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

442 Joseph Witztumal-sayyara, "[a group of] travelers," (Q 12:10, 19); 77 a ':;int, "pressing [wine],"(Q 12:36); 78 siman, "fat," (Q 12:43, 46); 79 and namlnt, 80 "we shall bring food,"(only in Q 12:65). 81Perhaps more relevant are words which have been identified as borrowingsfrom Aramaic or Syriac. Generaiiy, words of Aramaic/Syriac origin form thelargest group of loanwords in the Qur'iin and Q 12 is no exception. 82 Many ofthese words occur, however, frequently in the Qur'iin and are probably pre-Islamicborrowings. Here I would like to focus on three words in Q 12 which may suggestbackground is sojidfn/sagdin replacing the Hebrew mista[1awim (Targum Onqelos also uses sagdinhere). The form of the word is also of interest since grammar would require sajida to describe severalirrational or inanimate objects (see Mu~ammad b. Janr a!-Taban, Jomi' al-bayan 'an ta 'wil ayal-Qur 'an, ed. AI:Jmad Sa 'Td 'AlT, Mu~tafii al-Saqqa et a!., Cairo: M~tafii al-Babi al-!:lalabT, 1954-68, 12:151): Obviously motivated by the rhyme, this might also reflect the Syriac or Aramaic form.77 Whereas Biblical Hebrew has no cognate for al-sayyara, various dialects of Aramaic do; see referencesin E.M. Cook, A Glossary of Targum Onkelos: According to Alexander Sperber's Edition,Leiden: Brill, 2008, 282. Genesis 37:25 uses another noun here, but Targum Onqelos, the Peshitta;PsB(Weinberg, Geschichte, 21) and Balai, 98, all have zyart6 ("caravan''). The word sayyara occurs oncemore in Q 5:96, where the meaning seems to be "travelers" generally with no connotation of a group.78 The root '-$-r does not denote "pressing" in Hebrew, but does in various dialects of Aramaic (Cook,Glossmy, 216) as well as Classical Ethiopic (W. Leslau, Comparative Dictionary ofGe 'ez [ClassicalEthiopic], Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1987, 75). Genesis 40:1 I employs a different verb here, but theJewish Targums, the Samaritan Targum, Peshitta and later Syriac works (PsB [Weinberg, Geschichte,31]; PsN, 545; Balai, I 08) all have ·~ret. The verb appears only once more in Q 12:49 (ya '$iriina),though there are several indications that this refers not to pressing fruit and extracting liquids, butrather to deliverance or rain; see al-Taban, Jami', 12:232-34; al-RlizT, al-Taftir, 18:151;E. W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1984, I :2061.79 Although the root s-m-n exists in Hebrew and Jewish (Palestinian and Babylonian) Aramaic, theMasora and the Targums employ other words to describe the first group of cows in Pharaoh'sdream. The Qur' iinic siman is reminiscent of samminan/samminata found in the Peshitta (Genesis41:2,4, 18, 20) and later Syriac works (PsB [Weinberg, Geschichte, 32-33]; PsN, 546-49; Balai,120, 126-27; Mingana, Narsai, 2:280-8 1), but also in some manuscripts of the Samaritan Targum(see A. Tal, The Samaritan Targum of the Pentateuch: A Critical Edition, Tel-Aviv: Tel-AvivUniversity, 1980, 166-7 I). The only other Qur' iinic occurrence of this adjective, samin, in Q 5 I :26also seems to reflect a Syriac background; compare Genesis I 8:7 where the Hebrew and mostTargums refer to a tender and good calf, whereas the Peshitta has a fat and good calf. The latePseudo-Jonathan Targum has a tender and fat calf, so the argument is not conclusive.80 Variant readings of this verb are tamint in the second person and numiru in the fourth form; 'Abdal-LatTf a!-Khatib, Mu 'jam al-qira 'at, Damascus: Dar Sa' d al-DTn, 2002, 4:300-01.8 I The root m-w-r denotes the supplying of food and provisions in Syriac and Samaritan Aramaic (A.Tal, A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic, Leiden: Brill, 2000, 2:457), but not in Hebrew andJewish Aramaic. Words from this root render the derivatives of Hebrew s-b-r throughout Genesis41-44 in the Peshitta (and the Samaritan Targum) as well as in Balai, 215.82 See FV throughout. For a statistical breakdown of the loanwords documented in FV, see M.R.Zammit, A Comparative Lexical Study of Qur 'anic Arabic, Leiden: Brill, 2002, 57-60. It shouldbe