1 Known Unknowns
1 From a letter of Simeon of Beth Arsham, discovered and quoted by Shahid (1971), p. 47.
2 Ibid., p. 57.
3 Chronicon ad Annum Christi 1234 Pertinens: 1.237.
4 From a poem written in the Hijaz, the region of Arabia where Mecca is situated: quoted by Hoyland (2001), p. 69.
5 Theophylact Simocatta: 4.2.2.
6 Eusebius: History of the Church, 1.4.10.
7 Eusebius: Life of Constantine, 1.6.
8 Ibn Hisham, p. 629
9 Ibid., p. 105.
10 Qur’an: 96.1–5.
11 Ibn Hisham, p. 106.
12 Qur’an: 6.102.
13 Ibid.: 15.94. Or perhaps “Do what you have been commanded to do.”
14 Qur’an: 1.1.
15 Ibid.: 33.40.
16 Ibn Hisham, p. 155.
17 The “Quraysh” are often referred to in English simply as “Quraysh,” without a definite article, reflecting the Arabic, which never refers to them as “al-Quraysh.”
18 Qur’an: 89.20.
19 Ibid.: 42.42–3.
20 Ibn Hisham, p. 303.
21 Waqidi:Kitab al-Maghazi, quoted by Hawting (1999), p. 69.
22 Ibn Hisham, p. 555.
23 From a West Syrian Christian text which records a disputation between a monk and “a man of the Arabs.” Although the monk—hardly surprisingly, considering its authorship—ends up decisively winning the argument, the suggestion that God’s approval of Islam had manifested itself in the sheer scale of the Arab conquests was a difficult one for Christians to rebut. The date of the text is unknown, but Hoyland, who quotes it (1997, p. 467), suggests that it is unlikely to be earlier than the mid-eighth century.
24 Al-Jahiz, quoted by Robinson, p. 88.
25 Qur’an: 33.21.
26 Ibn Qutayba, p. 217.
27 Al-Adab al-Mufrad al-Bukhari 6.112.
28 Qur’an: 16.89.
29 Ibid.: 29.51.
30 Ibid.: 16.88.
31 Or five, if a verse that alludes to a Messenger called “Ahmad” is counted (61.6).
32 Qur’an: 3.164.
33 Al-Tahawi, quoted by Watt (1994), p. 48.
34 Gibbon, ch. 37, n. 17. The saint whose biographies of other saints are being dismissed is Jerome.
35 Quoted by Wilson, p. 174.
36 The great German theologian of the first half of the nineteenth century, Wilhelm M. L. de Wette, quoted by Friedman, p. 25.
37 Or, as it is more commonly phrased by scholars of Islamic law, “the gate of ijtihad”—ijtihad being, according to the definition of Hallaq, “the exertion of mental energy in the search for a legal opinion to the extent that the faculties of the jurist become incapable of further effort” (p. 3). As Hallaq has convincingly demonstrated, the conventional attribution of the phrase to the tenth century is mistaken.
38 Gibbon: Vol. 3, p. 230.
39 Quoted by Gilliot, p. 4.
40 Gibbon: Vol. 3, p. 190.
41 Schacht (1977), p. 142.
42 Ibid. (1950), p. 149.
43 Ibid. (1949), p. 147.
44 Rahman (1965), p. 70.
45 Qur’an: 8.9.
46 Ibn Hisham: p. 303.
47 Rahman (1965), pp. 70–1.
48 See, for instance, Gabriel, p. 94.
49 Wansbrough (1978), p. 25.
50 See Crone (1987a), pp. 226–30: a typically brilliant piece of detective work. The papyrus fragment is Text 71 in Grohmann (1963).
51 Qur’an: 8.41. It refers to the nameless battle as having been fought on “the day of the furqan,” or “deliverance,” which we know from 2.181 was in Ramadan.
52 The single name-check is Qur’an: 3.123.
53 Ibn Ishaq is just one of many writers whom we know only through later authors’ reworkings of their texts. Another is Malik ibn Anas, a jurist who was known, somewhat optimistically, as “The Proof of the Community.”
54 Robinson (2003), p. 51.
55 Although see Nevo and Koren.
56 Doctrina Iacobi: 5.16.
57 Of more than four hundred private inscriptions from the Negev Desert in southern Palestine, carved in the eighth century AD, a mere eleven mention Muhammad by name. See Donner (1998), p. 88.
58 Ibn Hisham, p. 691.
59 Peters (1991), p. 292.
60 For these theories, see books by, respectively, Wansbrough, Luxenberg and Ohlig.
61 The paradigmatic example of the problems that can be faced by Muslim revisionists is the series of misfortunes that were suffered by an Egyptian academic, Nasr Abu Zayd, when he published a reading of the Qur’an as a work of literature that had evolved over the course of time. His book provoked a storm of outrage, and led to him being condemned as an apostate, having his wife declared divorced from him by virtue of his offence, and ultimately fleeing into exile. For a brief but suggestive account of how Abu Zayd himself views his intellectual pedigree, see his book, Reformation of Islamic Thought, pp. 53–9. At least, though, he was not defenestrated: the fate suffered by the unfortunate Palestinian historian Suliman Bashear.
62 Muhammad Sven Kalisch. See http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-478/_nr-812/i.html
63 Manzoor, p. 34.
64 al-Azami (2003), p. 341. Interestingly, when it is the Bible which finds itself in the sights of revisionist scholars, the good professor suddenly becomes a great enthusiast for sceptical enquiry. He certainly never doubts the right of Muslims to deconstruct Jewish and Christian writings.
65 The biography most widely read by non-Muslims is probably the one by Karen Armstrong, which in turn is a redaction of earlier biographies by Rodinson and Watt. Remarkably, for a book written by someone who has written extensively about the grand tradition of biblical scholarship, it does not so much as mention the problematic nature of the sources for the life of Muhammad. Among eminent scholars who still hold the Muslim tradition to be acceptable as historical evidence, by far the most readable is Hugh Kennedy.
66 Donner (1998), p. 2.
67 Neuwirth, p. 1. See also Donner’s frank admission that, “Those of us who study Islam’s origins have to admit collectively that we simply do not know some very basic things about the Qur’an—things so basic that the knowledge of them is usually taken for granted by scholars dealing with other texts” (in Reynolds, p. 29).
68 For a taster of the range of opinions on offer, the interested reader could try sampling the mind-boggling perspectives on isnad authenticity to be found in al-Azami (1985), Motzki (2002) and Cook (1981). For a survey of all three studies, and many more, see Berg (2000), whose analysis of the entire “isnad debate” was particularly helpful in the writing of this chapter. Although Berg does not actually use the word “schism,” he sees academic opinion on early Islam as being riven down the middle. “Whether motivated by the need for positive results or the desire for methodological and theoretical sophistication, we are left with two very different, mutually exclusive, and to the outsider, almost equally plausible models of Islamic origins,” he writes. “Any conclusion drawn therefore will be a product of these underlying assumptions” (p. 226).
69 Berg (2000), p. 219.
70 Crone (1980), p. 7.
71 There are three mentions of Gabriel in the Qur’an, two of which appear in Qur’an: 2.97–8. The warning to two gossiping wives that Gabriel is ready to intervene on the Prophet’s side appears in Qur’an: 66.4.
72 John: 1.1.
73 Sahih Bukhari 1.1.2. The hadith is attributed to Aisha, Muhammad’s favourite wife. The Prophet is remembered in it as describing the experience of revelation as being “like the ringing of bell. This form of inspiration is the hardest of all.”
74 See, for instance, Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, ch. 20. There are strong parallels generally between the Qur’anic account of Mary’s life and various Christian apocryphal writings. For more detail, see Horn. Suleiman Mourad, in a stimulating essay, has convincingly argued that the Christian legend of the palm tree that fed the pregnant Mary itself derives from the Greek myth of Apollo and Artemis, whose mother Leto was similarly nourished by a palm tree.
75 The word itself derived from the Qur’an—although the use to which Muslim scholars put it probably did not.
76 PERF 558—“PERF” being the standard abbreviation of the “Archduke Rainer Collection.” See Grohmann and Jones (1998). A full transcript of PERF 558 can be found at http://www.islamic-awareness.org/History/Islam/Papyri/PERF558.html. A second document, P Berol 15002, also gives us the date “Twenty-Two,” but it is fragmentary.
77 One partial exception is the treatment by Muslim historians of Persia, which does seem to preserve authentic native traditions. See Noth (1994), p. 39.
78 Averil Cameron, in Bowersock, Brown and Grabar, p. 16.
2 Iranshahr
1 Letter of Tansar, p. 64.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., p. 27.
4 Procopius: History of the Wars, 1.3.
5 Procopius (History of the Wars, 1.3) records that the Hephthalite capital was named “Gorgo,” and that it lay not far beyond the Persian frontier. The likeliest location of the city, and therefore of the Persian invasion, is somewhere in the region of Gonbad-e Kavus, site of the magnificent eleventh-century AD tower so admired by Robert Byron. It is true that later sources have Peroz crossing the Oxus, a river much further to the north, but scholars are generally agreed that Procopius’s account must derive from a contemporary Persian source, and is therefore much to be preferred.
