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Home , Paradise, Seven Heavens, Third Heaven

CHAPTER EIGHT

FROM THE JEWISH APOCALYPSES TO THE MI'RAJ

The heavenly journey belongs to a constant pattern of Jewish and Jewish-Christian apocalypses, from 1 Henoch, whose oldest parts, according to J.T. Millik\ precede the Book of Daniel. The voyage through a number of (7 or 3) becomes a common place ofthe Jewish apocalyptic, from the Testament of the XII Patriarchs2 • The number seven (heavens, palaces) prevails in the so-called " of the MRKBH" (merkaoh.a) or chariot carrying God's Throne in the 1st chapter of Ezekiel. The materials pertaining to this trend of Jewish mysticism are included in the notes of the Tosephta 3 , in the Slavic Book ofHenoch (1st century AD.), in the Apocalypse of (lst_nnd cent. AD.) and, between the IIIrd and the VIth centuries, in the so-called "hekhalotic " (from HYKL, hekhiil, "temple, palace"t. The MCSH MRKBH or ''work of the chariot", a mystical speculation on the 1st chapter of Ezekiel, goes back to the Pharisees of the Second Temples. Later on, this "Jewish gnosis,,6 goes around under the names of the great masters Yohannan b. Zakkay, Eliezer b. Hirkanos, Aqiba b. and Yishmael the High Priest. According to J. Maier, this "hekhalotic literature" was preceded by a long tradition of speculations upon the Temple (hekhal) of , starting with 1 Henoch (14, 11-19)7. The ecstatic had the heavenly vision of the Temple, whose elements corresponded to those of the Temple of Jerusalem, but took on, at the same time, grandiose and formidable visionary features. The same explanation is relevant for the story of the four who entered the PRDS (b. Azzay, b. Zoma, Acher and R. Aqiba)8. The Slavic Book of Henoch or 2 Henoch is a good Jewish example of a journey through the . "The book is cast in the form of a vision of , in which he is conducted by two through the seven heavens, and shown all th~y contain. In the first he sees the angels who guard the snow and ice, and the dew. In the second are the fallen angels, suffering torment and awaiting their fmal doom. In the he sees the of the righteous, and also the place of torment for the wicked. In the fourth heaven are the , and , and the angels who attend them. In the fifth heaven are the Watchers, with their chief, . These watchers are the angels whose revolt against God preceded the of their followers with mortal women, and so they are separated from their followers, who figured in the second heaven. In the sixth heaven are the angels who are charged with the regulation of all the forces of Nature. In the seventh heaven is God Himself, with the archangels and all the celestial glory of His court,,9. The Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (3 Baruch) also expresses belief in seven heavens. "The seer is taken through five of these heavens (only two are mentioned in the Slavonic version) where he is shown the mysteries of God"lO. In the "hekhalotic literature", the seer goes through seven hekhaloth, up to the 11. In other works belonging to the same apocalyptic trend, the number of heavens is sometimes 56 FROM THE JEWISH APOCALYPSE TO THE MI'RAJ multiplied ahnost ad libitum, as in the Hebrew Book of Henoch (3 Henoch), where God sits on His Throne beyond 955 heavens, according to the numerical value of the Hebrew word HSMYM ("heaven"), in which the fmal M=600. Later on, the number of skies is brought down to 290, according to the common value of the wordSMYM. An important feature of all these apocalypses is the absence of any relation between the seven skies and the seven planets. This is also valid for the Jewish medieval writing whose English translation has been published by M. Gaster under the title of Revelation of 12, in which the heavens are, however, connected with the days of the week. The traditions concerning the "nightly journey" (isra') and the mi'raj or "heavenly ascension" of the Prophet Mohammed are directly derived from the Jewish apocalyptic. According to Tor Andrae, the most ancient evidence about the revelation of Mohammed is an account by Ibn Ishaq (ob. 768)13. The cycle of the isra'is composed by six hadits, going back to the IXth century. They can further be ranged in two different classes14 . The first class contains the traditions reported by the IXth century author Sa'id ibn Mansur15 , while the second contains four hadits reported by Bukhari and Muslim (IXth century), Daraqutni (XIth century), Ibn Hanbal (IXth century) and Ibn 'Asakir (XUth century)16. In the tradition of the isra', Mohammed is not supposed to perform any heavenly journey. The mi'raj cycle is not less ancient than that of the isra'. It has three main variants (A, B, C): Bukhari and Muslim (A), Ishaq b. Wahb (IXth century; the variant B is ascribed to Ibn 'Abbas, fellow of the Prophet), and an aprocryphal variant (C), forged either by the Persian Maysara b. 'Abd -hi (VIIItn cent.) or by 'Umar ibn Sulayman (Damascus, VIIIth century). In all the versions of the mi'raj, the ascension through seven heavens (which are not, as M. Asin Palacios assumes, the planetary skies) plays a more or less important role. In every heaven, the archangel introduces to Mohammed either one (or two) prophets (version A), or a particular (class of) (s) (vers. B and C). The longest version is the apocryphal one (C). In the Tafsir or Tabari (IXth century), the tradition of the mi'raj (A) merges with those of the isra' . The Islamic legends entered Christian Spain as early as the IXth century17. The first version of the mi'raj summarized in Latin (A, B) was drawn by the archbishop of Toledo, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada (1170-1247) from the Sahih or collection of authentic hadits by Bukhari and Muslim. The summary forms a part of the fifth chapter (De sublimatione Mahometi in regem et de jussionibus mendaciter excogi­ tatis) of Rodrigo's Historia arabum. Other ancient traditions included in the isra', e.g. the "shamanistic" episode of the "opening ofthe breast" ofthe Prophet, were included in the Collectio Toletana, a collection of Latin translations from Arab, ordered by Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny (1092-1156), after his journey to Spain in 1141. A longer version of the mi'raj was translated into Castilian in 1264, by Abraham alfaqim, on the order of the king Alphonse Xth "the Learned". The notary Bona-