Quick viewing(Text Mode)

Making a Case for a Connection Between Islam and Mandaean Literature

Making a Case for a Connection Between Islam and Mandaean Literature

ARAM, 22 (2010) 427-440. doi: 10.2143/ARAM.22.0.2131047

MAKING A CASE FOR A CONNECTION BETWEEN AND MANDAEAN LITERATURE

Dr. JENNIFER HART (Indiana University)

Abstract

The development of has often been framed in terms of the connection to and . There is, however, ample reason to suggest that exposure to Islam also had a lasting impact on Mandaeism. The Muslim practice of awarding special, protected, status (ahl al-dhimmi) to people who possessed a propheti- cally revealed holy book needs to be considered as possible underlying cause directing the compilation of the Ginza and Book of John into the focal texts of Mandaean . That the Mandaeans were aware that Islam judged the legitimacy of a accord- ing to whether or not the religion possessed a holy book is alluded to in the section of the in which Anus, son of Danqa, is described presenting with a book of “Great ” in order to secure the Mandaeans future protection from the Muslim conquers. The colophons attached to the Ginza and the Book of John also indicate that the transformation of Mandaean literature from a disparate series of independent pieces of writing into singular “canonical” texts tellingly coincided with the rise of Islam as the new dominant religious power in the homeland of the Mandaeans. Furthermore the comments made by the Mandaean scribes primarily responsible for the compilation of their religious literature during the early Islamic period demonstrates that the Mandaean scribal community was preoccupied with a desire to ensure that their copies of Mandaeism’s literature represented the most accurate and legitimate versions of the texts and that with the advent of their copies all other renderings ought to be abandoned. These particular concerns echo exactly the goals put forth by Islam with regard to the production of the Uthmani Codex of the Qur‘an. Finally there are textual and thematic clues throughout both the Ginza and Book of John which reveal that parts of these texts were written in response to Mandaean encounters with Islam and Islamic theology. Based on Islam’s many connections to the development of the religious litera- ture of the Mandaeans further attention must be given to the study of the relationship between Mandaeism and Islam.

In the course of recounting the consequences of the Arab-Muslim conquest of the the multivocal narrator of the Haran Gawaita digresses from a strictly military history to include the telling of the tale of a high rank- ing Mandaean, Anus, son of Danqa,1 and the introduction of the “Mandaean

1 While Anus, son of Danqa, does not appear on the list of ethnarchs found in the Mandaean to their ancestors one Mandaean scribe, Ramuia, does link Anus to the ethnarchs, “I wrote this Diwan in the town of Tib in the years when Anus son of Danqa departed with the heads of

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 442727 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 428 MAKING A CASE FOR A CONNECTION

Book” to the . As with many other parts of the Haran Gawaita this tale is somewhat fractured and a few of the characters meld together but from within this confusion it is possible to trace the thread of a story which asserts Muhammad was presented with the central of Mandaeism for the express purpose of earning ahl al-dhimmi status for the Mandaeans. The story begins by revealing that soon about the Arab-Muslim forces vanquished the Sasanians in Anus, son of Danqa emerged from within the Mandaean community and that he, perhaps with the accompaniment of his namesake Lightworld being, Anus-Uthra, journeyed to in order to present the “Mandaean Book” to Muhammad, Then, when all this had taken place, in time there came (one) Anus, called the son of Danqa from the uplands of the Araiia…and he took him from his city to Suf-Zaba which is called Basrah, and showed him the hill-country of the (unto?) the city of Baghdad. And Anus (-Uthra)2 instructed the Son-of-Slaughter [Muhammad], as he had instructed Anus, son of Danqa, about this Book (compiled) by his fathers, upon which all kings of the Nasoraeans stood firm. And a list of kings is in this book, which teachth (chronicleth?) from , king of the world unto King Artabanus, (yea even) unto Anus, son of Danqa, who were (all?) of the Chosen Root [Mandaean].3

