Angelika Neuwirth
Angelika Neuwirth
Angelika Neuwirth
Angelika Neuwirth
A Religious Transformation in Late Antiquity - From Tribal Genealogy to Divine
Covenant:
Qurnic Refigurations of Pagan-Arab Ideals Based on Biblical Models 1
Inna akramakum inda llahi atqakum Surely the noblest among you in the sight of
God is the most God-fearing of you2 Using this Qurnic verse3 as their slogan, the
Kharijites, an early Islamic opposition movement4, entered the arena of the 7th
century debate about legitimate rule over the new Islamic political entity. This motto
reflected the principle, repeatedly articulated in the Qurn, that a mans social
standing should not be based on genealogy, on a noble pedigree, as the pagan
Arabs upheld, but rather on individual piety, taqwa, equivalent to the Christian notion
so central in Late Antiquity, of eusebeia. The idea was revolutionary, for the contrary
position, estimating a man as noble, karm, according to his familial pedigree stood
at the heart of the current local canon of values of muruwwa5 which was strongly
imprinted by Beduin perceptions. Familial lineage is dwelt on numerous times in the
1
2
Josef van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft im II. und III. Jahrhundert Hidschra II, Berlin
See James Montgomery, Dichotomy in Jahili Poetry. In: Journal of Arabic Literature 17
(1986) 1-20.
Cf. Gerald Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam. The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661-750,
London 1986.
7
Cf. Omar Hamdan Studien zur Kanonisierung des Korantexts. Al-Hasan al-Basris Beitrge
For the importance of genealogy before and during the early Islamic period, as well as
information about the most important genealogists Muhammad b. Saib al-Kalbi (d. 763) and
Abu l-Mundhir Hisham b. Muhammad al-Kalbi (d. 819?), see the introduction to Caskel
(1966), 19-81; cf. also Franz Rosenthal, Nasab, in: EI2, vol. VII, Leiden 1991, 967-968.
9
Cf. Toral-Niehoff (unpublished lecture) and Werner Caskel, Gamharat an-nasab. Das
genealogische Werk des Hisam Ibn al-Kalbi, Leiden 1966, pp. 39-41.
communications
whose
historical
sequence
can
be
roughly
10
Guy G. Stroumsa, Das Ende des Opferkults. Die religisen Mutationen der Sptantike.
Berlin 2011 (Original Fr. edition: La fin du sacrifice. Les mutations religieuses de lAntiquit
Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran als Text der Sptantike. Ein europischer Zugang (=KTS),
The reconstruction of the earliest surahs has already been published. See Angelika
See also Michael Marx, Ein Koranforschungsprojekt in der Tradition der Wissenschaft
vollen Licht der Geschichte Die Wissenschaft des Judentums und die Anfnge der
Koranforschung, ed. Dirk Hartwig, Walter Homolka, Michael Marx, Angelika Neuwirth,
Wrzburg 2008, pp. 41-54.
Quranic reflections about the ideal household, about dealing with family members
and handling of sexual issues15. However, since it is the peculiar tribally oriented
self-image of the pagan opponents of the message that is one of the main targets of
early Quranic polemic, ancient Arabic poetry provides another important intertext.
Tribal pride, fakhr, is a core issue of pagan Arabic self-awareness, which has been
14
For a recent reconstruction, see Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran I: Frhmekkanische Suren
See for a template against which Quranic statements concerning these discourses should be viewed
Peter Brown, The Body & Society. Men, Women, & sexual Renunciation in early Christianity. New
York 1988. The Quranic debates about these matters are discussed in the introduction to Neuwirth,
Der Koran II. (forthcoming).
muruwwah and the poet, without losing his individualism, merges with the tribe16.
One poem by Qurayt ibn Unayf from the tribe of Anbar - the opening piece of Abu
Tammams famous anthology al-Hamasa, Heroism which celebrates the ideal of
tribal solidarity may suffice as an example to highlight the ideological backdrop of
the Quranic negotiation of traditional attitudes towards ones society:
Had I belonged to (the tribe of) Mazin, there had not plundered my herds
The sons of the foundling Dhuhl son of Shayban.
