Abraha and Sennacherib: A Talmudic Parallel to the Tafsr on Srat Al-Fl Author(s): Gordon D.

Newby Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 94, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1974), pp. 431437 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/600585 . Accessed: 28/11/2012 12:34
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ABRAHA

AND SENNACHERIB:

A TALMUDIC PARALLEL SURAT AL-FIL

GORDOND. NEWBY BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY

TO THE TAFSIR

ON

According to tradition, the occasion for Surat al-Fil is to remind Muhammadand the Makkansof the deliverance of the Ka'bah from the attack of the Abyssinian Abraha and his army. Without referenceto the historicity of this event, it can be seen that its literary treatment in the Sirah of Ibn Isbiq and in certain Qur'an commentariesparallels the literary representation of Sennacherib's equally unsuccessful attempt to capture Jerusalem. The larger setting for the Sirah's account uses the Abraha story as an eschatological description of the hastening of the advent of the final kingdom of Islam and its messianic apostle, Mulammad. The prior and parallel source for the eschatological use of the siege motif is the Talmud's account of Sennacherib'ssiege of Jerusalem in which the Holy City becomes the focal point for the events of the Last Day.
FRANZ ROSENTHAL STATES in his article, "The

Influence of the Biblical Tradition on Muslim Historiography," that "Historical, or pseudo-historical, material centering around biblical events and personalities gained the right of entry into Islam through the Qur'an and its interpretation,"
and asks the question, ". . . has the biblical mate-

rial, either in its original form or transformed by means of more or less subtle changes, been used to defend and promote certain Muslim views of a historical or, more likely, theological character ?" A case in point is the introductory portion of the traditional biography of Muhammad, Sirat Rasil A llh, the portion up to where Muhammad receives his prophetic call.2 As has been shown before, it is this portion of the Sirah that lays the ground for casting Muhammad into the mainstream of the hagiology of the past prophets "... from a desire to assimilate Muhammad to the conception of a religious leader current in the heartlands of the Islamic empire."3 It is some1 Franz Rosenthal, "The Influence of the Biblical
Tradition on Muslim Historiography," Historians of the

Middle East, B. Lewis and P. Holt, eds., London, 1964, pp. 40-1.
2 Ibn Hisham, as-Sirah an-Nabawiyah, Cairo, 1955,

4 vols. in 2. Indispensableis A. Guillaume'sreconstruction and translation of Ibn Ishaq's original text, The Life of Muhammad, London, 1955.

3 W. MontgomeryWatt, "The Materials Used by Ibn Ishaq," Historians of the Middle East, B. Lewis and P. Holt, eds., London, 1964, p. 25. 431

times possible to recognize quotations and paraphrases from Jewish and Christian scriptural sources, such as the annunciation tradition when 'Amina bt. Wahb, Muhammad's mother, heard a voice say to her when she was pregnant with him, "You are pregnant with the lord of this people and when he is born say, 'I put him in the care of the One from the evil of every envier; then call him Muhammad, '" an obvious paraphrase of Luke 1:31.4 More often, the biblical material is so recast and transformed, by changing names and locations and conflating several different accounts, that it is difficult to discern the original scriptural source. It is most likely that the ". . . original text of the Bible may have been a matter of little concern for the earliest historians, not so much because access to it may have been rather difficult, but because they were less interested in historical accuracy than in making a coherent whole of the fragmentary Qur'anic narrative by whatever means they could lay their hands on."5 In attempting to isolate and identify the original sources in this introductory portion of the Sirah, one is led to the conclusion that the provenience is often the haggadic and hagiologic material in which some of the transformations from the biblical sources had already taken place. Such seems to be the case with the account in the Sirah and in narrative tafsir of the Abyssinian Abraha's siege of Makka. 4 Guillaume, op. cit., p. 69.
5 Rosenthal, op. cit., p. 42.

