reynolds-the-quran-in-its-historical-context-2

294 Christoph Luxenberg(ahl a!- 'i!rn). Anas b. Malik cites the Messengers as follows: "Upon arrivingsidra, [I saw] here that its fruits were each the size of ajar and its leavesears of elephants. Touched by the command of God, its fruit and itstransformed into hyacinths, emeralds and other (precious stones)." To thisadds other legends according to which this fantastic sidra is clothedindescribable appearance. 36Hardly persuaded by the legendary comments ofTabari, our translatorsto find a solution according to their understanding, and translate:Blachere: pres du jujubier d'al-Montahii.Bell: By the sidra-tree at the boundary.In fact sidra is neither a jujube nor any kind of magic tree. This Syriac wordquite simply, according to Manna, under sedra: sitr, hijiibi ("curtain,precise curtain or veil is specified by the following word. Al-rnuntahii isend where all knowledge finds its limit, as Tabar! believes, nor a certain place, ··Mecca, as Blachere believed (following Caetani). 38 By boundary Bell am1rnachlthe closest to the exact meaning. Al-rnuntahii is· in fact an exact synonyma~-iikhira (_"th~ next world"). 39 It is Ephrem the Syrian, in his description ofdtse, who mdtcates the true meaning of the Qur'anic term sidra, from ·phonetic Syriac variant setrii or settiirii ("curtain, veil"), which separates thehere below from the other world, that is, paradise. Thus Nicolas Sed coJmrrtents:D'autre part, setoro peut signifier egalement "voile". Selon Ia tOilOg;rar•hieParadis le lieu appele setoro correspond aux tentures et au rideau extfiri,,n't;sanctuaire. Dans Ia tradition rabbinique Ia description des cieux et dementio~e deux "rideaux" ou ''voiles". Le premier appele wilon, est .le premter ciel et designe 1' atmosphere qui separe les terres et les cieux, leappe!e pargod, se trouve a !'autre extremite de l'echelle celesteseptieme ciel, irnmediatement devant le trone de Ia Gloire. C~s deuXcelestes correspondent exactement aux deux rideaux du sanctuaire etdisposition du Paradis de I' auteur syrien au setoro et I' arbre de Ia science.4°36 Ibid., 27:52ff.37 Manna, 479b.38 Cf. Blachere (p. 560, n. 14): "Sidrati 1-Muntahii= le jujubier d'al-Montahii. Les commt, suivistraducteurs, posent qu 'il s' agit d'un jujubier merveilleux croissant a Ia limite du Septieme Ciel.suggere avec infiniment de raison qu' al-Montahii represente un lieu-dit, pres de Ia ·Psychologiquement ce detail est destine a faire impression sur les incn!dules. II est done"en situation" que !'interpretation proposee par les commt qui ne peut rien evoquer pour Ies39 Thus the Thesaurus Syriacus (I: 129), under bartd, which also offers the Arabic svnonvrns:muntahii, and thereafter: finis, de tempore ; b-khartd d-yawmdtd: in fine dierum, h.e.futuro ; b-barteh ,d-zabnd: ultimo tempore ; b-bartd dh-zavnii: postero tempore ; b-baratfine tempontm; a/ bartii: define mundi.40 N. Sed, "Les hymnes du Paradis de saint Ephrem et les traditions juives," Le Mustion 81 · .-(455-501) 471. ,A new Syro-Ararnaic reading of Verses 1-18 295Blachere (pres dujujubier d'al-Montaha) and Bell (by the sidra-tree at thethis study leads us to understand Verse 14 as: "near the veil of theworld."Tabar! explains the term rna 'wa rather correctly with the meaning of· of the martyrs,"41 that is the heavenly dwelling, Blachere, Bell, andhave difficulty in recognizing this quite evident meaning. Blachere makesname of it and translates: "pres duquel est le jardin d' al-Ma'wa." He addsWULUWllll! note:d 'al-Ma 'wii. Ce demier terme signifie: !a retraite. Selon les commt.,encore ici par presque tous les traducteurs, il s'agirait d'un jardin duToutefois Sprenger pense avec beaucoup de raison qu'il s'agitsiJ:nplem1ent d'une villa entouree d'unjardin, dans Ia banlieue de Ia Mekke. 42our translators exceed the imagination of the Arab commentators. Bellat first, quite correctly- "Near which is the garden of the abode"- but!allowing note his explanation is in line with that of Blachere: "This mustsome dwelling near Mecca; unless the verse be a later insertion, and refers. places. The whole vision is often so taken, but this robs it offorce.'"' 3-nu,wc::vc::t, the Thesaurus gives, under awwiina ("habitation, residence"), theequivalent rna 'wa, and explains its meaning as a celestial habitation inlocutions: awwiine tubtiine: "mansiones beatae" ("residences oftheawwiine d-lii 'abrfn: "mansiones permanentes" ("eternal residences"),da-l 'el: i.e. "caeli" ("celestial residences"). 44 This meaning emergesfrom the Qur'anic context. Verse 15 is thus to be understood as: "near to[is] the garden of the [heavenly] domain."VaJ'!h~:hil al-sidra(ta) mil yaghshilunderstood verse suffers from an erroneous reading which our trans­. render as follows:.tllacttcme: quand couvrait le jujubier ce qui [le] couvraitWhen the sidra-tree was strangely envelopedanic particle idh often represents the Syriac particle kadh. Accordingly it· ·· contain certain semantic nuances that are not found in the typical Arabic