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

336 Devin J. StewartOmen texts were a highly developed genre in the Ancient Near East, one ofmost prevalent and important. The Babylonians and their successorsgreat deal of energy and ingenuity to the science of omens, astrological andwise. They compiled large catalogues or collections of omens, such as theused series of astrological omens Enuma Anu Enlil, which was discovered inlibrary of the neo-Assyrian king Assurbanipal (c. 685-627 BCE) on 56tablets but dates back to the first Babylonian dynasty (c. 1800-1500 BCE),they were copied and transmitted for many centuries, and even llllilcllUJ:ma1loucreatures, both human and animal. 34 In general, these omens all took theconditional sentences, similar to the Greek and Qur'anic omens discussedIf X happens/is observed, Y will happen. The same structure is found in legalsuch as Hamrnurabi's code, where many individual laws begin summa awflum ·' ·"If a nobleman ... ," and the omens have been observed to use legallartguag!l.?~:.Thes.e great catalogues of omens are often organized systematically bysubject of the protasis: in the astrological works, the omens having to do withMoon, the Sun, Venus, and so on appear in separate sections. In If a City isa Height, all the omens involving snakes appear in one section, those havingwith lizards in another section, .those having to do with ants in another section,so on. The following lunar omen is included in the Enuma Anu Enlil: "If themakes an eclipse in Month VII on the twenty-first day and sets eclipsed -will take the crowned prince from his palace in fetters. " 36 Examples fromcollection entitled "If a City is Set on a Height" include the following:31 E. Reiner and D.E. Pingree, Babylonian Planetary Omens. I: Enuma Anu Enlil, tablet63:Venus Tablet Ammisaduga, Malibu, CA: Undena Publications, 1975; idem, BabylonianOmens. 2: Enuma Anu Enlil, tablets 50-51, 1981; idem, Babylonian Planetary Omens. 3:Anu En/if, tablets 50-51, Groningen: Styx, 1998; F. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Celestiallion: The Lunar Eclipse Tablets of Enuma Anu Enlil. Archiv fiir Orientforschung, Horn,Ferdinand Berger, 1988; W.H. van Sold!, Solar Omens ofEnuma Anu Enlil: tablets l:J(l4J·-ZY,(31Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut Te Istanbul, 1995; L. "~··A~r•~•Iavoie I-VI della serie astrologica Enuma Anu Enlil, Messina: University of Messina,32 S.M. Freedman, If a City Is Set on a Height: The Akkadian Omen Series Summa alu inaPhiladelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1998, 2006.33 U.S. Koch, Babylonian Liver Omt;ns: The Chapters Manzazu, Padanu, and Pan takalti ofBabylonian Extipicy Series Mainly from Assurbanipal's Library, Copenhagen:Copenhagen, 2000; eadem, Secrets ofExtipicy: The Chapter Multiibiltu of the BabylonianSeries and Ni$irti biiniti Texts mainly from Assurbanipal 's Library, Miinster: Ugarit-Verlag,34 E. Leichty, The Omen Series Summa Izbu, Locust Valley, NY: Augustin, 1970.35 Scott Noegel, "Dreams and Dream Interpretation in Mesopotamia and in the HebrewKelly Bulkeley ( ed.), Dreams: A Reader on Religious, Cultural, and Psychological Din~en:~ions tDreaming, (New York: Palgrave, 2001 ), ( 45-72) 52.36 M. van De Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC, Malden,Blackwell, 2003, 245-46.lYfysterious letters and other features of the Qur'iin 337If a snake dies in front of a man, he will see the downfall of his adversary.If a snake flops around in front of a man, he will kill his adversary.If a snake stands erect in front of a man- victory and booty.If a snake goes about in front of a man - flood for the land.If a snake runs in front of a man- attaining of a wish.If a snake stands in front of a man -booty for the king.If a snake wriggles in front of a man- confusion.·, .If snakes cross over in front of a man, strife will persistently follow him.If snakes entwine in front of a man, he will have trouble. 37Babylonian oracles generally mark the protasis with "if' (summa) but do notthe apodosis with. a specific particle. This is a distinction between them andthe Greek and the Qur'iinic omens, which mark the apodosis with particles.lists of omens in the Babylonian collections are reminiscent ofQur' iinic usagedegree, where many conditions precedent occur in series. Most Babylonianhowever, consist of one protasis and one apodosis, in contrast to severalleading up to one apodosis, as in the opening of al-Talcwfr (Q 81:1-14)above. Some Babylonian omens have combined protases, introducing a singlewith several conditions precedent, as in the following liver omen: "If therea Weapon in the Honour of the left side of the Lungs and it points upwards, the· are low and split on the left, the base of the Well-being forms a Weapon anddownwards: For going on a campaign and seizing a city it is favourable/thewill die." 38 In such examples, however, the initial particle summa is notin contrast to the repetition of idhii in the Qur' iinic texts.frequent references to celestial bodies and to animals in Babylonian omensup an important point. The oaths to the sun, moon, and stars which appearfrequently in the oaths of pre-Islamic and Qur'iinic oracles, as well as the oathsimimals in pre-Islamic oracles, may have developed out of the signs used forFor example, the Yemeni soothsayer Satil;t (Rabi' b. Rabi' a b. Mas' ild)uooosedlvmade the following prediction explaining a dream of the Yemeni kinga b. Na~r:. · al;lifit bi-mii bayna l-l;arratayni min l;anashla-tahbitanna arr;lalatm ul-l;abashfa-la-yamlilamna rna bayna Abyana ilii JurashI swear by the snakes in between the two lava fields,that the Ethiopians will descend on your land,and conquer all the territory between Abyan and Jurash. 39jJ.'l•reec!rnan./fa City is Set on a Height, 2:17.See Koch, Secrets of Extipicy, 48-52, 313-80, esp. 340.Ibn Hishiim, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. 'Umar 'Abd al-Saliim Tadmur'i, Beirut: Diir al-Kitiibal-'Arabi, 1998, 1:33.