Then there would have straightaway arisen to help me
A firm-handed kin, quick to defend the weak and needy.
Men who, when evil bares before them its hindmost teeth,
Fly out to meet it, in companies or alone.
They ask not their brother, when he lays before them his troubles,
To give them proof of the truth of what he says.
But as for my people, though their number is not small,
They are good for naught against evil, however light it be17.
James Montgomery, Dichotomy in Jahili Poetry. In: Journal of Arabic Literature 17 (1986)
1-20. 6.
17
Quoted after the translation by Robert G. Hoyland, Arabs and Arabia from the Bronze age to the
coming of Islam. London, New York 2001. 113, from: Abu Tammam, Al-Hamasaa, Sharh at-Tabrizi,
Damaskus without date, 3-5. See for this ethos in general Andras Hamori, The Art of Medieval
Arabic Literature. Princeton 1974.
expressed in recommendations how to deal with wives, children, parents a.o. One of
the earliest Qurnic surahs, Q 108 al-kawthar, Abundance a consolation surah
, jumps directly into this debate18, though only by way of an oblique formulation.
Most plausibly, the surah is intended to invert a calumny that had been thrown
against the Messenger as a man cut off from his clan.
Q 108 Abundance
1
With its triumphal exclamation that affirms a special privilege accorded to the
addressee, the sura immediately assures that a crisis has been overcome: the initial
third-person plural formulated statement concerning a manifest example of Gods
favor (v. 1: abundance) is left vague, yet the morphologically intensive form
18
For a complete analysis, see Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran I: Frhmekkanische Suren
Due to the practice of ancestry worship (v. 2), they have slid away from knowledge,
which is exactly what they needed in order to recognize the problematic of their
choice favoring hedonistic worldly pleasure (v. 8) sanctioned by ancestral tradition
20
Arberry translates the title as Rivalry. It is modified into Greed for abundance to mark
Reference is most probably to the family graveyards familiar in the late antique Near East.
Particularly spacious grave complexes with facllities for collective meals to be consumed during a
ziyara, have been found in the Nabatean Petra and in the Palestinian Bet Guvrin. See for the social
importance of the ancestors tombs in Late Antiquity Peter Brown, The Body, 284-304. See for the
majoritarian understanding of the verse as a reference to the death of the addressees Neuewirth, Der
Koran I. 125-133.
22
The following translation of Q 102 substitutes Arberrys rivalry with greed for
abundance.
23
See Guy G. Stroumsa, Das Ende des Opferkults. Die religisen Mutationen der
cf. Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran I: Frhmekkanische Suren (=HK 1), Berlin 2011, p. 49f.
25
Guy G. Stroumsa, Das Ende des Opferkults. Die religisen Mutationen der Sptantike,
Berlin 2011.
26
27
Ibid., 28.
Walter Burkerts flawed thesis about sacrifice in Islam is an obstacle in properly
understanding the decisive transformation process in the Qurn. Burkert, in his otherwise
groundbreaking work Homo Necans. Interpretationen altgriechischer Opferriten und Mythen,
Berlin 1972, p. 19, incorrectly understood the continued practice of animal sacrifice during
the pilgrimage as proof of the never interrupted adherence to a theologically founded
sacrificial cult; see Guy G. Stroumsa, Das Ende des Opferkults. Die religisen Mutationen
der Sptantike, Berlin 2011, p. 88. This balks at verse Q 22:36f, which explicitly deals with
the theologically exclusive relevance of the sacrificers piety, thus sublimating the act of
sacrifice; see Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran als Text der Sptantike. Ein europischer
their categorical utility for gauging the tribes honor and status. This was a system
that inversely guaranteed individuals protection and prestige. The elevated standing
of the individual in the clan as some early Qurnic texts drawing on Gospel
imagery show is lost on the Day of Judgment, thus revealing the systems final
weakness. Q 8030 says:
Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran I: Frhmekkanische Suren (=HK 1), Berlin 2011, pp. 44-50.