According to the next section of the Haran Gawaita Anus, son of Danqa presented Muhammad with this Book, which Drower opines was most likely the Ginza4, with the specific intent of garnering protection from the Muslims. Then he told him [Muhammad] about the king of the Ardubaiia (Sasanians); about all he sought to do and (of) his connections with the children of the great Nation of Life [Mandaeans], in order that they (the Moslems) should not harm the Nasoraeans who lived in the era of his [Muhammad’s] government.5

the people (ethnarchs).” This suggests that even if Anus is not an ethnarch he is closely associated with the leadership of the Mandaean people. Jorunn J. Buckley, The Great Stem of : Recon- structing Mandaean History. (Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2005) 306-307. (Hereafter Stem) 2 The text does not specify whether this is the human Anus, son of Danqa or the Lightworld Being Anus-Uthra. Drower speculates that it is the latter perhaps because of the third person identification of Anus, so of Danqa and his instruction later in the sentence but I would point out that everywhere else in this passage and in the one that follows the text only mentions the human Anus, son of Danqa as the actor in this exchange with the Muslims. In fact, except for Drower’s questioning (questionable) insertion of Uthra into this sentence the Lightworld being does not appear anywhere in the story, which leads me to wonder if he is actually associated with the story or if the story really is all about Anus, son of Danqa and that the grammatical oddities that accompany his appearance are just the product of the dramatic language of story telling. 3 E.S. Drower, The Haran Gawaita and the of Hibil Ziwa. Studi e Testi 101. (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1953) 15. (Hereafter HG) The italics are as they appear in the text. They are insertions or alternatives in translation contemplated by Drower. 4 She bases this identification on the notion that the contains a list rulers like the list of kings used to describe the book introduced to Muhammad. HG 15 fn 10. 5 Drower, HG 16.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 442828 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 J. HART 429

The narrator of the Haran Gawaita is so intent on insisting that the moral of Anus story is that the Mandaeans ought to be spared from harm by virtue of their Book that the call for protection is reiterated in the next line, Thus did Anus, son of Danqa explain and speak so that, through the power of the lofty King of Light – praise be his name! – it was not permitted to the Son-of- Slaughter, the Arab, to harm the congregation of souls, owing to the protection afforded by the explanation of the Great Revelation – praised be its name!6

It is clear from these passages that this is a story of Mandaeism using its literature to seek, and apparently receive the coveted status of a protected reli- gious minority from the Muslims. In the passage following this double exposition of the moral of the story a first person narrative voice bears witness to the antiquity, efficacy and superi- ority of the “Great Revelation” of Mandaeism. The narrator affirms that the “Great Revelation” is the source of Mandaean and it is the sole expression of the true message of the divine, For it is reliable, existing from ancient times and eternally, from the beginning of the eighth world unto the worlds’ end. (These are) writings which teach orthodox procedure, that are all clarity. Instruction about the beginnings of all light and the end of all darkness is found in these writings of the Great Revelation and not found in any other books.7

The “Great Revelation”, as it is portrayed here, echoes Muslim descriptions of the nature the divine message recorded in the of the Qur‘an. As the uncorrupted word of the Qur’an is also described as reliable, existent throughout eternity and the source that reveals the correct (orthodox) way to . Everything about the Mandaean “Great Revelation” corresponds to Islamic expectations for a legitimate holy book. This Islamically inspired image of Mandaean literature continues in the next paragraph of the Haran Gawaita where the Lightworld being Hibil Ziwa the explains that whosoever adheres to the message taught in these writings will receive the rewards of great , Then Hibil Ziwa – praised be his name! – taught that every man who concealeth it [from those who wish to corrupt it], but observeth it, when his measure is full he will rise up without sin and (moreover) will loose and take with him sixty (souls) who are bound.8

So great is the “Great Revelation” of the Mandaeans that it offers salvation to anyone who in it and even some of those who do not. This is a powerful statement about the truth and efficacy Mandaeism wants to associate

6 Drower, HG 16. 7 Drower, HG 16, emphasis in text. 8 Drower, HG 17, emphasis in text.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 442929 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 430 MAKING A CASE FOR A CONNECTION