6 Ammianus: 19.1.2.
7 Theophylact Simocatta: 4.4.8.
8 Procopius: History of the Wars, 1.4. Based on the evidence of his coins, Peroz also had earrings comprised of three pearls.
9 Ammianus: 26.6.80.
10 Ibid.: 26.6.77
11 Tabari: Vol. 5, p. 112. Scholars have long recognised that some authentic Sasanian material was preserved by Persian historians and poets following the Arab conquest of their country; but how much precisely is a question that has become increasingly controversial. As with the Muslim sources for Arab history, so with those for the Sasanian period: no methodology exists for distinguishing authentic material from that which has been mangled or simply fabricated from scratch. The stern admonition of a leading historian of the period is worth bearing in mind: “none of the information which [Tabari] presents should be accepted unless it receives some corroboration from independent sources of provable worth” (Howard-Johnston (2006), p. 172).
12 This process began under Peroz’s father, Yazdegird II.
13 This is the so-called “Alexander’s Wall.” In fact, as recent archaeological surveys have demonstrated, it had nothing to do with Alexander. Dated as it has been to a period in the fifth century or early sixth century, its association with Peroz appears, if not certain, then highly probable. See Rekavandi et al.
14 Agathias: 4.27.3.
15 Letter of Tansar, p. 64.
16 In point of fact, only three of the “Seven Houses”—including the Karin—are attested to in pre-Sasanian sources, but others are mentioned in inscriptions dating from the early Sasanian period, implying that they must have held prominent positions under the previous regime. It is always possible, of course, that some of the families may have fabricated the antiquity of their lineages. See Christensen (1944), pp. 98–103.
17 Theophylact Simocatta: 3.18.7.
18 Elishe, p. 167.
19 For a detailed explication of the relationship between the Persian monarchy and the dynasts of Parthia, see the ground-breaking work of Parvaneh Pourshariati. Whereas once the Sasanian state was seen as the very model of a centralised autocracy, scholars now increasingly emphasise its character as a confederacy: yet another paradigm shift, to go along with all the others that are currently revolutionising the study of late antiquity.
20 Elishe, p. 242.
21 According to Procopius, this was “Gorgo,” “located just beyond the Persian frontier, and frequently fought over as a result” (1.3.2). No archaeological traces of such a city have been found, and it seems improbable that the region could have supported any major settlement. Presumably, then, “Gorgo” was a tent city, of the kind common on the steppes. I am grateful to Eberhard Sauer, the excavator of the Gurgan Wall, for a discussion on this point.
22 Heliodorus: 9.15.1.
23 Ibid.: 9.15.5.
24 Ibid.: 9.15.3.
25 Procopius: History of the Wars, 1.4.
26 Joshua the Stylite, p. 11.
27 It is suggested in the Cambridge History of Iran (p. 403) that the details preserved by later Iranian historians of raids on the mythical Kayanid realm were modelled on actual events that took place in the aftermath of Peroz’s defeat: yet another example of how late antiquity can sometimes resemble a hall of mirrors.
28 Strabo: 15.3.15. The description dates from the first century BC, but corresponds to the physical remains of fire temples from the Sasanian period: a reflection of the ancient roots of Zoroastrian practice.
29 Lazar P’arpec’i, p. 213.
30 An alternative theory places this fire temple even further north. See Boyce, “Adur Burzen-Mihr.”
31 Greater Bundahishn: 18.8.
32 Yasna: 30.3.
33 Ibid.: 29.8.
34 Agathias: 2.26.3.
35 Ibn Miskawayh, p. 102. The phrase is attributed to the supposed will of Ardashir, a document faked in the fifth or sixth century, and then preserved in Arabic.
36 Letter of Tansar, pp. 33–4. The realisation that such a statement was an aspiration rather than a statement of fact has been one of the great breakthroughs in contemporary Sasanian studies. As Pourshariati (2008, p. 326) has aptly warned, “In assessing church–state relations, it is prudent to remember that the history of the Zoroastrian church as a monarchy-independent, hierarchically organised church dates only to the 5th C AD.”
37 From the Denkard, a Zoroastrian text that dates from a few decades after the reign of Peroz. Quoted in the Cambridge History of Iran, p. 894.
38 The exact date is uncertain, but it was some time in the late fifth or early sixth century—precisely the period when the Zoroastrian Church was coming into being. See Kellens, p. 1.
39 Yasht: 13.100.
40 Lazar P’arpec’i, p. 213.
41 Mihr Yasht: 102–3.
42 Ibid.: 7.
43 Ibid.: 23.
44 Ibid.: 2.
45 Joshua the Stylite, p. 11.
46 Christensen (1925), p. 93, argues that Kavad was in his thirties when he ascended the throne, but the majority of sources contradict this. The likelihood is that he was either fifteen or twelve when he became king. See Crone (1991), p. 41.
47 Tabari: Vol. 5, p. 117. The stories of Sukhra’s heroism that have been preserved in Arab histories must ultimately derive from traditions propagated by the Karin.
48 See Pourshariati, p. 380.
49 Did this mean that the Parthian traditions of Mihr worship were so unacceptable to the standards of Zoroastrian orthodoxy as to constitute a rival school of religion? The question has provoked intense disagreement among Iranists. The late Mary Boyce, doyenne of Zoroastrian studies, argued that Mihr always ranked as a god subordinate to Ohrmazd, even in Parthia; but more recent scholarship has questioned this. See Pourshariati, pp. 350–68.
50 For the history, and the rewriting of the history, of the three sacred fires, see the respective essays by Boyce. The likelihood that the Median temple, the Fire of the Stallion, was built as late as the fifth century is particularly striking. As Boyce points out, “no clearly datable objects have been found in the ruins earlier than the reign of Peroz.”
51 Tabari: Vol. 5, p. 132.
52 Letter of Tansar, p. 40.
53 Quoted from a multiplicity of sources by Crone (1991), p. 23.
54 Ibid.
55 For the apocalyptic strain in fifth-century Iran, see Yarshater, p. 996.
56 Tabari: Vol. 5, p.132.
57 The best introduction to Mazdakism is Yarshater’s essay in the Cambridge History of Iran. He traces the origin of the movement all the way back to the third century AD. Crone (1991), in a typically bracing article, argues that the dating of Mazdak’s career to the reign of Kavad, which all the sources agree upon, is wrong, and should be placed several decades later. For criticisms of this theory, see Zeev Rubin (1995), p. 230, n. 11. For the argument that Mazdak never so much as existed, see Gaube.
58 Procopius: History of the Wars, 1.6.
59 Ibid.: 1.5.
60 Procopius: On Buildings, 1.1.12.
61 From The Book of the Deeds of Ardashir, quoted by Stoneman, p. 41.
62 Ibid.: p. 42.
63 Herodian: 6.2.2.
64 Ammianus: 22.12.2.
65 See Robert Adams, pp. 179–83, who estimates that the population of Mesopotamia grew by 37 per cent over the course of the Sasanian period.
66 Ammianus: 24.8.3.
67 Procopius: On Buildings, 3.3.10.
68 Joshua the Stylite: p. 1.
69 “Aspebedes” was almost certainly not his proper name, but a transliteration into Greek of his official title: the Spahbed, or “Generalissimo,” of the West. If this is the same Spahbed who took part in Kavad’s attack on Amida in 503, then “Aspebedes” was actually called Bawi. (See Joshua the Stylite, p. 76.)
70 Procopius: History of the Wars, 1.11.
71 Letter of Tansar, p. 43. Although ostensibly written during the reign of Ardashir, the identification of the events described with the Mazdakite revolt is almost universally accepted.
72 Ibid.: p. 38.
73 Ammianus: 24.6.3.
74 Theophanes, p. 26. The description is of Khusrow II’s gardens at Dastagerd, but would certainly have been applicable to the great park of Ctesiphon.
75 Ibid.
76 Genesis: 2.8.
77 Daniel: 7.3. The Book of Daniel is conventionally dated to the mid-second century BC, some four hundred years after Daniel himself is supposed to have lived.
78 Ibid.: 7.18.
79 Cassius Dio: 68.30.
80 Jeremiah: 51.7.
81 Ibid.: 51.37.
82 Procopius: History of the Wars, 2.13.13.
83 For the identification of the Harranian rituals as described by Christian and Muslim sources with the akitu festival, see Green, pp. 156–7.