Gustav von Grunebaum 1966, p. 9.
30 For further discussion on this surah, see Neuwirth 2011, pp. 378-394.
28
29
34
upon the day when a man shall flee from his brother,
35
36
37
Though mans realization of the care for the self, his individual awareness of
accountability, is predicted according to v. 37 only for the Day of Judgment, this kind
of self-reflection is already ordained upon the individual believer during his earthly
life. Contrasting this accountability with the pagan system and its primary concern
with satisfying the tribal collective, proved especially appropriate for deconstructing
the ancient traditions. The idea of an eventually powerless tribal system vis a vis the
immediacy of a personal eschatology, was formulated even more drastically in Q 70:
8
10
11
12
13
14
and whosoever is in the earth, all together, so that then it might deliver him31.
31
See Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran I: Frhmekkanische Suren (=HK 1), Berlin 2011, pp.
437-444, for further discussion on the drastic change in formulation as compared with the
Gospel text Mt. 18:21-35: The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. Specifically, the
comparison is drawn with the depiction of the indebted servant who begs his master not to
sell him and his family into slavery.
32
For further analysis of the surah, see Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran I: Frhmekkanische
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
36
Arberry translates: No! I swear by this land!, which is however not the exact meaning.
37
Arberry translates this line as, I have consumed wealth abundant. The translation chosen
here is the more literal. For further analyses of this line, see Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran I:
38
See Antaras Muallaqa, v. 40, adduced by Andras Hamori, The Art of Medieval Arabic
Cf. Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran als Text der Sptantike. Ein europischer Zugang
All biblical citations are taken from the King James translation.
Mt 25:41ff.
42
For more on this, see Heinrich Speyer, Biblische Erzhlungen im Qoran. Grfenhainichen
James Kugel, How to read the Bible. A Guide to Scripture, then and now, New York 2007,
pp. 90-96
44
45
The Book of Jubiliess, cf. Klaus Berger, Jdische Schriften aus hellenistisch-rmischer
Zeit. II.3: Das Buch der Jubilen, Gtersloh 1981, 12:2-4; cf. also Heinrich Speyer, Biblische
Erzhlungen im Qoran. Grfenhainichen 1931, pp. 164-166; 170f.
83
84
85
when he said to his father and his folk: What do you serve?
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
And he turned upon them smiting them with his right hand.
94
95
96
97
98
99
The tale of the destruction of the idols affirming the Second Commandment of the
Decalogue: Thou shalt not make unto thee any likeness of anything that is in
heaven above [...] (Ex 20.4-5), is repeated in the Quran. It projects the specific
offence which the messenger suffers from the Meccan pagans rejection of the
proclamation all the while back into Abrahams world. Abrahams departure from
both his people, as well as his father, equals his rejection of the genealogically
based principle of clan loyalty: nasab. It is hard to overestimate the importance of
Abrahams abjuration from his clan loyalty. It is true that Abrahams renunciation of
the idolatry regnant in his land is already in the earliest works of Jewish exegesis
bann, and forefathers, ab, both of which explicitly constitute the backbone of the
pagan power paradigm. The pagan discourse of nasab is thus superseded by the
46
Cf. James Kugel: How to read the Bible. A Guide to Scripture, then and now, New York
2007, pp. 90-96; the tradition is found explicitly in the Book of Jubilees, 12:2-4.
47
Cf. Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran als Text der Sptantike. Ein europischer Zugang
Arberry however does translate dhurriyya as seed; the King James Version of the Bible
The seed of Abraham is also the subject of extensive Talmudic discussions. See for
example the Palestinian Talmud, Nedarim 3:8, translated by Jacob Neusner, The Talmud
The iyya-ending is attached only to three Qurnic lexemes; in its earliest use it refers to
a collective.
