Christians and Christianity in the Qurʾān

Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila

For Muslims, who regard the Qurʾān as the Word of God, the pos- sibility of any human influence on it is excluded, and the question of Christian presence in the Arabian peninsula in the early seventh century is irrelevant for understanding its origins or contents. On the other hand, early Western authors often dismissed it without further analysis as no more than a concoction of materials taken from Chris- tian and Jewish sources.1 More serious study of the Qurʾān in the West was given impetus in the nineteenth century by T. Nöldeke’s Geschichte des Qorāns, published in 1860.2 Since then, the qurʾānic references to Christianity and Christians have been closely studied, often in connection with the traditional accounts of the life of Muhammad.̣ Similarities between the Qurʾān and Christian works have led scholars to speculate on the Prophet’s possible Christian sources, informants or environment.3

1 But see T. Burman, Reading the Qurʾān in Latin Christendom, 1140-1560, Phila- delphia PA, 2007, for a demonstration of the impartiality and sensitivity with which medieval Christian translators often approached the text. 2 Later, Nöldeke, with his students F. Schwally (Parts I-II), and G. Bergsträsser and O. Pretzl (Part III), completely reworked the book for a second German edition, which remains an irreplaceable tool for qurʾānic studies: T. Nöldeke, Geschichte des Qorāns, 3 vols, Leipzig, 1909-38. 3 The current state of qurʾānic studies has been reviewed in several recent articles. Especially noteworthy are those collected in G.S. Reynolds (ed.), The Qurʾān in its historical context, London, 2008. J.D. McAuliffe (ed.), The Cambridge companion to the Qurʾān, Cambridge, 2006, and A. Rippin (ed.), The Blackwell companion to the Qurʾān, Oxford, 2006, also contain useful articles. Several articles in the EQ are also relevant, especially S. Griffith’s ‘Christians and Christianity’. The three collections of articles edited by Ibn Warraq, The origins of the Koran, 1998; What the Koran really says. Language, text, and commentary, 2002; The quest for the historical Muhammad, 2006 (all published in Amherst NY) contain useful reprints of earlier, and some more recent, articles in an easily available form. The introductions by Ibn Warraq are also useful, although not as well informed as the articles in Reynolds’ Qurʾān. They also tend to favor revisionist viewpoints. On the question of Christian, or Jewish, informants of Muhammad,̣ see also C. Gilliot, ‘Les “informateurs” juifs et chrétiens de Muhammad.̣ Reprise d’un problème traité par Aloys Sprenger et Theodor Nöldeke’, JSAI 22 (1998) 84-126, and also his ‘Le Coran, 22 Christians and Christianity in the Qurʾān

The term used for Christians is Naṣārā (sing. Nasrānị̄ ), mostly in connection with, or in contrast to, Hūd or Yahūd, ‘Jews’. The term probably derives from the Syriac Nasrāyẹ̄ (‘Christians’), but it may also have been associated with Nazareth and with the Arabic etymology of the radicals n.ṣ.r.: in Q 61:14 the disciples identify themselves as ‘the helpers of God’ (anṣār Allāh).4 The later termMasīh ị̄ is not used in the Qurʾān, but Christ is frequently called al-Masīḥ.5 Very often both Jews and Christians are grouped under the general term ahl al-kitāb, ‘People of the (holy) book’. All these terms come mainly in the sūras traditionally dated to the Medinan period. In earlier, Mec- can sūras Christian presence is hardly felt, except in Medinan addi- tions. On qurʾānic evidence, it would seem that the environment of the first sūras was not infused with Christianity.6 In the Qurʾān, it is often difficult to distinguish between polemics against polytheists and polemics against Christians who believe in fruit d’un travail collectif?’, in D. de Smet, G. de Callatay and J.M.F. van Reeth (eds), Al-Kitāb. La sacralité du texte dans le monde de l’islam, Brussels, 2004, 185-231. For the Qurʾān in general, see also N. Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an. A contemporary approach to a veiled text, London, 1996. For Muhammad,̣ see also H. Motzki (ed.), The biography of Muhammad.̣ The issue of the sources, Leiden, 2000. 4 For the etymology of the term, see Griffith, art. ‘Christians’. For an attempt to connect it with the Nazoraeans, see most recently F. de Blois, ‘Naṣrānī (Nazōraios) and hanīf̣ (ethnikos): Studies on the religious vocabulary of Christianity and of Islam’, BSOAS 65 (2002) 1-30. For an earlier bibliography, see A. Jeffery,The foreign vocabulary of the Qurʾān, Baroda, 1938, pp. 280-81. The standard study of Christians in the Qurʾān and its commentaries is J.D. McAuliffe,Qur ʾānic Christians. An analysis of classical and modern exegesis, Cambridge, 1991. Of more limited value are the first chapters of H. Goddard, A history of Christian-Muslim relations, Edinburgh, 2000. 5 Christ is also called al-Masīḥ ibn Maryam, or al-Masīḥ ʿĪsā ibn Maryam. It is not clear whether al-Masīḥ was understood as a personal name or an epithet. It seems probable that the term is not used in a clearly defined sense in the Qurʾān: the first audience may well have been uncertain about its meaning. 6 It should be emphasized that biographical passages speaking of Muhammad’ṣ early contacts with Christians aim at showing that he was accepted as a prophet by Christians who might be regarded as authorities (Waraqa ibn Nawfal, the monk Baḥīrā, etc.). Their historical accuracy is questionable. Likewise, references to the images of Jesus and Mary in the sanctuary of the Kaʿba are doubtful. The origins of the sanctuary as a place of monotheistic worship were an issue, and to prove it later theologically motivated commentators sought testimonials to support their claims. For a study of these images, see S. Bashear, ‘The images of Mecca: a case-study in early Muslim iconography’, Le Muséon 105 (1992) 361-77. For an attempt to see the early career of Muhammaḍ in terms of Arabian paganism, see J. Hämeen-Anttila, ‘Arabian prophecy’, in M. Nissinen (ed.), Prophecy in its ancient Near Eastern context, Atlanta GA, 2000, 115-46.