Le califat de yazid ier. 1909-21

MARRIAGE, VOCATION. The Hashimites orphan is said to have been taken under the care first of his grandfather, ‘Abdalmuttalib, and afterwards of his uncle, Abu Talib, the father of ‘Ali. At about the age of twenty-five, he married a rich Mekkan widow, Khadija, of very ripe age—she was over forty. He had several children by her, of whom only the daugh­ters survived. His daughter, Fatima, outlived him. Married to ‘Ali, her cousin, she became, through her sons, Hasan and Husain, the ancestress of numerous families of Sherifs, or descendants of the Prophet.

The question of a future life hardly exercised the Mekkans at all. It was while debating this that Muhammad, towards the age of thirty, passed through a religious crisis, which, following on nocturnal visions (Qoran 44, 3; 73, I, etc.; 74, I, etc.; 97, I), brought about the conversion of this serious-minded man. Disgusted with the crude fetishism and materialism

26 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

FIRST PREACHING. He began to preach his new faith, at first in an atmosphere of indifference, but soon in face of the hostility of the sceptical Mekkans. His social demands on behalf of the poor irritated the rich, the oppressors of the weak. The chief weapon used against him by his adversaries was sar­casm, which they directed for choice against the dogma of the resurrection, unwearyingly preached by the innovator; also against his prediction of an imminent catastrophe, and the eschatological arguments that the Preacher deduced therefrom. To escape from these vexations, several of the earliest Muslims emi­grated to Abyssinia. The discussions in question are set down at length in the Mekkan Suras. There also is to be found the description of the isra, his ‘nocturnal journey' from Mekka to Jerusalem. It forms the solemn beginning of the 17th Sura: ‘Glory to Him who by night transported His servant from the holy sanctuary (Mekka) to the far-away sanctuary, in the country that men have blessed (the Holy Land), that He might reveal to him His marvels. Allah hears

MUHAMMAD: THE FOUNDER OF ISLAM 27
and sees All.' Since that time Islam has regarded Jerusalem as its third holy city.

FAILURE, THE HIJRA. The Prophet was soon con­vinced of the impossibility of converting his fellow-citizens. His firmness was not, however, shaken, nor his faith in his mission, which he held fast to the end. He began by communicating it to a small band of followers, amongst whom we distinguish men of resolu­tion such as Abu Bekr and ‘Omar, who later became his most devoted helpers. After an unprofitable propagandist journey to Taif, the luck of chance meetings put him in touch with some Medinese Arabs passing through Mekka whom contact with their Jewish fellow-citizens had rendered more susceptible to religious ideas. They invited Muhammad to take up his abode in their native town. He was then about 40 years old—or 50, according to the traditional version.

His exodus from Mekka inaugurated the Hijra, that is to say, migration. This forms the starting-point of the Muslim era, instituted seventeen years later by the Caliph ‘Omar. It is reputed to have begun on 16th July, A.D. 622. The Hijra marks in Muhammad's career a no less interesting change; it started the political evolution of Islam; the Prophet became the ruler of a State. In the old Arab law, the Hijra did not merely signify rupture with his native town, but was equivalent to a sort of declaration of war against it. The Mekkan guild were under no misapprehension. Up to that time the watchword for Muhammad's disciples had been to ‘Stand fast' in the midst of contradictions; the jehad was a spiritual war. At Mekka the period of action began; they were enjoined to take up arms until Islam should have gained the ascendency, and the ‘infidels be brought low and forced to pay the tribute' (Qoran 9, 29).

28 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

He would no doubt have succeeded, given the malle­ability of the Medinese, had it not been for the obstinacy of the Jews of the oasis. His early contact with them had at least permitted him to become familiar with the Biblical history of Abraham, from which he learnt the genealogical relationship of Ishmael to the Arab people. Later on he used these facts to render Islam independent of the two Scripturary monotheisms, Judaism and Christianity, with which he was not slow to discover his doctrinal disagreement. Muhammad related Islam to Abraham considered as its religious ancestor, and by proclaiming this patriarch the founder of the Ka'ba, he was confident that he could depaganize the old Mekkan sanctuary and consecrate it to the worship of Allah.