100
101
102
and when he had reached the age of striving52 with him, he said:
My son, I see in a dream that I shall sacrifice thee;
consider, what thinkest thou?
He said: My father, do as thou art bidden;
Thou shalt find me, God willing, one of the steadfast.
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
51
Arberry translates al-say as running, taken to refer to the pilgrimage rite performed in
Mecca. The translation here chosen roughly reflects the most frequent Quranic meaning of
the root S`Y.
111
53
James Kugel, How to read the Bible. A Guide to Scripture, then and now, New York 2007,
See Pseudo-Philo in ibid., p. 127, for further discussion on the early Jewish
reinterpretation of the biblical aqedah literally, the binding (of Isaac by Abraham) as an
act of mutually agreed sacrifice between father and son.
55
Cf. Augustinus in ibid., p. 128. For more on this adaptations theological impact and
implications, see Reuven Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands. The Evolution of the Abraham-
Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis, Albany 1990, pp. 116-151; Reuven Firestone, Merit,
Mimesis and Martyrdom: Aspects of Shi`ite Meta-Historical Exegesis on Abrahams Sacrifice
in Light of Jewish, Christian, and Sunni Muslim Tradition, in: Journal of the American
Academy of Religion 66.1. (1998), pp. 93-116, Jon D. Levenson, The Death and
Resurrection of the Beloved Son. The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and
Christianity, New Haven 1993, und Angelika Neuwirth, Biblische Passionen als
Herausforderung:
Verhandlung,
emotionale
Entschrfung
und
Rekonstruktion
des
56
Cf. Erik Aurelius: Durch den Glauben gehorsam durch Werke gerecht, in: Reinhard G.
Kratz & Tilman Nagel (hrsg.), Abraham, unser Vater. Die gemeinsamen Wurzeln von
Judentum, Christentum und Islam, Gttingen 2003, pp. 98-111; Salomon Schechter,
Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, New York 1909, p. 179ff.; Reuven Firestone, Journeys in
Holy Lands. The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis, Albany
1990, pp. 135-152; and Reuven Firestone, Merit, Mimesis and Martyrdom: Aspects of
Shiite Meta-Historical Exegesis on Abrahams Sacrifce in Light of Jewish, Christian, and
Sunni Muslim Tradition, in: Journal of the American Academy of Religion 66.1. (1998), pp.
93-116.
57
A later added section, not associated with the narrative, v. 112f., appends the
announcement of Isaacs birth to the story. This addition emphasizes that Isaac will have as
offspring one righteous son (Jacob) and a manifest self-wronger (Esau), or groups of
righteous and wrong-doers. The later supplement emphasizes the newly adopted
interpretation in Medina, which in contrast to the Jewish tradition, does not have Abrahams
descendents categorically blessed.
hijra , figuring prominently in Medinan debates over the founding of the Ka`ba and
the establishment of the pilgrimage rituals. The emigration of the community to
Medina in 622 demarcates an important shift. Here, many of the older Meccan
communications acquire a new religio-political dimension59. The new
hermeneutic is due to the fact that in Medina, the messenger and his audience no
longer stand in a pagan-syncretic environment, in which they can freely draw from a
heterogeneous body of religious knowledge. Rather now they find themselves in a
heterogeneous society whose prevailing group, a Jewish community, claims the
biblical heritage that up to this point counted as universal intellectual property, as
their own legacy, and thus the legitimate subject of their particular exegesis. In this
context, the sacrifice narrative acquired new religio-political significance for the
Qurnic community. Specifically, the story comes to be understood as a centrally
important event for the emerging religion of Islam.
Some background knowledge may be in place: According to the Qurn,
Abrahams sacrifice does not take place in the Holy Land, but in the area around
Mecca60. It seems that local tradition had already earlier associated Abraham with
the Arabian Peninsula and included him as part of the Meccan religious tradition61.