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432

Journal of the American Oriental Society 94.4 (1974) Iram b. Dhf Yazan, who would come out against them from Aden and not leave one of them in the Yemen. Further questions drew the information that their kingdom would not last, but a pure prophet to whom revelation came from on high would bring it to an end... His dominion would last to the end of time. Has time an end? asked the king. Yes, replied Satih, the day on which the first and the last shall be assembled, the righteous for happiness, the evildoers for misery. The soothsayer Shiqq arrived next and repeated the whole performance, first telling the vision and then interpreting it in almost identical words to those used by Satlh. He ended his account by saying, "His kingdom shall be ended by an apostle who will bring truth and justice among men of religion and virtue. Dominion will rest among his people until the Day of Separation, the day on which those near God will be rewarded, on which demands from heaven will be made which the quick and the dead will hear, men will be gathered at the appointed place, the Godfearing to receive salvation and blessing."8 The first narrative account we meet in the Sirah, then, is one that predicts the coming of an apostle, i.e. Muhammad, the establishment of a "final" kingdom, Islam, and links the rule of the Ethiopians in South Arabia with this eschatological event. The Sirah then narrates the events between the prediction and the fulfillment. We are told of the introduction of Judaism into South Arabia under Abu Karib Tiban As'ad, his relationship with Medina and Makka, especially the Ka'bah, and the dissolution of his kingdom.9 We are also told of the rule of pretenders to the Yamani throne, of Dhui Nuwas, the last of the Jewish kings of the Yaman,l1 and the beginning of Christianity in Najran,nl the persecution of which is given as the cause of the entry of the Ethiopians into Arabia.l2
8 Ibid., p. 8. 9 Ibid., pp. 6-14. The account of the trial by fire of

At first glance, the story of Abraha's unsuccssful raid on Makka seems hardly "biblical" at all. Abraha is a well attested historical figure, and both the writings of Procopius and the Himyaritic inscriptions describe his activities in South Arabia in the middle of the sixth century.6 Whatever might be the historicity of the raid on Makka, and we have only Islamic traditions for this event, the Sirah casts it into an apologetic and messianic form. The beginning of the story, and the beginning of the Sirah after the Gospel-like introductory genealogies, is the story of Rabl'a b. Nasr, the king of the Yaman, and two soothsayers:7 Rabi'a b. Nasr, king of the Yaman, ... had a vision which terrified him and continued to cause him much anxiety. So he summoned every soothsayer, sorcerer, omenmonger,and astrologerin his kingdom and said: 'I have had a vision which terrifies me and is a source of anxiety. Tell me what it was and what it means.' They replied: 'Tell us the vision and we will tell you its meaning.' 'If I tell you it,' said he, 'I can have no confidence in your interpretation;for the only man who knows its meaning is he who knows about the vision without my telling him.' Thereupon one of them recommendedhim to send for Shiqq and Satlh, for they knew more than others and would be able to answer his questions.... So he sent for them and Satih arrived first. The king then repeated his words, ending, 'If you know the vision you will know what it means.' Satih replied
(in saj'):

A fire you did see Come forth from the sea It fell on the low country and devoured all that be. The king agreed that this was exactly what he had seen, and what was the meaning of it all? He answered: By the serpent of the lava plains I swear The Ethiopians on your land shall bear Ruling from Abyan to Jurash everywhere. The king exclaimed that this was distressing news, but when would these things come to pass-in his time or after him? He replied that more than sixty or seventy years must first pass. Would the newcomers' kingdom last? No, an end would be put to it after seventy years or more; then they would be slain or driven out as fugitives. Who would do this?

the Jews and the Himyarites obviously has its base in the commonmagicaltradition among Jews that the Torah, becauseit containsthe name of God,is the supremecharm. The biblical parallel to this story has to be the account of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah in the fiery furnace, Daniel 3.

1963, Vol. I, pp. 102-3. 7 Guillaume,op. cit., p. 4ff.

10 Ibid., p. 14. 6 For a summary see A. F. L. 11 Ibid. See also my article, "An Example of Coptic Beeston, "Abraha," The Encyclopaedia of Islam, B. Lewis et al., eds., Leiden Literary Influence on Ibn Ishlaq's Sirah," J.N.E.S., vol.

