The Throne of Solomon in the Islamic World

chapter 4 The Throne of Solomon in the Islamic World

Solomon done fly, Solomon done gone Solomon cut across the sky, Solomon gone home. toni morrison, Song of Solomon … This chapter constitutes, to a certain degree, a natural continuation of the previ- ous one. Within the Islamic tradition, in fact, information about Solomon was not only found in the Qurʾān, but it was also gathered over time in a series of commentaries, compendia, and other learned works that incorporate material not too dissimilar from that in the haggadot seen before. Most relevant, in this case, are the compilations known as Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ , or The Tales of the Prophets,1

1 For a synthetical list of entries on Solomon, drawn from these sources, see for instance Brannon Wheeler, Prophets in the Qurʾān: an Introduction to the Qurʾān and Muslim Exegesis (London-New York: A&C Black, 2002), 266–79. In general, on the various cultural and literary influences on the Qurʾān, see Abraham Geiger, Was hat Muhammad aus dem Judenthum aufgenommen? (Bonn: Baaden, 1833); Gustav Weil, The Bible, the Koran and the Talmud (London: Longman & Co, 1846); John M. Arnold, The Koran and the Bible, or, Islam and Christianity (London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1866); Hartwig Hirschfeld, Beiträge zur Erklärung des Korans (Leipzig: Schulze, 1886); Hartwig Hirschfeld, Jüdische Elemente im Koran: ein Beitrag zur Koranforschung (Berlin: selbstverlag, 1878); Hartwig Hirschfeld, New Researches into the Composition and Exegesis of the Koran (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1901); Max Grünbaum, Neue Beiträge zur semitischen Sagenkunde (Leiden: Brill, 1893); Israel Shapiro, Die haggadischen Elemente im erzählenden Teil des Korans (Leipzig: Gustav Fock, 1907); Wilhelm Rudolph, Die Abhangigkeit des Qorans von Judenthum und Christentum (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1922); Richard Bell, The Origin of Islam and Its Christian Environment (London: Cass, 1926); Bernard Heller, “Récits et personnages bibli ques dans la légende Mahométane,” Revue des Etudes Juives 85 (1928): 113–36; Heinrich Speyer, Die biblischen Erzählungen im Qoran (Gräfenhainichen: Schulze, 1931); John Walker, Bible Characters in the Koran (Paisley: Gardner, 1931); Joshua Finkel, “Jewish, Christian and Samaritan Influences on Arabia,” in The Macdonald Presentation Volume, eds. William G. Shellabear et al. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1933), 145–66; David Sidersky, Les origines des légendes musulmanes dans le Coran et dans les vies des prophètes (Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1933); Charles C. Torrey, The Jewish Foundation of Islam (New York: Jewish Institute of Religion, 1933); Joachim W. Hirshberg, Jüdische und christliche lehren im vor- und frühislamischen Arabien (Krakow: Nakladem Polskiej Akademii Umiejetnosci, 1939); Abraham I. Katsch, Judaism and Islam. Biblical and Talmudic Backgrounds of the Koran and its commentaries. Suras ii and iii

301492 The Throne Of Solomon In The Islamic World 161 such as the famous collection by the twelfth-century scholar Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Kisāʾī.2 These works, usually organized in a biographical and ency- clopedic fashion, served a pedagogical function, as the basis for sermons and homilies.3 Since the Islamic sacred text does not proceed according to a chrono- logical or thematic order, rearranging part of its constituting material in broader themes and enriching it with details or stories drawn from oral tradition (often including rabbinical, biblical, Christian and pre-Islamic elements) made it sim- pler to be taught or passed on. Even historians such as al-Ṭabarī, al-Yaʿqūbī, and Ibn al-Athīr included biographies of prophets in their chronicles. The variety of sources employed by these compilers and authors explains why the Islamic tradition represents a combination of several elements;4 it is a rich repository of themes, some of them drawing from Jewish sources, while others appear to be of Persian origin. In the following paragraphs I will therefore try to outline the cultural debt from the rabbinic tradition exposed before by comparing some of the known Islamic versions with those discussed previously. In this way, it will be possible to see how the Muslim world came to know the details regarding the throne description. This time, the trajectory of such a migration does not proceed from a historical setting toward its written counterpart but is entirely embedded

(New York: New York University, 1954); Denise Masson, Le Coran et la révélation judéo-chrétienne (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1958); Joseph Henninger, “L’influence du christianisme oriental sur l’Islam naissant,” in Atti del convegno internazionale Oriente cristiano nella storia della civiltà, Roma 31 marzo- 3 aprile 1963, Firenze 4 aprile 1963 (Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1964), 379–410; John Bowman, “The Debt of Islam to Monophysite Syrian Christianity,” in Essays in Honour of Griffithes Wheeler Thatcher, ed. Evan C.B. MacLaurin (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1967), 191–216; Harry T. Norris, “Qiṣas elements in the Qurʾān,” in Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period, ed. Alfred F.L. Beeston (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 246–59; Heribert Busse, Die theologische Beziehungen des Islams zu Judentum und Christentum (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1988); Cherubino M. Guzzetti, Bibbia e Corano. Un confronto sinottico (Cinisello Balsamo: Edizioni San Paolo, 1995); Roberto Tottoli, Biblical Prophets in the Qurʾān and Muslim Literature (Richmond: Curzon, 2002). 2 al-Kisāʾī, The Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisaʾi, trans. William M. Thackston Jr. (Chicago: Great Books of the Islamic World, 1997, or. ed. 1978). 3 On quranic commentaries and their tradition, see, for instance, Mahmoud Ayoub, The Qurʾān and its Interpreters, 2 vols (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984). 4 In this chapter I will quote only some sources, particularly those that can be accessed in some European translations; however, accounts of Solomon’s adventures can be found also in al-Jazāʾirī, Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ; al-Balkhī, Kitāb al-Bad ʾ wa-al-Taʾrīkh; al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān; al-Ṭabarsī, Majimaʿ al-Bayān li-ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān; al-Nasafī, Tafsīr; al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf; al-Diyārbakrī, Taʾrīkh al-Khamīs; al-Balʿamī, Taʾrīkh-i Ṭabarī (Persian translation of al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh al-Rusūl wa-al-Mulūk).

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