84 Letter of Jeremiah: 72.
85 Berosus, pp. 20–1.
86 Ammianus: 23.6.25.
87 Genesis: 11.28. Muslim and some Jewish traditions identify Ur with Urfa, the ancient city of Edessa, not far from Harran. There seems to be some support for this attribution in the fact that Abraham received his first revelation from God not in Ur but in “Haran”—which was almost certainly Harran. However, most scholars agree that the Ur mentioned in Genesis was the ancient city of the same name in Chaldaea, in the south of Mesopotamia. This had its final flourishing as a major cultural centre during the first half of the sixth century BC, under the Babylonian monarchy—precisely the period when the Judaeans were in exile in Babylon and the Book of Genesis was reaching its final form. Therefore, the exiles’ desire to link their ancestor to a sophisticated place of origin probably explains the association of Abraham with a city that is specifically described in Genesis (11.28) as “Ur of the Chaldaeans.” Of course, this strongly implies that Abraham himself was a mythical, rather than a historical, figure—which, by and large, is the current scholarly consensus. It is perhaps not entirely coincidental that doubts about the historicity of Abraham entered the academic mainstream in the 1970s—precisely when scepticism about what Muslim tradition had to say about the origins of Islam was also gaining currency in scholarly circles.
88 Ibid.: 12.1–2.
89 Ibid.: 17.8.
90 Ibid.: 17.5.
91 Letter of Tansar, p. 64. The reference is to Persia itself, but the market place of Persia lay in Ctesiphon, not Iran.
92 Genesis: 17. 9–10.
93 Exodus: 20.4.
94 b. Berachoth 8b. Quotations from the Talmud are often prefaced by one of two letters—“b” and “y”—which indicate whether they derive from the “Bavli,” or Babylonian Talmud, or the “Yerushalmi,” or Palestinian Talmud.
95 b. Avodah Zarah 16a.
96 Denkard: 3.229. Though composed in the early ninth century, the material that this source incorporates mostly dates from the Sasanian period.
97 Elishe: p. 63.
98 Elishe: p. 63.
99 There is a late and fantastical tradition that narrates the rise to power of one last exilarch—Mar Zutra. He supposedly exploited the chaos unleashed by the Mazdakite revolt to carve out an independent Jewish state before being toppled by Kavad and crucified on a bridge in Ctesiphon. For a long time, there was an “uncritical acceptance of the fabulous stories as literally true, factual historical accounts, though with the exclusion of the more miraculous of the miracles” (Neusner [1986], p. 98). As the leading contemporary historian of the Mesopotamian Jews has conclusively demonstrated, however, the evidence is patently “inadequate, indeed incredible” (ibid., p. 104).
100 b. Hullin 62b.
101 Nowhere are we specifically told this, but the enthusiasm with which Jews flocked to serve in Kavad’s armies is inexplicable unless we presume as much.
102 Eusebius: Preparation for the Gospel: 9.18. The phrase is a quotation from an otherwise largely vanished book named Concerning the Jews of Assyria, by a second-century BC Jewish historian named Eupolemus.
103 Such, at least, is the overwhelming scholarly consensus, which dates the start of the transcription of the Talmud to around AD 500.
104 Exodus Rabbah 15.21.
105 b. Sanhedrin 98a.
106 Genesis Rabbah 42.4.
107 b. Sanhedrin 36a. The rabbi was Jehuda ha-Nasi, who lived in the late second century AD.
108 b. Yevamot 20a.
109 b. Berakhot 58a.
110 b. Kethuboth 111b.
111 b. Shabbat 30b.
112 Numeri Rabbah 14.10.
113 See Marcel Simon, p. 196.
114 b. Gittin 57a. The references to Jesus in the Talmud are notoriously elliptical and enigmatic, and have traditionally—for understandable reasons—been skated over by both Christian and Jewish scholars. For a fascinating and persuasive survey, see the recent book by Peter Schäfer, who demonstrates how the “[mainly] Babylonian stories about Jesus and his family are deliberate and highly sophisticated counternarratives to the stories about Jesus’s life and death in the Gospels” (p. 8).
115 Numeri Rabbah 14.10.
116 Abodah Zara 2a.
3 New Rome
1 Propertius: 3.22.21.
2 The quotation comes from Athenaeus, 6.273A–275A.
3 Plutarch, Roman Questions: 61.
4 This process had begun long before the formal absorption of Greece into the Roman Empire, and seems initially to have drawn upon contacts between Rome and the Greek settlements in Italy. “The Greeks imposed the Trojan legend upon the West as a form of Hellenic cultural imperialism, only to see it appropriated by the westerner to define and convey a Roman cultural identity” (Gruen, p. 31).
5 Livy: 26.27.
6 Virgil: 6.852–3.
7 Aristides: 26.59 and 99.
8 Virgil: 6.792–3
9 Ibid.: 1.279.
10 Such, at any rate, is the claim made by our admittedly hostile Christian sources. It is possible that their accounts of the humiliations inflicted upon Valerian reflect a measure of wishful thinking.
11 Cicero: 17.
12 Optatianus Porphyrius, Carmen: 4, line 6. The poem was composed to celebrate the founding of Constantinople, and clearly suggests that the new city’s status as a rival to Rome was manifest from the very beginning.
13 Eusebius, Life of Constantine: 3.54.
14 The earliest reference to this tradition can be dated to the fifth century AD. See Sozomen: 2.3.2.
15 See Fowden (1991) for a much earlier source which implies that the porphyry actually came from Rome.
16 Chronicon Paschale, p. 16.
17 Zosimus: 1.58.4.
18 Procopius: History of the Wars, 1.11.9.
19 Procopius: On Buildings, 1.5.10.
20 Zosimus: 2.35.2.
21 Corippus: 3.244.
22 The Oracle of Baalbek, line 166.
23 Procopius: The Secret History, 14.2.
24 Ibid.: On Buildings, 2.6.6.
25 This derives from Procopius (The Secret History, 30.21–3), who was admittedly almost rabid in his undercover hostility to Justinian. Nevertheless, even if some of the details of the changes to court ceremonial may have been exaggerated, the drift towards ever-greater formality is irrefutable.
26 Procopius: The Secret History, 8.27.
27 Ibid.: 8.24.
28 Novels 43, prologue.
29 Novels 98: 16 December 539.
30 Cicero, On the Orator: 1.197.
31 Novels 111.
32 CJ Constt. Summa, preface.
33 The notion that the emperor constituted the law dated back at least to the fourth century AD.
34 John Lydus: 3.44.
35 A decree of Theodosius II (r. 408–50), quoted by Kelly, p. 187.
36 Procopius: The Secret History, 7.10.
37 Even the lowest figure we have, Procopius’s estimate of thirty thousand, is staggering. All ancient historians exaggerated battle casualties, but the massacre in the Hippodrome undoubtedly resulted in a prodigious death toll.
38 John Lydus: 3.70.
39 Novels 72: 538.
40 Procopius: 1.14.52.
41 Ibid.: On Buildings, 2.1.11.
42 Whether Procopius exaggerated the scale of Justinian’s contributions to the fortifications of Dara is a moot point. See Croke and Crow.
43 Isaiah: 40.15.
44 Ibid.: 40.17.
45 Genesis: 22.18.
46 Tractate Paschale 8. The rabbi himself, Eleazar ben Pedat, was born in the Holy Land.
47 “Ambrosiaster,” a commentator on St. Paul’s letters who was long mistaken for St. Ambrose. Quoted by Cohen, p. 159.
48 I am indebted to Shahrokh Razmjou for alerting me to this.
49 b. Kiddushin 70b.
50 Galatians: 3.28.
51 Ibid.: 3.25–6.
52 The first known use of the phrase “Old Testament” occurred in the writings of Melito of Sardis (c. AD 180), and that of the “New Testament” in Irenaeus’s Against Heresies (4.91), from around the same time.
53 Gospel of St. John: 14.6.
54 Gospel of St. Matthew: 28.19. See also 2 Corinthians: 13.13.
55 Acts: 2.2.
56 1 Corinthians: 12.13.
57 “Letter to Diognetus” (a): 5.
58 Ignatius, “Letter to the Ephesians”: 6.
59 Gospel of St. Matthew: 19.21.
60 Ibid.: 7.15.
61 Tertullian, The Prescription Against the Heretics: 21.
62 Ibid.
63 Romans: 15.19.
64 Gospel of St. Matthew: 5.18.
65 Tertullian, Against Praxeas: 2.
66 Irenaeus, Against Heresies: 1.8.1.
67 For the value placed on eyewitness accounts by both early Christian writers and classical historians, and the concurrent suspicion of written evidence, see Alexander (1990) and Byrskog. Unfortunately, the question of whether the canonical gospels do indeed preserve eyewitness accounts is not one that can be tackled in a single footnote.
68 See, for instance, the Gospel of Thomas, a number of Infancy Gospels, and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew—the same text which features Christ’s conversation with His mother from the womb. In some of these gospels, Christ makes the birds come to life, not to amuse His friends, but to demonstrate to a killjoy Jew that it is permissible to work clay on the Sabbath.
69 See Origen: 1.1. No trace of the Gospel of Basilides has survived, however, so we are entirely dependent upon the reports of his enemies for a sense of what might have been contained within it.