After having tried to conciliate the Jews, at least by means of a political agreement, he was forced to realize that they had nothing in common with him and were, in fact, profoundly hostile. Postulating that prophecy was the exclusive privilege of Israel, they refused to recognize the claims of the ommi, ‘gentile' Prophet. Their rabbis never ceased to harass him with their

MUHAMMAD: THE FOUNDER OF ISLAM 29

BATTLES, BADR. Some months after his installation at Medina, Muhammad sent forth armed bands against the caravans of Mekka. It was an answer to the petty persecution of those few adherents who had remained in his native town, also an attack on its most vul­nerable point. The Quraish guild became alarmed. The traffic, that is to say, the prosperity of the city, was endangered: it depended on the security of the trade routes.

In the meantime an important Mekkan caravan had set out on the road to Syria. It was to bring back about 50,000 dinars in goods and bonds. Muhammad determined to intercept it on its return. This news spread consternation in Mekka when the leader of the caravan, Abu Sufyan, managed to give the alarm. Amidst scenes of disorder a contingent of several hundred men was organized, merchants and townsmen snatched from their counting-houses: improvised soldiers ill-prepared to stand up against resolute adversaries, whom they made the mistake of despising. This mob imagined that the enemy would disperse at the news of their approach.

In spite of the counter-order sent by Abu Sufyan, who had contrived to outdistance the Medinese and save his caravan, the Mekkans advanced in the greatest disorder towards Badr, the theatre of an annual fair. And so as to be prepared for all emergencies the Quraish

30 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS
merchants had brought their trashy wares in order not to miss a good opportunity. It was in the market-place of Badr that they came unexpectedly into collision with the Medinese troops, accompanied by Muhammad in person. It was a lamentable stampede. Notwith­standing their very great numerical superiority, the Mekkans counted several dozen dead and as many prisoners, whom they were compelled to ransom at a heavy price. This was the miracle of Badr (year 624) celebrated by the Qoran (3, 119). It exalted the pride of the Muslims, and was widely bruited throughout Arabia.

OHOD. The humiliation and consternation in Mekka were great. For a whole year, preparations were made for a military revenge, and to these the proud republic devoted the whole of the profits realized by the caravan of Badr, which the skill of Abu Sufyan had snatched from disaster. The Mekkans took their revenge on the day of Ohod (625). The Muslims were completely defeated and Muhammad himself was wounded. The conquerors did not dare to attack Medina, an open town, stripped of its defenders. Their indecision turned the success of Ohod into a fruitless victory. As for Muhammad, this serious defeat did nothing to abate his courage, and some months after the day of Ohod he had re-established confidence amongst his followers. He renewed his attacks and forays against the commerce of Mekka, which was soon reduced to the last gasp.

THE WAR OF THE ‘TRENCH'. Mekka called up the levies of her allies, the Beduin tribes, and mobilized her mercenary troops, the ‘Ahabish', so called because the majority were of Abyssinian extraction. The new army, about 10,000 strong, marched, in 627, to attack Medina. This episode figures in the Sira under the name of the ‘War of the Trench' or Khandaq.

MUHAMMAD: THE FOUNDER OF ISLAM 31

DIPLOMACY. After this success Muhammad might have considered the game as won. Instead of exploit­ing it by means of arms, he preferred to have recourse to diplomacy, in which he excelled. Under pretext of accomplishing the pilgrimage, he set out at the head of 1,400 Muslims and, for form's sake, submitted to a reverse; he allowed himself and his followers to be stopped on the borders of the haram by the armed Mekkans. But he, the tarid, the political exile, knew how to wrest from their negotiators what he had set his heart upon, by means of the Pact of Hudai­biyya (628). In it he treated with Mekka on equal terms, and in the capacity of head of a State. Islam gained thereby in prestige, and won over new adher­ents amongst the Quraishites. The most remarkable of these recruits were beyond question the two future captains, Khalid ibn al-Walid and 'Amru ibn al-‘Asi.