31 (1972), pp. 22-8.

12

Ibid., p. 18.

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NEWBY: A Talmudic Parallel Exhorted by the accounts of Daus Dhii Tha'laban of the terrible persecutions of Christians in Arabia, the Negus of Abyssinia sent an expedition to the Yaman to seek revenge and establish Christian rule. According to report, the seventy thousand Abyssinians were led by a man called Aryat who had a lieutenant named Abraha.l3 After successfully establishing Abyssinian rule, Abraha seized power from Aryat and cleverly secured the good will of the Negus.14 Then Abraha built the cathedral in San'a', such a church as could not be seen elsewhere in any part of the world at that time. He wrote to the Negus saying: 'I have built a church for you, O King, such as has not been built for any king before you. I shall not rest until I have diverted the Arabs' pilgrimageto it.' When the Arabs were talking about this letter of his, one of the calendar intercalators was enraged. He was of the B. Fuqaym b. 'Adly b. 'Amir b. Tha'laba b. al Harith b. Malik b. Kinainab. Khuzayma b. Mudrika b. Ilyas b. Mudar... The Kinanite went forth until he came to the cathedral and defiled it. Then he returned to his own country. Hearing of the matter Abraha made inquiries and learned that the outrage had been conmmitted by an Arab who came from the temple in Meccawhere the Arabs went on pilgrimage, and that he had done this in anger at his threat to divert the Arabs' pilgrimage to the cathedral, showing thereby that it was unworthy of reverence. Abraha was enraged and swore that he
would go to this temple and destroy it ... So he com-

433

manded the Abyssinians to prepare and make ready, and sallied forth with the elephant. News of this plunged the Arabs into alarm and anxiety and they decided that it was incumbent on them to fight against him when they heard that he meant to destroy the Ka'ba, God's holy house. The account then tells of the unsuccessful attempts by the ruling families of the Yaman and by the tribes of Khath'am to fight against the superior Abyssinian force.15 When Abraha reached Ta'if, he was on the point of destroying the shrine
13 Ibid.

of al-Lat, but was persuaded that this was not the object of his quest, so he proceeded to alMughammis, about two miles from Makka. He then sent a small raiding party out to plunder the countryside and sent a messenger to Makka to inform them of his intent to destroy the Ka'bah.16 The Quraish at first contemplated battle, but they realized that the force was so great that they could not successfully resist. 'Abdu-l-Muttalib, Muhammad's paternal grandfather, who is described in this account as the leading shaikh of the Quraish, giving him an honor he could not have had at that time, went to Abraha, recovered his camels lost to the Abyssinian raiding party, and warned Abraha that the Ka'bah was protected by divine power and that he would not be able to overthrow it.17 'Abdu-l-Muttalib then returned to Makka, prayed to Allah to protect it, and then went with the rest of the Quraish up into the hills to await further developments.18 In the morning Abraha prepared to enter the town and made his elephant ready for battle and drew up his troops. His intention was to destroy the temple and then return to the Yaman. When they made the elephant (its name was Mahmud) face Mecca, Nufayl b. Habib came up to its flank and taking hold of its ear said: 'Kneel, Mahmuid, go straight back or whence you came, for you are in God'sholy land 1' He let go of its ear and the elephant knelt, and Nufayl made off at top speed for the top of the mountain. The troops beat the elephant to make it get up but
it would not ... Then they made it face the Yaman

and immediately it got up and started off. When they set it towards the north and the east it did likewise,but as soon as they directed it towards Meccait knelt down. Then God sent upon them birds from the sea like swallows and starlings; each bird carried three stones, like peas and lentils, one in its beak and two between its claws. Everyone who was hit died but not all were
hit ...

