HISTORY OF TABARI PART 10

HISTORY OF TABARI

VOLUME 1

From the Creation to the Flood

Translator's Foreword

  The monotheistic environment of the Near East provided a powerful model for the idea that history must be written as beginning with the creation of the world. In Islam , the tradition continued, and history was presented as a continuum stretching seamlessly from the six days of creation to contemporary times , although neither before nor after Tabari were histories so commonly composed in this manner as is often assumed . The material for primeval pre-Islamic history which was abundantly available to Tabari was determined by the Qur'an. A vast explanatory mythology developed in connection with it at an early stage . Some of the legends that were inherited or invented were occasionally ascribed to the Prophet directly. Much more frequently, they were credited to certain early Muslim authorities. Qur'an commentaries drawing on this information were composed in unpublished, and soon also in published, form at least since the early eighth century. Tabari, as the author of what in all likelihood was the most voluminous Qur'an commentary ever assembled down to his time, was thoroughly familiar with most, if not all, of these works.

  His basic task in the first part of his History was to make historical sense out of the material collected by earlier scholars and largely taken over into his own commentary, to which he refers by its proper title (below, n. 562)-here it is referred to simply as Tafsir. In rearranging and presenting the material as sequential history, he used throughout the same literary method as Tafsir, providing first a summary of the topic to be discussed, then quoting the sources , and, finally, wherever he considered it necessary, giving a critical evaluation of them ( frequently an effort to reach a compromise between divergent views) . He succeeded in his effort to historicize legend as well as was possible in his time and age. Later Muslim historians who used Tabari ' s history were considerably more skeptical than he as to the compatibility of all that legendary material with what they had come to consider history. Miskawayh , for instance , dared to dismiss all antediluvian accounts as being too poorly documented for consideration by historians . Ibn al-Athir criticized Tabari for bad historical and literary judgement with respect to some of the material the latter had thought worthy of consideration [1. See below, n. 3 of the Foreword and nn . 436 and 1029 to the translation.].

  In keeping with the methods developed by the traditional religious science of his day, Tabari rightly stressed the traditional nature of all historical knowledge . What happened in the past can be known only by reports originating with an eyewitness, or at least a contemporary , and handed down from one individual to another in successive stages . It was beyond his ken to realize that in dealing with what we call prehistorical happenings , " history" can be approached only by means of intellectual (or, nowadays, scientific ) speculation . Tabari did have a certain inkling of the problem involved . Repeatedly, he asserts that only traditional information can be counted on to prove the soundness of historical data and that the usefulness of intellectual speculation in this connection must be discounted . With respect to the former, his statement was apologetic; with respect to the latter , it was polemical. The stress on the supremacy of intellect and reason ('aql) was the hallmark of the Mutakallimun , the philosophical theologians of his age , who tried with considerable success at the time to assert themselves , and it is their introduction of 'aql into the Muslim  view of the world that Tabari attempted to reject while defending the supremacy of tradition.

  In one respect , however, he clearly shows how deeply he was influenced by the new thought system . It cannot be decided whether he himself fully realized it-this may indeed have been the casebut he admitted (text below , I, 6) that his historical research did include a small measure of rational argumentation . At the begin ning of the History, he raises the question of the nature and definition of time as being fundamental to all history . His answer remains traditional , but the question could be raised in this form only after the Aristotelian analysis of the physical world in which human history evolves had become familiar in Muslim civilization . Tabari argues that all history is a function of time and that, therefore , a definition of time that clearly establishes its meaning is the crucial starting point for historical investigation. This was an important insight, and there appears to be a strong possibility that Tabari was in fact the first to introduce it prominently into historiography (as apparently suggested by one of his early biographers , see above , General Intro ., n. 446). It is unfortunately true that most of the Arabic historical literature that could serve for comparison is yet to be recovered. The History of al-Ya'qubi (d. 284/897-98 or later) is incomplete in the beginning, where the same argument regarding time might have been made . A century earlier, Khalifah b. Khayyat (d. 204/819-20) had begun his History with no more than a brief note on the term ta'rikh, understood by him not as "history," but as the means for dating events-a note that is not at all informed by philosophical reflection [2. See also Rosenthal , Muslim Historiography, 2 287, n 4.]. Thus, Tabari's approach to time in history may very well have been absent in earlier histories . It can be assumed, at any rate , to have developed at the earliest in the course of the third/ninth century. If it is indeed original with Tabari, it is another truly remarkable testimony to his intellectual alertness. It may be added that Ibn al-Athir was fully aware of the origin of Tabari's speculation on the concept of time . It belonged, he states, in the discussion of the (theological ) principles of the Mutakallimun and had no place in a historical work [3. See lbn al-Athir , Kamil, cd. Tornberg, 1, 12.].