70 Irenaeus, Against Heresies: 1.24.4.
71 Origen: 1.1.
72 Clement of Alexandria: Stromateis 7.106.4.
73 Justin Martyr: 47.
74 t. Hul. 2.24.
75 Gospel of St. John: 3.7.
76 Alan Segal (p. 1) gives the metaphor a more biblical colouring: “Like Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca, the two religions fought in the womb.” See also, for a more radical phrasing of the same metaphor, Boyarin (2004, p. 5): “Judaism is not the ‘mother’ of Christianity; they are twins, joined at the hip.” As with so many other aspects of the history of ancient religion, the question of when Judaism and Christianity “parted ways” has been revolutionised over the past few decades. In the words of Carleton Paget, this constitutes “the most significant recent development in the discussion of Jewish–Christian relations” (p. 18). Carleton Paget’s is the best, most nuanced overview of recent scholarship (pp. 1–39).
77 Bardaisan, p. 49.
78 Evidence for this can be adduced from a site such as Sardis, in what is now western Turkey, where a synagogue built around AD 400 adjoined a colonnade that contained shops owned by a healthy mix of Christians and Jews. If this was the state of affairs in what was, by then, a Christian empire, then something similar almost certainly prevailed in third- and fourth-century Mesopotamia. See the essay by Rutgers.
79 See Becker, p. 380.
80 See Rouwhorst, pp. 81–2.
81 See Weitzman. Others argue that the translation was made by Jews who had already been baptised.
82 Eusebius, History of the Church: 3.27. Paul did not, in fact, advocate the abandonment of the Torah by Jewish converts, but that was rarely appreciated, either by the Gentile Christians who so admired him or by the Jewish Christians who often regarded him with deep suspicion.
83 From an inscription on a Persian curse bowl, quoted by Levene, p. 290.
84 Ignatius, “The Letter to the Magnesians”: 10.3.
85 The city was briefly lost to Ardashir in 241, but it was recaptured a couple of years later.
86 b. Gittin 55b. The rabbi was Rabbi Meir.
87 Kohelet Rabba 10.5.
88 Acts: 19.26.
89 Such, at any rate, is the tradition. It is probably true.
90 Eusebius, History of the Church: 5.1.
91 An alternative theory derived the word religio from relegere—“to write or reflect upon over and over again.” Whatever the derivation, religio itself signified practice, rather than belief.
92 The emperor was Galerius, in a decree of 311, quoted by Lactantius: 34.1.
93 From an inscription by one Demeas, who, in his own words, tore down “the deceitful likeness of the demon Artemis.” Quoted by Foss (1979), p. 32.
94 Jacob of Serugh, quoted by Griffith (2008), p. 123.
95 Daniel: 7.7.
96 Ibid.: 7.19.
97 Lactantius: 44.5.
98 Daniel: 7.11.
99 Isidore of Pelusium, p. 217.
100 Theodosian Code: 16.2.16.
101 Eusebius, Life of Constantine: 1.28.
102 Ibid.: 2.12.
103 Ignatius, “The Letter to the Magnesians”: 10.1. See also “The Letter to the Philadelphians,” 6.1.
104 From a letter written by Constantine jointly to Arius and his bishop. It is quoted by Eusebius in his Life of Constantine: 2.71.
105 Eusebius, Life of Constantine: 3.10.
106 As so often with Christian neologisms, Tertullian seems to have been the first to use the word religio in a way analogous to our word “religion.” See Sachot, pp. 111–16.
107 Lactantius, Divine Institutes: 4.28.
108 Theodosian Code: 16.10.12.
109 Socrates Scholasticus: 7.29.
110 Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum: Vol. 2, p. 149.
111 The phrase was added in the 470s, by the Patriarch of Antioch, to the formula “Holy Powerful One, Holy Deathless One.” See Brown (2003), p. 119.
112 Barhadbeshabba of Holwan, p. 605.
113 John Malalas, p. 228.
114 Procopius: History of the Wars, 1.24. Opinions on the veracity of the episode vary widely.
115 Procopius: Secret History, 2.9.
116 John Lydus: 3.69.
117 Procopius: On Buildings, 1.10. The mosaic was part of the renovations to the Chalke that were required after the Hippodrome riots.
118 Ibid.: 2.6.
119 Theodosian Code: 16.10.22.
120 Procopius: Secret History, 2.13.
121 The exact chronology is obscure. See Watts, pp. 128–39.
122 Agathias: 2.31.4.
123 For the theory that the philosophers may have settled in Harran, see Athanassiadi (1993). As she has subsequently acknowledged, however, the theory remains controversial (1999, pp. 51–3).
124 1 Corinthians: 1.20.
125 It is Athanassiadi (1999, pp. 342–7) who argues (convincingly) that a bishop took up residence in this villa.
126 Paul the Silentiary: 489.
127 Procopius: On Buildings, 1.27.
128 Ibid.: 1.30.
4 The Children of Abraham
1 Paul the Silentiary: 144.
2 Sayings of the Desert Fathers: Joseph of Panephysis, p. 103.
3 Wisdom of the Desert Fathers, p. 3.
4 Life of Sabbas: 8.92, in Three Byzantine Saints.
5 Lucian, De Dea Syria: 28, quoted by Frankfurter, p. 178.
6 Life of Symeon the Younger: 11.
7 Ibid.: 40.
8 Ibid.: Prologue.
9 Ibid.: 199.
10 Ibid.: 115.
11 Life of Daniel Stylites: 54, in Three Byzantine Saints.
12 Genesis: 32.24–30.
13 Exodus: 1.7.
14 Ibid.: 1.14.
15 Ibid.: 3.2.
16 Ibid.: 3.7–8.
17 Egeria, p. 8.
18 Procopius: On Buildings, 8.9.
19 Exodus: 19.16.
20 Deuteronomy: 34.10.
21 Quoted by Sivan (2008), p. 68.
22 Jerome, Letters: 58.3.
23 Ibid.: 46.2.
24 Life of Daniel Stylites: 10, in Three Byzantine Saints.
25 A sixth-century pilgrim, quoted by Sivan (2008), p. 70.
26 Jerome, Letters: 46.13.
27 From a letter written by two monks to the Emperor Anastasius, quoted by Wilken, pp. 168–9.
28 Procopius: On Buildings, 5.6.
29 Micah: 3.12. For the evolution of the phrase “Temple Mount,” see Goodblatt, pp. 193–203.
30 Although the anecdote is suspiciously late: from the eighth or ninth century.
31 Jerome, On Zephaniah: 1.16.
32 Tanhuma to Leviticus (Qedoshim 10).
33 b. Yoma, 54b.
34 Ammianus Marcellinus: 23.1.
35 From a sixth-century Jewish hymn, quoted by Weinberger, p. 34.
36 b. Gittin 62a.
37 The estimate is Avi-Yonah’s, p. 241. Others regard the figure as over-optimistic.
38 Jerome, On Isaiah: 48.17.
39 A combination of carbon-dating and circumstantial evidence points to the first decade of Justinian’s reign.
40 Quoted by Meyers, p. 353.
41 Ibid.: 5.
42 Procopius: On Buildings, 5.9. Procopius does not mention the church: for evidence of that, we are dependent exclusively upon archaeology.
43 See Ab Isda of Tyre (quoted in Crown, p. 457), for the classic formulation. The phrase is at least as old as the fourth century AD: archaeologists on Mount Gerizim have found it on a large number of inscriptions. See Sivan (2008), p. 119.
44 Quoted in Crown, Pummer and Tal, p. 161.
45 For the possible influence of Samaritan notions of “submission” to God on early Islam, see Crone and Cook, p. 19 and Crown, Pummer and Tal, p. 21.
46 Specifically, Rabbis Judah bar Pazzi and Rabbi Ammi. See p. Abodah Zarah 5.4. (III.a).
47 Abu l-Fath, p. 241.
48 Procopius: On Buildings, 5.7.
49 John Malalas: 446.
50 Procopius: Secret History, 11.
51 Genesis: 19.28.
52 Cyril of Jerusalem, “Prologue to the Catechetical Letters”: 10. At the time he delivered this lecture, Cyril was still two or three years away from becoming bishop.
53 Ibid., “Catechetical Lecture”: 4.36.
54 Theodoret, Compendium of Heretical Fables: p. 390.
55 Jerome, Letters: 112.12. It is only fair to point out that no rabbi would have disagreed.
56 Jerome, In Esaiam: 40.9, quoted by de Blois (2002), p. 15.
57 Epiphanius: 30.1.3.
58 Ibid.: 30.1.2.
59 For the strong likelihood that there were villages of Christian Jews on the Golan, see Joan Taylor, pp. 39–41. A broader issue is the degree to which we can trust the evidence for the survival of a recognisably Jewish form of Christianity into the sixth and seventh centuries. A seminal essay by Pines in 1968, arguing that there was evidence from as late as the tenth century, generated much controversy, but in the words of Gager (p. 365), it has been “largely vindicated, though with certain modifications.”