14 Ibid., p. 21. In a very clever way, Abraha sends the Negus a bag of Yamani soil and his clipped forelocks so that the Negus can fulfill his oath to not rest until he had trodden on the soil of the Yaman and clipped the forelocks of Abraha. 15 This would serve the polemical purpose of the glorification of the southern heritage of the Ansar, of whom were both Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham.

took him away his fingers fell off one by one... so that when they brought him to San'a' he was like a young fledgling. They allege that as he died his heart burst from his body. Deserters from the army, labourers, and campfollowers remained in Mecca and became workers and shepherds for the population. According to tradition, the unsuccessful attempt by Abraha to capture Makka and destroy
Guillaume, op. cit., p. 24. Ibid., p. 25. 18 Ibid,p. 26.
17
16

Abraha was smitten in his body, and as they

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434

Journal of the American Oriental Society 94.4 (1974)

the Ka'bah took place in the year of Muhammad's Makka. While God miraculously intervenes for birth and is represented by the Sirah as the first Jerusalem with a prophet and an angel, there is of the series of miracles attendant to the birth. no promise that this will eventually lead to the Sirat al-Fil is usually associated with the Abraha establishment of a kingdom that will last until the story and is said to have been a reminder to Mu- end of time. The account is no more or less mirachammad and the Makkans of Allah's goodness to ulous than other events in which God is related them.19 The Qur'an, however, is silent about all as having a hand in the course of biblical history. The Talmud interprets the siege of Jerusalem historical details, mentioning neither the object of the attack nor the names of the attackers. It is in quite a different manner, and it is in the Talmudic accounts that we find the eschatological only in the narrative commentaries and in the Sirah that we find an explanation of the context parallel. In the Tractate Sanhedrin, wllere the for this short surah, and it is in the Sirah that we fullest treatment of this theme is given, we find a tradition from R. Tanhium bar Hanilai, transmitting find this historical anecdote transformed into part of the eschatological and messianic history of the a saying from Bar Qappara, that "... the Holy foundation of Islam. One, blessed be He, wished to appoint Hezekiah as the Messiah and Sennacherib as Gog and Magog.23" Because we lack external confirmation to the This comment is prompted by Isaiah 9:6,24 and details mentioned in Islamic tradition about Abraassumes that the prophecies in Ezekiel 38 and ha's siege of Makka, we are unable to determine the historical accuracy of the event. But assuming 39, where the tribes of Gog and Magog, who, in Jewish eschatology, will lead an attack of all it, or an event like it, to be true, if even functionalnations against Israel and will be defeated by the ly so in the minds of the compilers of tradition, will of God to usher in the era of the Messiah, we can attempt to determine if there were parallel accounts that could have had some influence on apply to any great heathen nation leading an attack against Jerusalem. Hezekiah is then linked the casting of the siege of Makka story into its with the famous passage, Isaiah 9:5:25 "The Holy eschatological mold. The most obvious place to look for such parallels is in Jewish and Christian One, blessed be He, said: Let Hezekiah, who hath eight names, come and mete out punishment to literature, for, as Franz Rosenthal eschatological has shown, ". . . unless it can be shown that a Sennacherib, who hath eight. Hezekiah, as it is written, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son given story cannot have come to the Muslims from is given; and the government shall be upon his Jewish and Christian sources, the Judaeo-Christian tradition remains the most likely source of origin, shoulder; and his name shall be called IVonderful, in particular for all the older material."20 Indeed, Counsellor, Mighty, Judge, Everlasting, Father, the Qur'an itself even sanctions asking the "People Prince, and Peace."26 of the Book" about matters of prior revelation.21 In this section of chapter eleven of Tractate The most prominent siege story involving a holy Sanhedrin, 90a to 99a, which comments on the city is, of course, the account of Sennacherib's Mishna, "All Israel have a portion in the world to come ...", the main thread of the haggadic siege of Jerusalem.22 Here we are told that in the narrative deals first with the question of ressurecfourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, the Astion and then with the coming of the Messiah. syrian king Sennacherib took all the fortified cities of Judah and lay siege to Jerusalem. He sent a The account of Sennacherib and Hezekiah is inmessenger to the city, promising clement terms terposed in the middle of a longer account of for surrender, but Hezekiah's prayers for JerusaNebuchadnezzar, and relates him to Sennacherib lem's salvation were answered through the prophet by making him Sennacherib's son or son-in-law.27 Isaiah, and Sennacherib's army was virtually wiped 23 Sanhedrin 94a; The Babylonian Talmud, R. Dr. I. out by the visitation of an angel. There is, howEpstein, ed. and trans., SederNezikin, vol. 111, London, ever, nothing in the Biblical account that parallels Soncino Press, 1935, is used throughout this article for the eschatological use of the story of the siege of the English translation except where otherwise noted. 24 Isaiah 9:7 in 19 at-Tabari, Jami' al-Bayan 'an Ta'wil 'Ay alKing James version. 25 Isaiah 9:6 in vol. 30, p. 296. Qur'dn, Cairo, 1954, King James version.
20 Rosenthal, op. cit., p. 43. 21 Qur'an 10:94. 22 II Kings 18-19, II Chronicles 32, and Isaiah 36-7.
27 Sanhedrin

