TimCallahan
Philosopher
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By the time Muhammad wrote or dictated the surahs of the Qur'an, supposedly under the dictation of the Archangel Jabril (Gabriel), he had a wealth of myth, pagan, Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian, upon which to draw. Thus, almost all of the narratives in the Qur'an are derivative and mythical.
This is particularly true of Surah al-Kahf, "the Cave" the 18th surah, which is made up of three stories. In one, from which the surah takes its title, some pious youths take shelter in a cave to sleep and wake 309 years later. The verses of the surah dealing with the sleepers (Q 18:9 – 26) give no particular reason why God puts them to sleep for 309 years, and they are even vague on how many sleepers there are (Q 18;22):
Some say, “The sleepers were three, and their dog made four.” Others say, “They were five, and their dog made six” – guessing in the dark – and some say, “They were seven, and their dog made eight.” Say [Prophet]. “My lord knows best how many they were.” Only a few have real knowledge about them, so do not argue, but stick to what is clear, and so do not ask any of these people about them.
The story is based on a tale written by Joseph of Sarug (d. 521) called “The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.” According to the story seven young men who are Christians flee Ephesus because of the persecution of Christians by Emperor Decius, who reigned from 249 to 251. They take shelter in a cave and, due to their piety, God allows them to sleep for 196 years. They awake to find that Christianity is everywhere triumphant.
Another story in Surah 18 is based on one of the legends that grew up around the persona of Alexander the Great. The Jewish historian Josephus recorded one of these as historical fact in his Wars of the Jews (7:7:4):
Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned somewhere as being Scythians and inhabiting at the Lake Moetis. This nation about this time laid a design of falling on Media and the parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they treated with the king of Hyrcania; for he was the master of the passage which king Alexander [the Great] shut up with iron gates.
Josephus was alluding to an attack on the Medes by the Alans, a major division of the Sarmatians, who had succeeded their relatives, the Scythians, as the nomads controlling the Russian steppes. The Alans lived just north of the Caucasus Mountains. Hyrcania was an ancient kingdom located along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains. The Sarmatians, like the Scythians before them, were nomadic horsemen who were the terror of the civilized world. From 641 – 617 BCE, the Scythians invaded Near East, devastating the declining Assyrian Empire. They at first helped the Assyrians break a siege of Nineveh by the Medes and Chaldeans in 615, but later switched sides and aided the allies in destroying Nineveh in 612. Eventually, the Medes had to drive them back across the Caucasus Mountains. The Scythians were the probable inspiration for the Gog and Magog prophecies in Ezekiel 38 and 39. This prophecy was alluded to in the Book of Revelation, leading end-times prognosticators, such as Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, to identify Gog and Magog as the Soviet Union.
Josephus said that Alexander the Great had blocked a mountain pass with iron gates because this story was already a legend with wide currency in the ancient world when he wrote Wars of the Jews, shortly after the fall of Jerusalem to the armies of Vespasian and Titus in CE 70. In Surah 18, verses 92 – 99 tell this legend in monotheistic terms:
He traveled on: then when he reached a place between two mountain barriers, he found a people who could barely understand him. They said, “Duh’l-Qarnayn, Gog and Magog are ruining this land. Will you build a barrier between them and us if we pay you a tribute?” He answered, “The power my Lord has given me is better than any tribute, but if you lend me your strength, I will put up a fortification between you and them: Bring me lumps of iron!” And then, when he had filled the gap between the two mountainsides [he said,] “Work the bellows!” And then, when he had made it glow like fire, he said, Bring me the molten metal to pour over it!” Their enemies could not scale the barrier, nor could they pierce it; and he said, “This is a mercy from my Lord. But when my Lord’s promise is fulfilled, He will raze it to the ground: my Lord’s promise always comes true.” On that day, We shall let them surge against each other like waves and then the Trumpet will be blown and We shall gather them all together.
Thus, the legend of Alexander erecting an iron barrier against the Scythians has been blended with the Gog and Magog prophecy from Ezekiel, which itself is treated, as it was in the Christian Book of Revelation, as an apocalyptic prophecy.
Alexander the Great is called Duh’l-Qarnayn – that is, “Two Horns” – in this passage because of another legendary allusion. While he was in Egypt, between the battles of Isus and Gaugmala, Alexander had an epiphany, that he was the earthly incarnation of Zeus – Ammon, a combination of the rulers of, respectively, the Greek and Egyptian pantheons. Since Ammon was represented as having rams horns, it became customary to either represent Alexander with two rams horns coiling tightly against his head or to refer to him as having horns. However, this characteristic bequeathed to him by the ancient Egyptian pantheon notwithstanding, Alexander is shown in this passage as a follower of Allah.
