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© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/15700585-12341543 Arabica 66

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/15700585-12341543 Arabica 66 (2019) 415-484 brill.com/arab The Ascent of Ishmael: Genealogy, Covenant, and Identity in Early Islam Mohsen Goudarzi University of Minnesota goudarzi@umn.edu Abstract This essay argues that biblical genealogy serves as a fundamental organizing princi- ple in the Qurʾān. In particular, the Qurʾān anchors the cultic and scriptural aspects of the Prophet’s mission squarely on his community’s descent from Abraham via Ishmael. The first part of the essay marshals qurʾānic evidence in support of this claim and critiques a number of recent studies that downplay or deny the significance of Abrahamic-Ishmaelite genealogy in the Qurʾān. The second part reinforces this sig- nificance by demonstrating that Ishmael’s qurʾānic characterization as an upright prophet sharply contrasts with his predominantly negative portrayals in pre-Islamic writings. The final part shows that modern scholars initially acknowledged Abraham and Ishmael’s key ancestral and cultic roles in the Qurʾān but came to see these roles as exclusively Medinan constructs. The essay challenge this view and offers a different explanation for the Qurʾān’s varying portrayals of Abraham and Ishmael. Keywords Ishmael, Abraham, Qurʾān, early Islam, genealogy, universalism Résumé Cette étude soutient l’idée que la généalogie biblique est un principe fondamental et constitutif du Coran. Le Coran ancre en effet les aspects cultuels et scripturaires de la mission du prophète directement dans la descendance de sa communauté depuis Abraham via Ismaël. La première partie de cette étude réaffirme cette préten- tion à l’ascendance abrahamique et critique un certain nombre d’études récentes qui Downloaded from Brill.com11/15/2021 09:57:18PM via Harvard University 416 Goudarzi Arabica 66 (2019) 415-484 minimisent voire dénient l’importance de cette généalogique abrahamique via Ismaël dans le Coran. La deuxième partie de cet article démontre que la caractérisation d’Ismaël en tant que prophète contraste fortement avec ses représentations majori- tairement négatives dans les écrits anté-islamiques. La dernière partie montre que les érudits modernes ont d’abord le rôle clef d’Abraham et Ismaël en tant qu’ancêtres et pour le culte dans le Coran, mais ont fini par considérer ces rôles comme des construc- tions exclusivement médinoises. Cette étude remet en question ce point de vue et offre une explication différente aux représentations d’Abraham et Ismaël dans le Coran. Mots clefs Ismaël, Abraham, Coran, débuts de l’Islam, généalogie, universalisme 1 Between Particularism and Universalism1 Muslims today constitute more than a quarter of the global population and hail from diverse national and ethnic backgrounds. This heterogeneity is not a modern phenomenon but has characterized Islam from its early history. Less than a century after the Prophet Muḥammad’s demise, his creed was pro- claimed by peoples living in the expanse of land from the Atlantic coast of North Africa to the Indus valley. In light of the rapidity of Islam’s expansion and adoption by various peoples, it might seem natural to conclude that it was formulated as a universal venture from the very beginning. If the preaching of Muḥammad were aimed at a clearly delineated community, one might reason, it would not have appealed to vastly different societies from every corner of the world. Certain passages of the Qurʾān are indeed amenable to such a universal- ist interpretation. For instance, the Qurʾān describes itself as “a reminder for 1 I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor William Graham for his detailed comments on an early draft of this essay. I am also grateful to John Zaleski for productive dis- cussions and suggestions as the essay was taking shape, and to Fred Donner, Sean Anthony, Khalil Andani, and Mehdy Shaddel for reading the final draft of this paper and offering feed- back. I presented parts of this essay at “The First Millennium: Religion in Late Antiquity” workshop at the University of Minnesota’s History Department; I would like to thank Andrea Sterk for this opportunity and audience members for their suggestions and questions. Finally, I wish to thank Arabica’s anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Unless otherwise stated, all translations of the Qurʾān are mine but they often take into account renditions of A.J. Arberry, Richard Bell, and Ali Quli Qarai. Downloaded from Brill.com11/15/2021 09:57:18PM via Harvard University 417 The Ascent of Ishmael Arabica 66 (2019) 415-484 the worlds” (ḏikrun li-l-ʿālamīn; e.g. Kor 38, 87) and the Prophet as “a mercy for the worlds” (raḥmatan li-l-ʿālamīn; Kor 21, 107). As I shall point out in de- tail below, however, many qurʾānic texts emphasize or assume the contex- tual specificity of the Prophet’s