26 Sanhedrin 94a. 95b; L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the

Jews, Philadelphia, 1968, vol. vi, p. 390.

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NEWBY: A Talmudic Parallel

435

The activities of Sennacherib are also compared with those of Pharaoh, for "Pharaoh, who personally blasphemed, was punished by the Holy One, blessed be He, in person; Sennacherib, who blasphemed through an agent, was punished by the Holy One, blessed be He, through an agent."28 After a discussion about the reason for Sennacherib's defeat, since he had presumably been campaigning by God's command, the Talmud tells that he had made a forced march to Jerusalem, covering ten days' march in one, and "When Jerusalem was reached, mattresses were piled up for him until, by ascending and sitting on the uppermost, he saw the whole of Jerusalem. On beholding it, it appeared small in his eyes. 'Is this the city of Jerusalem,' he exclaimed, 'for which I set all my troops in motion, and conquered the whole country ? Why it is smaller and weaker than all the cities of the nations which I have subdued by my might.'"29 He was then advised to attack the city immediately but postponed it for the next day, saying "Ye are too worn out . . . but tomorrow let each of you bring me as much mortar as is necessary to seal a letter."30 That night, however, the Assyrian army was killed. The Rabbis differ as to whether God's agent of death was the angel Gabriel or the Hayyol; one tradition having it that "The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Gabriel, 'Is thy sickle sharpened He replied, (to mow down the Assyrians)?' 'Sovereign of the Universe, it has been sharpened since the six days of Creation.' ... So the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Gabriel, 'When thou goest forth to ripen the fruits, attack them.'"31 After a discussion of who survived the attack, the Talmud relates the curious story about Sennacherib as he was fleeing Jerusalem. He met a divine apparition in the form of an old man who warned him about what he would face upon his
28 Sanhedrin 94a-b. 29 Sanhedrin 95a. 30 Sanhedrin 95a; this reading assumes a different textual tradition than in our Talmud and follows the tradition reported by Nathan b. Jehiel in his Safer 'Aruk, S. Krauss, ed., Vindobona, 1926, which was used by J. Levy, Neuhebriisches und Chaldaisches Worterbuch iiber die Talmudim und Midraschim, Leipzig, 1883, vol. 3, pp. 474-5. The word gwlmwhrg, read as one word and usually as glmhrg is assumed by the commentators to come from the Persian gilmuhra, is glossed with tind, and 31 Sanhedrin 95b.

