Обсуждение:Нух
Предлагаю дополнить материал согласно следующей тематической разбивки аятов Корана:
- Завет с Аллахом -33:7
- Благодарный раб -17:3
- Пример для последующих поколений - 17:3; 37:78;
- Наставленный на прямой путь - 6:84;
- Внушено откровение - 4:163; 23:27;
- Напоминание для лицемеров - 9:70;
- Повествование Пророку Мухаммаду о сокровенном -11:49; 14:9; 17:17;
- Облагодетельственный Аллахом -19:58;
- В предостережениях Шуейба - 11:89
- Предестерегающий, разъясняющий увещеватель - 26:115; 71:2
- Призыв.Препирательство народа - 7:59-64; 7:69; 10:71-74; 11:25-35; 11:38-39; 23:23-26; 26:105-118; 54:9; 71:1-24
- Обвинения во лжи - 7:64 10:73; 11:27; 22:42; 23:26; 25:37; 26:105; 26:117; 38:12; 40:5; 50:12; 54:9;
- Мольбы -21:76; 23:29; 26:117-118; 37:75; 54:10; 71:24; 71:26-28
- Семья -11:40; 11:42-43; 11:45-47; 21:76; 23:27; 37:76; 66:10
- Ковчег -7:64; 10:73; 11:36-38; 11:40-42; 11:44; 23:27-30; 26:119; 29:15; 36:41; 54:13-15; 69:11-12
- Спасение на ковчеге как Знамение -23:30; 26:121;
- Наказание неверующих -7:64; 10:73; 11:37; 11:40; 11:43-44; 21:77; 23:27; 25:37; 26:119-120; 29:14; 37:82; 40:31; 51:46; 53:52; 54:11-12; 71:25
- С моря на землю -11:48
- В числе Улюль-азм -42:13
- Возраст -29:14 Иса (обсуждение) 16:04, 20 июня 2016 (YEKT)
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
| Ной - один из главных пророков ислама, Ной (Ар. Ню, Евр. Нха) - не менее важная фигура в иудаизме и христианстве (см. Священное Писание и qur'ān), где, однако, он не считается пророком (см. Пророки и пророчество). Его библейская история, вероятно, отражающая древние ближневосточные прецеденты, встречается в Бытие 6-10 и в более поздних еврейских текстах. В Коране и в более поздней исламской традиции он числится среди пророков предупреждения (см. Warner) вместе с арабскими пророками Худом (qv) и Ṣāliḥ (qv), а также библейским лотом (qv; Lūṭ), Jethro ( Shu'ayb, qv) и Моисей (qv; Mūsā), передавая Божьи угрозы наказания своим грешным народам (см. Q 9:70, 22:42, 25: 37-8, 26: 105, см. Рассказы о наказаниях, рассказы).
Ной засвидетельствован в двадцать шесть сурах в Коране; q 3:33 связывает его с Адамом (см. адам и канун), потомки Авраама (q.v.) и Амрама («Ирман, q.v.)», отец Моисея и Аарона (q.v.). Содержание q 71, которое носит его имя, состоит прежде всего из того, что Ной рассказывает Богу, как он постоянно призывал своих людей к покаянию (см. Покаяние и покаяние) их грехи (см. Грех, майор и минор), в то время как оба предупреждают их о последствиях Божье наказание и передача им Божьего обещания вознаграждения, если они покаялись (см. Вознаграждение и наказание). Люди не приняли его предупреждения и вместо этого призвали его поклоняться своим языческим богам (см. Политеизм и атеизм). Эта история заканчивается тем, что они утонули в потопе, будучи брошены в огонь (q.v.), и Ной просил Бога не оставлять никаких неверующих на земле; аналогичная учетная запись встречается в q 23: 23-30. Некоторые рассказы в Коране подчеркивают оскорбление и жестокое обращение, которое Ной испытывал как ответ своего народа на его предупреждения о божественном наказании за свои проступки. Здесь он рассматривается как прототип пророка Мухаммада, который страдает той же ненавистью и угрозами физического вреда, что позже Пророк испытал у своих соотечественников в Мекке (см. Оппозицию мумаммаду). Это четко указано в п. 14: 9; 22:42; 51: 41-6; 54:18, 23, которые связывают Ноя с более ранними пророками Худа и Шали, успокаивая Мухаммада, сообщая ему, что они тоже были отвергнуты, оскорблены и жестоко обращаются со своим народом. Некоторые элементы qur'annic счета, похоже, параллельны некоторым еврейским постбиблейским мидрашским украшениям библейской истории, в которых Ной предстает как пророк и увещатель: его люди смеются над своим зданием, ковчегом, а неверующие его семьи наказываются горячими вода (Tal. Sanhedrin 108a-b, Gen Rabba, xxix-xxxvi). Этот последний элемент в истории отражен в qur'ānic и более поздних исламских текстах, где потоп (ṭṭfān), посланный Богом, начинается с танура (печь, котел, печь или печь), кипящий ¶ вперед с кипящей водой (q 11:40; 23 : 27). Опять же, в отличие от библейского отчета, в 11:44 говорится, что после потопа ковчег опустился на гору аль-Джуди (см. Jūdī) вместо библейских «гор Арарата» (q.v, Быт. 8: 4). Позже писатели Исламские заклинатели Корана, исследователи ḥadīth и авторы литературного жанра «рассказы о пророках» (циаш аль-анбийя) расширяют и приукрашивают истории, найденные в Коране и других, найденных в Библии (см. Экзегезу qur'ān: классический и средневековый, ḥadīth и qur'ān). Используя множество подходов, они основывают свою работу на ранних биографах Мухаммада, которые рассказывают о многих пророках перед Мухаммадом, которые были