Whilst preparing by force of arms and diplomacy to compass the surrender of his native town, Muham­mad had worked since Ohod to secure the sole posses­sion of his base of operations, the oasis of Medina. A

32 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

EXPULSION OF THE JEWS. The Jews of Medina gave him more trouble. He had tried in vain to win them over. They, also, were lacking in decision; instead of uniting resolutely, first amongst themselves and afterwards with the enemies of Muhammad, they were content to provoke him by their sarcasm. This stubborn though ineffective opposition finally drove him to exasperation. He began by expelling the weaker tribes. The last—that of the Banu Qoraiza—was vanquished. All the able-bodied men to the number of 600 were ruthlessly killed, and the women and children sold by auction. On their flourishing domains Muhammad established the ‘Refugees' of Mekka. The Jews of Khaibar and of Fadak were also compelled to submit and reconcile themselves to cultivating their fertile oases for the benefit of the Muslims now their masters.

THE DEFEAT AT MUTA (629). The Muslims with their appetite whetted by these successes, but compelled by the Pact of Hudaibiyya (v. p. 31) to respect the Mekkan caravans, now turned their gaze in the direc­tion of Syria. A strong column of 3,000 men set out to raid Transjordania. Muhammad does not appear to have been confident of the success of this adventure, nor to have approved of it, any more than did his circle of intimates. There is nothing to show that he ever seriously envisaged conquests beyond the Arabian frontiers, otherwise he could not have refused to accompany this perilous expedition, in which Abu

MUHAMMAD: THE FOUNDER OF ISLAM 33

As Muhammad had feared, the Muslims were com­pletely defeated (629). Khalid ibn al-Walid succeeded in bringing back to Medina the miserable remains of this foolish expedition. In the interval Muhammad had matured in his mind a plan which was particularly dear to his heart: the conquest of his native town.

CONQUEST OF MEKKA. In that metropolis, all clear-sighted men judged the game irretrievably lost for Mekka. Without showing his hand, Muhammad entered into relations with the fittest man amongst the Quraishites, Abu Sufyan (v. p. 14), whose daughter, Umm Habiba, sister to the future Caliph Mu'awiya, he had just married. Having hastened to Medina on pretext of renewing the Hudaibiyya pact, the Quraish­ite leader undertook secretly to facilitate his son-in-law's entry into his native town. He would distract the attention of his fellow-citizens and prevent them from taking any military precautions. On his side, Muhammad would give full amnesty for the past, and would respect the immunities and the ancient organization of Mekka, where the pagan cult was to be officially forbidden. Muhammad seems even to have consented not to take up his abode there: an agent whom he would nominate would represent him, and apart from this the Quraishites could govern themselves according to their ancient customs. As for the ‘Refugees', Muhammad's Mekkan companions, they would not demand the restitution of their property which had been confiscated.

This was the ‘fath Makka’, the conquest of Mekka.

34 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS
Muhammad occupied it without striking a blow. Everything happened according to the prearranged plan, with only one single hitch—the Prophet put to death half-a-dozen of his enemies from amongst those most deeply compromised. The population of Mekka paid homage, bai'a, to the conqueror: but it was lacking in conviction, with the result that on the death of the Prophet the first signs of defection at once became visible in the city.

LAST SUCCESSES. Muhammad then set out from Mekka on the day of Hunain (cf. Qoran 9, 25) to dis­perse a strong coalition of Beduin tribes. After that he proceeded to lay siege to the town of Taif (v. p. 5), the outer defences of which he tried in vain to force. On returning to Medina, where he continued to reside, he received the submission of Taif and the homage of numerous Beduin deputations. They hastened eagerly to lay before the victorious Prophet the allegiance of their tribes, but with several of them this step was purely political and did not carry with it the acceptance of Islam.