  A particularly difficult challenge to the historian's critical acumen were views known in ninth-century Baghdad on the origin and early history of the world which competed and often were in conflict with the monotheistic tradition shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This had given pause to historians before Tabari and had led to crude attempts at finding some common ground between the disparate traditions. Tabari, like many of the leading scholars in Iraq , a man with ties to Iran, restricted himself to the Magian ( Zoroastrian ) material and inserted rather brief reports on it in what he felt were appropriate places. He gives the impression of doing that with some reluctance and an apparent unwillingness to take those alien beliefs too seriously . Indeed, the very existence of competing mythological histories may have severely tested Tabari as an historian and as a faithful Muslim.

  The basis for the following translation has been the Leiden text as edited by the Semitist Jakob Barth in Leiden, 1879-81. It is, however, obvious that the Istanbul manuscript Topkapisarayi Ahmet III 2929/I, 4 which was consulted by M. Abu al- Fall Ibrahim for the Cairo edition , has a text that , in general , is superior to that of the manuscripts used in Leiden. At the very beginning, Ms. Ahmet III provides the only reliable text , but its superiority is evident nearly everywhere. In most cases, its readings therefore have been adopted from the Cairo edition with no further comment. The reader of this translation should , however, rest assured that while noteworthy, the variants hold no substantive implications for the understanding of the text.

  No manuscripts have been consulted directly for the present translation . There are passages here and there where the manuscript situation remains slightly uncertain , and a look at the manuscripts might have been helpful. A great merit of the Cairo edition that deserves to be mentioned is its occasional use of Tafsfr, from which Tabari drew much of his material for this volume.

  For all practical purposes , the following pages are a commentary on Genesis, chapters 1-io, from the creation of the world to Noah and the Flood-a mirror reflecting centuries of thought and a new Muslim way of looking at the ancient story. This being the case, the greatest selectivity in the number and kind of notes to be included was required. The scholarly literature deserving attention is nearly unlimited , and the problems are numerous . Much that could and should have been said has been passed over in silence. The following considerations have guided the choice of notes:

  1. Qur'anic quotations have, of course, been always noted. How ever, the artful weaving together of quotations from and allusions to the Qur'an, which is evident to anyone reading the Arabic text, could not always be brought out in translation.

2. The chains of transmitters (isnad ) are a most important key to the early history of Muslim historiogaphy . At least some information had to be provided for each individual occurring in them. All transmitters therefore have been briefly annotated at their first mention in the text . In order to facilitate their location through the Index , short forms of their names appearing in the text have often, but not consistently, been completed by additions in parentheses.

  The identification of individual transmitters has been restricted here to basically two works, the History of Baghdad (Ta'rikh Baghdad, cited as TB) of al-Khatib al-Baghdadi and Ibn Hajar's Tahdhib. TB brings us quite close to Tabari's time and environment . Tahdhib was compiled in the first half of the ninth /fifteenth century and constitutes the culmination of the labors of hadith scholars in the field of biography. The information it contains is a summary of all the earlier literature . The significant dates for the life and death of the transmitters are all faithfully reported. Where Ibn Hajar fails to indicate such dates, it is almost certain that none ever existed in any earlier source . As a matter of fact, early biographical collections were much more chary with dates than later ones . This is proof that scholarly research and speculation , as against direct attestation, were responsible for providing many of the dates. Scholarship is never infallible, and, in certain cases, the very identification of an individual may have depended upon a kind of circular reasoning that reconstructed relationships on the basis of the isnads as found in the hadith collections and the tafsir literature . Ibn Hajar often leaves us with a number of alternative dates to choose from. Usually no decision has been made here as to which of the divergent dates maybe correct, even where this could possibly have been done . When references to the one or other biographical work in addition to TB and Tahdhib have been given, this has been done for some reason , which, however, has been left unstated.

  The role of isnads as indications of Tabari 's sources has been somewhat obscured by the schematic representation adopted here, in which simple dashes separate individual transmitters.

  However convenient , this scheme removes valuable if ambiguous hints at the various stages of the process of written transmission.

  The material quoted here by Tabari from Tafsir was no doubt taken from earlier Qur'an commentaries , most of them still lost or imperfectly known . Recensions of some of those commentaries have recently been published , such as the works of Sufyan alThawri, Mujahid, and Muqatil [5. For the situation with respect to the Tafsir of Mujahid, however, see the introduction of the Tafsir's editor, 25-27].It should be noted that the corresponding information provided by Tabari in traditions with isndds including these men can be only very rarely traced back to them. In view of the complex history of the compilation of those recensions, as discussed by G. Schoeler and others (below, n. 503 ) , this is hardly surprising. It does not, however, cast doubt on the genuineness of the attribution.