return home and advised him to disguise himself by cutting off his hair. Sennacherib assented and sent the old man for shears, but he returned after nightfall and had to build a fire by which to see. As he fanned the fire, a spark flew into Sennacherib's beard, causing him to lose both his hair and his beard.32 It is clear that both the Talmudic account of Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem and the Sirah's account of Abraha's siege of Makka are, despite certain detail differences, at base isomorphic. They both deal with the common theme of an unsuccessful attack on a holy city, and the equation between Makka and Jerusalem in early Islam has long been recognized, and both accounts involve messianic purposes and the fulfillment of prophecies. It is true that Hezekiah is not made the Messiah and the messianic kingdom is not established, but one R. Hillel said, "There shall be no Messiah for Israel, because they have already enjoyed him in the days of Hezekiah."33 The Armies of both attackers are destroyed by heavenly visitations, and both leaders return home in disgrace. The Prophecy that begins the account of the Sirah story is very much like the account of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2. King Rabi'a b. Nasr and Nebuchadnezzar both demand that the interpretors of their dreams first tell them the contents of the dreams and then tell them the interpretations. And both of the dreams deal with the same subjects, the destruction of certain kingdoms before the establishment of the final kingdom. "In the days of these kings the God of Heaven shall establish a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and the kingdom will not be left to other people, but it will shatter and end all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever."34 The final kingdom in the Sirah is, of course, Islam, which, in theory at least, is to extend over all other kingdoms. The interplay between Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar in the Talmudic account has already been mentioned, and in the Sirah the Abyssinians are regarded as a scourge equal to that of Sennacherib and just as necessary to the divine plan. Both Abraha and Sennacherib send messengers to the cities and offer them generous terms for surrender while speaking contemptuously of the temples. In the case of Abraha,
32 Sanhedrin 95b-96a. 33 Sanhedrin99a.

is said to mean a lump of clay.

34 Daniel 2:44.

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436

Journal of the American Oriental Society 94.4 (1974) chickpea and to have the name of the intended victim written on it.42 In the traditions concerning the destruction of Sodom, the agents associated with the stones are the angels Gabriel, Michael and Israfil.43 In the Talmud, Gabriel is frequently mentioned as either the Angel of Death or as the assistant to the Angel of Death, and is the agent of destruction of Sennacherib's army.44 It is also a common tradition that the Angel of Death requires the full and correct name of the intended victim and that the death of an individual is a decree of God that is both written and sealed.45 From the traditions surrounding the word sijjil, its function, and the tradition that it was inscribed, and the fact that it is glossed by the word tin "clay," it is most likely that it is derived from the Byzantine Greek word sigillon, meaning both edict and seal. Jeffery ascribes this origin to the word sijill, which occurs in Sairah 21:104. Pickthall translates this as a "written scroll" to which heaven is compared in this eschatological passage.46 As the plural of the Syriac sigilyon, Brockelmann gives sigilye, meaning diploma,47 and in Aramaic, the word segdl means to be round, the doubled stem, saggel, to encircle, and seguild a round packet containing something precious.48 It is interesting to note that the Arabic root sajal in the second, or doubled, stem means to decide judicially and record the sentence.49 Lane also records the tradition that min sijjil means min sijill, "of what had been written or decreed for them, that they should be punished therewith."50
42 az-Zamakhshari, al-Kashshaf, Cairo, 1966, vol. 4, p. 285. 43 at-Tabarl, Annales, M. J. de Goeje, ed., Prima Series, vol. I, p. 331ff.
44 Vide supra.

