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

438 Joseph WitztumLiterary formTaken together, two features of Q 12 suggest an affinity with the Syriac poems:the presentation of the Biblical material in a continuous narrative and the repeateduse of dialogue.Whereas rabbinic midrash usually presents its exegesis in the form of discretecomments on the Biblical verses, the Syriac poems and Q 12 both. offer an uninterruptedretelling of the story (the former in verse, the latter in rhymed prose). Thiscomparison can only be taken so far and moreover it touches upon questions ofgenre that lie beyond the scope of the present study. I will therefore limit myobservations here to the second feature, the use of dialogue.Dialogue is an important stylistic feature ofthe Qur'iin. Pre-Islamic poetry, onthe other hand, makes little use of this literary device. 62 In this the Qur'iin is akinnot only to the Bible, as Mustansir Mir points out, 63 but perhaps more so to laterreligious poetry and homiletic literature which employ dialogue quite often. 64Although the use of dialogue as a literary device is, of course, not limited to theSyriac tradition,- my-argument is based on the similarity of specific extra-Biblicaldialogues in the Qur' an and the Syriac poems.·As Mir notes, in Q 12 dialogue serves "almost as an organizing principle." 65 Acomparison of the Biblical and Qur'anic accounts demonstrates that the Qur'iinexpands simple Biblical dialogues into more elaborate ones and even addsdialogue to episodes where the Bible had none. Often a similar dialogue is foundin the Syriac sources. Two examples should suffice.The first is an expansion of a Biblical dialogue. When the steward accuses the.brothers of stealing the cup we read in Genesis 44:4-10 as follows:(4) When they had gone only a short distance from the city, Joseph said to hissteward: "Go, follow after the men; and when you overtake them, say to them:'Why have you returned evil for good? ( 5) Is it not from this that my lord drinks?Does he not indeed use it for divination? You have done wrong in doing this.' "(6) When he overtook them, he repeated these words to them.62 For an overview of dialogue in pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry, see R.C.IV!cKinney, The Caseof Rhyme versus Reason: Ibn al-Riimi and his Poetics in Context, Leiden: Brill, 2004, 313-I5.63 See M. Mir, "Dialogue in the Qur'an," Religion and Literature 24, 1992, 1-22 and idem,"Dialogues," EQ, 1:(531-35) 534.64 For dialogue as a characteristic feature of fourth- to sixth-century poetry and prose homilies inSyriac and Greek, seeS. Brock, "From Ephrem to Romanos," Studia Patristica 20, 1989, (139-5I)141--43. Whereas Brock is inclined to accept the possibility of Syriac influence on the Greeksources, Cameron is hesitant; A. Cameron, "Disputations, polemical literature and the fonnation ofopinion in the early Byzantine period," in G.J. Reinink and H.L.J. Vanstiphout (eds), DisputePoeins and Dialogues in the Ancient and Mediaeval Near East, Luven: Peeters, 1991, 91-108. Fordialogue in early piyyutim and midrash, see E. Hacohen, "Studies in the dialogue-fonnat of earlyEretz-lsrael piyyutim and their sources, in light of Purim expansion-piyyutim,"Jentsalem Studies in Hebrew Literature 20, 2006, (97-171) 131-62 (Hebrew).65 Mir, "Dialogues," 532. See also Hameen-Anttila," 'We will tell you the best of stories,'" 19-21.Joseph among the Ishmaelites 439(7) They said to him: "Why does my lord speak such words as these? Farbe it from your servants that they should do such a thing! (8) Look, the moneythat we found at the top of our sacks, we brought back to you from the landof Canaan; why then would we steal silver or gold from your lord's house?(9) Should it be found with any one of your servants, let him die; moreover,the rest of us will become my lord's slaves."(10) He said: "Even so; in accordance with your words, let it be: he withwhom it is found shall become my slave, but the rest of you shall go free."Thus the steward speaks twice, the brothers only once. In Q 12:70-75, on theother hand the dialogue is broken down so that each side speaks three times:, I(70) [...] Then a herald proclaimed: "0, [people of] the caravan, you areindeed thieves!" '·(71) They said, turning to them: "What is it that you are missin~?" .(72) They said: "We are missing the king's goblet. Whoever brmgs 1t shallreceive a beast's 66 load; that I guarantee."(73) "By God," they said, "you know well that we neither came to workcorruption in the land nor. are we thieves."(74) They said: "And what shall be its recompense if you are lying?"(75) They said: "This shall be its recompense- in whoever's saddlebag thegoblet is found, he shall be its recompense. 67 So we recompense the evildoers."A comparison of these verses to their Biblical counterparts has led one scholar tocomment on the eloquence of the Qur' anic dialogue and its superiority over theBiblical one. 68 Again there is a Syriac precedent. A similar, though not identical,developed dialogue is found in PsN:[ ... ] he [i.e. the steward] shouted. saying: "In return for good you have repaidevil ... you stole the Icing's cup.by which he divines ... "The men answered: "Listen 0 steward and we shall say before you I thatwe trust God that we shall not be ashamed ... Approach and search as youplease and behold you will learn I and you will not find the cup by us asyou said."He said to them: "And ifi do find it what shall happen?" IThey all said: "We shall all be slaves to your lord."66 For the translation "beast" rather than "camel," see discussion below regarding the word ba 'ir.67 Though the language is somewhat vague, it seems that the exeget~s are correct _in understandingthe brothers' answer as referring to slavery. Joseph and the Egyptmns do not reject the proposedpunishment and Benjamin is indeed detained by Joseph, presumably as a slave (Q 12:76-79).68 Hameen-Anttila, " 'We will tell you the best of stories,' " 20 ("This is a fine piece of dialogue,perhaps the best and most lively in the Qur'iin: all lines depend heavily on the previous ones andbring the action forward ... ". In note 62 he adds that the dialogue in the Bible is "clearlyinferior.").