60 Quoted by Strugnell, p. 258, from a letter written by the Nestorian patriarch Timothy I in 786. As the remainder of Strugnell’s article demonstrates, there is incontrovertible evidence from Syriac manuscripts of even earlier discoveries of what have become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. That Jews in the Middle Ages were also familiar with one of them, at least—the so-called “Damascus Document”—is evident from the discovery in the late nineteenth century of two copies of the “Damascus Document” in the Jewish quarter of Cairo.
61 Sozomen: 2.4.
62 Josephus: 4.533.
63 Genesis: 19.27.
64 From a letter of Constantine to the bishops of Palestine, quoted by Eusebius in his Life of Constantine: 3.53. The identification of the three angels who visited Abraham with the constituent parts of the Trinity had first been made in the second century.
65 The opinion of a late sixth-century Christian who lived in Mesopotamia. Quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 25.
66 Sargon II, the King of Assyria. Quoted by Hoyland (2001), p. 96.
67 Ammianus: 14.4.4. For the blood-drinking, see Ammianus: 31.16.5–7. Greek and Roman writers never missed an opportunity to cast barbarians as cannibals.
68 Ibid.: 14.4.1.
69 From “al-Murqqish al-Akbar,” in Alan Jones (1996, Vol. 1), p. 112.
70 Abid ibn al-Abras, quoted by Hoyland (2001), pp. 121–2.
71 For the argument that the Thamud were indeed a confederation, and not, as is sometimes assumed, merely a tribe, see Bowersock (1983), pp. 97–8, and Graf and O’Connor, pp. 65–6.
72 The word features on a second-century AD temple at Ruwwafa, a remote site in western Arabia, where there is an inscription written in both Greek and Nabataean. See Milik for the translation of shirkat as “confederation.”
73 The derivation has only recently been recognised, courtesy of new epigraphic evidence. See Graf and O’Connor.
74 Joshua the Stylite, p. 79.
75 Or at least it is “practically certain” this is what it meant. See Shahid (1989), p. 213.
76 Quoted in the Cambridge History of Iran, p. 597.
77 Cyril of Scythopolis: 24.
78 The Arabic word seems to have derived from a Greek form of the original Latin. See Jeffrey, p. 196.
79 Procopius: History of the Wars, 1.17.
80 It is possible that the visit to Constantinople took place after the formal appointment of Arethas as king. See Shahid (1989), pp. 103–9.
81 Procopius: History of the Wars, 1.22.
82 From a report by Nonnosus, a Roman diplomat whose father and grandfather had both served as ambassadors to various Arab chieftains, and who himself was sent by Justinian on a mission to Ethiopia and the central and southern reaches of Arabia. What Gibbon describes as “a curious extract” from his memoirs was preserved by Photius, a ninth-century Patriarch of Constantinople, in his Biblioteka. The precise location of the shrine mentioned by Nonnosus is unknown, but the specifications that he does give, although frustratingly vague, make it clear enough that it was not Mecca, but somewhere in northern Arabia. See Crone (1987a), p. 197, n. 127.
83 Dushara was the Greek form of the god who was known by the Nabataeans as Dhu l-Shara and by the Lakhmids as Ashara. See Ryckmans, p. 246.
84 Diodorus Siculus: 3.42.
85 A temple in the Jabal Qatuta, near Marib, is the best example of this.
86 For Epiphanius’s confusion over ka’iba and ka’ba, see Sourdel, p. 67.
87 Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History: 26.13.
88 From ibid., The Cure of Greek Maladies: Vol. 1, p. 250.
89 Genesis: 16.12.
90 However, the Bible does not equate the Children of Ishmael with the Arabs. For an account of how the two came to be seen as synonymous, see the essays by Eph’al and Millar.
91 From The Life of Simeon Priscus, quoted by Shahid (1989), p. 154.
92 Genesis: 21.21.
93 For the “highly unusual frequency of occurrence of the name Abraham in the sixth-century Negev,” see Nevo and Koren, p. 189.
94 Sozomen: 6.38.
95 Ibid.
96 Ibid. For the evidence of a Jewish presence in north Arabia during the Roman period, see Hoyland (1995), p. 93.
97 The title was also applied to the Christian God in the wake of Yusuf’s defeat. See Nebes, pp. 37–8.
5 Countdown to Apocalypse
1 Cosmas Indicopleustes, p. 113.
2 Sidonius Apollinaris: Vol. 1, p. 41.
3 Sigismund of Burgundy, quoted by Harris, p. 33.
4 For the likely derivation of the word “Ostrogoth,” see Wolfram, p. 25.
5 As Ward-Perkins (p. 73) points out, “there is not even a word in the Latin language for ‘moustache.’ ”
6 For the commemoration of Ulfilas as Moses, see Amory, p. 241.
7 Quoted by O’Donnell (2008), p. 131.
8 Quoted by Brown (2003), p. 103.
9 Codex Justinianus: 27.1.1.
10 Procopius: History of the Wars, 4.9.12.
11 Ibid.: 5.14.14.
12 Ibid.: 6.
13 Ibid.: 2.2.6.
14 Menander the Guardsman: fragment 6.1.
15 John of Ephesus (as he is known, although in fact he was called Yuhannan, and came from Amida, not Ephesus), p. 83.
16 Joshua the Stylite, p. 29.
17 Jerome: Letters, 130.7.
18 Ibid., Commentary on Ezekiel: 8.225.
19 Ammianus Marcellinus: 22.9.14.
20 Life of Symeon the Younger: 57.
21 Novella 30.11.2.
22 John of Ephesus, p. 77.
23 Although only one source, and a late one at that, explicitly states that Alexander was instructed by the oracle to found Alexandria, the circumstantial evidence is strong. See Welles.
24 Ammianus Marcellinus: 16.15.
25 A formula often used by Christians in Alexandria. Cited by Haas, p. 130.
26 Isidore of Pelusium, quoted by Haas, p. 10.
27 Stephen of Herakleopolis: 10–11.
28 John of Nikiu: 92.7.
29 Expositio Totius Mundi et Gentium: lines 229–30.
30 Joshua the Stylite: 26.
31 John of Ephesus, pp. 74–5.
32 Procopius: History of the Wars, 2.23.4.
33 John of Ephesus, p. 87.
34 Procopius: History of the Wars, 2.22.7.
35 A 2005 DNA study of two skeletons found in Germany conclusively proved that the pestilence of the 540s was caused by Yersinia pestis. In the words of the scientists who conducted it: “The identification of Y. pestis–specific DNA sequences in these two skeletons, buried in the second half of the 6th century AD, constitutes molecularly supported evidence for the presence of Y. pestis, the causative agent of plague, during the first pandemic recorded” (Wiechmann and Grupe, p. 48). It is worth noting that the prevalence of plague during the winter as well as the summer months and the description in contemporary accounts of some of the symptoms suggest that one of the strains might have been pneumonic, the most deadly and infectious of all.
36 John of Ephesus, p. 75.
37 Procopius: History of the Wars, 2.22.9.
38 Ibid.: 2.23.18.
39 Ibid.: 2.22.1.
40 John of Ephesus, p. 95.
41 Paul the Deacon: 2.4. This passage refers to an outbreak of plague in Italy in 565.
42 John of Ephesus, p. 102.
43 Michael Morony (in Little, p. 73) suggests that a mortality rate of a third is “realistic and believable.” Following an influential article by Jean Durliat, estimates of the total death toll were reduced downwards throughout the nineties, but recent DNA studies have reversed that trend. We now know that the sixth-century pestilence was humanity’s first experience of bubonic plague, so it is probable—indeed, almost certain—that its impact (upon a population that had no immunity whatsoever) was even greater than that of the Black Death in the fourteenth century. Historians are still in the process of making their calculations in light of this.
44 Procopius: History of the Wars, 2.23.10.
45 Procopius: The Secret History, 13.28.
46 Ibid.: 18.29.
47 Ibid.: 18.30.
48 Ibid.: 12.27.
49 For a fascinating analysis of how admirers and opponents of Justinian both put their spin on the selfsame policies of the emperor, see Scott.
50 Procopius: The Secret History, 12.26.
51 Gospel of St. Matthew: 24.27.
52 Ibid.: 24.7. Some versions omit the Greek word loimoi—“pestilences”—but this seems to have been due to confusion because of its proximity to the very similar word for “famines”—lomoi. The similarity of Matthew 24.7 to Luke 21.11 makes it clear that “pestilences” were always on the agenda.
53 Evagrius Scholasticus: 4.29.
54 See Keys for the argument that the proximity of this event to the first coming of the plague to Egypt may not have been coincidental.
55 Agathias: 5.11.6.
56 Ezekiel: 38.16.
57 Josephus: 7.7.4.
58 Jacob of Serugh, “Metrical Discourse upon Alexander”: line 544, in The History of Alexander the Great. The attribution of the poem to Jacob, who died in 521, is no longer generally accepted. The likeliest date of the poem is the early seventh century. See Stoneman, p. 177.