отправлены в их собственные народы, начиная с творения (q.v.). Ряд этих биографических работ, таких как Ибн Са'д (д. 230/845, Ṭabaqāt), основанный на более ранних источниках, таких как Ибн Исхак (примерно 150/767) и Ибн Хишам (д. 213 / 828 или 219/833), содержат «сказки» разных пророков. Ибн Са'д рассказывает о генеалогии Ноя от Адама до своего отца Ламеха (Ламака), говоря, что, поскольку в те эпохи никто не запрещал запрещенные (q.v.) действия, Бог делал задачу Ноя. Ной проповедовал своему народу в течение 120 лет без успеха, и ему было приказано построить ковчег, когда ему было 600 лет. В отличие от нескольких других учений, у Ноя было четыре сына (не библейские три), четвертый - Ханаан (Канан), также называемый Ямом арабами, тогда как в Библии Ханаан - сын Хама. Основываясь на q 11:43, некоторые рассказы касаются того, что Ханаан отказался войти в ковчег, утверждая, что он может спастись от потопа, поднявшись на вершину самой высокой горы, но погиб во все возрастающей воде. Мы также узнаем, что жена Ноя была одним из неверующих людей, как жена Лота. Оба были женатыми праведными людьми, которым они были неверными (д. 66:10), поэтому, когда Ной попросил Бога помиловаться в Ханаане, Бог отказался, сказав, что, будучи потомком обмана его жены, он не был его родственником (см. q 11:46).
Работы Аль-Шабари служили важным источником важной более поздней работы qiṣaṣ «Арьяс аль-махалис аль-Талаби» (d. 427/1036), значительно расширены с помощью дополнительных и разных рассказов, большинство из них о многих других пророках, в том числе о других некуранских источников. Нам говорят, что Ной посадил тиковые деревья, которые он вырубил, чтобы использовать для строительства ковчега после того, как они выросли в течение сорока лет. Аль-Талаби рассказывает, что в эти годы Ной прекратил называть людей к Богу и что Бог сделал женщин бесплодными, поэтому за это время не родились дети. Бог сказал Ною построить ковчег с «головой, как голова петуха, его середина, как живот птицы, а хвост наклоняется, как хвост птицы». Рассказы об аль-Кисаи (даты неизвестны) включают история Ноя в стиле, который может показаться отражением народной литературы. Он пишет о злом царе, правнуке Еноха, сыне Каина (см. Каин и авель), который правил ¶ землей, где жил Ной, и «был могучим тираном и первым, кто пил вино (qv), азартные игры ( см. азартные игры), сидеть на престолах (см. царей и правителей), выполнять комиссионные работы в железе, латуни и свинце (см. металлы и минералы), а также принимать одежду из золота (qv) ». Он и его люди поклонялись идолам (см. и изображения), имена которых напоминают некоторых языческих богов, упомянутых в Коране. Это заставило Ноя уйти в пустыню, пока Бог не Гавриил (q.v.) не послал Ноя как пророк к своему народу. В своем циане Андалузский аль-Шарафи (d. 454/1062) в главе о рассказе Ноя рассказывает, что, хотя в § 29:14 говорится, что Ной жил в течение «тысячи лет минус пятьдесят», более ранние авторы цитируются как что это был только его возраст во время потопа, говоря по-разному, что он действительно прожил 1550 или 1650 лет. Аль-Шарафи также связывает много разговоров между Ноем и Богом. В некоторых цианах сказки греховные люди времени Ноя, отвергая божественные предупреждения, которые он передает, говорят, произошли от союза потомков Каина с Ситом. Вслед за этим Бог повелел Ною построить ковчег (фулк, освещенный «лодкой»), чтобы спасти себя и других верующих от потопа, которым Бог накажет остальную часть человечества. В некоторых версиях этой истории Ной построил ковчег без посторонней помощи (используя дерево деревьев, которое он сам посадил много лет назад), в то время как в других ему помогали его сыновья. Он был издевался (см. Насмешку) и напал на жителей его города, который отказался поверить своим страшным предсказаниям обреченности; как и его жена, некоторые из них даже называли его майнун (стр. 54: 9). Циклайская литература дает нам размеры, форму и расположение сосуда. В версии одного из таких рассказов аль-Кисаи нам говорят, что Иисус (qv) по настоянию апостолов (см. Апостол) призвал Сима (Саму), долгоживущего сына Ноя, подняться из своего могилу и предоставить Иисусу информацию о ковчеге. Мы узнаем, что его самый низкий уровень был для животных, второй уровень для людей, а верхний для птиц. Муравьи были первыми существами, которые вошли в ковчег, а ослик - последним, замедлился, потому что Ибли, дьявол (q.v.), держался за хвост. Другой нежелательной фигурой, спасенной от разрушения, был гигант Ог (сын), сын «Анак» («Храбрый» для «великана»), который был слишком высок, чтобы вода достигла его головы. Идея его роста, вероятно, основана на библейском упоминании Ога, являющегося одним из последних из Рефаимов, людей гигантов (Втор 33:11 и др.).
