Обсуждение:Ба‘ль
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Baal (baʿl) is both a proper name of a pre-Islamic pagan deity worshipped by the people to whom the messenger Elijah (q.v.) was sent (q 37:125) and a common noun meaning «husband» (q 2:228; 4:128; 11:72; 24:31).
The biblical prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17-22; 2 Kings 1-2) is mentioned two times in the Qurʾān (q 6:85; 37:123-30). He was sent to turn his people from the worship of the deity Baal. Commentary elaborates on the brief qurʾānic passages. It is said that, during the reign of the Israelite king Ahab (r. ca. 873—851 b.c.e.), Elijah attempted to turn the Children of Israel (q.v.) away from the false worship of Baal and asked God to give him power over the rain. That granted, Elijah caused a three-year drought during which time he concealed himself. This torment failed to divert the Israelites from their paganism, so Elijah prayed to be taken into heaven. There he was transformed into a heavenly being made up of light. The story of Elijah’s control over the rain may possibly survive in the common modern use of the Arabic word baʿl in the sense of unirrigated land ¶ and plants relying exclusively on natural water. Some scholars see a parallel to the ancient Mesopotamian god Baal and his three daughters in the Meccan belief that the goddesses al-Lāt, Manāt, and al-ʿUzzāʾ were the daughters of God (q 53:19-23). See also idols and images; pre-islamic arabia and the qurʾān.
The word baʿl is used four times in the Qurʾān as a common noun meaning husband, twice in the singular (q 4:128; 11:72) and twice in the plural (buʿūla, q 2:228; 24:31). In this sense, the word finds parallels in the northwest Semitic languages, in which the root bears the basic sense of "owner, " one of the characteristics of the deity with that name in Canaanite mythology. |
- C.H. Gordon, The daughters of Baal and Allah, in mw 33 (1943), 50-1
- G.D. Newby, The making of the last prophet, Columbia, SC 1989
- A.J. Wensinck, Ilyās, in ei2, iii, 1156
Cite this page
Newby, Gordon Darnell, «Baal», in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Consulted online on 07 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQCOM_00021>