Finally there is in Surah 18 is a long tale about Moses traveling with a person only identified in the Qur’an as one of God’s servants (Q 18:60 – 82). Moses asks if he might travel with the man; to which the man says Q 18:67, “You will not be able to bear with me patiently.” Moses insists that he still wishes to travel with this servant of God, and they set out. As they come upon a boat on the seashore, the stranger makes a hole in it. When Moses asks why, the man reminds him that he had told him that he would find the man’s company hard to bear. Moses apologizes for asking. Then the stranger kills a young boy. Moses is horrified, but the stranger again reminds him of his warning. They travel on and are refused hospitality at a town. Nevertheless, the stranger repairs a wall there that was crumbling. Moses again finds this behavior inexplicable. Why didn’t the stranger demand payment from these inhospitable people? At this point, the stranger says they must part company, but explains his seemingly wicked and illogical actions: The boat belonged to needy fishermen. A tyrant in the region was seizing all serviceable boats. His men would pass over the damaged boat, which the fishermen could then repair. The boy was actually wicked and dangerous. The servant of God prayed that God would send his parents a better son once he had killed the boy. The wall belonged to two young orphans, and a treasure buried under it would be found by hem when they matured. Had the wall crumbled too early, they would not have been mature enough to manage it properly.
This story may be based based on a Jewish legend about Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, who lived in the first half of the third century. Rabbi Joshua meets the prophet Elijah and begs to travel with him. Elijah agrees on one condition: Rabbi Joshua is not to question anything Elijah does. The rabbi agrees. After some days’ journey they are accepting hospitality from a poor couple. Elijah prays, and the couple’s cow dies. While this perplexes Rabbi Joshua, he says nothing. A rich man denies them hospitality, and Elijah rebuilds his wall. They are also not shown hospitality and a certain synagogue. Elijah says to them, “May many of you be princes.” When they are given hospitality another synagogue. Elijah says, “May only one of you be a prince.” Finally, Rabbi Joshua can bear these oddities no longer, and begs Elijah to explain himself. Elijah says, “Very well, but because you have asked, our journey together is now over.” He then explains that the Angel of Death was going to take the poor man’s wife. Elijah prayed that Death take the couple’s cow instead. The rich man’s wall concealed buried treasure. Had it fallen down, the miser would have found it. By repairing the wall Elijah kept it out of his hands. As to the two synagogues, many princes means disunity and strife. One prince means unity, order and peace.
In Arabic legend, the one who traveled with Moses in the Islamic version of the story is al-Khider, variously translated as “the green one” or “the ever-young” (i.e. as such ever-green). The reason he could be identified with Elijah, and the reason Elijah could be wandering through the world centuries after he lived, is that Elijah didn’t die, but was assumed, living, into heaven, ascending in a whirlwind by a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11, 12).
Though in most parallels between Jewish legends and the Qur'an the Islamic material is derivative, it is possible in this case that the story in Surah 18 antedates the Jewish parallel and is thus the source legend. Even if that is the case, however, al-Khider is of pagan origin, a form of the Green Man, the earliest image of which is to be found on a Jain temple in India.
This is particularly true of Surah al-Kahf, "the Cave" the 18th surah, which is made up of three stories. In one, from which the surah takes its title, some pious youths take shelter in a cave to sleep and wake 309 years later. The verses of the surah dealing with the sleepers (Q 18:9 – 26) give no particular reason why God puts them to sleep for 309 years, and they are even vague on how many sleepers there are (Q 18;22):
Some say, “The sleepers were three, and their dog made four.” Others say, “They were five, and their dog made six” – guessing in the dark – and some say, “They were seven, and their dog made eight.” Say [Prophet]. “My lord knows best how many they were.” Only a few have real knowledge about them, so do not argue, but stick to what is clear, and so do not ask any of these people about them.
The story is based on a tale written by Joseph of Sarug (d. 521) called “The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.” According to the story seven young men who are Christians flee Ephesus because of the persecution of Christians by Emperor Decius, who reigned from 249 to 251. They take shelter in a cave and, due to their piety, God allows them to sleep for 196 years. They awake to find that Christianity is everywhere triumphant.
Another story in Surah 18 is based on one of the legends that grew up around the persona of Alexander the Great. The Jewish historian Josephus recorded one of these as historical fact in his Wars of the Jews (7:7:4):
Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned somewhere as being Scythians and inhabiting at the Lake Moetis. This nation about this time laid a design of falling on Media and the parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they treated with the king of Hyrcania; for he was the master of the passage which king Alexander [the Great] shut up with iron gates.
Josephus was alluding to an attack on the Medes by the Alans, a major division of the Sarmatians, who had succeeded their relatives, the Scythians, as the nomads controlling the Russian steppes. The Alans lived just north of the Caucasus Mountains. Hyrcania was an ancient kingdom located along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains. The Sarmatians, like the Scythians before them, were nomadic horsemen who were the terror of the civilized world. From 641 – 617 BCE, the Scythians invaded Near East, devastating the declining Assyrian Empire. They at first helped the Assyrians break a siege of Nineveh by the Medes and Chaldeans in 615, but later switched sides and aided the allies in destroying Nineveh in 612. Eventually, the Medes had to drive them back across the Caucasus Mountains. The Scythians were the probable inspiration for the Gog and Magog prophecies in Ezekiel 38 and 39. This prophecy was alluded to in the Book of Revelation, leading end-times prognosticators, such as Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, to identify Gog and Magog as the Soviet Union.