with their religious literature. It gives the Mandaean message the tenor of being the ultimate expression of divine will and like the comments before seems tailored to argue that Mandaean literature is worthy of the standards set by Islam. At this point the Haran Gawaita discontinues its exaltation of the virtues of the “Mandaean Book” and returns to the task of plotting the timeline of Mandaean history, revealing that the Arab-Muslim military victories are fol- lowed by the age of “Arab Law” which is the Haran Gawaita notably also identifies as the apocalyptic “last epoch.”9 What is fascinating about the story of the Anus, son of Danqa and all the attendant disquisitions on benefits and merits of the “Mandaean Book” is that it is telling evidence that Mandaeism has a tradition of thinking about their literature through an Islamic-influenced framework. While it remains open to debated whether or not the Mandaeans were actually counted among the groups originally granted ahl al-kitab status the contents of these passages from the Haran Gawaita demonstrate that at an early point after the Muslim conquest the Mandaeans had a clear understanding of what it meant to be ahl al-dhimmi and that Muslim perception of one’s literature was a critical aspect of how one achieved this designation.10 The image of Mandaean literature proffered by the Haran Gawaita, as a text worthy of acquiring protected status for the Mandaeans, along with the emphasis on the primacy of the divine message recorded in the Mandaean writings gives the impression that they are in concordance with Islamic expectations for the role and character of true religious literature. It is also the first of many indications that the formative literature of Mandaeism, especially in terms of its development into the corpus of texts now associated with Mandaean religion, was at least partially impacted by the Mandaeans’ exposure to Islam. However there is additional information in the colophons, specifically in post- scripts authored by the scribes copying the texts, that reveals that the same cop- yists that are responsible for transmitting the important works of the Mandaean literary tradition were also often preoccupied with the notion that it was their personal duty to ensure that the disparate pieces of Mandaean literature were collected, vetted for authenticity and then transformed into a standardized text which would benefit all Mandaeans. The articulation of these goals by early

9 Drower, HG 18-19. 10 Scholarly opinion differs as to whether the Mandaeans officially achieved ahl al-kitab status during their early encounters with Islam. Maçuch thinks they did but others are less certain that the Mandaeans could lay claim to this distinctions. See Maçuch, “Anfänge der Mandäer.” In Die Araber in der alten Welt. ed. Franz Altheim and Ruth Stiehl, 2:76-190. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1965) 186. For questions about the designation of the Mandaeans as see Christopher Buck, “The Identity of the Sabi’un.” Muslim World, 74 (1984), 172-186 and Jane Dammen McAuliffe, “Exegetical Identification of the Sabi’un,” Muslim World, 72 (1982), 95-106.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 443030 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 J. HART 431

Ginza and Book of John copyists corroborates the idea that the period of Islam’s expansion into the Mandaean homeland overlapped with an active desire on the part of the Mandaeans to create a uniform textual tradition. This self-confessed yearning for uniformity within Mandaean literature coming immediately on the heels of Mandaeism exposure to Islam certainly contributes to the likelihood that the formulation of the Ginza and the Book of John owe something to Islam. But what is perhaps even more compelling proof of a connection between this development in the nature of Mandaean literature and the influence of Islam is that in expressing this move towards a codified corpus of Mandaean literature the Mandaean scribes seem to be paralleling a coterminous effort within Islam to create an official written version of the Qur‘an. A noticeable upsurge in Mandaean scribal activity, as well as a self reflexive preoccupation with the legitimacy and ordered dissemination of Mandaean literature, occurred following the arrival of Islam. Comparing evidence of scribal production dating to the early Islamic period to that of other stages in Mandaean development, Buckley observes that there is a significantly higher amount of simultaneous copying happening between 650 and 700 C.E. Texts are not being copied once a generation, as is often the case during other periods, rather dur- ing this fifty year span which corresponds with the beginning of Islam’s reign a number of scribes are producing multiple copies of a variety of works. The colophons record the existence of a practice which Buckley calls “copying in circles” wherein the copying of a single text “circles” back and forth between different scribes within the same generation.11 Notably some of the scribes belonging to these copy circles are Bayan Hibil, Sadan, Banan, Bihram, Qaiam, Brik Yawar, Ram Silia, Ramuia, Haiasum, and Sku Hiia, all of whom are asso- ciated with the early production of the Ginza or the Book of John. This increase in scribal activity seems emblematic of a corresponding inter- nal increase in the interest in and emphasis on the material being copied. The fact that the Mandaean scribes active during the early Islamic period were so busy copying and recopying the texts of the Ginza and the Book of John suggests that this is a moment in Mandaean history when concern for these particular works of literature was especially pronounced. There seems to be great demand for these texts implying that the significance of this literature was at the forefront of Mandaean consciousness. The attention given to the Ginza and the Book of John – as evidenced by the intensity with which they were copied and recopied – implies that this literature enjoyed a heightened level of importance within the Mandaean community at this time. Based on this evidence, the seventh century C.E. materializes as a time when Mandaeism was actively engaged with thinking about its literature and the nature of its presentation.

