter of ‘Umar and one of Muhammad’s widows, was used as a basis. The original codex of the fresh version was kept in al-Madinah; ? three copies of this text were made and forwarded to the three military camps in Damascus, al-Basrahand al-Kiifah, and all others were destroyed. The modern scholarly view, however, doubts whether abu- Bakr cyer made an official recension and maintains that ‘Uthmin found several metropolitan codices in Arabia, Syria and al-‘Iriq , With divergent readings. ‘Uthman canonized the Madinah codex and ordered all others destroyed. The text was finally fixed by __ the two vizirs ibn-Mugqlah and ibn-‘Isa in 933 with the help of the learned ibn-Mujahid. Ibn-Mujahid admitted seven readings, which had developed because of lack of vowel and diacritical « marks,as canonical.? The Moslem view is that the Koran is the word of Allah 1 Khatib, Afsshéah, vol. typ. 343, ‘This copy 1s said to have been presented by the Turkish authorities to Emperor Wilhara Ti. See Versailles Treaty, Pt. VILL, Sec. TI, art. 246 Arthur Jeffery, Materscls for the Hestory of the Text of the Koran (Leyden, 1937), pp. 1-10; cf Hartwig Hirschfeld, Wet Researches snto the Composition and Doerr of the Koran (London, 1902}, pp. 138 seg. 4 . 123128 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE cartn dictated through Gabriel to Muhammad from an archetype pre- served in the seventh heaven (siirs. 43:3, 56: 76-9, 85:21-2).! Not only is the meaning thereforeinspired but every word, everyletter. The arrangement of the stirahs (koranic chapters) is mechani- cal, in the order of their length. The Makkan siirahs, about ninety in number and belonging to the period of struggle, are mostly short, incisive, fiery, impassioned in style and replete with prophetic feeling. In them the oneness of Allah, His attri- butes, the ethical duties of man and the coming retribution constitute the favourite themes. The Madinese sirahs, the remaining twenty-four (about one-third of the contents of the Koran) which “were sent down” (szi/at) in the period of victory, are mostly long, verbose and rich in legislative material. In them theological dogmas and ceremonial regulations relating to the institution of public prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and the sacred months are laid down. They moreover contain laws prohibiting wine, pork and gambling; fiscal and military ordin- ances relating to alms-giving (zeééh) and holy war (jihad); civil and criminal laws regarding homicide, retaliation, theft, usury, marriage and divorce, adultery, inheritance and the frecing of slaves. Sirahs 2, 4 and 5 contain most of this legisla- tive material. The often-quoted prescription for marriage (sir. 4:3)* limit rather than introduce the practice of polygamy. Critics consider the statutes relating to divorce (4:24, 33:48, 2 : 229) the most objectionable, and those about the treatment of slaves, orphans and strangers (4:2, 3, 40; 16: 73; 24: 33) the most humane portions of Islamic legislation. The manumussion of slaves is inculcated as something most pleasing to God and regarded as an expiation for many a sin. Flashes of the old eloquence and prophetic spark appear here and there in the Madinese siirahs, as in stirah 24." Among the noblest verses of the Koran are siirah 2: 172, 256. Almost all the historical narratives of the Koran have their biblical parallels with the exception of a few purely Arabian stories relating to ‘Ad and Thamid, Luqman, the “owners of the elephant”, and two others alluding to Alexander the Great Uskandar dhu-al-Qarnayn)* and to the “Seven Sleepers"—all 1 Consult Baydim, vol.1i, pp 235; 309-10, 396. ® Cf, sir. 70: 29-30. ® The verses in this siirah dealing with hght betray Zoroastnan influence. “ Sar, 18:82 seg., where he seems to be invested with a divine commission, 1, has a clear reference to Alexander.cH, Xx THE KORAN THE BOOK OF ALLAH 125 of which receive but very brief mention. Among the Old Testa- ment characters, Adam, Noah, Abraham? (mentioned about seventy times in twenty-five different sirahs and having his name as a title for sirah 14), Ishmael, Lot, Joseph (to whom siirah 12 is dedicated), Moses (whose name occurs in thirty-four different sirahs), Saul, David, Solomon, Elijah, Job and Jonah (whose name siirah 10 bears) figure prominently. The story of the creation and fall of Adam is cited five times, the flood eight and Sodom eight. In fact the Koran shows more parallelism to the Pentateuch than to any other part of the Bible. All these narratives are used didactically, not for the object of telling a story but to preach a moral, to teach that God in former times has always rewarded the righteous and punished the wicked. The story of Joseph is told in a most interesting and realistic way. The variations in this and in such other instances as the story of Abraham’s response to the call of the one true God (siir. 21: §2 seg.) have their parallels in the midrash, Talmud and other non-canonical Jewish works.® Of the New Testament characters Zachariah, John the Baptist, Jesus (‘Isa) and Mary are the only ones emphasized. The last two names are generally associated. Mary the mother of Jesus is also the daughter of ‘Imran and a sister of Aaron® Haman (Haman), the favourite of Ahasuerus,* is himself th> minister of Pharaoh. It is worthy of note that the Arabic forms of the names of the Old Testament characters seem to have come mainly through Syriac (e.g. Nah, Noah) and Greek (e.g. Ilyas, Elias; Yiinus, Jonah) rather than directly from Hebrew. ‘A. comparative study of the above koranic and biblical nar- Tatives and such parallel passages as those that follow reveals no verbal dependence: sir. 2: 44-58 and Acts 7: 36-53; sir. 23273 and Matt. 6: 3, 4; stir. 10: 72 and 2 Pet. 2: 5; siirs. 10: 73, 24: §0 and Deut. 26:14, 17; stir. 17: 23-40 and Ex. 20: 2-17, Deut. § : 6-21; sir. 21:20 and Rev. 4: 8; sir, 23:3 and Matt. + In the Madinese sirahs Abraham becomes a Hanif, a Moslem (stir. 3 : 60), He in held as Muhammad's ideal predecessor, the sptritual ancestor of islam (sits. #2 124 3 +61) and the founder of al-Ka'bah (2: 118 seg) As the “friend” of God he is cued in the Old Testantent (Is 41:8, 2 Ch. 20:7), the New Testament (Jas. 2223) and the Koran (4: 124), Conral Tas Legacy of isratl, ed. E. R. Bevan and C, Singer (Oxford, 1928), tee esr “Either 323.