In the year 631, Muhammad at the head of a strong army—the most numerous which had yet been mustered in Arabia—set out towards Syria, no doubt with the object of wiping out the painful memory of Muta. But, on arrival at the oasis of Tabuk (v. p. 4), the limit of Byzantine territory, he hesitated to adventure further. From Tabuk he contented himself with sending out armed bands, which plundered the towns of the Nabatea, and the small ports of the Red Sea.

Since the surrender of Mekka, Muhammad had abstained from reappearing there, even at the season of the pilgrimage. He was content to send a repre­sentative to the ceremonies; but he decreed that henceforward infidels should no longer be allowed to participate. It was only at the beginning of 632 that

MUHAMMAD: THE FOUNDER OF ISLAM 35
he decided for the first time to assume the leadership of the pilgrimage.

DEATH OF MUHAMMAD. Three months after his return, he died very unexpectedly at Medina, on 8th June, 632. We believe that he had barely passed his fiftieth solar year. The conversion of Arabia had only made serious progress in the Hejaz. Medina alone could be considered as definitely won over to the new doctrine, much more so than the towns of Mekka and Taif. Nowhere else had anything been done beyond paving the way for Islamization; its political power had in particular been recognized.

Always elusive, the Beduins deserved the reproaches levelled at them by the Qoran: the chief of which is want of sincerity (9, 89–100; 49, 14), the profession of Islam by lip-service only. They hated the Holy War and no less the obligation to pay tithes. On the death of the Prophet several tribes, alleging that the homage, bai'a, was of strictly personal character, claimed freedom from the oath of fidelity taken to Muhammad, and although calling themselves Muslims, refused to send the proceeds of the fiscal taxes to Medina. The wholesale defection of the Beduins showed how well founded was Muhammad's distrust.

THE SUCCESSION. This unexpected death threw Muhammad's immediate circle and the community of Medina into confusion. It reawakened party spirit and the dissensions between Medina and Mekka which only the strong personality and prestige of the master had been able to quell. Nothing had been prearranged about his succession, nor the future of the Muslim community. On these points the Qoran remains silent; no doubt Muhammad meant to deal with them later. The very recent loss of Ibrahim, the son he had had by the Coptic slave Maria, had troubled his spirit. He still had to complete the framework

36 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS
and organization of his work. In the rare moments of leisure which the wars and vicissitudes of his event­ful career left to him, we see him modifying or even abrogating verses of the Qoran (2, 100; 16, 103). We feel that he was preoccupied in adapting Islam to the ever-changing circumstances of the passing hour. May he not have thought to endow it with a hierarchy, charged to preside over its destinies? It is certain that death left him no time to do so.

Before ever troubling to inter the corpse which had remained for two days without burial Ansar and Muh­ajir began to dispute over the succession. The first had their Medinese candidate; the Mekkans were divided. After violent discussion, the Quraish faction, centred round Abu Bekr and ‘Omar, by a surprise manœuvre, installed their candidate in the Caliphate or vicariate of the Prophet. This was Abu Bekr, father of 'Ayesha, the favourite of the vanished master. The great influence of the latter and also the energetic intervention of 'Omar swept the wobblers off their feet, to the great disappointment of ‘Ali, Fatima's husband, who never resigned himself to it, and this fact, together with the claims of his descendants, soon caused the schism of the Shi'as and the shedding of rivers of blood.

III

THE QORAN: THE SACRED BOOK OF ISLAM

QORAN. ‘Qoran' means not reading but recitation (Qoran 16, 100; 17, 95; 19, 19; 73, 20; 87, 6). It is essentially a text designed to be read in religious ceremonies and to take therein the place held by the Bible 'lessons' in the liturgy of the monotheistic religions. To Muslims it is ‘Kitab Allah’ and ‘Kalam Allah’, the book and the word of Allah. This is why a Qoranic quotation is always introduced by the preamble ‘Allah has said'. As for the interpolation ‘the Prophet has said', this always refers to something contained in the Sunna, never to a text in the Qoran. Throughout the latter it is Allah who is supposed to speak in the first person, when he is not addressing the Prophet, who is merely his mouthpiece.