11 Buckley, Stem, 28.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 443131 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 432 MAKING A CASE FOR A CONNECTION

Interestingly during this period of apparent heightened attention to Mandaean literature the colophons also record that some of the most prolific scribes were also grappling with a need to establish the legitimacy and orthodoxy of the texts they were copying and disseminating. In a postscript to a colophon for the Canonical Prayerbook, which like the Ginza and the Book of John experi- enced a surge in scribal interest during the late seventh century C.E., Bayan Hibil recounts that he has undertaken a survey of all available Mandaean texts and fortified with this knowledge proceeds to record the most legitimate ver- sions of the texts, I purified myself when I got possession of these mysteries. And I myself traveled around and went on foot to Nasoraeans12 and took many diwans [scrolls] place to place. And nowhere did I find “mysteries” as reliable as the Mysteries of Baptism and Oil of Unction. I have written them here and have distributed them to a hun- dred Nasoraeans, so that they may hold on to and be staunch to them.13

The underlying message in this passage is that while Bayan Hibil was active as a scribe multiple, perhaps even competing, versions of Mandaean texts were in circulation and he regarded it as part of his scribal duty to collect those texts, assess their legitimacy and produce singular authoritative version that was to be disseminated among the priestly caste of the Mandaeans. By his own admis- sion he is attempting to codify and institute an official edition of the text which future Mandaeans are advised to faithfully maintain and follow. According to Buckley, Bayan Hibil even “exhorts his fellow priests to adhere to his version”14; advice which indicates that he wants his copy of the text to be regarded as the standard for the religious leadership of the community. Bayan Hibil’s com- ments clearly demonstrate a desire for the establishment of textual and doctri- nal orthodoxy within Mandaeism. This move towards producing an orthodox standard for Mandaean literature is perpetuated in the work of by Ram Ziwa Bihram, an initiate and son of Bayan Hibil, whose postscript to a different Canonical Prayerbook colophon threat- ens, “‘dire consequences’ for anyone removes zharas15, changes the texts, cuts off part of the copy, or removes the name of the owner.”16 This admonition echoes the curse found at the end of the Christian book Revelation,

12 This is the term that Mandaean literature uses to refer to the priestly class of the Mandaeans. 13 E.S. Drower, Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans. (Leiden: Brill, 1959), 71-72 (Here- after CP), (this passage is also quoted in Stem, 190-191). Oddly Buckley introduces this passage by suggesting Bayan Hibil lived just at the “cusp of Islam” or that he is even pre-Islamic, which does not make sense given that elsewhere she repeated identifies Bayan Hibil as active around the 700s, although this may be a nascent period for Islam it does postdate the time when Islam, including traditional elements of Islamic theology are demonstrably presence in the former Persian Empire. 14 Buckley, Stem, 191. 15 Zharas are the Names inserted in the copy of the text to identify the individual(s) for whose benefit the text was copied. 16 Drower, CP 72.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 443232 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 J. HART 433

I warn everyone who hears the words of the of this book: if anyone adds to them, will add to that person the plagues described in this book; if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away the that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.17 Both warnings invoke the notion of a closed canon, an official compilation of texts which have received authoritative sanction and which therefore no one may rightfully alter or amend. The postscript written by Ram Ziwa Bihram reveals that the desire to assign Mandaean texts the status of a closed literary tradition was of obvious concern to the Mandaean scribes operating dur- ing the early period of Islamic rule. Like his initiator, Bayan Hibil, Ram Ziwa Bihram seems intent on establishing a singular, unalterable version of Mandaean literature which would constitute a closed and official literary tradition for the Mandaeans.

At roughly the same time as Bayan Hibil and his initiate/son were advocating for orthodoxy and a closed canon the scribe Ramuia assures Mandaeans that after careful study he too has assembled disparate Mandaean writings and pro- duced from them a singular scroll meant to benefit future Mandaean priests. When I wrote this Diwan18 it was in separate treatises. I wrote them down and collected these reliable mysteries one by one, and combined them into fourteen writings…I have preserved it so that its beauty, fame and honor may be yours, and forgiveness of sins [sic].19 Here again a scribe who is known to be working in the aftermath of Islam’s expansion in to the Mandaean homeland is acknowledging his efforts to trans- form a disorganized mass of Mandaean texts into a coherent, unified whole. Moreover he regards the production of a singular, composite text as a boon for the Mandaean priesthood. The beauty, fame and honor of the text will accrue to the priests in a way that appears to grant them forgiveness for their sins. In this way, Ramuia sees his efforts to unify its literature as advancing the underlying strength of Mandaeism. As the testimony of Bayan Hibil, Ram Ziwa Bihram and Ramuia demon- strates the urge to move Mandaean texts towards a canonized corpus of litera- ture is a recurrent theme among scribes at work during the early Islamic period. That a widespread concern for consolidation and refinement of Mandaean literature should appear in the generations that were the first to know and interact with Islam is interesting not just because of the circumstance of its timing but also because the desire for textual uniformity and authenticity expressed by the Mandaean scribes bears certain tantalizing similarities to

