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

140 Hani Hayajnehto be different. Because of this Rudi Paret describes the verse here as notfully clear. 98 • _ •In some Arabic sources this verse is connected to the tnbe of Khawlan mYemen, who used to worship an idol called 'Umyiinis. 99 This tribe used to divide.part oftheir cattle and crops between 'Umyiinis and God .. If the share they "~'".i ~m;ufor God came into that for 'Umyiinis they would leave 1t for the latter, but tf any .·of the share of 'Umyiinis came into that which had been assigned to God, they .·would retain it for the idol. 100 This kind of crop-sharing contract was known ·among the Y emenites before Islam and was allowed by Mu' iidh b .. Jabal, the 'prophet Mul}ammad's governor ofYemen. 101 The ~oncep~ of shi~k is. also known·in modem Yemen with a meaning of share croppmg, shzrk al-nz~J, I.e., a . .cropping agreement stipulating that the crop is divided into equal shares ~etween'.landlord and tenant (made where water is scarce). 102 M. Ghul compares thts versewith the ASA text RES 395113 in which the word s 2 rk occurs: khr~ w-s 2 rk w-rzm. ·.b 'mhmw wrqm wd'tm, "assessing, crop sharing and commandeering from themgreenstuffs and fodder," and 4-5: kl khr~ wshrk wmn~b ... bhmw shrkw wkhr~,"all assessments, crop-shares and demands whereby they apportion and assess(the food stuffs)." 103 ·English translations of Qur' iin 6: 136 vary according to the understanding oftheword shuraka '. Usually this word is translated "associates" or "partners." In thelight of the preceding discussion, however, I would roughly translate the verse asfollows: "They assign to God, of the tillage and the cattle which He sprouts, a ...portion, saying, 'This is for God' - so they assert- 'and this is for our (crop)­sharers.' So that which is intended for their (crop)-sharers does not reach God, and.that which is intended for God does reach their (crop)-sharers. Evil is that which ·they judged!" The gods are designated in this verse as shuraka' because in that ·pagan period people considered the agricultural land as the property of the godsand they cultivated it in partnership. Of course, the share of the gods was taken by.the priests. The tribe, even if it worshipped more than one god, offers shares toone god who is its partner, but what they pay for the other gods - in this case, ·Allah- is voluntary almsgiving. In this verse the Qur' iin condemns this practice.98 Pare!, Der Koran: Kommentar und Konkordanz, 152ff. · ·, ·99 For a rich discussion on this god and his connection to the Yemenite tribe, see I. Goldfeld,'Umyanis the idol ofKhawlan," Israel Oriental Studies3, 1973 (108-19).100 Hawting, "Shirk and 'idolatry' in monotheist polemic," 110.101 See Ghul, Early Southern Arabian Languages, 102. The passage is also quoted by Nashwan ,al-l:limyari in Shams a/- 'uhim and other Arabic sources. On this see I. al-Selwi, Jemenitische .Warier in den Werken von a/-Hamdiinf und Nashwiin und ihre Paralle/en in den semitischen ·Sprachen, Berlin: Reimer, 1987, 120.I 02 Piamenta, Dictionary of Post-Classical Yemeni Arabic, 245.I 03 M. Ghul, "Makiinatnuqiish a/-Yaman," 39ff. and Ghul, Early Southern Arabian Languages, I 02.See also J.C. Biella, Dictiona1y of Old South Arabic, Sabaean Dialect, Chico: Scholars Press,.·1982, 526; this is a modified translation in the light of the meaning given by the Sabaic Dictionary(see Beeston et. al., Sabaic Dictionary, 134).Arabian languages as a source for Qur 'anic vocabulary 141Qur'iin 49:13: ya ayyuha al-nasu inna khalaqna!cum min dhakarin wa-unthawa-ja 'alnakum shu 'iiban wa-qaba 'ila !i-ta 'arafii inna akramalcum 'indaAllahi atqakum inna Allaha 'alfmun khabfr..U!tter·ent accounts of the reason for revelation of this verse are found in the exeliterature.Most of them focus on warning the Muslims against boastingtheir lineages and abundance of wealth and against looking down on the104Commentators do not agree on the meaning of the word shu 'iib, whichusually try to approach on the basis of comparison with other designations ofcategories, e.g. qabfla. Medieval Arab historians and genealogists differthe hierarchy of tribal designations. Some say that the word shu 'iib is theof sha 'b ("nation"), which is the broadest category oflineage; tribes, qaba 'il,· aJ:e smaller than nations, and smaller still are 'ama 'ir (sing. 'imarah), "tribaldistricts," then bzl/lln, "tribal sub-districts," then ajkhlidh, "sub-tribes," and finally· 'if, "clans." 105 Translators tend to render shu 'ab in this verse as "nations," orIn fact the word sha 'b is used in the Qur'iin with the typical South Arabianin contrast to the North Arabian term qabfla. This is the reason why thehas differentiated between the two terms by mentioning them contigu­. In ASA, the word s 2 'b.occurs often to denote a system of entities. I believeit had penetrated to Certtral and North Arabia from the Yemenite cultural· sphere to designate a certain social division. Christian Robin and AndreyKorotayev provide a good foundation for a better understanding of this. 106Korotayev summarizes the major categories under which this word is used in theASA epigraphical sources: "s 2 'b from tl1e first order which is more ammphousethno-cultural entities lacking any political centralization if they were not idenwiths 2 'bs of the second order .. Each of such communities cohered because of. . See for example: Al-Firfizabadi, Tamvfr al-miqbiis mintafsir ibn 'Abbiis, 437.See Ibn Man~r. Lisiin a/- 'Arab, 2270 for this and other orders suggested by Arab historians and· geneaologists. Dania! Varisco devotes an extensive study of the tribal divisions used in the Arabicsources, taking the genealogy of the Prophet Mul)ammad as a case study. D.M. Varisco,"Metaphors·and sacred history: The genealogy of Muhammad and the Arab 'tribe,' "Anthropo-. logical Quarterly, 68, 1995, 139-56. Some Muslim sources conclude that sha 'b refers to a majorArab genealogical grouping in the distant past, such as the basic distinction between 'Adnan, forthe northern Arabs, and Qal)tan, for the southern Arabs.C. Robin, "La cite et !'organisation sociale a Ma'In :!'example de Ythl (aujourd'hui Bariiqish),"Studies in the Hist01y of Arabia, vol. II, Pre-Islamic Arabia, Riyadh: King Saud UniversityPress, 1404 AH/1984, 157-62; idem, Les hautes terres du Nord-Yemen avant i'Islam, Istanbul:Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch lnstituut te Istanbul, 1982,1:7lff.; idem, "Esquisse d'unehistoire de !'organisation tribale en Arabie du Sud antique," in P. Bonnenfant (ed.), La Pe~insulearabique d'azgourd}ui, Paris: Editions du Centre National de Ia Recherche Scientifique, 1982,(2: 17-30) 22ff; A. Korotayev, "Middle Sabaean cultural-political area: Qay/s and their tribesmen,clients and maqtawfs," Acta Orientalia, 1995, 62-77.