noted that Q 12 includes also a few Ethiopic loanwords and as a result Carter assumes that theQur' iinic Joseph story is probably derived from an Ethiopian source; M. Carter, "Foreign vocabulary,'~in A. Rippin (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to the Qur'an, Malden: Blackwell Publishing,2006, (120-39) 131 and 135. Pre-Islamic Ethiopic traditions concerning Joseph, insofar as theyexist, have, as far as I know, yet to be studied in this context.Joseph among the Ishmaelites 443an Aramaic/Syriac literary background. They have been noted in the literature asloanwords, but it has not been pointed out that they occur in the Syriac texts onJoseph as well. They include the word for pit, jubb, the word for the animalswhich the brothers rode, ba 'zr, and the word for measure, kay!.Jubb occurs only twice in the Qur'iin and only in the Joseph story (Q 12:10,15). It does not have a plausible Arabic etymology and is most likely a loan fromAramaic/Syriac g(tbbti, 83 used in the Jewish Targums, Samaritan Targum, andPeshitta to Genesis 37 and throughout the Syriac texts on Joseph. 84Ba 'rr occurs only twice in the Qur'iin and only in the Joseph story (Q 12:65,72). The use of Hebrew and Aramaic/Syriac words from the same root, bothmeaning beasts of burden, in the Joseph story, might suggest that the Qur' iinicword is a loanword, the meaning of which is perhaps not limited to camels as itusually is in Arabic. 85 Although Hebrew be 'fr appears in the Biblical text (and inthe Targums) it does so only onc'e (Genesis 45:17). All seven other references tothe brothers' riding animals are to donkeys. In the Syriac works, however, donkeysare not mentioned at all and only the word b 'frti is used. 86 This makes the connectionwith the Syriac sources more probable.Another possible loanword is kay!, "measure," from Syriac kaylt1, 81 found inBalai. 88 It occurs ten times in the Qur'iin, sj.x of which are in Q 12. 89 Interestingly,the other Qur'iinic occurrences of this word concern the commandment to weighand measure fairly and may also be related to the Syriac (or Aramaic) renditionsof Biblical verses. 90My argument, however, is not dependent upon these words being indeeddirectly loaned from Syriac. They could have originated from another Aramaic83 FV, 98-99. See, however, Leslau, Comparative Dictionary ofGe 'ez, I 76.84 Giibba is attested in several Aramaic dialects; Cook, Glossary, 46.85 See R. Dvoraic, "Ueber die Fremdworter im Koran," Sitzungsberichte der philosophischhistorischenClasse der kaiser/ichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 109, 1885, (481-562) 521-25(refers only to the Hebrew); FV, 82 (adds Syriac)~ Muslim tradition was also aware that the wordmight have a different meaning in the Qur' iin;"Mujiihid glosses it with "donkey" (bimar), claimingthat this is a dialect~! usage of the word; al-Taban,Jami', 13:12,20.86 See Tonneau, Ephraem, 103; PsB (Link, Geschichte, 17-19, 23); Balai, 197, 224, 278 and 284(where (laywata is used); PsN, 588 (Joseph tells his steward: "Fill their loads according to thestrength of their beasts of burden"). In the Peshitta the word b 'ire replaces the donkeys in Genesis43:24 and (according to one manuscript) 44:3, in addition to its use in Genesis 45:17. Forb 'ir6 invarious Aramaic dialects, see Cook, Glossary, 37.87 FV, 252, citing S. Fraenkel, Die iramiiischen Fremdwiirter im Arabischen, Leiden: Brill, 1886,204. Fraenkel adduces examples of early use of the word in Arabic poetry ·and notes that it isseldom used in Jewish Aramaic ( cf. M. Sokoloff, A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic ofthe Talmudic and Geonic Periods, Ramat-Gan: Bar Han University Press, 2002, 575). For theapparently rare kayil in Hebrew piyyut, see E. Ben Yehuda, A Complete Dictionary of Ancient andModern Hebrew, Jerusalem: Ben-Yehuda Hozaa-La'Or, 1948-59, 5:2342.88 See, Balai, 138 and 155.89 Q 12:59, 60, 63, 65 (twice) and 88. To this should be added the verb naktal in Q 12:63.90 Compare Q 6: 152; 7:85; 17:35; and 26:181 with the Peshitta on Leviticus 19:36 and Deuteronomy25:14-15.