17 Rev. 22:18-19. 18 He is referring here to a text known as the Alf Trisar Suialia (A Thousand and Twelve Questions) which is clearly a composite text dealing primarily with instructions to priests for the correction of errors. 19 Drower, The Thousand and Twelve Questions: A Mandaean Text (Alf Trisar Suialia). (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1960). §434, 289.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 443333 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 434 MAKING A CASE FOR A CONNECTION

the circumstances associated with the emergence of an officially sanctioned literary tradition among Muslims. Pinning down an accurate account of the early Muslims’ move towards an authoritative literary tradition remains a point of debate within scholarship on Islam. Islamic doctrine maintains that the Qur‘an is a compilation of the revela- tions Muhammad received throughout his lifetime. Muslims claim these reve- lations initially circulated orally throughout the community and were arranged in to written, textual form either near the end of the Prophet’s life or soon after his death.20 Scholars dispute the veracity of the Muslim account of the Qur‘an’s origins. For example Wansbrough’s detailed study of the content of the Qur‘an has led him to conclude that the focal religious text of Islam developed slowly over the course of much of the Eighth and the Ninth centuries (approximately 150 years or more after Muhammad’s death) and that the text is an amalgama- tion of diverse material from distinct Muslim communities in Arabia, Iraq, and .21 and William Graham generally concur with Wans- brough’s theory but suggest that the process of compilation may have taken less time than Wansbrough proposed. Consequently they think the Qur‘an reached its present form sometime in the middle of the 700’s.22 Crone also places the emergence of the Qur‘an in the 700’s though she notes that there is some evidence that version of the Qur‘an, or at least parts of it, existed by the very end of the Seventh century.23 Even allowing for the earliest date offered by Crone, scholarship on the Qur‘an identifies the text as a composite of early Muslim voices rather than a product of ongoing revelation and situates its com- position at least two generations after the death of Muhammad. This under- standing of the Qur‘an differs radically from received tradition. If scholarly theories about the timeframe and process of the Qur‘an’s actual development are correct then we have an interesting parallel with Mandaean literature. It would seem that the nascent Muslim community was attempting to refine and define their authoritative literature at the same time as the Mandaeans were motivated to produce fixed versions of key texts such as the Ginza, Book of John, and the Canonical Prayerbook. Whether one tradition was directly influenced by the other is difficult to discern but the redactive activities of the Mandaeans and Muslims between the Seventh and Ninth century indicates that members of both communities felt a powerful impulse to produce authoritative versions of their respective religious literature.

20 Fazlur Rahman. Islam. 2nd Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002, 30-33. 21 Wansbrough. Qur‘anic Studies, 1-51. 22 Fred Donner. Narratives of Islamic Origins. Princeton NJ: The Darwin Press, 1998, 37; and William Graham. “Review of John Wansbrough, Qur‘anic Studies.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 100, 1980: 137-141. 23 Crone, 18. This does not necessarily contradict Wansbrough who also believes that parts of the Qur‘an are certainly older than the text as a whole. Wansbrough Qur‘anic Studies, 33-38.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 443434 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 J. HART 435