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Noah — One of the major prophets of Islam, Noah (Ar. Nūḥ, Heb. Nōaḥ) is an equally important figure in Judaism and Christianity (see ), where, however, he is not considered a prophet (see ). His biblical story, probably reflecting ancient Near Eastern precedents, occurs in Genesis 6-10 and in later Jewish texts. In the Qurʾān and in later Islamic tradition he is numbered among the prophets of warning (see ), along with the Arabian prophets Hūd (q.v.) and Ṣāliḥ (q.v.), as well as the biblical Lot (q.v.; Lūṭ), Jethro (Shuʿayb, q.v.) and Moses (q.v.; Mūsā), conveying God’s threats of punishment to their sinful peoples (cf. q 9:70; 22:42; 25:37-8; 26:105; see ).
Noah is attested in twenty-six sūras in the Qurʾān; q 3:33 links him with Adam (see ), the descendants of Abra-¶ ham (q.v.) and of Amram (ʿImrān, q.v.), the father of Moses and Aaron (q.v.). The contents of q 71, which bears his name, consist primarily of Noah’s recounting to God how he continually urged his people to repent (see ) their sins (see ) while both warning them of the consequences of God’s punishment and conveying to them God’s promise of reward if they repented (see ). The people did not accept his warnings and instead urged him to worship their pagan gods (see ). This account ends with their being drowned in the deluge, being cast into the fire (q.v.) and Noah’s asking God not to leave any unbelievers in the land; a similar account occurs in q 23:23-30. Some stories in the Qurʾān stress the vilification and mistreatment Noah suffered as his people’s response to his warnings of divine punishment for their misdeeds. Here he is viewed as the prototype of the prophet Muḥammad, suffering the same hatred and threats of physical harm that the Prophet was later to experience from his Meccan compatriots (see ). This is mentioned clearly in q 14:9; 22:42; 51:41-6; 54:18, 23, which link Noah with the earlier prophets Hūd and Ṣāliḥ, reassuring Muḥammad by telling him that they, too, had been denied, vilified and mistreated by their people. Some elements of the qurʾānic account seem to parallel certain Jewish post-biblical midrashic embellishments of the Bible story, in which Noah appears as a prophet and admonisher: his people laugh at his building the ark, and the unbelievers of his family are punished with hot water (Tal. Sanhedrin 108a-b; Gen Rabba, xxix-xxxvi). This last element in the story is reflected in qurʾānic and later Islamic texts, where the deluge (ṭūfān) sent by God begins with the tannūr (oven, cauldron, furnace or kiln) gushing ¶ forth with boiling water (q 11:40; 23:27). Again, unlike the biblical account, q 11:44 relates that after the deluge, the ark came to rest on the mountain al-Jūdī (see ) instead of the biblical «mountains of Ararat» (q.v.; Gen 8:4). Later writers Islamic Qurʾān exegetes, ḥadīth scholars and the authors of the literary genre of «tales of the prophets» (qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ) expand and embellish the stories found in the Qurʾān and others found in the Bible (see ). Using a variety of approaches, they base their work on the early biographers of Muḥammad, who tell of the many prophets before Muḥammad who were sent to their own peoples, beginning from creation (q.v.). A number of these biographical works, such as that of Ibn Saʿd (d. 230/845; Ṭabaqāt), which is based on earlier sources such as Ibn Isḥāq (d. ca. 150/767) and Ibn Hishām (d. 213/828 or 219/833), contain «tales» of various prophets. Ibn Saʿd tells of Noah’s genealogy from Adam down to his father Lamech (Lamak), saying that because there was no one in those eras who prohibited forbidden (q.v.) acts, God made that Noah’s task. Noah had preached to his people for 120 years without success and was commanded by God to build the ark when he was 600 years old. Differing from several other accounts, Noah had four sons (not the biblical three), the fourth being Canaan (Kanʿān), also called Yām by the Arabs, whereas in the Bible, Canaan is a son of Ham. Based on q 11:43, some tales relate that Canaan refused to enter the ark, claiming that he could save himself from the deluge by climbing to the top of the highest mountain, but perished in the ever-rising water. We also learn that Noah’s wife was one of the unbelieving people as was the wife of Lot. Both had ¶ married righteous men to whom they were unfaithful (q 66:10), so when Noah asked God to have mercy on Canaan, God refused, saying that, as the offspring of his wife’s deception, he was not his kindred (cf. q 11:46). In his Ṣaḥīḥ, al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870) relates that when Noah’s people appear before God on the day of judgment (see ) and are asked whether he had conveyed God’s message to them, they would say that he had not, although Noah had previously told God that he had done so. When God asks him who would act as his witness regarding this matter, Noah answers that