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

338 Devin J. StewartOne might understand that the oath in this and other cases developed out oftradition of augury or omen-taking, rather than simply being an asseveration ·to establish the sincerity of the speaker or the veracity of the message. In thisobserving snakes on part of the coastal plain may have been a sign to thesayer, by a logic of analogy, that the land would be overrun by an invadingpian force. Similarly, oaths swearing by a wolf or a crow may have ·referred to the animal or bird sighted by the oracle and taken as the basis forpredictiori. 40 The oaths that characterize the speech of·soothsayers and thatmany oracular texts in the Qur'an may have evolved out of ritualized reterencf:sto the signs observed by kahin diviners taking omens from natural ph1enc•mfma.Greek and Qur' anic oracles are similar in their gnomic aspect; they usestrategies to create an1biguity or mystery. Chief among these are the use ofwords or words with unclear referents. In the Greek oraCles, these areanimals representing certain human actors whose identities are notdirectly: "But when th~ Cynic of many names leaps into a great fian1e,spirit by the Erinys of glory, then all the dog-foxes who follow him should·the fate of the departed wol£" 41 Pre-Islamic oracles frequently swore by orto animals, as Satii;!'s oracle for Rabi'a b. Na!)r mentioned above refers toSimilarly, the pronouncements attributed to Musaylimah refer to the wolf,and elephant. 42 This feature of pre-Islamic oracles that resembles Greek usagefor the most part abandoned in the Qur'an. The opening oaths in a!- 'Adiyat1 00) appear to be an exception, referring most likely to horses. The openingpassages i'u several Suras which each feature a series offeminine plural(Q 37:r-3; 51:1-4; 77:1-4; 79:1-5; 100:1-5) lead one to think that thisconventional type of mith in pre-Islamic oracular pronouncements. 43 Thisular convention remains poorly understood, but such oaths may have vu. 5 wa'!cJreferred to animals or spirits.As with Biblical narratives in the Qur'an, pre-Islamic material, includingoracles, has gone through an ideological filter, and it is worth considering whathave been changed. The relative absence of animals in comparison withpurported pre-Islamic oaths is striking. Moreover, looking at the Greek oraclesalso at other pre-Islan1ic ones, one notices that a clear apocalyptic shift has occ:umedi!Almost all the oracular texts in the Qur' an have to do with predicting and de!;crilbinlr;.:the cataclysmic end of the world, the Day ofResurrection and the DayAl-Riirn (Q 30) is one of the few exceptions, in that it predicts a future tsy:zantme:victory, "within a few years." As is the case with the Biblical narratives thatMysterious letters and other features of the Qur'an 339. the Qur'an, in the oracular texts, proper nouns, references to specific places andas well as specific dates or periods are usually omitted. Both Greek and preoraclessuch as those of Shiqq and Satil;J. include proper nouns, specificof years, and similar details that are lacking in Qur'anic oracles.The assertion of mantic authority, C, the third of Fontenrose's six principalof the Greek oracles, is also important in Qur'anic oracular passages.the general function is similar to those of the Greek oracles, the specific:on,tentimls attendant thereto are less so. The conventional Greek assertions ofauthority are references to the god who is speaking, his temple, or otherassociated with the temple or the seer. An exan1ple is the following, in which. god Apollo, the adyton or space in the temple reserved for the oracle, and the· involved in the oracular ritual are invoked: "Observe, Athenian, the pathwhich Apollo has proclaimed from the adyton through his esteemed... " Sibylline oracles sometimes give the seer's nan1e and paternity as ato authority; they generally suggest that the Sibyl was born in a primordialand is extremely long-lived. 44 Several distinct conventional features of oracularthat function to assert mantic authority may be identified in the Qur' an. Thethat occur at the beginnings of such passages are perhaps the most obvious. Others include the rna adraka construction mentioned above, the mysteletters,and references to the scripture that is presented as the source of the;ITie:ssal~es. It is worth noting that all of these occur at the openings of oracular texts,often at the beginnings of Suras. Notable exceptions are Qur'an 69:38-39;18; 84: 16-18; and 86:11-12, where series of oaths occur in the middle ofand Al-Qari 'a (101), where the rna adraka construction occurs a secondtowards the end of the passage, but these are relatively infrequent. The placeofthese features is also related to the fact that neither a salutation nor anquestion appears - the assertion of mantic authority usually appears first.addition, these four types of assertion of mantic authority appear in comb ina­It has been observed that'the mysterious letters are often followed by refertothe scripture. Mysterious letters and references to scripture are sometimes~onabu1e0 with an oath, as in Qaj * wa-l-Qur 'ani l-rnafid *, "Q. By the Gloriousan" (Q 50:1); Niin wa-l-qalarni wa-rna yasturiin, "N. By the pen and whatrecord" (Q 68:1); Jfa rnfm wa-1-kitabi 1-rnubin, "I.I. M. By the clear Book"1-2; 44:1-2). Such combinations suggest that the functions of these formalare related and overlap.40 See the oracular pronouncements presented in Dale F. Eickelman, "Musaylima: Anthe Social Anthropology of Seventh-C. Arabia," Journal of the Economic and SocialOrient, 10, 1963, 17-52, esp., 42; 'Ali' b. 'Isa al-Rummiini', Nukat.fi i }liz al-Qur'lin, inrasli 'ii.fi i }liz al-Qur'lin, Cairo: Dilr a1-Ma'arif, 1968, 97.41 Fontenrose, The Delphic Oracle, !68.42 D.F. Eickelmann, "Musaylima: An approach to the social anthropology of seventhArabia," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 10, 1967, 17-52; M.J."The struggle against Musaylima and the conquest ofYamiima," JSA/27, 2002, 1-56.43 See Neuwirth, "Form and structure," 256.the oaths clearly belong to the tradition of pre-Islan1ic soothsaying, theinv·steri011s letters apparently do not, and it is possible that they originated with thean itself and the Prophet Mul;!ammad's mission. Perhaps the best criticalsurrnnary of research on this topic to date is that of Welch in the article on theH.W. Parke, Sibyls and Sibylline Prop~ecy in Classical Antiquity, London: Routledge, 1988,7-10.