By itself the shared timing of the Mandaean and Muslim push towards a fixed source of textual authority would be an interesting coincidence but not conclu- sive evidence of any shared influence. It is the narrative parallels that emerge from a comparison of the stories that the Mandaeans, Muslims, and, in some cases, others tell about the process of redaction that raises the possibility that the Mandaeans and the Muslims may have been familiar with one another’s’ efforts to formulate a fixed textual tradition. From the Muslim side of the equation there are two stories in particular: that of the scribal pursuits of al-Hajjaj and that of the creation of the Uthmani Codex, which need to be considered in comparison with the Mandaean sources. Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Kulayb was an early Muslim governor of , who is often credited with helping to establish the authority of the Umayyad Cali- phate in , as well as replacing Middle Persian with as the administrative language for the region.24 He is known to Muslim sources as one of the people involved with early distributions of the Qur‘an or as the individ- ual responsible for creating the system of diacritical marks that made it easier to understand written Arabic but it is a story about al-Hajjaj reported by a Christian source that is of most interest in comparison with Mandaean accounts of the formation of their literary tradition. In a letter supposedly written by Pope Leo III to Umar II, the Pope calls the Muslims hypocrites for suggesting translations of Christian texts have altered the meaning of the text and thus corrupted the word of god because the Muslims are also known to have redacted their sacred writings.25 Leo III specifically cites al-Hajjaj as an example of a Muslim who engaged in the supposedly proscribed activity of editing Islamic texts. According to Leo III, al-Hajjaj “had men gather up your [Muslim] ancient books, which he replaced by others composed by himself, according to his taste, and which he propagated everywhere in your nation” 26 Jeffery identifies Leo III’s description of al-Hajjaj as polemically minded Christian recasting of Muslim accounts of al-Hajjaj’s involvement with the early development of the Qur‘an. Jeffery also notes that the image of al-Hajjaj as an active redactor of Muslim literature seems to have been well known throughout the Eastern Christian community.27 Even if the Christian understanding of al-Hajjaj’s relationship to the sacred writings of Islam is tinged with polemical overtones the suggestion that Eighth

24 Richard Frye, Abdolhussein Zarrinkoub. Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 4, Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 1975. 25 The date of the letter (and thus its veracity) is unclear. It may have been authored in the Eighth century but it could be as late as the Ninth or Tenth century. See A. Jeffery, “Ghevond’s text of the Correspondence between Umar II and Leo III” Harvard Theological Review 1944: 275-276. 26 Jeffery, 289. 27 Jeffery, 289 fn 48.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 443535 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 436 MAKING A CASE FOR A CONNECTION

and Ninth century Eastern Christians were circulating a description of al-Hajjaj as a prominent Muslim who gathered, rewrote, and distributed the corpus of Muslim literature is striking because it offers a couple possible points of inter- section between the development of an authoritative body of literature within Mandaeism and Islam (or at least perceptions of Islam). The Christian accounts of al-Hajjaj’s activities give the impression that other saw nascent Islam as a tradition concerned with mapping the contours of its literary canon. Independent of any direct contact with the Muslims the Mandaeans could have been exposed to the idea that Muslims regarded the formation of a carefully defined textual tradition as constitutive of the authority of a religion. This per- ception of Islam could have inspired or more likely reinforced an existing move- ment within Mandaeism to refine their own literature. The intriguing coincidence of the parallels between the redactive activities of al-Hajjaj and those of Mandaean scribes, Bayan Hibil and Ramuia adds to the sense that the Christian stories of al-Hajjaj may be somehow related to the process that led to the formation of the Mandaean canon. We have already cited colophons attached to major pieces of Mandaean literature which credit Bayan Hibil and Ramuia with initiating standardizing reforms of Mandaean literature. These colophons record a series of actions supposedly taken by the Mandaean scribes that follow a pattern similar to that which Christian sources claim al-Hajjaj took in the course of his dealings with the religious texts of Islam. Like Christian descriptions of al-Hajjaj, Bayan Hibil and Ramuia are presented as religious and political authorities who first gather or survey circu- lating religious literature, then author a new writing, and finally have their text dispersed among the community at large. The process by which the Mandaean colophons suggest Bayan Hibil and Ramuia arrived at their versions of key pieces of Mandaean literature mirrors, step by step, the trajectory Christians seem to associate with the early development of Islamic religious literature. The simi- larities between the Mandaean colophons and Christian accounts of al-Hajjaj do not necessarily imply that the Mandaeans were motivated by Muslim prece- dent when the Mandaeans undertook the task of unifying and formalizing their religious literary tradition but it does raise the possibility that the Mandaeans may have been familiar with stories circulating among non-Muslims about how Muslim literature developed and that they may have used these stories as models for framing accounts of how Mandaean literature likewise assumed an authoritative form. The other story about the creation of a canonical literary tradition in Islam which has resonances with Mandaean sources is the narrative about the for- mation of the Uthmani Codex. Islamic stories about the origins of the official written version of the Qur‘an indicate that sometime under the reigns of either the first Islamic caliph, (r. 632-634) or the third, (644-565), a scribe known as Zayd ibn Thabit was assigned the task of compiling a written