Muhammadan orthodoxy considers the Qoran as ‘uncreated', in the sense not only that it reproduces a copy conforming to the prototype of the divine revela­tion, but that in its actual form, in its phonetic and graphic reproduction, in the linguistic garb of the Arab tongue, it is identical and co-eternal with its celestial original. Thus to assert that the fact of its

37

38 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

AUTHENTICITY. The Qoran, as it has come down to us, should be considered as the authentic and personal work of Muhammad. This attribution cannot be seriously questioned and is practically admitted, even by those Muhammadan sects who obstinately dispute the integrity of the text; for all the dissidents, without exception, use only the text accepted by the orthodox. Certain portions were revised and altered by the Prophet himself and in his lifetime a number of the Suras were collected in writing. It seems, however, that the greater number of them were only memorized by the reciters or qari.

In its present external form tradition attributes the edition which we possess to the Caliph ‘Othman (644-656). He realized the necessity for stopping in time the dangerous diffusion of editions and copies of an unauthorized character, and presumably ordered their destruction. His intervention assured, apart from some slightly variant readings, a text of remarkable uniformity. Beyond this uniformity, the editors of ‘Othman's Qoran do not seem to have been prompted by any critical considerations in the establishment of the text. The Shi'as in their hatred of ‘Othman, their great aversion, assert that the original text has been gravely changed and even mutilated. The Kharijites exclude the 12th Sura, which they treat as a romantic story. But dissenters and orthodox all, as we have said, possess no text but that of ‘Othman.

The editors of the ‘qirav’a mashhura’, or textus receptus, worked under the domination of a servile

THE QORAN 39
scrupulousness for tradition. Otherwise they would not have been able to resist the temptation to improve, by means of equivalents readily furnished by the lexi­con, the poor rhymes terminating the verses. They would not have scattered broadcast through the collection, sometimes in the course of the same Sura, groups of verses which have a logical connection. They would have tried to delete or tone down the principal repetitions and tautologies which make its bulk unwieldy. Revision after the author's death would have modified the verses relating to Zainab (Qoran 33, 37), and brought into agreement the differing versions of the same prophetic legend. In the enumeration of the prophets it would have separ­ated and distinguished between those of the Old and those of the New Testament, and such a re-editing would have brought consistency into the story of Abraham's relations with Ishmael and Isaac, which are completely dissimilar as related in the Mekkan or the Medinese Suras. In deciding what order to assign to the Suras a critical revision would at least have adopted some criticism less primitive than that of length. Above all, it would have cut out the most glaring anachronisms: the confusion between the two Marys (19, 22), between Haman, minister of King Ahasuerus, and the minister of Moses' Pharaoh (Qoran 28, 5-7, 38; 40, 38); the fusion into one of the legends of Gideon, Saul, David and Goliath (2, 250, etc.); the story of the Samaritan (sic) who is alleged to have made the Jews worship the golden calf (20, 87, etc.). The Qoranic Vulgate has respected all this, and left everything exactly as the editors found it.

PRESENT FORM. This Vulgate is composed of 114 Suras or chapters, of very unequal length, ranging from 3 to 280 verses. Certain verses contain only two words, others over half a page. The longest of

40 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS
the Suras are, as we have seen, placed arbitrarily at the head of the collection, without regard for the chronology of these revealed utterances or the date when they are given. The names chosen to designate them, Sura of the cow, of the light, etc., are ancient and already mentioned by St. John Damascenus, therefore anterior to 750. There are altogether 6,200 verses, each terminated by an assonance, serving as a rhyme. This rhyme of a special nature, called saj‘, is much more loose than that allowed in the metres of prosody, and in the endless verses of the prosaic Medinese Suras the author finishes by disregard­ing it altogether. The division of the Qoran into 4, 8 or 3o juz’, parts, or 60 hizb, sections, was introduced for a practical purpose; it is designed to facilitate public or private recitations of the work such as are customary on solemn ritual occasions, funeral com­memorations, etc.