59 Ibid.: line 322.
60 Life of Theodore of Sykeon: 119, in Three Byzantine Saints.
61 Hassan ibn Thabit, quoted by Conrad (1994), p. 18, who argues convincingly for its authenticity.
62 Ibid., p. 18.
63 Procopius: History of the Wars, 2.27.12.
64 Sozomen: 2.4.
65 Quoted by Conrad (1994), p. 18.
66 From the vision of a monk in Egypt. Quoted by Kelly, p. 232.
67 This phenomenon was not unique to Arabia. As early as the second century AD, pagans across the Roman Empire were interpreting the gods of their various pantheons as the angels of one supreme deity, and by late antiquity this process had become near universal. For a useful survey, see Crone (2010), pp. 185–8.
68 Corippus, p. 108.
69 Hugh Kennedy, in a valuable essay on the impact of the plague on Syria, demonstrates that “the expansion of settlement that had characterised much of rural and urban Syria in the fifth and early sixth centuries came to an abrupt end after the middle of the sixth century” (Little, p. 95).
70 For the impact of the plague on agriculture in central and southern Syria, see Conrad (1994), p. 54.
71 John of Ephesus: p. 81, quoting Isaiah: 24.3.
72 Moses Dasxuranci: 2.11.
73 Menander: 16.1.13.
74 Tabari: Vol. 5, p. 295.
75 The sources for Bahram Chobin’s reign are mostly late and heavily mythologised, yet it appears that his rebellion did indeed embody messianic expectations. See the ground-breaking essay by Czeglédy, and further analysis of the episode by Pourshariati (2008), pp. 397–414.
76 Theophylact Simocatta: 3.1.10.
77 Evagrius Scholasticus: 3.41.
78 Fredegarius: 4.65.
79 The Life of Saint Theodore of Sykeon: 134, in Three Byzantine Saints.
80 Theophylact Simocatta: 4.8.
81 For the devastation caused across Anatolia by the Persians, see Foss (1975).
82 For the Mihranid ancestry of Shahrbaraz, see Gyselen, p. 11.
83 Daniel: 7.23.
84 Ibid.: 7.26.
85 From a piyyut, or liturgical poem, convincingly dated by Hagith Sivan (2000) to the period of the Persian occupation of Jerusalem, and quoted by her on p. 295.
86 According to one—later—source (Sebeos, p. 72), the authorities in Jerusalem did negotiate a surrender, but this was followed by rioting, a revolt and then the siege. Eyewitness accounts, however, insist that the city refused to submit from the start.
87 From a second piyyut, quoted by Sivan (2000), p. 289.
88 Daniel: 7.13–14.
89 George of Pisidia: 2.106–7.
90 The History of King Vaxt’ang Gorgasali, p. 234. The biblical passage paraphrases Daniel: 8.5–7.
91 Chronicon Paschale: 725.
92 Sebeos, 72.
93 Theophanes, p. 324.
94 See Kaegi (2003), p. 174.
95 Nikephoros: 15.
96 Ibid.: 17.
97 Theophanes, p. 328.
98 Maximos the Confessor, quoted by Laga, p. 187
99 Ibid., p. 186.
6 More Questions Than Answers
1 Daniel: 7.7.
2 Sebeos: 142.
3 From an anonymous anti-Christian pamphlet. Quoted by Sizgorich (2009), pp. 1–2.
4 For the evolution of the word “Muslim” from its original Qur’anic usage, see Donner (2010), pp. 57–8 and 71–2.
5 Qur’an: 47.4.
6 Ibid.: 4.133.
7 This suggestion has its roots in traditions that are even older than the first Muslim biographies of the Prophet. A Christian chronicler, Jacob of Edessa, for instance, writing at the end of the seventh century, referred to him as going “for trade to the lands of Palestine, Arabia and Syrian Phoenicia” (quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 165).
8 This has been most radically argued by Günter Lüling, who proposes that the Meccans were largely Christian, and that the original core of the Qur’an consisted of Christian hymns. For the suggestion that Jews had settled in Mecca, and powerfully influenced Muhammad, see Torrey.
9 Armstrong, p. 68. The thesis derives, via Montgomery Watt, from the Jesuit—and scabrously Islamophobic—scholar Henri Lammens.
10 Qur’an: 6.92. Muslim tradition takes for granted that the phrase refers to Mecca, but there is nothing in the Qur’an itself that would justify such a presumption. Adding to the general fog of mystery enveloping it is the fact that the phrase literally means the “Mother of Settlements.”
11 See Crone (1987a), p. 6, and for the implausibility of Mecca as a great trading hub, the entire book.
12 See Cosmas Indicopleustes.
13 Most striking of all is the absence of any mention of Mecca in Procopius, since in one passage of The History of the Wars (1.19), the historian provides a remarkably detailed survey of the western coast of Arabia. This is testimony to the range and depth of Roman knowledge of the peninsula, and to the seeming lack of any Meccan sphere of influence.
14 Qur’an: 48.24.
15 As Crone (1987a, p. 134) points out, the silence “is so striking that attempts have been made to remedy it.” For the forced nature of these attempts, see ibid., pp. 134–6.
16 The Byzantine-Arab Chronicle: 34. The dating of the Chronicle to 741 is based on its latest references, but Hoyland (1997, p. 426) suggests that it may well be truncated, and floats the possibility that it may actually date from 750.
17 See “The Letter of John of Sedreh,” the record of a discussion about holy texts held in 644 between the patriarch and an Arab emir, a full translation of which appears in Saadi. Although Saadi himself dates the document to the mid-seventh century, others place its composition in the early eighth century. If correct, the later dating makes the absence of any reference to the Qur’an even more striking. See Reinink (1993).
18 John of Damascus: 769B.
19 Qur’an: 24.2.
20 Quoted by Lester, p. 283.
21 A useful list of the earliest-known Qur’ans in existence—not all of which were found in Sana’a—is at http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Mss/.
22 Admittedly, Wansbrough—one of the principal proponents of this thesis—was typically tentative when he suggested that the Qur’an reached its final form only towards the end of the eighth century. Scholars of the calibre of Gerald Hawting and Andrew Rippin still argue that it took decades, at least, for the holy text to reach anything like its final form.
23 Qur’an: 3.7.
24 Ibid.: 111.3. The punishment is a pun on Abu Lahab’s name, which means “Man of Flame” in Arabic.
25 Ibid.: 50.16.
26 For a detailed and intellectually thrilling exposition of this point, see The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam by Gerald Hawting: a ground-breaking work that has resulted in a paradigm shift in the way that scholars understand the role of the Mushrikun in the Qur’an.
27 Qur’an: 43.19.
28 Ibid.: 10.66.
29 Ibid.: 7.74.
30 Ibid.: 30.1.
31 Ibid.: 18.83.
32 For the dating and political context of the Syriac story of Alexander, see Reinink (1985 and 2002).
33 “A Christian Legend Concerning Alexander”: 146, in The History of Alexander the Great.
34 For a detailed analysis of the strikingly precise correspondences between the two stories, see Van Bladel, pp. 180–3. As he conclusively demonstrates, “they relate the same story in precisely the same order of events using many of the same particular details” (p. 182).
35 Qur’an: 82.1–5.
36 Ibid.: 30.56. It is telling, perhaps, that the phrase appears as the conclusion to the sura which opens with God’s prophecy that the Romans will emerge victorious in their war against the Persians.
37 Ibid.: 7.34.
38 Ibid.: 18.26.
39 Ibid.: 18.13.
40 The Qur’an refers to them as al-Majus, or Magians (22.17): the word applied by the Greeks to Persian priests since the time of Cyrus.
41 Qur’an: 4.136.
42 Ibid.: 3.3.
43 Justinian Code: 1.5.12 (summer 527).
44 Qur’an: 9.29. The precise meaning of this verse is notoriously problematic. For a sample of the various attempts to make sense of it, see Ibn Warraq (2002), pp. 319–86.
45 Qur’an: 5.82 and 9.34.
46 Ibid.: 5.47.
47 Ibid.: 5.116.
48 Ibid.: 4.157.
49 Ibid.: 85.4.
50 Irfan Shahid, the leading expert on the martyrs of Najran, is studiedly agnostic about the possibility: see (1971), p. 193.
51 See, for instance, Bishop and especially Philonenko.
52 Qur’an: 6.59.
53 Ibid.: 87.18–19.
54 Ibid.: 52.24. Not surprisingly, this verse has always featured prominently in the Muslim homoerotic tradition.
55 Ibid.: 44.54.
56 For more on this, and other parallels between the Greek and Qur’anic notions of paradise, see the brilliant online article by Saleh. As he points out (p. 54)—albeit possibly with tongue in cheek—the very word used in the Qur’an to signify the heavenly maidens—hur—has an echo of Hera’s name.
57 According to much later Muslim sources, Mani’s followers actually termed him “the Seal of the Prophets”—but this is most likely to have been a backward projection. Manichaeans did use the word “seal” to refer to Mani—but implying “confirmation” rather than “terminus.” See Stroumsa (1986b).