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 443636 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 J. HART 437

copy of the Qur’an. In one version of the stories about the origin of the written Qur’an the Muslim leadership becomes concerned that the battle related deaths of many first generation Muslims has seriously diminished the number of people able to recite Muhammad’s prophecies from firsthand memory, consequently a written text is needed in order accurately preserve all the of the Qur‘an. Zayd ibn Thabit, because he was a scribe to Muhammad, is called upon interview the remaining recitators in order to collect all the fragmentary pieces and memories of the and fashion an official written version of the text out of them.28 In the other story about the origin of the written Qur‘an a dispute breaks out between Muslim forces in Iraq and Syria regarding the proper reci- tation of the passages of the Qur’an that are said during daily . This debate prompts a high ranking general to request that the Caliph provide the military with an official written version of the Qur‘an. This job again falls to Zayd ibn Thabit, who Uthman places in charge of a commission responsible for gathering, evaluating and collating all the available Qur’anic material so as to produce a single text. When this task is completed Zayd ibn Thabit makes several copies of the official written version of the Qur‘an, gives one to the caliph Uthman – thus it comes to be known as the Uthmani Codex, distributes others to Islamic strongholds in Kufa, Basra, Damascus, as well as maybe Mecca, and then orders all competing versions destroyed.29 Scholarship on the Qur‘an and the early has challenged the veracity of this narrative with regard to its status as an accurate account of the actual emergence of the written version of the Qur‘an. As mentioned earlier analysis of the Qur‘an places the date of its composition somewhere between the Eighth and Tenth century, well later than the early to mid-600s timeframe implied by the Uthmani Codex narrative. It is likely therefore that the story of the Uthmani Codex reflects an idealized rather than historical look at the formation of the religious literature of Islam. However for the purpose of comparison with Mandaeism the accuracy of the story told about the creation of the Uthmani Codex does not matter. What is important is that this is the story Muslims came to tell about origin of their written literary tradition suggesting that the events outlined in this story served as the accepted model for explaining how the written canon of Islamic emerged. When the details of the model at the heart of the Uthmani Codex narrative are compared to Mandaean sources it becomes clear that many of the thematic concerns about the formation of an authoritative textual tradition which are driving the Uthmani Codex story are also expressed in the Mandaean colophons.

28 See “The History of the Qur‘an after 632” in Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition. ed. B. Lewis, V.L. Ménage, Ch. Pellat and J. Schacht. Leiden: Brill, 1986, vol. 5, 404-405. 29 “The History of the Qur’an after 632”, 405.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 443737 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 438 MAKING A CASE FOR A CONNECTION

Stories about the origins of the official written version of the Qur‘an indi- cate that sometime under the reign of either the first Islamic caliph, Abu Bakr (r. 632-634) or the third, Uthman (644-565), a scribe known as Zayd ibn Thabit was assigned the task of compiling a written copy of the text. In one version of the written Qur’an’s origin the Muslim leadership becomes concerned that the battle related deaths of many first generation Muslims has seriously diminished the number of people able to recite Muhammad’s prophecies from memory, consequently a written text is needed in order accurately preserve all the of the Qur‘an. Zayd ibn Thabit, because he was a scribe to Muhammad, is called upon interview the remaining recitators in order to collect all the fragmentary pieces and memories of the Qur‘an and fashion an official written version of the text out of them.30 In the other story about the origins of the written Qur‘an a dispute breaks out between Muslim forces in Iraq and Syria regarding the recite the Qur‘an during prayers. This debate prompts a high ranking general to request that the caliph provide the military with an official written version of the Qur‘an. This job again falls to Zayd ibn Thabit, who Uthman places in charge of a commission responsible for gathering, evaluating and collating all the available Qur’anic material so as to produce a single text. When this task is completed Zayd ibn Thabit makes several copies of the official written version of the Qur‘an, gives one to the caliph Uthman – thus it comes to be known as the Uthmani Codex, distributes others to Islamic strongholds in Kufa, Basra, Damascus, as well as maybe Mecca, and then orders all competing ver- sions destroyed. The plotline of the stories about the origins of the written Qur‘an follow a pattern that is likewise apparent in the colophonic postscripts found attached to Mandaean literature. First there is the admission that multiple versions of an important religious text are circulating within the community. The first Islamic story only obliquely references this idea (multiple recitators) but the second story cites it explicitly noting that the very need for an official written Qur‘an is predicated on the internal strife within the military that is caused by com- peting versions of the Qur‘an. Among the Mandaeans the existence of variant renditions of the text is confirmed by Bayan Hibil and Ramuia’s claims that in the course of their travels throughout Mandaean community they found multiple copies of the text in which they were interested. The second step in the overlap- ping pattern is for a trusted, high ranking, scribe to assume the responsibility of collecting, authenticating and collating the available material. This is what Zayd ibn Thabit does when he interviews the remaining recitators of the Qur‘an or leads the commission in charge of gathering and evaluating the all the frag- ments and memories of the Qur‘an. On the Mandaean side the comments of