From the point of view of philology, the sentences run flowingly, especially in the post-Hijran Suras, and this first prose work of Arabic literature achieves a remarkably finished style. Some Orientalists have alleged that it has been touched up in order to bring the language to the standard of perfection set by the pre-Islamic poets. In that case we must suppose that these purists in their revision have paid no attention to the extremely primitive rhymes of the most recent Suras and above all that they have passed over slight faults of grammar and style which it would have been so easy to rectify. (Qoran 20, 66: inna followed by a nominative; 49, 9, dual subject of a plural verb.) In 2, 106; 4, 40-41, the predicate is singular in the first clause of the sentence, and in the plural in the second although relating to the same grammatical subject. In 27, 61; 35, 25, passim, Allah speaks in the third person; then, without transition, in the

THE QORAN 41
first. Thus in 2, 172, the celebrated philologist Al-Mubarrad read al-barr instead of al-birr, in order to avoid this singular construction: ‘piety is he who…’ In spite of all this there is no occasion for surprise in the fact that the Qoran, especially the Medinese Suras with their more polished phrases, less interspersed with ellipses and anacolutha than the pre-Hijran ones, has served as the standard for fixing the rules of national grammar.

In our Qorans the title of each Sura is followed by the note Mekkan or Medinese, to indicate that they were given at Mekka, or, after the Hijra, at Medina. Instead of following chronological classification, begin­ning with the first, that is to say the earliest, the editor has adopted the order in use in the divans or poetic works, which always open with the longest pieces. He has also classed or retained in the Mekkan Suras, and conversely in the Medinese, groups of verses belonging to other periods. This lack of order has been sharply criticized by the Shi'as, who unhesitatingly lay the blame on the Caliph 'Othman, guilty, in their opinion, of omitting the verses relating to ‘Ali and his family.

It is certain that the incoherence of the authorized version does not make it easier to understand a text often concise to the point of obscurity and filled with allusions to events of which the details are imperfectly known to us. Such difficulties are the mubhamat, the problems whose solution constitutes a branch of the Tafsir or Qoranic exegesis. The Suras posterior to the Hijra are thick with allusions to the difficulties and discussions arising in the Muslim community and to the domestic affairs of Muhammad, together with attacks on his adversaries, the Jews and ‘hypocrites' of Medina. Nevertheless, the prudent Prophet affected to preserve all the more meticulously a sort of anony-

42 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

EXEGESIS. The system of Tafsir, exegesis, sets out to resolve all the problems of hermeneutics. To this end it draws principally on the vast collection of hadith or traditions (cf. Chap. IV), the innumerable anecdotes of which profess to set forth in plain terms the cryptograms of the Qoran, or sometimes even to transmit a commentary emanating from the Prophet or his intimate circle. Some 'qira’at’, lectiones variae, are to be met in the works of the Arabian grammarians and philologists, and these are collected and codified by what are called the 'seven schools of qurra’ ’, con­sidered as orthodox. Comparison with these variants is a very meagre help towards the establishment of a really critical test.

Of the versions anterior to ‘Othman's edition there subsist only slight traces; sufficiently numerous to show divergences in detail, but too few to modify perceptibly the substance and integrity of the accepted text. Certain variants spring from the imperfect paleography of the Arabic alphabet, and the rarity of accented letters in primitive manuscripts. The complete absence of vocalizations gives rise to dissimilar readings and orthographic renderings. There are also some intentional corrections. Some critics have proposed to soften in places the Qoranic text where it seems too harsh, or else to make its meaning clear by the adoption of synonyms or even the insertion

THE QORAN 43

Throughout the Qoran God speaks in the first person. But Allah being 'omniscient' it is obvious that nothing can nor should astonish him. Impressed by this reflection, a qari has therefore replaced (37, 12) ‘‘ajibtu’—I am astonished—by ‘‘ajibta’—thou art astonished—that is to say, thou, Muhammad. The same inspiration brought to bear on the abrogated verses has suggested the substitution for 'nunsiha’—we cause them to be forgotten (the verses in question)—of another reading judged more inoffensive: ‘nansa'uha’—we postpone them—we put them off until later. The Qoran complacently stresses the favour granted to the Arabs in the person of a fundamentally national prophet; ‘min anfusikum’—sprung from your midst. Thinking to enhance the prestige of Muhammad and his relationship to Allah, a variant proposes to read ‘min anfasikum’—‘from the most distinguished amongst you'. Add to all this the uncertainty in the use of the particles bi, fi, li, fa, wa, etc., and some idea may be gained of the resources available to textual criticism.