  Among the secondary literature on the transmitters, Fuat Sezgin's Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (GAS) has been cited as consistently as possible . It allows for checking the literary activities of a given scholar and, in particular , finding out whether he is known as the author of a Qur'an commentary. The short article by Heribert Horst, "Zur Uberlieferung im Korankommentar at -Tabaris," has been systematically referred to, not so much for its occasional additional information as for its concise discussion of the configurations of Tabari's isnads. The important study of G. H. A. Juynboll, Muslim Tradition. Studies in Chronology, Provenance and Authorship of Early Hadith (Cambridge University Press, 1983), goes, as its title indicates, far beyond the elementary data of concern to us here.

3. Among the sources of the History, Tabari's own Tafsir has always been consulted and usually cited. Close parallels from earlier or contemporary works have occasionally been mentioned. As is the case with much of the earlier hadith literature, his primary historical sources, such as the works of Ibn Ishaq and the Kalbi family , are also lost . Little use has been made of the hadith literature. Works by later authors have been referred to only in exceptional cases . This also includes the literature on the prophetical stories (qisas al-anbiya'). W. M. Brinner's forthcoming translation of the closely related work by al-Tha'labi and W. M. Thackston's translation of the very different Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisa'i (Boston, 1978) show the difference between their approach and that of the historian.

4. With respect to the sources of Tabari's sources-that is, the comparative data to be found in Christian, Jewish, and Middle Persian literature (including the later Firdawsi)-only a few references have been given in the notes. The relationship of Tabari's material to the Book of Genesis requires many more references and discussions than appear in the notes here. The Jewish midrashic literature and secondary works, such as Speyer's Biblische Erzahlungen, should have been referred to more frequently than is actually the case. A detailed analysis, for instance, of the role of the SchatzhohIe tradition was, of course, not possible here [6. A. Goetze discusses the influence of the work on the histories of al-Ya'qubi and Tabari in Zeitschrift fur Semitistik 3[1924]: 60-71,153-55]. The references given to non-Muslim sources can do no more than serve as a stimulus for further investigation.

  In his review of E. Marin's translation of Tabari's section dealing with the caliphate of al-Mu' tasim , Helmut Ritter remarked that translations of difficult Arabic texts such as Tabari's History should preferably be undertaken as collaborative efforts of more than one translator, for, Ritter said, "someone who translates by himself falls all too easily into the unavoidable vicious traps waiting for translators from this harmfully deceptive ("heimtiickisch") language. The collaboration of two or more scholars gives at least some protection against getting lost in the Arabian desert [7. See Oriens 6 [1953]:157]. My own lifetime experience has convinced me more and more of the truth of Ritter's impishly phrased remark. True collaboration in Ritter's sense has not been possible here, and mistakes can probably be found with comparative ease. But I have at least enjoyed and profited from the help of fellow scholars. I may mention G. Bowering, who gave me access to printed editions and manuscripts of early Qur'an commentaries in his possession, and J. Lassner, whose editorial work has gone far beyond the ordinary duty of an editor. Infelicities of style that will be encountered are the result of my having occasionally failed to accept my editor's suggestions [8. i may mention the frequent " He continued ( said)" interrupting the narrative. I have retained it, although it will no doubt puzzle the reader. It can mean that the preceding statement is completed or, more commonly , that it is being continued. It can also indicate that there is a break in the narrative as compared to the source from which the statement is quoted . Often no decision is possible , and I have refrained from speculating about its meaning in a given context, or from simply omitting it.].

Franz Rosenthal

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

(Invocation)

  PRAISED BE GOD, first before any first and last after any last , enduring without cease and persevering in everything without moving away, Creator of His creation from no original or model! He is singular and unique without number. He remains after everyone infinitely without term . His are glory and greatness, splendor and might, authority and power . He is above having a partner in His authority, or in His uniqueness having one like Him, or in His administration an aid or helper, or having a child or spouse or "any equal ." [I. Qur. 112:4] He cannot be fully imagined and encompassed by the regions [2. Cf. Qur. 55:33, referring to "regions of heaven and earth."] and "reached by the eyes while He reaches them. He is subtle and knowledgeable." [3. Qur. 6:103. Ms. Ahmet III supplies "while... them." Its omission in the Leiden edition may constitute Tabari' s more original text.]

  I praise Him for His benefits and am grateful to Him for His favors in the manner befitting one who singles Him out for praise and who hopes to receive more ( favors ) from Him for having been grateful . I ask Him to grant me to say and do what will bring me close to Him and please Him. I believe in Him as one who declares oneness belonging exclusively to Him and who reserves glorification for Him alone.

  I confess that there is no God but God , being one and having no partner. I confess that Muhammad s.a.w  is His noble servant and His trustworthy Messenger whom He chose for transmitting His message and sent with His revelation to call His creation to worship Him. He manifested His command [4. Cf. Qur. 15:94.], labored strenuously in His path, advised His nation (ummah), and worshiped Him until death came to him from God, never flagging in his effort and never relaxing in his strenuous labor . May God bless him with the most excellent and purest prayer and give him peace!

