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THE MELAMMU PROJECT http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/ ÐDescent and Ascent in Islamic MythÑ JAAKKO HÄMEEN-ANTTILA Published in Melammu Symposia 2: R. M. Whiting (ed.), Mythology and Mythologies. Methodological Approaches to Intercultural Influences. Proceedings of the Second Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project. Held in Paris, France, October 4-7, 1999 (Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project 2001), pp. 89-108. Publisher: http://www.helsinki.fi/science/saa/ This article was downloaded from the website of the Melammu Project: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/ The Melammu Project investigates the continuity, transformation and diffusion of Mesopotamian culture throughout the ancient world. A central objective of the project is to create an electronic database collecting the relevant textual, art-historical, archaeological, ethnographic and linguistic evidence, which is available on the website, alongside bibliographies of relevant themes. In addition, the project organizes symposia focusing on different aspects of cultural continuity and evolution in the ancient world. The Digital Library available at the website of the Melammu Project contains articles from the Melammu Symposia volumes, as well as related essays. All downloads at this website are freely available for personal, non-commercial use. Commercial use is strictly prohibited. For inquiries, please contact [email protected]. HÄMEEN- ANTTILA DESCENT AND A SCENT IN I SLAMIC M YTH JAAKKO H ÄMEEN -A NTTILA Helsinki Descent and Ascent in Islamic Myth Mudû m udâ likallim, l a m udû aj imur “Let the learned instruct the learned, the ignorant may not see!” 1 lthough the formula of the Babylo- The late date of Damascius leads to my nian and Assyrian scribes may not topic, the early Islamic myths of descent and Anecessarily always refer to strictly ascent, but it may be useful to start with some esoteric learning, it does remind one of the theoretical considerations. When studying the restricted audience of many highly interes- Assyrian and Babylonian intellectual heritage, ting texts, as well as of the existence of it goes without saying that the cultures tempo- underlying oral explanatory material. The rarily closer to the Mesopotamian civiliza- recent years have shown a remarkable growth tion(s) will inevitably take precedence. Islamic of interest in esoteric literature throughout culture is separated by one millennium from the Near East. 2 One of the texts which has the last heyday of Mesopotamian culture. received renewed interest is the Descent of In many ways, the Islamic evidence is late Ištar, which, as suggested by Simo Parpola, and secondary, derivable from well-known provides a key to Assyrian religion and should Jewish, Christian, Hellenistic and Sasanian in fact be read as a Gnostic myth of the sources. Yet the Islamic material has an in- descent of a divine figure. 3 terest of its own. The wealth of Arabic ma- This kind of reading must have already terial is considerable and it has remained occurred to the Gnostics themselves. The almost unsifted from a Mesopotamian point parallels to the Descent of Ištar have been of view: Assyriologists and Arabists have discussed by Parpola on several occasions, rarely been interested in each others’ work. but one might also draw attention to the If all the Arabic material were secondary, Neoplatonist Damascius (early 6th century it might as well be set aside, but there are AD ), who summarized En uma Eliš in very two reasons why this is hardly possible. Gnostic terms, and saw Belus (Marduk) as First of all, Islam developed in Iraq and the Demiurge who belonged to the later Syria, in the very area where direct late generations, or series of emanations, of the Mesopotamian influence would still be lin- Divine forces. Against this background, it gering on, partly in the form of Assyrian would be quite conceivable that also the remnants, like in Harran, partly in indigen- Descent of Ištar would have been (re)ana- ous versions of other religions, like the Gnos- lyzed and used as the Sophia myth within tic or semi-Gnostic movements on the mar- the Gnostic conceptual framework. 4 gins of Christianity and Judaism. 5 1 Quoted from Livingstone 1986: 1. absconditus (see also Parpola 2000, pp .167-73). 2 E.g. Stroumsa 1996. 