mission and message. In particular, several qurʾānic passages characterize the Prophet and his followers as descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, envisaging this descent as vital to Islam’s rites and revelations. An especially significant text in this regard is Kor 2, 125-130, which portrays Abraham and Ishmael as founders of the Meccan sanctuary and its rituals. In addition to associating the Kaʿba with Abraham and Ishmael, this text portrays them as having asked God to send a messenger to “their descen- dants” (ḏurriyyatinā) who would teach them “the book and wisdom” (al-kitāb wa-l-ḥikma). The prophecy of Muḥammad and the revelation of the Qurʾān are thereby conceived as the realization of this patriarchal prayer. The clear impli- cation is that the Prophet’s followers owe their sanctuary and scripture to their Abrahamic descent. The Abrahamic pedigree of the first Muslims is not only assumed and emphasized in the Qurʾān, it is also central to how they are char- acterized in some of the earliest Christian and Jewish writings about the rise of Islam—a point that will also be elaborated on in this essay. Notwithstanding the Qurʾān’s universalist inclinations, therefore, it appears that both its first adherents and outside observers conceptualized Muḥammad’s movement as a venture of Ishmael’s children. 1.1 The Sway of Universalism Such evident emphases on genealogy in the Qurʾān and the earliest non- Muslim writings are sidelined in a number of recent monographs, which tend to characterize Islam as a movement with universal aspirations. A particu- larly influential voice in this regard has been Fred Donner, who argues that Muḥammad’s movement was open to all righteous monotheists regardless of their ethnic or confessional backgrounds.2 That this movement originated in Arabia was merely a “historical accident.”3 That its founding document calls it- self an Arabic Qurʾān (e.g. Kor 12, 2) is no more than a “linguistic designation.”4 Indeed, Donner maintains that the Qurʾān could not have been addressed to Arabs as a distinct, well-defined community, as there was no coherent 2 Donner had presented his interpretation of Islam’s origins as early as 1994 and published it in “From Believers to Muslims: Confessional Self-Identity in the Early Islamic Community,” Al-Abhath, 50-51 (2002-2003), p. 9-53, before developing his hypotheses more fully in a 2010 monograph (cited in the next note). 3 Fred Donner, Muhammad and the Believers: At the origins of Islam, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2010, p. 210. 4 Ibid., p. 88. Downloaded from Brill.com11/15/2021 09:57:18PM via Harvard University 418 Goudarzi Arabica 66 (2019) 415-484 Arab political identity in the early seventh century CE.5 In emphatic terms, Donner asserts that the Islamic scripture does not “advance, or even hint at, any kind of collective identity other than that of the Believers—an identity based squarely in faith and righteous action, not in ethnic or ‘national’ or even cul tural affiliation.”6 Dubbing incipient Islam as “the Believers’ movement,” Donner maintains that it was a fellowship of faith, not centred on ethnic or national solidarity. According to Donner, the Believers’ movement was singularly focused on monotheism and the impending Last Day as well as righteous conduct, as a result of which it was open not only to various ethnic groups but also to the like-minded adherents of other religious traditions: Muḥammad and his fol- lowers were happy to admit within their ranks Jews, Christians, and even Zoroastrians7—as long as members of these communities could prove their monotheistic and pietistic mettle. Thus, the earliest believers did not see themselves as establishing a new confession but as leading a movement that aimed to bring all monotheists together. Accordingly, the believers had univer- sal ambitions, embarking on conquest to establish “the hegemony of God’s law over the whole world.”8 Donner suggests that Islam’s eventual transformation into a distinct, exclusive religion owes much to the policies of the Umayyad Empire, in particular the initiatives undertaken by the administration of the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān (r. 65/685-86/705). A similar interpretation of early Islam is found in Peter Webb’s Imagining the Arabs, a bold study that revisits the development and consolidation of “Arab” as an ethnic category. Webb’s chief contention is that the emergence of an overarching Arab identity for various Arabian groups was not a pre-Islamic affair but in fact a byproduct of the conquest of the Middle East and the forma- tion of an Islamic empire.9 He thereby agrees with Donner (and earlier schol- ars such as D.H. Müller) that a strong Arab identity did not exist in the early seventh century CE, providing a powerful and richly detailed defence of this position. If there were no self-styled Arabs at the time uploads/Litterature/ the-ascent-of-ishmael-genealogy-covenant.pdf