(Introduction)

  And now: God-great is His majesty and His names are sanctified--created His creation without any necessity for Him to create them, and He brought them forth without any need for Him to bring them forth. Rather, He created those whom He singled out by His command and His prohibition and whom He tested by His worship, so that they would worship Him and He would in turn bestow generous favors upon them. They would thus praise Him for His favors and He in turn would give them more of His generosity and bounty and add to His superiority and power for their benefit, as He says: "I have created jinn and men only to worship me. I do not want any sustenance from them, and I do not want them to provide food for Me. God is the Sustainer, potent and firm. [5. Qur. 51 :56-58]

  In creating them as He did, He did not increase His authority by as much as the weight of a speck of dust beyond what it had always been before He created them. Nor does His annihilating them and making them nonexistent diminish Him by as much as the weight of a hair. For circumstances do not change Him, fatigue does not affect Him, and (the passing of ) days and nights does not diminish His authority because He is the Creator of all eternal and temporal time. [6. Al-duhar wa-al- azman. For the various aspects of " time," see text below. What follows here is the customary summary of the contents usually provided by the author of a medieval Muslim book.]

  In this fleeting world, His many manifestations of generosity and bounty include and encompass all human beings . He gave them ears, eyes, and hearts and singled them out for possessing reason which makes it possible for them to distinguish between truth and falsehood and to recognize what is useful and what is harmful. He made the earth for them a carpet, so that they would have there passable roads to walk on [7. Cf. Qur. 71:19 f., quoted literally except for the substitution of the third person for the second of the Qur ' anic text.], and "the heaven a wellguarded roof [8. Qur.21:32.] and a lofty construction. From it He brought down for them plentiful rain and sizable sustenance. He made the moon of the night and the sun of the day run constantly one after the other for their welfare. He made for them "the night a garment" and "the day the time for a livelihood [9. Qur. 78:10 f]. In His benevolent concern for them, He made an alternation between the moon of the night and the sun of the day, blotting out the sign of the night and making the sign of the day something to see by, as He-great is His majesty and His names are sanctified-says: "And We have made the night and the day two signs. We have blotted out the sign of the night, and We have made the sign of the day something to see by, so that you may seek bounty from your Lord and so that you may know the number of years and the reckoning. For everything, We have made clear distinctions [10. Qur. 17:12]. And so that they may achieve knowledge of the times-the hours of night and day, the months and the years-when the religious duties God has imposed upon them are to be fulfilled, such as prayer, charity, pilgrimage, fasting, and their other religious duties, as well as the time for settling their debts and their claims, as He says: "They will ask you about the new moons. Say: They are fixed times for mankind and the pilgrimage [11. Qur. 2:189].  He further says: "He is the one who made the sun a luminosity and the moon a light, setting up fixed stations for it so that you may know the number of years and the reckoning. God created that only because it is right, distinguishing the signs for people who know. In the alternating of night and day and whatever God has created in the heavens and on earth, there are signs for people who fear God [12. Qur. 10:5 f.] all this being kindness shown by Him to His creation and an expression of His favor and concern for them.

  A large number of His creatures were grateful to Him for the favors which He bestowed upon them. Thus, He gave many of them more benefits and gifts in addition to the generous favors He had bestowed upon them earlier, as God promised them, saying: "Your Lord announced: If your are grateful, We shall give you more, and if you are ungrateful, the punishment meted out by Me will be great [13. Qur. 14:7]. He combined for them more (benefits) in this fleeting life of theirs with success in achieving bliss and eternal residence in blissful Paradise in their life to come in the other world. For many of them , He postponed the promised increase to the time of their coming to Him, so as to show them more bounteous generosity on "the day when the innermost hearts are tested ." [14. Qur. 86:9.]  A large number of them were ungrateful for His favors, denying His benefits and worshiping someone else . Therefore He deprived many of them of the generous kindness He had shown them earlier . He unleashed upon them destructive vengeance in this fleeting world and stored up for them shameful punishment in the life to come in the other world. He let many of them enjoy His favors while they were alive by way of deception, thus making their load heavier so that they would be deserving of the punishment prepared by Him for them in the life to come in the other world.

  We take refuge in God against any activity that might bring (us) close to His wrath, and we ask Him for success with respect to everything that might lead ( us) to His acceptance and love.