5 That mainstream Judaism and Christianity themselves 3 See also the article of Parpola in this volume, discuss- had been very much influenced by the Mesopotamian ing the origins of the Hymn of the Pearl. religion(s) is also naturally true, but from an Islamic 4 Saggs 1978: 9, already drew attention to Damascius, point of view, this material came to Arabs in an already on whom see also the article of Talon in this volume. new form and its ties with Mesopotamian religion were Likewise we might see in the primaeval Anshar the Deus already lost. R.M. Whiting (ed.) MELAMMU S YMPOSIA II (Helsinki 2001) ISBN 951-45-9049-X 47 HÄMEEN- ANTTILA DESCENT AND A SCENT IN I SLAMIC M YTH Secondly, very little is known of Iraqi ceived an initial impetus from the transla- religiosity in the centuries before the con- tion movement of the ninth century, 7 but the quest of Islam. Thus, even though Islam more direct Mesopotamian influence should surely received much of its Mesopotamian be sought from within early Islam. Much inheritage in Iraq through different versions oral material was absorbed into Islam in the of Christianity and Judaism, it is often the first two centuries of Islam, until around AD only tradition where we can find documen- 800, the period when the religion gradually tation for this Mesopotamian influence. found its final form in Mesopotamia. In assessing the Mesopotamian influence The study of Islam has traditionally cen- on Islam, one has to be careful in distin- tred on what later became considered ortho- guishing between direct influence through doxy, and the illusion of Islam being born remnants of Mesopotamian religion(s) and and developed on the Arabian Peninsula has the less direct influence through, e.g., late hindered scholars from realizing that Islam Neoplatonism which was a major consti- is, and has been in its manifold manifesta- tuent in tenth-century and later Ismaili tions, a largely Mesopotamian religion – on thought and Arabic philosophy in general the Arabian Peninsula, Islam had remained and which came to the Arabs through Greek embryonic. 8 sources. This indirect influence has an in- The Mesopotamian influence which we terest of its own – it, too, testifies for the see in Islam did not travel from Mesopota- Weiterleben des mesopotamischen Kultur- mia to the Arabian Peninsula to become guts – but the direct influence is, I think, there absorbed into Islam, but it influenced more interesting as it may bring new point Islam directly in Iraq. Naturally one cannot of views to the Assyrian and Babylonian wholly deny a Mesopotamian influence on intellectual heritage. – By direct influence, the Peninsula also, but this is a marginal I mean Mesopotamian ideas which stayed in phenomenon. It is well known that the Mesopotamia and influenced there the nas- strongest Mesopotamian influence on the cent Islam. Peninsula is to be sought in Eastern Arabia, The Mesopotamian influence in Harran, an area which had little effect on the devel- continuing well into the Islamic period, has opment of Islam. already been studied by Green 1992. Green, This possible direct Mesopotamian herit- though, does not quite adequately discrimi- age is seen most clearly in the sectarian nate between direct remnants of Mesopota- Islam of the seventh and eighth centuries mian religion and ideas which have, in a when Islam quickly developed from a reli- way, made a detour through Greek civiliza- gous movement into a fullgrown system and tion and come out as Neoplatonism in Har- received religious influences from the peo- ranian thought. 6 ples that came to be under Islamic govern- The written, Neoplatonic influence be- ment. came strong in later Islam, after having re- Religious influence came to Islam both 6 Green shows herself sometimes aware of this as in transformed and given new meaning by later accretions writing (1992: 189): “Certainly late antique Neoplaton- of esoteric doctrines.” Yet she does not draw the necess- ism and Neopythagoreanism had already blurred the ary conclusions from this. boundaries between philosphical school and religious 7 See in general Gutas 1998. sect as well as between magic and prayer, but the exist- 8 The discussion concerning the birth of Islam is still ence and persistence of ancient forms of sacrifice, feasts going on, but the old model which saw Islam as the and fasts would seem to point to the continued sur[v]ival product of the Arabian Peninsula is now hopelessly out- of ancient Mesopotamian practices, in whatever way now dated. 48 HÄMEEN- ANTTILA DESCENT AND A SCENT IN I SLAMIC M YTH through conversions and contacts. Biblical as it can be the Imam. lore was also absorbed without conver- People who converted obviously brought sions, as the Biblical characters were com- their religious traditions with them, and mon to both Islam and Christianity and these later surfaced in Islamic sects. 10 In Judaism and there was a need for more general, though, the monotheistic system of material concerning the lives of Moses as Islam proved resistant to any deep changes, well as Jesus and other prophets – to use and the basic structure of a transcendent the Islamic terminology – to add bulk to God who speaks through His emissaries to the rather sketchy stories of the Qur’an. humankind, was kept. So all traditions concerning the venerable In the seventh century AD , Assyria was prophets of Islam were welcome, even if already an ancient empire.