58 Quoted by Lieu, p. 86.
59 The words are supposedly those of Mani himself. Quoted by Boyce (1975b), p. 29. Manichaeism had reached North Africa within a few decades of Mani’s death, and China by the mid-sixth century.
60 See de Blois (1995).
61 From an imperial edict of either 297 or 302. Quoted by Dignas and Winter, p. 217
62 Synodicon Orientale, p. 255.
63 Al-Aswad bin Ya’fur, in Alan Jones (1996, Vol. 1), p. 148.
64 Qur’an: 53.19–21.
65 All but one of the mentions of idols in the Qur’an feature in the context of its retelling of biblical stories. The one allusion to contemporary “idolatrous beliefs” (22.30) seems to refer to blood spilled on sacrificial altars, rather than idols per se. See Crone (2010), pp. 170–2.
66 Qur’an: 53.27.
67 See, for instance, his letter to the Colossians: 2.18.
68 Canon 35 of the Council of Laodicea.
69 Crone (2010), p. 171.
70 Qur’an: 4.119, 6.138 and 6.121, respectively.
71 Ibid.: 4.121.
72 Qur’an: 6.99. Mecca, in the laconic phrase of Donner (1981), “is located in an area ill suited to agriculture” (p. 15).
73 Ibid.: 56.63–4.
74 The poem is exceedingly obscure. A commentary by a later Muslim commentator sought to explain its meaning: “Badr and Kutayfah are two places, the distance between which is vast. It is as though they have come together due to the speed of this camel.” Poem and commentary alike appear in Six Early Arab Poets, p. 95. My thanks to Salam Rassi for the translation.
75 Qur’an: 3.97.
76 Khuzistan Chronicle: 38 (translation by Salam Rassi). The authorship is dated to the 660s.
77 Qur’an: 3.96.
78 Qur’an: 3.97. The Arabic for “place” in this verse is maqam.
79 Ibid.: 2.125.
80 For the difficulty of squaring the Qur’anic accounts of the Maqam Ibrahim with the stone of the same name in Mecca, see Hawting (1982)—an essay to which this chapter is hugely indebted. Although Hawting himself does not allude to the sanctuary at Mamre, he cites an intriguing Muslim tradition in which Abraham is guided to the House at Bakka by three heavenly beings. As Hawting points out (p. 41), “this is reminiscent of Abraham’s three visitors in the Genesis story, one of whom could be identified with the Lord before whom Abraham ministered in the maqom”—which took place, of course, at Mamre.
81 Qur’an: 37.133–8.
82 See Chapter 4, n. 90, above.
83 Qur’an: 2.128.
84 The Quraysh, along with Mecca, Muhammad and someone called Majid, are mentioned in the final line of the papyrus fragment that also name-checks the Battle of Badr for the first time. Its editor dated this fragment to the mid-eighth century (Grohmann (1963), text 71). A group of people called the Qrshtn are mentioned in a south Arabian inscription dating from the AD 270s, and some scholars have interpreted this as a possible allusion to Qurayshi women. However, that theory is most implausible, because the Qrshtn seem to be ambassadors on a trade mission.
85 This is mentioned by a ninth-century historian named Ibn Qutayba, and is quoted by Shahid (1989), p. 356. It is indicative of an enduring ambiguity in the Muslim sources that Qusayy, although supposedly born in Mecca, is described as having been settled on the Palestinian frontier.
86 See Margoliouth, p. 313. It is telling that a theory floated by Muslim commentators suggests that “Quraysh” derived from the Arabic word taqarrush—“gathering”—another word that powerfully conveys a sense of foederati. The great scholar al-Azraqi wrote, “It is said that the Quraysh were so named on account of [their] gathering (tajammu) around Quşay … For in some dialects of the Arabs, tajammu (= meeting/gathering) is referred to as taqarrush” (p. 108; translation by Salam Rassi, to whom I am also indebted for the reference from Margoliouth).
87 See, for instance, Shahid (1995), p. 788, for the strong likelihood that Arethas could speak Syriac.
88 Qur’an: 10.61.
89 By and large, commentators on the Qur’an explained the summer and winter trips as being to Syria and Yemen, respectively. However, there was a raft of alternative explanations, too. See Crone (1987b), pp. 205–11.
90 Jacob of Edessa: 326.
91 Qur’an: 2.198.
92 Ibid.: 47.10.
93 Zukhruf, a word that is used to mean “ornamentation” in the Qur’an, has been plausibly derived from zograpsos—a Greek word meaning a “painter of shields.” See Shahid (1989), p. 507.
94 Qur’an: 1.6.
95 Ibid.: 6.25.
96 Ibid.: 8.31, 25.5 and 46.17, for instance.
97 Ibid.: 26.192–6. Muslim commentators invariably equated the phrase “the Trustworthy Spirit” with the angel Gabriel—but the Qur’an never actually states that the Prophet received his revelations from Gabriel. Indeed, to anyone familiar with the much later tradition that Muhammad was addressed by an angel over the course of his prophetic career, visions of light and supernatural voices are notable by their absence from the Qur’an. As Uri Rubin (1995) has argued, “the basic tale of Muhammad’s first revelations accords with biblical rather than quranic conventions, and the story was initially designed to meet apologetic needs” (p. 109).
98 Ibid.: 41.17.
99 Ibid.: 4.100.
100 Ibid.: 8.1–2.
101 Ibid.: 8.26.
102 Ibid.: 2.119.
103 Ibid.: 33.9.
104 For a tracing of its likely evolution, see Crone (1994).
105 Qur’an: 4.99.
106 As with virtually every aspect of the Arab invasions, precision is impossible. One source claims that the task force numbered three hundred, another that it amounted to five thousand.
107 It is typical of the murk of the sources for the Arab invasions that in one account he is named “Bryrdn.”
108 The unusually specific time and date derive from a notice in a Syrian chronicle written some time around the year 640, and which in turn seems to draw on a near-contemporary record. See Palmer, Brock and Hoyland, pp. 18–19.
109 Procopius: On Buildings, 2.9.4.
110 For the decayed state of towns in Syria and Palestine in the wake of the plague, see Kennedy (1985).
111 Sozomen: 6.38.
112 Anastasius of Sinai: 1156C.
113 As with the origins of the Qur’an, so with the course of the Arab conquests: the range of scholarly opinion is dizzying. Christian sources are contemporary, but too patchy to provide anything like a coherent narrative; Arabic sources are plentiful, but frustratingly late. The contradictory nature of the evidence from Arab historians for the Battle of the Yarmuk is best set out in Donner’s magisterial survey of the Islamic conquests (1981, pp. 133–48). However, even he comes across as a model of guarded optimism when compared to Lawrence Conrad, whose ground-breaking essay on the conquest of the obscure Levantine island of Arwad served as a landmine beneath the entire project of reconstructing the Arab invasions from Muslim sources. For the most recent attempt to clear up the mess, see Howard-Johnston (2010), who locates the decisive Roman defeat not at the Yarmuk but near Damascus.
114 Anastasius of Sinai: 1156C.
115 Baladhuri, p. 210.
116 Given, as Donner (1981) wistfully comments, “the chronologically ambiguous nature of many of the accounts about the conquest, it is impossible to do more than guess at the true dates involved” (p. 212).
117 Sebeos, 137.
118 Tabari: Vol. 12, p. 64.
119 Qur’an: 4.36.
120 Contemporaneous reports on the battle outside Gaza seem to imply that Muhammad was still alive at the time. The first text to mention the existence of an Arabian prophet, and which has been most plausibly dated to the summer of 634, refers to “the prophet who has appeared to the Saracens” (Teachings of Jacob: 5.16) Another, dated to around 640, and the first to mention him by name, describes the battle as having been won by “the Arabs of Muhammad” (quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 120.) For a survey of later Christian and Samaritan sources that presume the survival of Muhammad into 634, see Crone and Cook, pp. 152–3, n. 7. As they point out, “The convergence is impressive”—and proof of just how slippery is our evidence for the Prophet’s life.
121 The saying is attributed to an early eighth-century scholar, Mujahid bin Jabr (quoted by Hakim, p. 161). Muslim opinion on the virtues—or otherwise—of Umar covers a broad spectrum.
122 Sebeos, 139.
123 Qur’an: 5.33.
124 Constitution of Medina: Document A.9, as reproduced in Serjeant (1978), p. 19.
125 My thanks to Michael Kulikowski for this.
126 It is only fair to point out that Christian authors, looking to explain the defeat of the Romans, cast the Saracen armies as no less teeming. In fact, as Donner (1981) has pointed out, “perhaps the most striking fact about the armies that carried out the Islamic conquest of the Fertile Crescent was their small size” (p. 231).
127 Sebeos, 136.
128 According to the best estimate, Arab foederati “may have numbered two to five times the size of the available regular and garrison troops” (Kaegi (1992), p. 43).