Muḥammad and his people would bear witness for him (see ). Noah came out of the ark on the tenth of Muḥarram, the ʿĀshūrāʾ, which therefore became a day of fasting (q.v.) for both humans and animals who had been in the ark for six months. Noah’s wife is named Amzūra by al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) and joins Noah in the ark. But the later writer al-Bayḍāwī (d. ca. 685/1286) calls her Wāliya and, although in q 66:10 she is simply referred to as a non-believer, here (and in some other accounts), she is left behind or drowned because she had said that Noah was majnūn («insane»; see ) when he spoke to his people. For many scholars, the tales claiming that Noah’s wife, otherwise said to have come out of the ark with him, was left behind or was drowned, raise the issue of how many humans were actually saved from the deluge. These numbers vary from seven, excluding her — Noah, his three sons and their wives — to eight, with her. In another version, however, the total number of those saved was eighty, including the pious children of Adam’s son Seth. The historian and Qurʾān exegete al-Ṭabarī, in his Taʾrīkh, tried to coordinate biblical figures like Noah with the semi-mythical early Persian rulers (see ¶ ). He states that «some people» claim that Noah lived during the reign of the evil king Bīwarasb, also known as al-Ḍaḥḥāk. Though he admits that the Persians did not know the story of the deluge, al-Ṭabarī, in the story of the Iranian king Afarīdūn, says that he mentions him only because «some people» say that he was Noah; he later claims that Afarīdūn’s story resembled that of Noah. Al-Ṭabarī also tells of Noah’s long life, saying that for 950 years he had called the people to God but whenever one generation passed away, the next one followed in unbelief. He also recounts that the oven from which the boiling water poured forth had belonged to Eve and came into Noah’s possession, either in India, according to one tradition, or in Kūfa in Iraq, according to another tradition transmitted by al-Ṭabarī. We also read in this work the biblical story of the raven and the dove sent forth by Noah, which is not found in the Qurʾān. Al-Ṭabarī's works served as a significant source for the important later qiṣaṣ work ʿArāʾis al-majālis of al-Thaʿlabī (d. 427/1036), much expanded with additional and different tales, most of them about many more prophets, including others from non-qurʾānic sources. We are told that Noah planted teak trees that he cut down to use for building the ark after they had grown for forty years. Al-Thaʿlabī relates that during those years Noah ceased calling the people to God and that God made the women barren so no children were born during that time. God told Noah to build the ark with «its head like the head of a cock, its middle like the belly of a bird, and its tail inclining like the tail of a bird.» The tales of al-Kisāʾī (dates unknown) include the story of Noah in a style that may seem to reflect folk literature. He writes of an evil king, a great-grandson of Enoch, son of Cain (see ), who ruled ¶ the land where Noah lived and «was a mighty tyrant and the first to drink wine (q.v.), gamble (see ), sit on thrones (see ), commission work in iron, brass and lead (see ), and to adopt clothing spun with gold (q.v.).» He and his people worshipped idols (see ), the names of which resemble some of the pagan gods mentioned in the Qurʾān. This caused Noah to withdraw to the wilderness until God had Gabriel (q.v.) send Noah as a prophet to his people. In his Qiṣaṣ, the Andalusian al-Ṭarafī (d. 454/1062), in a chapter on Noah’s story, relates that, although q 29:14 says that Noah lived for "a thousand years minus fifty, " earlier writers are quoted as maintaining that was only his age at the time of the deluge, saying variously that he actually lived to be 1550 or 1650 years old. Al-Ṭarafī also relates many conversations between Noah and God. In some qiṣaṣ tales, the sinful people of Noah’s time, rejecting the divine warnings that he relays, are said to have descended from the union of the offspring of Cain with those of Seth. Thereupon God commanded Noah to build the ark (fulk, lit. «boat»), in order to save himself and other believers from the deluge with which God would punish the rest of humankind. In some versions of this tale, Noah built the ark unaided (using the wood of trees he himself had planted many years earlier), while in others he was helped by his sons. He was mocked (see ) and attacked by the people of his town, who refused to believe his dire predictions of doom; like his wife, some of them even called him majnūn (q 54:9). The qiṣaṣ literature gives us the dimensions, form and arrangements of the vessel. In al-Kisāʾī's version of one such tale, we are told that Jesus (q.v.), at the urging of the apostles (see ), called upon Shem (Sām), ¶ the long-dead son of Noah, to rise from his grave and provide Jesus with information about the ark. We learn