  Abu Ja ' far (al-Tabari ) says : In this book of mine, I shall mention whatever information has reached us about kings throughout the ages from when our Lord began the creation of His creation to its annihilation . There were messengers sent by God, kings placed in authority, or caliphs established in the caliphal succession. God had early on bestowed His benefits and favors upon some of them. They were grateful for His favors, and He thus gave them more favors and bounty in addition to those bestowed by Him upon them in their fleeting life , or He postponed the increase and stored it up for them with Himself. There were others who were not grateful for His favors, and so He deprived them of the favors He had bestowed upon them early on and hastened for them His revenge. There were also others who were not grateful for His favors; He let them enjoy them until the time of their death and perdition. Every one of them whom I shall mention in this book of mine will be mentioned in conjunction with his time but (only ) summaries of the events in his day and age will be added , since an exhaustive treatment is not possible in a lifetime and makes books too long [15. The conventional fear of long - windedness is expressed repeatedly by Tabari, even in connection with his massive Tafsir. See above , General Introduction, n. 214]. This will be combined with references to the length of their natural life and the time of their death.

  First, however, I shall begin with what for us comes properly and logically first, namely, the explanation of

What is time?

How long is its total extent?

Its first beginning and final end.

Whether before God's creation of (time) there was anything else.

Whether it will suffer annihilation and whether after its annihilation there will be something other than the face (wajh) of the Highly praised, the Exalted Creator. [16. Wajh " face " with reference to God in the Qur'an is pars pro toto and means "person ." The translation " face" has been retained here , because the word was atheological issue in the Muslim debate of anthropomorphism]

What was it that was before God's creation of time and what will be after its final annihilation?

How did God's creation of it begin and how will its annihilation take place?

  Proof that there is nothing eternal (a parte ante) except God unique and powerful, to Whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is between them and what is underneath the soil.[ 17. Cf. Qur. 20: 6, combined with 3:189, 5:18, et]

  This must be done briefly and concisely, for in this book of ours we do not intend to present the arguments concerning time but rather the dates of past kings mentioned by us and summaries of their history, the times of the messengers and prophets and how long they lived, the days of the early [18. Salif refers here to the early caliphs, presumably the first four. It should be noted that this introduction makes no reference to Umayyad or 'Abbasid history. It is concerned only with the companions of the Prophet , the Followers , and later transmitters as in the works on personality criticism of hadith scholars . It would appear to have been written before Tabari himself was clear about the form his work would eventually take.] caliphs and some of their biographical data, and the extent of the territories under their control [19. Or, perhaps: " the extent of time of their holding office" ?], as well as the events that took place in their age. There fore, if God wills and gives me strength through help and power from Him , I shall continue and mention the companions of our Prophet, their names, their patronymics , the extent of their pedigrees , and how long they lived and when and where they died. I shall then mention those who followed them doing good, in accordance with the conditions we have set down for mentioning them . Then, in addition to them , I shall likewise mention those who came after them , giving additional data about them . I do this for the purpose of clarifying whose transmission (of traditions) is praised and whose information is accepted [20. Leiden: " is transmitted."],  whose transmission is rejected and whose transmission is disregarded , and whose tradition is considered feeble and whose information is considered weak . In addition , I give the reason why someone 's information is disregarded and the cause for someone 's tradition being considered feeble.

  I wish to God that He may help me in my intentions and aims and give me success in my purposes and desires, for He possesses might and strength. May God pray for His Prophet Muhammad s.a.w  and give him peace!

  The reader should know that with respect to all I have mentioned and made it a condition to set down in this book of ours, I rely upon traditions and reports [21. Akhbar and dthdr, it seems , is used throughout with no clearcut distinction in meaning. For this passage, see text below, I, 56. Cf. also the colophon of the entire History, Vol. XXXVIII, p. xvii.] which I have transmitted and which I attribute to their transmitters. I rely only very exceptionally upon what is learned through rational arguments and produced by internal thought processes . For no knowledge of the history of men of the past and of recent men and events is attain. able by those who were not able to observe them and did not live in their time , except through information and transmission provided by informants and transmitters . This knowledge cannot be brought out by reason or produced by internal thought processes. This book of mine may (be found to ) contain some information, mentioned by us on the authority of certain men of the past, which the reader may disapprove of and the listener may find detestable, because he can find nothing sound and no real meaning in it. In such cases, he should know that it is not our fault that such information comes to him, but the fault of someone who transmitted it to us. We have merely reported it as it was reported to us.

What Is Time?

  (Abu Ja`far al-Tabari) says: Time [22. Arabic possesses a number of words expressing the concept of time. Tabari here distinguishes between the two most important of them , zamdn / zaman and waqt, the former indicating extended time and the latter indicating moment of time . This basic distinction is made in the theoretical discussion of the concept of time . It is very often disregarded in actual linguistic usage . In this translation, the translation " moment" for waqt has often been used. It should be noted that waqt occurs in the Qur'an, but z-m-n does not. In "night and day," the Arabic word for "daytime" (nahdr) is used here. Yawm ("day") technically indicates the twentyhour period , but in Tabari as elsewhere it is also commonly used for daytime.] is the hours of night and day. This may be said of both long and short extents of time.