129 Sebeos: p. 141.
130 Teachings of Jacob: 5.16.
131 Qur’an: 5.20.
132 Hans Jansen has suggested, very plausibly, that “these stories about Jews who had entered into talks with the enemies of Islam and were killed as a consequence had as their primary aim the cowing of the Christians of the Middle East” (p. 134). (My gratitude to Liz Waters for the translation.)
133 Sebeos, 135.
134 From the so-called “Secrets of Rabbi Simon ben Yohai,” quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 309. The rabbi had lived back in the second century AD, but the vision of the Arab conquests attributed to him seems to have been contemporaneous with the events it describes.
135 Ibid., p. 311.
136 Subsequent Islamic tradition would explain this as a title bestowed on Umar by Muhammad. However, it is clear—from both contemporaneous Jewish records and later Muslim histories—that the title actually derived from the Jews of Jerusalem and was prompted by Umar’s activities on the Temple Mount. See Bashear (1990).
137 Qur’an: 16.41.
138 John of Nikiu, p. 200.
139 A recently discovered inscription in the Arabian desert south of Palestine reads simply, “In the name of God, I, Zuhayr, wrote [this] at the time Umar died in the year twenty-four.” Quoted by Hoyland (2006), p. 411.
140 Qur’an: 2.177.
141 Sebeos, 175.
142 Qur’an: 49.9.
143 Sebeos, 176.
144 From a Christian tract written around 680 and quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 141. Although the author was a Syrian, Hoyland convincingly argues that his informant was an Arab.
145 Dhu al-Thafinat, quoted by Sizgorich (2009), p. 206.
146 Qur’an: 16.106.
147 Muhamad b. Ahmad al-Malati, quoted by Sizgorich (2009), p. 215.
148 From the Christian chronicle mentioned above, and quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 136.
149 Ibid.
150 Padwick, p. 119.
151 From an inscription on a dam near Ta’if, in Arabia, quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 692.
152 John bar Penkâye, p. 61.
7 The Forging of Islam
1 Arculf, p. 41.
2 Fredegarius: 154.
3 Arculf, p. 43.
4 “A Jewish Apocalypse on the Umayyads,” quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 317.
5 The monk was Anastasius of Sinai. See Flusin, pp. 25–6.
6 Arculf, p. 43.
7 Quoted by Humphreys, p. 11.
8 Mu’awiya is hailed as “Commander of the Faithful” on an inscription in the main hall of the bath-house of Hammat Gader, a few miles from Tiberias, which was one of the Amir’s favourite winter resorts. Accompanying this very public articulation of Umayyad legitimacy is a cross—which, inevitably, has always deeply puzzled scholars committed to the notion that Mu’awiya was a Muslim. In the words of Clive Foss (2008), “the further implications of this phenomenon remain to be explored” (p. 118).
9 Abu Hamza, quoted by Crone and Hinds, p. 131.
10 John bar Penkâye, p. 61.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 Jacob of Edessa, quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 566.
14 Qur’an: 2.142.
15 John bar Penkâye, p. 61.
16 Quoted by Hawting (1982a), p. 44.
17 Syriac Common Source, in Hoyland (1997), p. 647.
18 John bar Penkâye, pp. 68–9.
19 Ibid., p. 66.
20 Qur’an: 21.1.
21 From a coin issued in 688–9, quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 695.
22 Quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 694.
23 Qur’an: 33.57.
24 Syriac Common Source, in Hoyland (1997), p. 647.
25 Al-Akhtal, 19, in Stetkevych, p. 92.
26 Al-Muqqadasi, quoted by Rabbat, p. 16.
27 Al-Muqqadasi, quoted by Rosen-Ayalon, p. 69.
28 From a sermon preached towards the end of the Umayyad Caliphate. Quoted by Elad (1992), p. 50.
29 This phrase dates from the twelfth century: evidence for the fact that Syrians continued to regard Jerusalem, rather than Mecca, as Islam’s holiest shrine for several centuries. Quoted by Van Ess, p. 89.
30 Qur’an: 61.9.
31 Syriac Common Source, in Hoyland (1997), p. 648.
32 Farazdaq, quoted by Kister (1969), p. 182. The literal translation of “the mount of Jerusalem” is “the upper part of Iliy’a.”
33 The mosque in Egypt was at Fustat, a garrison city that would ultimately evolve into Cairo. Its qibla was reoriented in 710–11; see Bashear (1989), p. 268. The mosque in the Negev was at Be’er Ora. For a description and illustration of the change in the orientation of its qibla, see Sharon (1988), pp. 230–2. For the change to Kufa’s qibla, see Hoyland (1997), p. 562.
34 From the Kharijite sermon quoted by Elad (1992), p. 50.
35 Nu’aym b. Hammad al-Marwazi, in the Kitab al-Fitan, quoted by Sharon (1988), p. 234, fn. 7.
36 Tabari: Vol. 22, p. 14.
37 Ibn Asakir, quoted by de Prémare, p. 209.
38 Quoted by Crone and Hinds, p. 28.
39 Al-Akhtal, 19, in Stetkevych, p. 91.
40 Farazdaq, quoted by Crone and Hinds, p. 43.
41 Qur’an: 3.19.
42 Quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 702.
43 Qur’an: 27.23.
44 Al-Muqqadasi, quoted by Ettinghausen, p. 28.
45 John bar Penkâye, p. 61.
46 Michael the Syrian, in Palmer, Brock and Hoyland, p. 152, n. 363.
47 John bar Penkâye, p. 67.
48 Tabari, quoted by Hoyland, p. 198.
49 Gregory of Nyssa, p. 74. Gregory’s fourth homily on Ecclesiastes is exceptional for being the only document from antiquity—as far as I am aware—specifically and unequivocally to condemn slavery as an institution.
50 Qur’an: 90.12–17.
51 These restrictions are conventionally attributed to a pact signed between the Christians of Syria and Umar, but Western scholars have tended to date them to the end of the eighth century, a hundred and fifty years after the time of Umar. Recently, though, it has been convincingly argued that the so-called “Pact of Umar” may indeed date—in its essentials if not its final form—from the period of the early conquests. See Noth (1987).
52 Qur’an: 33.27.
53 Ibid.: 33.50.
54 Al-Suyuti, quoted by Robinson (2005), p. 20.
55 Qur’an: 89.17–20.
56 For a sample of the various attempts to make proper sense of it, see Ibn Warraq (2002), pp. 319–86.
57 A Zoroastrian text anticipating the End Days, from the eighth or ninth century, quoted by Minorsky, p. 257.
58 Quoted by Brown (2003), p. 314.
59 The complaint of an eighth-century Muslim governor in eastern Iran, quoted by Dennett, p. 120.
60 Qur’an: 1.6–7.
61 Sefer ha-Eshkol: Vol. 2, pp. 73–4.
62 Qur’an: 24.58. The three prayers specified by the Qur’an are the Dawn Prayer, the Noon Prayer and the Night Prayer.
63 Sahih al-Bukhari: 1.4.245.
64 The Talmud, p. 553.
65 Ibid.
66 Ibn Qutayba, quoted by Sizgorich (2009), p. 160.
67 Ibn Hawqal, quoted by Haldon and Kennedy, p. 97.
68 Artat b. al-Mundhir, quoted by Bashear (1991a), p. 178.
69 Tabari, quoted by Brooks (1899), p. 20.
70 Theophanes, p. 396.
71 Theophanes, pp. 397–8.
72 Quoted by Bashear (1991a), p. 191.
73 The first scholars to be recorded on the front line joined Maslama’s expedition against Constantinople in 716. Therefore, although the two examples mentioned here by name were active after the fall of the Umayyads, they can be taken as representative of a trend that spanned most of the eighth century.
74 Ibn Asakir, quoted by Bonner (2004), p. 409.
75 Ibn al-Mubarak, quoted by Yahya, p. 33.
76 Ibn al-Mubarak, quoted by Sizgorich (2009), p. 161.
77 Ibn al-Mubarak, quoted by Yahya, pp. 32–3.
78 Qur’an: 9.5.
79 Ibid.: 2.190.
80 The words of a Christian scholar of the eighth century, quoted by J. B. Segal (1963), p. 125.
81 The story dates from the mid-tenth century, and is attributed to the reign of a Caliph who lived some eighty years after Marwan’s Caliphate. The link between the Harranians and the Sabaeans appears to have been made much earlier than that, however. It also seems to date to around the time that Marwan was present in Harran. See Green, p. 106.
82 Bar Hebraeus: p. 110. The liver inspection recorded by Bar Hebraeus took place in 737.
83 History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria: 18.156.
84 Tabari, quoted by Kennedy (2007), p. 288.
85 Tha’alibi, quoted by Pourshariati (2008), p. 431.
86 Baladhuri, quoted by Sharon (1983), p. 203.
Envoi
1 Abu-Sahl, quoted by Gutas, p. 46.
2 See Gutas, p. 80.