that its lowest level was for the animals, its second level for the humans, and the upper one for birds. The ants were the first creatures to enter the ark and the donkey the last, slowed down because Iblīs, the devil (q.v.), was holding on to his tail. Another unwanted figure who was saved from destruction was the giant Og (ʿŪj), son of ʿAnaq (Heb. for «giant»), who was too tall for the water to reach his head. The idea of his height is probably based on the biblical mention of Og being one of the last of the Rephaim, a people of giants (Deut 33:11, et al.). Al-Kisāʾī states that the name Nūḥ means «he wailed (for his people)» from the verb nāḥa, whereas Jewish tradition derives it from the Hebrew niḥam, «he gave comfort.» After the deluge the peoples of the earth became divided among Noah’s three sons: Sām’s descendants were the Arabs (q.v.), Persians and the Byzantines (q.v.; Rūm), the «good» nations; Yāfith (Japheth) was the ancestor of the Turks, Slavs and Gog and Magog (q.v.), possessing no good qualities. Because Ham (Ḥām) disobeyed the prohibition of intercourse while on the ark and had slept with his wife, his children were born black and all the black peoples of the earth are their descendants. In another version, blackness resulted from Noah’s cursing Ham upon learning that, unlike his brothers, Ham had laughed when he saw his sleeping father’s nakedness. The Musnad of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (d. 241/855) quotes the Prophet relating the testament of Noah to his sons, for example, forbidding idolatry (shirk, see ) and pride (q.v.; kibr). In Christian theology, Noah symbolizes the just man, providing an example of faith and submission to God, and becoming a prefiguration of Jesus. Elements of the story of Noah, the deluge, the ark and ¶ the dove are all incorporated into Christian symbolism. In Judaism Noah occupies a middle stage between Adam and Abraham, as a righteous and blameless man who walked with God and was saved from the flood to become the progenitor of a new human race. God’s covenant with Noah (Gen 9:8-17) was expanded by the rabbis into the Noachide commandments, incumbent upon all humanity. |
- Primary
- Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad, Cairo 1313/1895, ii, 169-70
- ed. A.M. Shākir/Ḥ.ʿA. Ḥātim et al., 20 vols., Cairo 1995, vi, 154-7, no. 6583
- Kisāʾī, Qiṣaṣ, 85-102
- trans. W. Thackston, The tales of the prophets of al-Kisāʾī, Boston 1978, 91-109
- Ṭabarī, The history of al-Ṭabarī. i. From the creation to the flood, trans. F. Rosenthal, Albany 1989, 347-8; 354-71; ii. Prophets and patriarchs, trans. W.M. Brinner, Albany 1987, 10-23
- id., Taʾrīkh, ed. De Goeje, i, 174—201
- al-Ṭarafī, Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad, Storie dei profeti, Genova 1997
- trans. R. Tottoli, Storia di Noe, 59-71
- Thaʿlabī, Lives of the prophets, trans. and annot. W.M. Brinner, Leiden 2002, 92-104 (trans. of ʿArāʾis al-Majālis)
- Secondary
- G. Canova, The prophet Noah in Islamic tradition, in K. Dévényi and T. Iványi (eds.), Essays in honour of Alexander Fodor on his sixtieth birthday [in The Arabist (Budapest) 23 (2001)], 1-20
- A. Geiger, Was hat Mohamed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen? Leipzig 1902 (rev. ed.), 104-11
- Grünbaum, Beiträge, 79-89
- B. Heller, Nūḥ, in ei2, viii, 108-9
- H. Schwarzbaum, Biblical and extra-biblical legends in Islamic folk-literature, Walldorf-Hessen 1982 (see Index)
- D. Sidersky, Les origines des légendes Musulmanes, Paris 1933, 26-8 (Noe)
- Speyer, Erzählungen, 84-115
- R. Tottoli, I profeti biblici nella tradizione islamica, Brescia 1999 (many references, esp. 18-22, 39-43; full bibliography)
- Eng. trans. Biblical prophets in the Qurʾān and Muslim literature, Richmond 2002, 5-9, 21-3
- D. Young, Noa, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, ed. C. Roth, 16 vols., Jerusalem 1972, xii, 1191-8
Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936) / Nūḥ
, the Noah of the Bible, is a particularly popular figure in the Ḳurʾān and in Muslim legend. T̲h̲aʿlabī gives 15 virtues by which Nūḥ is distinguished among the prophets. The Bible does not regard Noah as a prophet. In the Ḳurʾān Nūḥ is the first prophet of punishment, who is followed by Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, Lūṭ, S̲h̲uʿaib and Mūsā. Ibrāhīm is one of his following (S̲h̲īʿa) (Sūra xxxvii. 81). He is the perspicuous admonisher (nad̲h̲ir mubīn, xi. 27; lxxi. 2), the rasūl amīn “the true messenger of God” (xxvi. 107), the W s̲h̲akūr, “the grateful servant of God” (xvii. 3). Allāh enters into a covenant with Nūḥ just as with Muḥammad, Ibrāhīm, Mūsā and Īsā (xxxiii. 7). Peace and blessings are promised him (xi. 50). Muḥammad is fond of seeing himself reflected in the earlier prophets. In the case of Nūḥ, the Muslim Ḳurʾān exegetes have already noticed this (see Grünbaum, Neue Beiträge, p. 90). Muḥammad puts into the mouth of Nūḥ things that he would himself like to say and into the mouths of his opponents what he himself has heard from his. Nūḥ is reproached with being only one of the people (x. 72—74). God should rather have sent an angel (xxiii. 