  The Arabs say: "I came to you at the time- zamana or zamana -of al-Hajjaj [23. The famous Umayyad governor (d. 85/704). Cf. EI , III, 39-43, s. v. alHadjdjadj] (being) amir." By this, they mean: during the period when (idh) al-Hajjaj (was) amir.

They say: "I came to you in the time- zamana or zamana –of cutting off (the dates from the palms)." By this, they mean: at the moment (waqt) of cutting (them) off.

They also say: "I came to you in the times-using the plural azmdn -of al-Hajjaj (being) amir." They intend thereby to make each moment (waqt) of his amirate a certain period of time (zaman).

Thus the rajaz poet says: Winter has come, and my shirt is worn out, tatters, being laughed at by al-Tawwaq. [24. For this verse in the rajaz meter, see Ibn Manziir, Lisdn, XI, 315, 376, XV, 215, where al-Tawwaq is said to be the name of the son of (the poet ?). The form of the name appears to be uncertain , it is also read al -Nawwaq. The verse is ascribed to some unnamed bedouin in Dinawari, Nabdt, 239 f. The reading there is minha (referring to the tatters as being laughed at) for minhu (referring , in general, to shirt ) or minni ( referring to the poet ). Attention to the passage in al -Dinawari has been called by 'Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi, Khizanah, 1, 114. The verse is quoted in Tafsir, XIX, 47 (ad Qur. 26:53-56.]

  The poet uses here the plural of "worn out" in connection with "shirt ." He intends thereby to describe each piece of the shirt as being worn out . Similarly, one says: "a vast barren ( pl. sabasib) land, "and the like.

  For the use of zaman for zaman, there is the verse of al-A'sha of the Banu Maymun b. Qays:

  For a time ( zamanan), I was a man in the Iraq modest in ( my) camping place , long in contentedly doing without [25. See al- A'shi, Diwdn, 22, no. 2, verse 77. The difficult last word appears in various forms . Al-taqhann, for al- taqhanni, as in the edition of ai-A 'sha and the Cairo edition of Tabari, is explained as istighnd ' in Ibn Manzur, than, XIX, 373.] By zamanan he intends zamanan.

  Thus, as mentioned by me and as I have described and explained it, zaman is a noun designating the hours of night and day.

How Long Is the Total Extent of Time from Beginning to End, First to Last?

 The early scholars before us differed in this respect . Some said that the total extent of time is seven thousand years.

Those who said this According to Ibn Humayd [26. Muhammad b. Humayd, Abu 'Abdall ah al-Rani, died in 248/ 862, apparently more than eighty years old. See TB, II, 259-64, Tahdhib, IX, 127 -31; Horst , 296, n. 3. He was one of Tabari' s most important authorities , in particular as a secondgeneration transmitter from the historian Ibn Ishaq. Ibn Ishiq 's work on the Beginnings (al-Mubtada, see Sezgin , GAS, I, 289) can be assumed to be the source of much of the material reported by Tabari. On Ibn Iiumayd in connection with isndds in Tabari's Tafsir and History, see also Sezgin , GAS, I, 29 f., 79, 242, 253. Relevant information on Ibn Ishaq 's Mubtada ' can be expected from G. D. Newby, see Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 7 [1986]:123. See also above , General Introduction, 17f] -Yahya b. Wadil? [27. No dates are provided in either TB, XIV ,126-28, or Tahdbib, XI, 293 f] -Yaliya b. Ya'qub [28. Abu Talib Yahya b . Ya'qub appears as an authority of Yahya b . Wadih in text below, I, 1284, as well as Bukhari , Ta'rikh, IV, 2, 312 . His pedigree is given as Yahya b. Ya'qub b . Mudrik b. Sa'd b. Habtah ( Khaythamah) al-Ansiri. He is listed in In I;fajar, Lisdn, VI, 282 f . There, as in Dhahabi, Mizan , IV, 415, he is said to have been the maternal uncle of the famous Hanafite judge Abu Yusuf, whose greatgrandfather was Sad b. Habtah . Habtah was the name of Sa'd's mother] –Hammad [29. Hammid b. Abi Sulaymin Muslim died in 119 or 120/737-38 . See Tahdhib, III, I-18; In Hajar, Fath, XIV, 136] -Sa'id b. Jubayr [30. Ibn Jubayr died about fifty years old in 95 / 714. See Tahdhib, IV, I1 -14; Sezgin, GAS, I, 28 f.; Horst , 303, n. 8.] -Ibn 'Abbas [31. 'Abdallih b. 'Abbas , the Prophet 's cousin and reputedly the greatest early authority on Qur'an interpretation , died in 68 /68718 1. See E12 A I, 40 f ., s. v. 'Abdallah b. al-'Abbas] : This world is one of the weeks of the other world -seven thousand years. Six thousand two hundred [32. Ed . Leiden : six thousand and (several ) hundred years. Quoting Tabari, Ibn I;Iajar, Path , XIV,136, has 6,100] years have already passed. (The world) will surely experience hundreds of years, during which there will be no believer in the oneness of God there.