As long as no one of the copies said to have been destroyed by ‘Othman has been found, we must aban­don hope of possessing a text different from the present edition. The Shi‘a Tafsir, when dealing with the ques­tion of the Caliphate and the privileges granted to ‘Ali and his family, professes, as we shall see later (Chap. VII), to restore the integrity of the primitive

44 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

PRINCIPAL COMMENTARIES. The Sunni Tafsir, fundamentally hostile to all attempts at subjective criti­cism, confines itself to a strictly traditional interpre­tation, such as is alleged to have been transmitted and laid down by Muhammad, by his first Companions and by the masters of the jama'a, or community of Islam. The object of this Tafsir is not so much to pursue along progressive paths the study of the Qoranic text as to put forward nothing which does not bear the stamp of orthodoxy. The most brilliant commen­tator, and certainly the one most representative of this narrowly conservative method, is the celebrated historian and founder of a school of jurisprudence, Tabari (922), the author of a Tafsir in thirty volumes numbering about 5,200 pages of closely-written text. An excellent philologist, with a unique knowledge of the historical, religious and juridic literature of Islam, he has condensed into his monumental compilation the exegetic erudition of his predecessors, which he quotes and treats comparatively. It may be said that he voices the whole Qoranic learning of the three first centuries of the Hijra.

The 'Kashshaf’ of Zamakhshari (1074–1143) repre­sents a more progressive tendency. Zamakhshari is as respectful as Tabari of the Qoranic text and equally convinced of its divine origin, but as a disciple of the Mu'tazilite school he strives, by multiplying explana­tions more rational than rationalistic, to excise from the Qoran all traces of matter favourable to determin­ism, anthropomorphism, the intervention of jinns and other theories to which Mu'tazilism is opposed. Fakhr ad-din ar-Razi (1209), representing the anti 

THE QORAN 45

We shall speak elsewhere of Qoranic exegesis as practised by the Shi'a sects. It is the triumph of ‘ta’wil’, allegorical interpretation. The ta’wil is practised with no less enthusiasm by the adherents of the 'tasawwuf’, namely, the members of the Sufi congregations. In addition, these Islamic mystics find in the Qoran the confirmation of their esoteric doctrines. Let us borrow an example from the Tafsir of the famous Andalusian Sufi, Muhiy ad-din ibn al-'Arabi (1165-1250), who died and was buried at Damas­cus. For him the 12th Sura, that of Joseph, becomes the allegorical drama of the powers of the soul. Jacob represents the intellect, Joseph the tender heart, a prey to the envy of his ten half-brothers, who are held to represent the five internal and the five external senses.

MEKKAN SURAS. Our edition of the Qoran is satis­fied, as we have seen, with distinguishing between Mekkan and Medinese Suras. This fundamental dis­tinction should be retained, but a comparative study

46 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

The oldest, those contemporary with or following closely on the opening of Muhammad's prophetic career, are the most animated, the most lyrical, and also the most abrupt. Exclamations, interjections and striking images abound, and many sentences have remained unfinished. The same is true of certain arguments, where the conclusion is merely indicated. It is left to the reader to supply the premises or missing clauses, which have not passed beyond the speaker's mind. Another peculiarity characterizes the oldest Suras of the Qoran, the multiplicity and piling-up of oaths. The author calls to witness the most dis­similar objects—the sky, the stars, the mountains, the trees, etc. This use of oaths grows less as the Prophet nears the Hijra, and ceases entirely at Medina.