24). Nūḥ is wrong (vii. 58), is lying, deceiving (vii. 62), is possessed by d̲j̲inn (liv. 9), only the lowest join him (xi. 29; xxvi. 111). When Nūḥ replies: “it is grievous to you that I live among you, I seek no reward, my reward is with Allāh (x. 72—74; xi. 31); I do not claim to possess Allāh’s treasures, to know his secrets, to be an angel and I cannot say to those whom ye despise, God shall not give you any good” (xi. 31—33), we have here an echo of Muḥammad’s defence and embarrassment about many of his followers. Muḥammad pictures events as follows: Allāh sends Nūḥ to the sinful people. Sūra lxxi. which bears his name, gives one of these sermons threatening punishment for which other analogies can be found. The people scorn him. Allāh commands him to build an ark by divine inspiration. Then the “chaldron boils” (xi. 42; xxiii. 27). The waters drown everything; only two of every kind of living creature are saved and the believers whom Nūḥ takes into the ark with him. But there were very few who believed. Nūḥ appeals even to his son in vain; the latter takes refuge on a mountain but is drowned. When Nūḥ bids the waters be still, the ark lands on mount Ḏj̲ūdī (q. v.; xi. 27—51). Not only Noah’s son but also his wife (with Lūṭ’s wife) are sinners (Ixvi. 10). From the Haggada is developed, as Geiger shows, the following elements of this Ḳurʾānic legend of Nūḥ: 1. Nūḥ appears as a prophet and admonisher; 2. his people laugh at the ark; 3. his family is punished with hot water (main passages: ¶ Talm. Sanhédrin, 108ab; Gen. Rabba, xxix.— xxxvi.).
The post-Ḳurʾānic legend of Nūḥ as in other cases fills up the gaps, gives the names of those not mentioned in the Ḳurʾān, makes many links e. g. connects Nūḥ with Feridnn of the Persian epic although it is pointed out that the Magi (Persians) do not know the story of the flood. Nūḥ’s wife is called Wāliya and her sin is that she described Nūḥ to his people as mad̲j̲nūn. The names of Nūḥ’s sons, Sām, Ḥām, Yāfit̲h̲ are known to Ḳurʾān exegesis from the Bible but it also gives the name of Nūḥ’s sinful son who perished in the flood: Kanaʿān, “whom the Arabs call Yām”. Muḥammad’s statement that Nūḥ was 950 years of age at the time of the flood (ṭūfān) (xxix. 13, 14) is probably based on Gen. ix. 39 which says Nūḥ lived 950 years in all, but on the other hand, it serves as a basis for calculations which make Nūḥ the first muʿammar; according to the Kitāb al-Muʿammarīn of Abū Ḥātim al-Sid̲j̲istānī (ed. Goldziher, p. 1), who begins his book with Nūḥ, he lived 1,450 years. Yet in his dying hour he describes his life as a house with two doors in which one goes in through one to the other. Muslim legend knows the Biblical story of Nūḥ, his times and his sons, but embellishes it greatly and in al-Kisāʾī it becomes a romance. From the union of Ḳābil’s and S̲h̲et̲h̲’s descendants arises a sinful people which rejects Nūḥ’s warnings. He therefore at God’s command builds the ark from trees which he has himself planted. As he is hammering and building the people mock him: “once a prophet, now a carpenter?”, “a ship for the mainland?”. The ark had a head and tail like a cock, a body like a bird (T̲h̲aʿlabī). How was the ark built? At the wish of the apostles, Jesus arouses Sām (or Ḥām) b. Nūḥ from the dead and he describes the ark and its arrangements: in the lower storey were the quadrupeds, in the next the human beings and in the top the birds. Nūḥ brought the ant into the ark first and the ass last, it was slow because Iblīs was clinging to his tail. Nūḥ called out impatiently: “come in even if Satan is with thee”; so Iblīs also had to be taken in. The pig arose out of the tail of the elephant and the cat from the lion. How could the goat exist alongside of the wolf, or the dove beside the birds of prey? God tamed their instincts. The number of human beings in the ark varies in legend between seven and eighty. ʿŪd̲j̲ b. ʿAnaḳ was also saved along with the believers. Ḳābil’s race was drowned. Nūḥ also took Adam’s body with him which was used to separate the women from the men. For in the ark continence was ordered, for man and beast. Only Ḥām transgressed and for this was punished with a black skin. The whole world was covered with water and only the Ḥarām (in al-Kisāʾī, also the site of the sanctuary in Jerusalem) was spared; the Kaʿba was taken up into heaven and Ḏj̲ibrīl concealed the Black Stone (according to al-Kisāʾī the stone was snow white until the Flood). Nūḥ sent out the raven but finding some carrion it forgot Nūḥ; then he sent the dove which brought back an olive leaf in its bill and mud on its feet; as a reward it was given its collar and became a domestic bird. On the day of ʿĀs̲h̲ūrāʾ every one came out of the ark, men and beasts fasted and gave thanks to Allāh.