Josephus said that Alexander the Great had blocked a mountain pass with iron gates because this story was already a legend with wide currency in the ancient world when he wrote Wars of the Jews, shortly after the fall of Jerusalem to the armies of Vespasian and Titus in CE 70. In Surah 18, verses 92 – 99 tell this legend in monotheistic terms:
He traveled on: then when he reached a place between two mountain barriers, he found a people who could barely understand him. They said, “Duh’l-Qarnayn, Gog and Magog are ruining this land. Will you build a barrier between them and us if we pay you a tribute?” He answered, “The power my Lord has given me is better than any tribute, but if you lend me your strength, I will put up a fortification between you and them: Bring me lumps of iron!” And then, when he had filled the gap between the two mountainsides [he said,] “Work the bellows!” And then, when he had made it glow like fire, he said, Bring me the molten metal to pour over it!” Their enemies could not scale the barrier, nor could they pierce it; and he said, “This is a mercy from my Lord. But when my Lord’s promise is fulfilled, He will raze it to the ground: my Lord’s promise always comes true.” On that day, We shall let them surge against each other like waves and then the Trumpet will be blown and We shall gather them all together.
Thus, the legend of Alexander erecting an iron barrier against the Scythians has been blended with the Gog and Magog prophecy from Ezekiel, which itself is treated, as it was in the Christian Book of Revelation, as an apocalyptic prophecy.
Alexander the Great is called Duh’l-Qarnayn – that is, “Two Horns” – in this passage because of another legendary allusion. While he was in Egypt, between the battles of Isus and Gaugmala, Alexander had an epiphany, that he was the earthly incarnation of Zeus – Ammon, a combination of the rulers of, respectively, the Greek and Egyptian pantheons. Since Ammon was represented as having rams horns, it became customary to either represent Alexander with two rams horns coiling tightly against his head or to refer to him as having horns. However, this characteristic bequeathed to him by the ancient Egyptian pantheon notwithstanding, Alexander is shown in this passage as a follower of Allah.
Finally there is in Surah 18 is a long tale about Moses traveling with a person only identified in the Qur’an as one of God’s servants (Q 18:60 – 82). Moses asks if he might travel with the man; to which the man says Q 18:67, “You will not be able to bear with me patiently.” Moses insists that he still wishes to travel with this servant of God, and they set out. As they come upon a boat on the seashore, the stranger makes a hole in it. When Moses asks why, the man reminds him that he had told him that he would find the man’s company hard to bear. Moses apologizes for asking. Then the stranger kills a young boy. Moses is horrified, but the stranger again reminds him of his warning. They travel on and are refused hospitality at a town. Nevertheless, the stranger repairs a wall there that was crumbling. Moses again finds this behavior inexplicable. Why didn’t the stranger demand payment from these inhospitable people? At this point, the stranger says they must part company, but explains his seemingly wicked and illogical actions: The boat belonged to needy fishermen. A tyrant in the region was seizing all serviceable boats. His men would pass over the damaged boat, which the fishermen could then repair. The boy was actually wicked and dangerous. The servant of God prayed that God would send his parents a better son once he had killed the boy. The wall belonged to two young orphans, and a treasure buried under it would be found by hem when they matured. Had the wall crumbled too early, they would not have been mature enough to manage it properly.
This story may be based based on a Jewish legend about Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, who lived in the first half of the third century. Rabbi Joshua meets the prophet Elijah and begs to travel with him. Elijah agrees on one condition: Rabbi Joshua is not to question anything Elijah does. The rabbi agrees. After some days’ journey they are accepting hospitality from a poor couple. Elijah prays, and the couple’s cow dies. While this perplexes Rabbi Joshua, he says nothing. A rich man denies them hospitality, and Elijah rebuilds his wall. They are also not shown hospitality and a certain synagogue. Elijah says to them, “May many of you be princes.” When they are given hospitality another synagogue. Elijah says, “May only one of you be a prince.” Finally, Rabbi Joshua can bear these oddities no longer, and begs Elijah to explain himself. Elijah says, “Very well, but because you have asked, our journey together is now over.” He then explains that the Angel of Death was going to take the poor man’s wife. Elijah prayed that Death take the couple’s cow instead. The rich man’s wall concealed buried treasure. Had it fallen down, the miser would have found it. By repairing the wall Elijah kept it out of his hands. As to the two synagogues, many princes means disunity and strife. One prince means unity, order and peace.
In Arabic legend, the one who traveled with Moses in the Islamic version of the story is al-Khider, variously translated as “the green one” or “the ever-young” (i.e. as such ever-green). The reason he could be identified with Elijah, and the reason Elijah could be wandering through the world centuries after he lived, is that Elijah didn’t die, but was assumed, living, into heaven, ascending in a whirlwind by a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11, 12).
Though in most parallels between Jewish legends and the Qur'an the Islamic material is derivative, it is possible in this case that the story in Surah 18 antedates the Jewish parallel and is thus the source legend. Even if that is the case, however, al-Khider is of pagan origin, a form of the Green Man, the earliest image of which is to be found on a Jain temple in India.