58
See Joseph Witztum, The foundations of the house (Q 2:127),. In: BSOAS 72 (2009), pp.
25-40; Nicolai Sinai, Fortschreibung und Auslegung. Studien zur frhen Koraninterpretation,
Wrzburg 2006; Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran als Text der Sptantike. Ein europischer
Zugang (=KTS), Berlin 2010, pp. 637-652, and Angelika Neuwirth, Biblische Passionen als
Herausforderung:
Verhandlung,
emotionale
Entschrfung
und
Rekonstruktion
des
Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran als Text der Sptantike. Ein europischer Zugang (=KTS),
Reuven Firestone, Abraham, in: Jane D. McAuliffe (ed.), Encyclopaedia of the Quran,
Tilman Nagel, Der erste Muslim. Abraham in Mekka, in: Reinhard G. Kratz & Tilman
Nagel (hrsg.), Abraham, unser Vater. Die gemeinsamen Wurzeln von Judentum,
62
63
Berlin 1972, p. 19. He erroneously understands the continuation of ritual animal slaughter
during the pilgrimage as proof of the sacrifice discourse; see Guy G. Stroumsa, Das Ende
des Opferkults. Die religisen Mutationen der Sptantike, Berlin 2011, p. 88. Yet the relevant
verse Q 22:36f. explicitly speaks of the exclusive validity of piety, the spiritual state in which
the slaughter itself it successfully performed. Cf. Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran I:
Cf. M. Elaine Combs Schilling, Sacred Performance. Islam, Sexuality and Sacrifice, New
Ibid.
House, an activity that includes the offering of a sacrifice offered, to which the
imperative taqabbal minna, accept from us, seems to allude, see below.
Abrahams ensuing prayer of the blessing of the House, which is recited by both
Abraham and Ishmael during the construction of its foundation walls, in some
formulations reminds of Salomons dedication prayer upon completion of the Temple
in 1 Kings 8:14-6166. The section culminates in a plea for the ritual completion of the
Meccan worship, which before was still incomplete, consisting exclusively of the
pilgrimage rituals and the gestures of humility accompanying the ritual prayer
proskynesis,, and bowing and standing (Q 2:125). Important is the new demand that
the worship rites should be completed through a verbal service. This specific plea is
a vaticinatio ex eventu in the Qurn, a prayer that has already come to fruition with
the messengers ministry, Q 2:127-129:
When Abraham raised up the foundations of the House, and he and Ishmael
spoke: Our Lord, receive this (our prayer) from us; Thou art the All-Hearing,
the All-Knowing; / and, our Lord, make us submissive (muslimna) to Thee,
66
Angelika Neuwirth, The spiritual meaning of Jerusalem in Islam, in: Nitza Rosovsky (ed.),
City of the Great King. Jerusalem from David to the Present, Harvard 1996, pp. 93-116; 483495.
67
Joseph Witztum, The foundations of the house (Q 2:127), in: BSOAS 72 (2009), pp. 25-
40.
68
Ibid., p. 29.
69
See Werner Caskel, Gamharat an-nasab. Das genealogische Werk des Hisam Ibn al-
Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran als Text der Sptantike. Ein europischer Zugang (=KTS),
Reuven Firestone, Is there a notion of divine election in the Quran? In: Gabriel S.
Reynolds (ed.), New Perspectives on the Quran. The Quran in its historical context 2. New
York, London 2011.393-410. 408
72
Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran I: Frhmekkanische Suren (=HK 1), Berlin 2011, pp. 365-
367.