There are many contacts with the Haggada: the ¶ (different, it is true) partitioning of the ark, Nūḥ’s anxiety about the animals, Ḥām’s sin and punishment (Sanhedrin, 108ab). The story that the giant ʿŌg escaped the Flood is also taken from the Haggada [see ʿūd̲j̲ b. ʿanaḳ]. But Muslim legend goes farther than the Bible and Haggada, like Muḥammad who sees himself in Nūḥ.
(Bernhard Heller)
- Bibliography
Principal passages are Ḳurʾān, vii. 57—52; xi. 27—51; xxiii. 23—31; xxvi. 105—222; xxxvii. 73—81; lxxi. (whole)
Ṭabarī, ed. de Goeje, i. 174—201
Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, al-Kāmil, i. 27—29
T̲h̲aʿlabī, Ḳiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ, Cairo 1325, p. 34—38
al-Kisāʾī, Ḳiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ, ed. Eisenberg, i. 85—102
Geiger, Was hat Mohammed..., 1902 2, p. 106-111
M. Grünbaum, Nette Beiträge, p. 79—90
J. Horovitz, Hebrew Union College Annnal, ii., 1925, p. 151
do., Koranische Untersuchungen, 1926, p. 13—18, 22—29, 32—35, 49—51, esp. 146
J. Walker, Biblical Characters in the Koran, p. 113-121.— On the name Nūḥ: Goldziher, in Z. D. M. G., xxiv. (1870), 207—211
on Nūḥ as Muʿammar
Goldziher, Abhanlungen zur arabischen Philologie, ii., Leyden 1899, p. lxxxix. and p. 2.
- Cite this page
Heller, Bernhard, “Nūḥ”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936), Edited by M. Th. Houtsma, T.W. Arnold, R. Basset, R. Hartmann. Consulted online on 10 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2214-871X_ei1_SIM_3519>
- 6/948-949
Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition / Nūḥ
, the Noah of the Bible, is a particularly popular figure in the Ḳurʾān and in Muslim legend. Al-T̲h̲aʿlabī gives 15 virtues by which Nūḥ is distinguished among the prophets. The Bible does not regard Noah as a prophet. In the Ḳurʾān, Nūḥ is the first prophet of punishment, who is followed by Hūd, ¶ Ṣāliḥ, Lūṭ, S̲h̲uʿayb and Mūsā. Ibrāhīm is one of his following ( s̲h̲īʿa ) (XXXVII, 81). He is the perspicuous admonisher ( nad̲h̲ir mubīn , XI, 27; LXXI, 2), the rasūl amīn “the true messenger of God” (XXVI, 107), the ʿabd s̲h̲akūr , “the grateful servant of God” (XVII, 3). God enters into a covenant with Nūḥ just as with Muḥammad, Ibrāhīm, Mūsā and ʿĪsā (XXXIII, 7). Peace and blessings are promised him (XI, 50). Muḥammad is fond of seeing himself reflected in the earlier prophets. In the case of Nūḥ, the Muslim Ḳurʾān exegetes have already noticed this (see Grünbaum, Neue Beiträge , 90). Muḥammad puts into the mouth of Nūḥ things that he would himself like to say and into the mouths of his opponents what he himself has heard from Nūḥ’s opponents. Nūḥ is reproached with being only one of the people (X, 72-4). God should rather have sent an angel (XXIII, 24). Nūḥ is wrong (VII, 58), is lying, deceiving (VII, 62), is possessed by d̲j̲inn (LIV, 9), only the lowest join him (XI, 29; XXVI, 111). When Nūḥ replies: “It is grievous to you that I live among you, I seek no reward, my reward is with God (X, 72-4; XI, 31); I do not claim to possess God’s treasures, to know his secrets, to be an angel and I cannot say to those whom ye despise, God shall not give you any good” (XI, 31-3), we have here an echo of Muḥammad’s defence and embarrassment about many of his followers. The Ḳurʾān pictures events as follows: God sends Nūḥ to the sinful people. Sūra LXXI, which bears his name, gives one of these sermons threatening punishment for which other analogies can be found. The people scorn him. Allah commands him to build an ark by divine inspiration. Then the “chaldron boils” (XI, 42; XXIII, 27). The waters drown everything; only two of every kind of living creature are saved and the believers whom Nūḥ takes into the ark with him. But there were very few who believed. Nūḥ appeals even to his son in vain; the latter takes refuge on a mountain but is drowned. When Nūḥ bids the waters be still, the ark lands on mount D̲j̲ūdī ([q.v.] XI, 27-51). Not only Noah’s son but also his wife (with Lūṭ’s wife) are sinners (LXVI, 10). From the Haggada is developed, as Geiger shows, the following elements of this Ḳurʾānic legend of Nūḥ: 1. Nūḥ appears as a prophet and admonisher; 2. his people laugh at the Ark; 3. his family is punished with hot water (main passages: Talm . Sanhedrin , 108a-b; Gen . Rabba , xxix-xxxvi).