30 See “The History of the Qur‘an after 632” in Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition. ed. B. Lewis, V.L. Ménage, Ch. Pellat and J. Schacht (Leiden: Brill, 1986) vol. 5, 404-405.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 443838 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 J. HART 439

Bayan Hibil and Ramuia likewise indicate that it was part of their scribal duty to assess the gathered copies of their text and produce from them a reliable version. And since Bayan Hibil and Ramuia are some of the first and most prolific Mandaean copyists they, like Zayd ibn Thabit, who was identified as the scribe to Muhammad, can claim to be luminaries within their respective religious traditions. The third shared element in the Muslim and Mandaean accounts of their arrival at an official textual tradition is that of distribution. Once an authentic version of the text is produced it is disseminated to centers of religious authority and from there to the community at large. Zayd ibn Thabit sent his text to Kufa, Basra, Damascus, and Mecca, city where Islam had devel- oped cultural strongholds and from which Muslim envoys were dispersed to the rest of the growing Arab-Muslim world. Bayan Hibil made sure that his writing was distributed to “a hundred Nasoraeans” and the context of the post- scripts for both Ram Ziwa Bihram and Ramuia suggest that the Mandaean priesthood was also their intended audience.31 Following Mandaean tradition it would then be the duty of the priests to integrate these texts into the religious life of the lay Mandaeans. The last element of the pattern found in both the Muslim and Mandaean tradition is the assurance that the texts produced and authenticated by the chosen scribe represent the final and authoritative version of that piece of literature. The Muslim story accomplishes this with the assertion that once Zayd ibn Thabit’s Uthmani Codex was distributed all other editions of the written Qur‘an were destroyed. The Mandaean scribes achieve a similar sense of textual authority and finality through the words of Ram Ziwa Bihram when he warns against making any additions or subtractions to his copy, effec- tively closing the text. The adherence to this four step pattern by Islam and Mandaeism demonstrates that the Mandaean scribes are represented as undertaking the task of redacting Mandaean literature in a manner that accords with the model associated with the Muslim production of the Uthmani codex. That the Mandaeans may have been inspired by Muslim example is made even more plausible by the fact that Zayd ibn Thabit’s project most likely occurred between 644 and 656 C.E. (the years of Uthman’s reign), a period approximately contemporaneous with the time of Ramuia’s operation and immediately prior to Bayan Hibil and Ram Ziwa Bihram.32 Given this timing, all three scribes potentially could have had first hand knowledge of Muslim efforts to officially organize and distribute their sacred text, in addition to an awareness of the significance that Islam assigned the need for an official and inerrant literary expression of the divine message. This would have given the Mandaeans a powerful Islamic precedent

31 Drower, CP 71-72. 32 According to Buckley Ramuia was active around 638 C.E.; Bayan Hibil around 700 C.E.; and Ram Ziwa Bihram in the generation after Bayan Hibil or 720-730 C.E. Stem, 380-383.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 443939 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25 440 MAKING A CASE FOR A CONNECTION

for needing and developing an official literary tradition within Mandaeism. Based on the overlap between the Muslim stories about the origins of the written Qur‘an and the colophonic postscripts in the Mandaean literature there is reason to think that the push for consolidation within Mandaean literature that produced the composite texts of the Ginza and the Book of John came about in part as a response to Islam’s own tradition regarding the emergence of an authoritative corpus of religious literature.

993793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd3793_Aram_22_19_Hart.indd 444040 118/10/118/10/11 15:2515:25

Top View