Angelika Neuwirth, The House of Abraham and the House of Amram. Genealogy,
Patriarchal Authority, and Exegetical Professionalism, in: Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai
and Michael Marx (eds.), The Quran in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into
Cf. the prophetic line of succession of Butrus Bayt Rasi (Pseudo-Eutychios) cited by
Samir Khalil Samir, The Theological Christian Influence on the Quran. A Reflection, in:
Gabriel S. Reynolds (ed.), The Quran in its Historical Context, London 2008, pp. 141-162,
which conveniently replaces the House of Amram with Moses; cf. also Angelika Neuwirth,
The House of Abraham and the House of Amram. Genealogy, Patriarchal Authority, and
Exegetical Professionalism, in: Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai and Michael Marx (eds.),
succession: When we took compact from the Prophets and from thee, and from
Noah, and Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, Marys son; We rook from them a solemn
compact, that He might question the truthful concerning their truthfulness; and He
has prepared for the unbelievers a painful chastisement. What counts is the divine
covenant: succession of prophetic lineage, a family of elected ones, replaces and
supersedes the worldly bond of the tribe76. The Qurn thus offsets tribal history with
a counter history: not however by claiming a new election to replace the preceding
elections of the Jews and Christians, but with a prophetic line of succession, which
can be claimed by the pious believer as his spiritual ancestry universally. Firestone
is right to stress the renunciation of a claim to an unconditioned electedness on the
side of the new community77.
At the end of this development, Abraham takes up the leading role and
becomes the spiritual ancestor over a community legitimized through prophets. He
presides over a House, a faith community no longer exclusively traced to the Jews
as conveyed in the verse of prophetic election, Q 3:33f. Instead, the new role
adopted by Abraham critically engages this verse and even re-formulates it as a
counter-argument against the Jews electedness. In the late-Medinan period,
Abraham is depicted as the first pure servant of God, hanif, who comes to venerate
One God still without the guidance of the Mosaic Law. He is effectively a just man
The Quran in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Quranic Milieu, Leiden
2009, reprint 2011.
75
76
10. Conclusion
Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran I: Frhmekkanische Suren (=HK 1), Berlin 2011, pp. 642-
685.
79
See Q 2:124; 3:65-68 and the polemic against Jews and Christians summarized by
Firestone, Is there a notion of divine election in the Quran?, 408.
des Judentums und die Anfnge der Koranforschung, hrsg. Von Dirk Hartwig,
Walter Homolka, Michael Marx u. Angelika Neuwirth, Wrzburg 2008, pp. 4154.
MONTGGMERY (1986), James Montgomery, Dichotomy in Jahili Poetry. In: Journal
of Arabic Literature 17 (1986) 1-20.
NAGEL 2003: Tilman Nagel, Der erste Muslim. Abraham in Mekka, in: Reinhard G.
Kratz & Tilman Nagel (hrsg.): Abraham, unser Vater. Die gemeinsamen
Wurzeln von Judentum, Christentum und Islam, Gttingen 2003, pp. 133-149.
Nagel 2008: Tilman Nagel, Muhammad, Leben und Legende, Mnchen 2008.
Neusner (1985): Jacob Neusner, The Talmud Yerushalmi, vol. 23, Chicago 1985.
Neuwirth (1996): Angelika Neuwirth, "The spiritual meaning of Jerusalem in Islam",
in: Nitza Rosovsky (ed.): City of the Great King. Jerusalem from David to the
Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Quranic Milieu, Leiden
2009, reprint 2011.
Neuwirth (2010): Angelika Neuwirth, Der Koran als Text der Sptantike. Ein
emotionale
Entschrfung
und
Rekonstruktion
des
Mutationen der Sptantike, Berlin 2011 (Original Fr. edition: La fin du sacrifice.
Les mutations religieuses de lAntiquit tardive, Paris 2005).
Tilman Seidensticker (2009). Sources for the History of Pre-Islamic Religion, in:
Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai und Michael Marx (eds.). The Quran in
Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Quranic Milieu, Leiden
2009, reprint 2011.
Toral Niehoff: Isabel Toral-Niehoff, Der Prophet Muhammad und seine biblische
Verwandtschaft: berlegungen zur Rolle von Genealogie und Identitt in der
frhen Abbasidenzeit (unpublished lecture)