he wished only to destroy the Ka'bah and leave the inhabitants unharmed, as long as they followed his religion. Sennacherib had the same purpose in persuading the inhabitants of Jerusalem to follow his religion, and if they were to surrender, he promised, "... every man eat of his own vine and every one of his own fig tree and drink every one the waters of his cistern."35 The details of the destruction of Abraha's army are given in the ta/sir traditions on Surat al-Fil. In the third verse, wa-'arsala 'alaihim tairan 'ababila, tairan is usually interpreted as "birds," and 'abdbia, hapax legomenon in the Qur'an, is defined by context and its association with tairan.36 It is clear that these birds, however, are not ordinary birds. They are described as black, white, green, having beaks like birds and feet like dogs, and even heads like lions.37 This confused description is suggestive of the hayyot mentioned in Ezekiel's vision,38 which are usually identified with the cherubim. In the Sefer Hanok these cherubim are ranked as a separate class of angels and are considered as angels of destruction.39 That the Tair, the agents of Allah's destruction of Abraha, are equivalent to a class of angels is clear from the commentary on the fourth verse, tarmihim bihijdratin min sijjilin. Arthur Jeffery, in The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an, discusses the three occurrences of the word sijjil in the Qur'an, Silrahs 11:82, 15:74, 105:4, and defines the word as "lumps of baked clay."40 In all instances, it is something sent or rained down from heaven, either on the army of Abraha or on the people of Lot, i.e. Sodom. In Sirah 51:33, the stones that are sent down are described as tin, baked clay, which is the basis for the commentators' interpretation of sijjil as tin. Some of the traditions in at-Tabari recognize the word as foreign and equate it with the Persian words sang, stone, and gil, clay.41 Each sijjil is said to be larger than a lentil but smaller than a 35 II Kings 18:31.
at-Tabari, op. cit., pp. 297-8. 37 Ibid. 38 Ezekiel 1 and 10, where the hayy6t or cherubim have faces of a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle, each having wings and a burnished brass color. 39 L. Ginzberg, "Cherub," The Jewish Encyclopedia, New York, 1912, vol iv, pp. 13-14. 40 Arthur Jeffrey, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an, Baroda, 1938, pp. 164-5. 41 at-Tabari, op. cit., p. 299.
36

45 Rosh ha-Shanah 16b.

46 M. M. Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran,

New York, 1961, p. 240. 47 C. Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum, Berlin, 1895, p. 219, col. a.
48 J. Levy, Chalddisches Worterbuch iiber die Targumim,

Leipzig, 1867, vol. i, p. 143.

49 E. W. Lane, An Arabic English Lexicon, London, 1872, Book I, part 4, p. 1311. 50 Ibid.; Jeffery, op. cit., p. 164 quotes a tradition that

equates it with sijjfn, a word used only twice in the Qur'an, 83:7 & 8. There it is glossed by the phrase kitabunmarqiimun,which is usually translated as written
record. The word marqiim is a nomen patientis from the

root raqam, to write. The Aramaic reqdm,while coming

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NEWBY: A Talmudic Parallel It is not certain whether the word entered Arabic through Aramaic or Syriac, but its eschatological image of judgement through sealed divide decrees is common to the magic and religion of both Jews and Christians. Whether, then the tair who deliver the sijjil are meant to be specific angels, as with the traditions of Sodom, or like the hayyot, it is clear that they are angels of death with the .zijaral min sijjil as their instruments. The interpretation of the final verse of Surat al-Fil, fa-ja'alahum ka-'asfin ma'killi(n), also alfrom a root meaning to embroider, is used to mean form-

437

ing an embryo, or God forming Adam, or as a written

legal decree, such as a divorce decree; cf. M. Jastrow, A New York, 1950, p. 1497. Noldeke's Dictionary ..., suggestion that this is an invention of Muhammad is less plausible than the suggestion by Grimme that the word is related to the Ethiopic for clay writing tablets; cf. Jeffery, op. cit., p. 165. It is most likely that the word is borrowed from Aramaic and related to the Aramaic signin, cf. Jastrow, op. cit., p. 976, where it means a sign in the heavens, and comes ultimately from the Latin

ludes to the Sennacherib story. In the prophecy of Isaiah, mentioned in II Kings 19 and Isaiah 37, destruction is likened to herbage of a field blasted before it is grown. Likewise, the Talmudic account describes Gabriel with his sickle both ripening the fruit and mowing down the Assyrian army.51 The Qur'an utilizes the same image with the word 'asf, a crop blown by a violent windstorm or cut off with something sharp,52 and this word is a near homonymn for the Hebrew word 'eseb. Thus we see that the Sirah transforms the account of Abraha's siege of Makka into an eschatological description of the hastening of the advent of the final kingdom of Islam and its messianic The prior and parallel apostle, Muhammad. source for this transformation is the Talmudic account of Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem, in which the holy city becomes the focal point for the events of the Last Day.
51 Vide supra.
52 So the traditions of the tafsir, but it is interesting

signum.

to note that the use of this root in the early chapters of the Qur'an is primarily eschatological.

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