Arais Al-Majalis Fi Qisas Al-Anbiya Lives of the Prophets: Lives of the Prophets (Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures) (Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures)

809 Pages·2002·39.84 MB·English

by  Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Thalabi

'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.
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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