'ARA'ISAL-MAJALIS Fl QISAS AL-A.NBITA' OR "LIVES OF THE PROPHETS" STUDIES IN ARABIC LITERATURE SUPPLEMENTS TO THE JOURNAL OF ARABIC LITERATURE EDITED BY SUZANNE PINCKNEY STETKEVYCH VOLUME XXIV 'ARA'IS AL-MAJALIS Fl QISAS AL-ANBITA' OR "LIVES OF THE PROPHETS" AS RECOUNTED BY ABU ISHAQ AHMAD IBN MUHAMMAD IBN IBRAHIM AL-THA'LABI TRANSLATED AND ANNOTATED BY WILLIAM M. BRINNER BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON • KOLN 2002 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tha'labi, Ahmad ibn Muhammad, d. 1035. ['Ara'is al-majalis fi qisas al-anbiya'. English] 'Ara'is al-majalis fi qisas al-anbiya', or, Lives of the prophets / as recounted by c Abu Ishaq Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Tha labi; translated and annotated by William M. Brinner p. cm. — (Studies in Arabic literature, ISSN 0169-9903 ; v. 23) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9004125892 1. Prophets, Pre-Islamic—Early works to 1800. I. Title: Lives of the prophets. II. Brinner, William M. III. Title. IV Series. BP166.4 ,T5 2002 297.2'46—dc21 2002066450 Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Ta'alibi, 'Abd-al-Malik ibn-Muhammad at-: 'Ara'is al-majalisf i"q isas al-anbiya', or, lives of the prophets / as recounted by Abu Ishaq Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Tha'labl. Transl. and annotated by William M. Brinner. - Leiden ; Boston ; Koln : Brill. 2002 (Studies in Arabic literature ; Vol. 23) ISBN 90-04-12589-2 ISSN 0169-9903 ISBN 9004125892 © Copyright 2002 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Le.iden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. J^o part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic. mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriatefe.es are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Banners, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS With gratitude for welcome assistance from Prof. Marc S. Bernstein Prof. Ariel A. Bloch Dr. Josef \V. Meri This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Preface ix Introduction xi LIVES OF THE PROPHETS Creation 3 Adam and Eve 41 Cain and Abel 58 Idns 83 Harut and Marut 86 Noah 92 Hud 105 Salih 14 Abraham 124 Lot 174 Joseph 181 Moses, son of Manaseh 236 Irani of the Pilars 238 The People of al-Ras 247 Job 254 Dhu 1-Kifl 272 Shu'ayb 274 Moses 278 Korah 353 Al-Khidr 361 Moses 383 Balam, son of Beor 392 Ezekiel 415 Elijah 419 Elisha 432 Dhu 1-Kifl (I) 436 Eli and Samuel 439 Saul 45 The Story of David and Goliath 453 David 462 Vlll CONTENTS David and Solomon 482 Those who possess the Sabbath 482 The Story of the Phoenix 498 The Tale of the Dome 509 Bilqls the Queen of Sheba, and the Hoopoe 519 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezra 549 Isaiah 549 Jeremiah 58 Daniel 56 Ezra 576 Luqman the Wise 586 Buluqiya 593 Dhu 1-Qarnayn 605 Zachariah, John, Mary and Jesus 622 Jonah, son of Amitai 681 The People of the Cave (The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus) .... 689 The Story of JirjTs (Saint George) 715 The Story of Samson the Prophet 726 The People of the Trench (The Martyrs of Najran) 728 The People of the Elephant 733 Bibliography 745 Index General Index 751 Index of Religions 767 Index of Peoples and Places 769 Index of Plants, Animals and Foods 772 PREFACE This work of translation was begun many years ago, inspired to a great extent by several important figures in my academic life; first of all, Professor William Popper who introduced me to Arabic lan- guage and literature; and later, Sir Hamilton A.R. Gibb, with whom I studied during a stay at Harvard. But there were several other professors who, although not my teachers, have been sources of inspi- ration and learning over the years, most specifically Professors Franz Rosenthal, Bernard Lewis, MJ. Kister, and the late Gustave E. Von Grunebaum, David Ayalon, and Moshe Perlmann, to all of whom I owe deep gratitude. Several others, closer to my own generation, have also been very helpful with suggestions and ideas. This project was interrupted by several other translations that I had been asked to undertake: Nissim ibn Shahin's "An Elegant Composition Regarding Relief After Adversity"; volumes two and three of the "Tlie History of al- Tabari"; a section of the translation of al-Jabartf's "History of Egypt," as well as the editing of several other books. It is because of the delays in continuing the work on this project, that I must express my gratitude to a number of other individuals— some of them students, some of them colleagues, some of them mem- bers of my family, all of whom assisted greatly in various ways in completing the project. Having begun the process in the days of the typewriter, and not having learned to use the computer for a num- ber of years, I must express my gratitude to all of them for their assistance. My thanks go to Allen B. Bennett for typing the first por- tions of the translation from handwritten pages sent to him from England while I was on sabbatical some twenty years ago, and much later to former students Jeffrey Deboo, Amy Forga and Geoffrey Graham for their early transfer of the material to the computer. Once I became computerized, I must express my deepest thanks for the assistance and patience of my sons, Professor Benjamin Brinner and Rafael Brinner, and to my daughter, Leyla Brinner Sulema, for helping me deal with computer and other problems that developed at times. I have mentioned my thanks to three important figures on the title page: one colleague of many years, Professor Ariel Bloch, and