In the least ancient Suras of the Mekkan period appear the legends of the Biblical prophets. These reflect the vicissitudes of Muhammad's preaching and his struggles at Mekka. It is also at that time that the name 'Rahman' to designate Allah came into use, as well as the Oratorical apostrophe 'O men!', which was replaced at Medina by 'O Believers!' The verses, very short, and as it were breathless in the earliest Suras, begin to lengthen, the rhyme grows more commonplace, conventional phrases creep in and synonymous expressions jostle one another. As a whole, the style of these last Suras already foreshadows that of the Medinese period. During the ten first years of his prophetic career Muhammad only attacks the heathen, and refrains from falling upon the Jews

THE QORAN 47

MEDINESE SURAS. These are easier to recognize, as are the pericopes or Medinese fragments which have strayed into the Mekkan Suras. This is due first to the style, which is more prosaic, especially in the numerous legal stipulations. The sentence unfolds more regularly, sometimes even to the point of becom­ing a period. The verses take on a greater amplitude and the parts of the syllogism are less often implied than in the Mekkan period. The tone differs com­pletely from that of the pre-Hijran period; it becomes more assured, more dominating even than at Mekka, where it exhorted a pusillus grex to endurance, sabr, in the midst of denials. Now we may divine the voice of a leader and lawgiver. Imperatives abound: ‘obey the Prophet'; ‘pay the tax of alms, zakat’, etc. This last word, and also others such as ‘hanif’, monotheist, belong to the lexicon of the Medinese period. The eschatological arguments which pervade the Mekkan Suras—the approach of the Judgment, etc.—are abandoned; Polemics against the heathen grow rare, and to make up for this the Jews, the Medinese enemies of Muhammad, the ‘hypocrites’ and ‘infirm of heart’, are the subject of attack. Military addresses occupy a considerable place. Allusions to contemporary events, to current news, increase in number: incidents in the Prophet's domestic life, his marriage with the divorced wife of Zaid, his adopted son (Qoran 33, 37), the accusation brought against ‘Ayesha, his favourite (24, 10, II), the statute imposed on his wives after his death, etc. Abraham is represented as the founder of the Ka'ba and Islam is called ‘the Faith of Abraham’ (22, 76, etc.). Muhammad went back beyond Moses and Christ to claim kinship with the Biblical patriarch who ‘was neither Jew nor Christian’ (3, 60); in

48 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS
other words, he proclaimed Islam's independence of the Scripturary religions.

DOGMA IN THE SURAS. Ritual and liturgical stipula­tions,—prayer and pilgrimage—social and penal laws, all the canonic legislation by which primitive Islam was to live and which the juridical schools of the second to third centuries expounded, date from the Medinese period. On the other hand, it is the Mekkan section of the Qoran which contains the brief enuncia­tion of the dogmatic ideas and simple theodicy of the author; concepts to which the Medinese chapters merely add a few superficial traits.

In the early days of his mission Muhammad besides preaching monotheistic dogma was much concerned with eschatology. He announced, if not the imminence of the last Judgment, at least that of a catastrophe which will smite all miscreants who resist his preaching. These ideas are reiterated with monotonous insistency, and without any very apparent effort to vary their expression, or replenish the stock of images and comparisons, generally quite unoriginal, applied to the existence of God, His attributes and relations with the world. Allah is the Creator, the only and unequalled Master. He knows no ‘associates’ or rival divinities, such as the pagans, whom the Qoran for this reason calls ‘mushrikun’—associators—assign to Him. Before the Hijra Muhammad at first directed his attacks only against the Quraishite and Beduin pagans. At Medina, after his rupture with Judaism, his polemics add to these enemies ‘the peoples of the Book’, that is, the Jews and Christians.

Angels are represented as the ministers of Allah. The angelology of the Qoran is not complicated; it developed only at Medina in intercourse and discussion with the Jews. It designates by name the archangel Michael, and particularly the archangel Gabriel (Qoran

THE QORAN 49