The post-Ḳurʾānic legend of Nūḥ, as in other cases, fills up the gaps, gives the names of those not mentioned in the Ḳurʾān, makes many links, e.g. connects Nūḥ with Farīdūn of the Persian epic, although it is pointed out that the Magi (Persians) do not know the story of the flood. Nūḥ’s wife is called Wāliya and her sin is that she described Nūḥ to his people as mad̲j̲nūn . The names of Nūḥ’s sons, Sām, Hām and Yāfit̲h̲ are known to Ḳurʾān exegesis from the Bible, but this exegesis also gives the name of Nūḥ’s sinful son who perished in the flood, Kanʿān, “whom the Arabs call Yām”. The Ḳurʾānic statement that Nūḥ was 950 years of age at the time of the flood ( ṭūfān ) (XXIX, 13, 14) is probably based on Gen. ix. 39, which says Nūḥ lived 950 years in all. Also, it serves as a basis for calculations which make Nūḥ the first muʿammar ; according to the Kitāb al-Muʿammarīn of Abū Ḥātim al-Sid̲j̲istānī (ed. Goldziher, in Abh. zur arab Philologie , ii), who begins his book with Nūḥ, he lived 1,450 years. Yet in his dying hour he describes his life as a house with two doors through one of which one enters, while he leaves through the other. Muslim legend knows the Biblical story of Nūḥ, his times and his sons, but embellishes ¶ it greatly, and in al-Kisāʾī it becomes a romance. From the union of Ḳābil’s and S̲h̲īt̲h̲’s descendants arises a sinful people which rejects Nūḥ’s warnings. He therefore at God’s command builds the Ark from trees which he has himself planted. As he is hammering and building the people mock him: “Once a prophet, now a carpenter?”, “A ship for the mainland?” The Ark had a head and tail like a cock, a body like a bird (al-T̲h̲aʿlabī). How was the Ark built? At the wish of the apostles, Jesus arouses Sām (or Ḥām) b. Nūḥ from the dead and he describes the Ark and its arrangements: in the lower storey were the quadrupeds, in the next the human beings and in the top the birds. Nūḥ brought the ant into the Ark first and the ass last; it was slow because Iblīs was clinging to its tail. Nūḥ called out impatiently: “Come in even if Satan is with thee”; so Iblīs also had to be taken in. The pig arose out of the tail of the elephant and the cat from the lion. How could the ox exist beside the lion, the goat alongside the wolf, or the dove beside the birds of prey? God tamed their instincts. The number of human beings in the Ark varies in legend between seven and eighty. ʿŪd̲j̲ b. ʿAnaḳ was also saved along with the believers. Ḳābil’s race was drowned. Nūḥ also took Adam’s body with him, which was used to separate the women from the men, for in the Ark continence was ordered, for man and beast. Only Ḥām transgressed, and for this was punished with a black skin. The whole world was covered with water and only the Haram (in al-Kisāʾī, also the site of the sanctuary in Jerusalem) was spared; the Kaʿba was taken up into heaven and D̲j̲ibrīl concealed the Black Stone (according to al-Kisāʾī, the stone was snow-white until the Flood). Nūḥ sent out the raven, but finding some carrion it forgot Nūḥ; then he sent the dove, which brought back an olive leaf in its bill and mud on its feet; as a reward it was given its collar and became a domestic bird. On the day of ʿĀs̲h̲ūrāʾ every one came out of the Ark, men and beasts fasted and gave thanks to God.
There are many contacts with the Haggada: the (different, it is true) partitioning of the Ark, Nūḥ’s anxiety about the animals, Ḥām’s sin and punishment (Sanhedrin, 108a-b). The story that the giant ʿŌg escaped the Flood is also taken from the Haggada [see ʿūd̲j̲ b. ʿanaḳ ]. But Muslim legend goes farther than the Bible and Haggada in depicting Muḥammad, who sees himself in Nūḥ.
- Bibliography
Principal passages are Ḳurʾān, VII, 57-62
XI, 27-51
XXIII, 23-31
XXVI, 105-22
XXXVII, 73-81
LXXI (whole)
Ṭabarī, i, 174-201
Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, i, 27-9
T̲h̲aʿlabī, Ḳiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, Cairo 1325, 34-8
Kisāʾī, Ḳiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, ed. J. Eisenberg, i, 85-102, Eng. tr. W.M. Thackston, The tales of the prophets of al-Kisaʾi, Boston 1978, 91-109
A. Geiger, Was hat Mohammed..., Leipzig 1902 2 , 106-11
M. Grünbaum, Neue Beiträge, 79-90
J. Horovitz, in Hebrew Union College Annual, ii (1925) 151
idem, Koranische Untersuchungen, Berlin 1926, 13-18, 22-9, 32-5, 49-51, esp. 46
J. Walker, Biblical characters in the Koran, Paisley 1931, 113-21
D. Sidersky, Les origines des légendes musulmanes, Paris 1933, 26-7
H. Speyer, Die biblische Erzählungen im Qoran, Grafenhainichen ca. 1938, 84-115.—On the name Nūḥ: Goldziher, in ZDMG, xxiv (1870), 207-11
on Nūḥ as muʿammar: Goldziher, Abhandlungen zur arabischen Philologie, ii, Leiden 1899, pp. lxxxix and 2.
- Cite this page
Heller, B., “Nūḥ”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 10 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_5966>
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