  Others said that the total extent of time is six thousand years.

  Those who said this :

  According to Abu Hisham [33. Abu Hishim al-Rifa i, Muhammad b. Yazid b . Muhammad b. Kathir b. Rifa'ah, died in 248/862 . He was a fudge in al-Mada 'in and wrote on Qur 'an reading. See TB , III, 375-77 ; Tahdhib, IX, 256 , f.; Ibn al-Jazari , Ghdyah, II, 280 f.] -Mu'awiyah b. Hisham [34. Died 204 or 205 / 819-20 . See Tahdhib, X, 218 f., where he is described as a transmitter from Sufyan al-Thawri] –Sufyan [35. Sufyan al - Thawri, ca. 96/ 714(5) to 161 / 778. See Tahdhib , IV, 111 -15i Sezgin, GAS, 1, 518 f.; Horst, 296, n. 20. He and his younger contemporary and namesake Sufyan b. 'Uyaynah (below, n. 67) shared the same authorities and students and are often listed as "the two Sufyan ." Thus, it is sometimes difficult to know which " Sufyan " is meant] -al-A'mash [36. Sulayman b. Mihrin al- A'mash lived from ca. 6o or 61/679-So to ca. 148/765. See Tahdhib, IV, 222 - 26; E12, 1, 431 , s. v. al-A'mash] -Abu Salih [37. Presumably, Abu Salih Dhakwan al-Sammin who died in 101/719(201. See Tahdhib, m, 219 f. Another of the many Abu Silihs, Badham/Badhan, a mawld of 'Ali's sister Umm Hini' , was an authority of al-A'mash . See Tahdhib , 1, 416 f]-Kab [38. For the legendary transmitter Kab al - ahbir, who is said to have died between 32 and 35/652-§6, see Tahdhib , VIII, 438-40; E12, IV3316 f., s. v.; Sezgin , GAS, I, 304f] : This world is six thousand years.

  According to Muhammad b. Sahl b. 'Askar [39. Died 251/865. See TB, V, 313 f., Tahdhib, IX, 207] -Ismail b. 'Abd al-Karim [40. For Ismi'l b. 'Abd al-Karim b. Ma'gil b. Munabbih b. Kimil, see Tahdhib, I, 315 f. He was a nephew of 'Abd al-Samad b. Ma'qil and a grandnephew of Wahb b. Munabbih] -'Abd al-Samad b. Ma'qil [41. A nephew of Wahb b. Munabbih, 'Abd al-Samad died in the first decade of the eighth century. See Tahdhib, VI, 328.] –Wahb [42. The celebrated Wahb b. Munabbih lived from ca. 655 to around 750, see, for instance , Tahdhib, XI, 166-68; Sezgin, GAS, 1, 305-7; Horst, 303, n. 7] : Five thousand six hundred years of this world have elapsed. I do not know which kings and prophets lived in every period (zaman) of those years. I asked Wahb b. Munabbih: How long is (the total duration of) this world? He replied: Six thousand years.

  Abu Ja'far (al-Tabari) says: The correct statement here is the one whose soundness is proved by information having come down from the Messenger of God [43. Tabari often argues in the same manner in his Tafsir.].  It is what we were told by Muhammad b. Bashshar [44. Ibn Bashshir lived from 167/783141 to 252/866. See TB, U, 1o1-5; Tahdhib, IX, 70-73; Horst, 296, n. 4.] and 'Ali b. Sahl [45•'Ali b. Sahl al- Ramli often occurs as an authority in Tafsiz, but he apparently is not listed in either TB or Tahdhib. He is mentioned as a student of Mu'ammal in Tahdhib, X, 380. He apparently was the author of a letter in strong support ofthe Mujihid tradition see above, General Introduction, 71 ff.) quoted in Khallil, Musnad, 91 f] -Mu' ammal [46. Mu' ammal b. Ismail died in 205 or 206/820-21. See Tahdhib, X, 380 f. He has both Sufyans as his authorities, and both of them are listed as students of 'Abdallah b. Dinar.] -Sufyan-'Abdallah b. Dinar [47. Died in 127/744[5]. See Tahdhib, V, 201-3.] -Ibn 'Umar [48. 'Abdallah, a son of the caliph 'Umar, died in 73/692131. See Tahdhib, V, 228 f., E12, I, 53 f., s. v. 'Abdallah b. 'Umar.] : I heard the Messenger of God say: As compared to the term of those before you, your term is (like the time) from afternoon prayer to sunset.

  According to Ibn Humayd-Salamah [49. Abu 'Abdallah Salamah b. al-Fadl al-Azraq died after 190/805)6), suppposedly 110 years old. See Tahdhib, IV, 153 f.; Horst, 303, n . 3. He was entrusted with (sahib) Ibn Ishiq 's Maghazi and transmitted both the Maghazi and the Mubtada'.] -Muhammad b. Ishaq [50. The famous historian, author of the biography (Sirah) of the Prophet and other historical works, was born ca. 85/704 and died in 150/767 or shortly thereafter. See TB, I, 214-34; Tahdhib, IX, 38-46; E12, III, 810 f., s . v. lbn lshak; Sezgin, GAS, I, 288-90 ; Horst, 303, n. 4.] -Nafl'S1-Ibn 'Umar: I heard the Prophet say: As compared to the term of the nations of the past, your term is just like (the time) between the afternoon prayer to sunset.

  According to al-Hasan b. 'Arafah [52. He was supposedly 100 or I 1 o years old when he died in Samara in 257/870[1]. See TB, VII, 394-96, Tahdhib, IT, 293] -Abu al-Yaqzan 'Ammar b. Muhammad, a son of the sister of Sufyan al –Thawri [53• Died 182/798 . See TB, XII, 252 f.; Tahdhib, VIII, 305] -Layth b. Abi Sulaym [54. Layth supposedly died in 143/760-61 or 148/765. See Tahdhib, VIII, 465-68, Ibn al - Jazari , Ghdyah, II, 34. For his role in the transmission of the Mujahid tradition, see above , General Introduction, n. 275] -Mughirah b. Hakim [55. See Tahdhib, X, 258] -Abdallah b. 'Umar: The Messenger of God said: Only as much of this world remains for my nation as the extent (of time that remains) for the sun when the afternoon prayer has been performed.

  According to Muhammad b. 'Awf [56. Died 272 or 273/885-86 . See Tahdhib, IX, 383 f] -Abu Nuaym [57. Abu Nu'aym al - Fadl b. Dukayn lived from 130/747[81 to 219/834. See TB, XII, 346 --57; Tahdhib, VIII, 270-76; E12, I, 143, S . v. Abu Nu'aym; Sezgin, GAS, I, 101] –Sharik [58. Shank b. 'Abdallah al-Nakhai was born in 95 /713[4] and died in 177 or 178/793-94. See TB, IX, 279-95; Tahdhib, N, 333-37] -Salamah b. Kuhayl [59• Died 122 or 123 /739-41. See Tahdhib, IV, 155-57] –Mujahid [60. Abu al- Hajjaj Mujahid b. Jabr was born in 21 / 642. He died in 104/722(3) or possibly four years earlier . He was the author of a Qur'an commentary much used by Tabari. See Tahdhib, X, 42-44; Sezgin, GAS, I, 29; Horst, 295, n. 9. See above, General Introduction, 71.] -Ibn 'Umar: We were sitting together with the Prophet when the sun was over Qu'ayqi'an [61. A mountain about twelve mil (24 km) south of Mecca . See Yaqut , Mu'jam, IV, 146] after the afternoon prayer. He said to us: As compared to the lives of those who have passed, your lives are like what remains of this day as compared to what has passed of it.

  According to Ibn Bashshar and Muhammad b. al-Muthanna [62. Ibn al - Muthanni, Abu Musa al-Zamin, lived from 167/783141 to between 250 and 252/864-66. See TB, III, 283-86, Tahdhib, IX, 425-27. The Arabic text makes the following distinction : Ibn Bashshar said : I was told by Khalaf, whereas Ibn alMuthanni said: We were told....] -Khalaf b. Musa [63. Khalaf b. Musa b . Khalaf al-'Ammi died between 220 and 222/835-37. See Tahdhib, III, 155 . His father Musa b . Khalaf is listed in Tahdhib, X, 341 f.] -his father-Qatadah [64. Qatidah b. Di'amah lived from ca . 6o/68o to 117/735. See Tahdhib, VIII, 351-56; El2 , IV, 748, s. v. Katida b. Di'ama ; Sezgin, I, 31 f.; Horst, 300, n. 6. An edition of his Kitab al-Nasikh appears to have been published in Beirut, 1984 (not seen)] -Anas b. Malik [65. The famous transmitter from the Prophet died very old, between 710 and 715. See Tahdhib, 1, 376-79; E12, 482, s. v. Anas b. Malik.] : On day the Messenger of God addressed his companions when the sun had almost set and only a small sliver of it remained visible. He  said: By the One Who holds the soul of Muhammad in His hand! As compared to what remains of our (life in this) world, that which has passed is like what remains of this day as compared to what has passed of it, and you will see only a little (more) of the sun.

CONTINUED