Le Coran et la révélation judéo-chrétienne: études comparées by D.

Masson
Review by: Alfred Guillaume
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 23, No. 2
(1960), pp. 394-395
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/609706 .
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394 REVIEWS

are as follows. Is there a real synthesis five bookswhichdealwith the doctrineof God,
between Biblical-Rabbinicmonotheism and creation,revelation,laws relatingto the cult,
Neoplatonic monism? Has the allegorical the Qur'anicdoctrineof man,andeschatology.
interpretationof Hebraic and Islamic con- It would seem inevitable that a book which
cepts, with the help of Neoplatonism,main- dealswith the Qur'ananclthe Judaeo-Christian
tained and deepened these indigenous con- revelationshould be forcedto say something
cepts or has it blurredthem? (Cf. Altmann's about the doctrine of the Trinity which the
informative treatment of ' The Creator' Qur'anexpresslyrepudiatesand whichJewish
(152 ff.); or his penetratinganalysis of the writers have always rejected. The author
concept of emanation (176 ff.); or his rightly denies that tritheism and mariolatry
demonstration of the influence of Proclus have n.ny place in orthodox Christianity;
(186 ff.).) But the questionremains: is the neverthelessa purely objective study of the
Jewish-traditionaloutlookleading in Israeli's Qur'anshould have no place for the polemic
concept of union or the Neoplatonicnotion? of Ibn Taymlyaand the ludicrouscitationsof
It is not easy, perhaps even impossible to Mar&cciwhich he borrowedfrom a certain
decide in view of the amazing wholesale Joseph Ciantes. A translationof the title of
acceptance of Plotinian terminology. How this absurdityis: ' The two mysteriesof the
can we know, on the otherhand, whetherthis Trinity and the Incarnationproved against
terminologywas employedin the meaningit the Jews by the teaching of their own great
expressed for Plotinus and Proclus or in a theologians'. One cannot but feel that the
modifiedsense, dictated by the inner-Jewish readermight have been sparedthis.
origin and development of the concept of It cannot be said that these two volumes,
debequtv (The same appliexto al-Kindl and massive and valuable as they are, contain
the Ikhwanal-safa.) In other words,how far nothingbut unbiasedscholarship.Two state-
has the accommodation so evident from the ments will illustrate this: ' Les formules
same terminology and argumentation-pre- liturgiques sont valables dans chacune des
served or submergedindigenous concepts? langues approuvees par l'ltglise romaine',
Whatever the answer if there can be an p. 464, and ' I1 appartienta la hierarchiede
answer- may ultimately be, it can only be commenteret d'interpreterles Livres reveles
given on the basis of such an authoritative et la liturgie'.
exposition as Drs. Altmann and Stern have However, M. Masson has done a great
given us in Isaac Israelt. serviceto students of comparativereligionin
generaland students of Qur'anictheology in
ERWIN I. J. ROSENTHAL
particularby putting side by side citations
from the Qur'an,the Bible, and later Jewish
D. MASSON:le Coranet la revelatwn and Christianwritings,and by showinghow
judeo-chrettenne:etudes comparees. the agreementsoutnumberthe differences.A
2 vols.: xiii 9447 pp.; [iii], 449- good exampleof this is his treatmentof ritual
ablutionsand theirspiritualsignificance.Thus
829 pp. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, Exod. xxx, 17-21, ordersthat a bronzebasin
1958. $14.70. shall be placed between the tent of meeting
This bookdiSersfromthe many worksthat and the altar and the priests shall wash their
have been written on the subject of Muham- hands and feet therein. The practice in a
mad's borrowingsfrom Jewish and Christian modified form is continued in the Church
writingsin that its purposeis to study obJec- by the provision of a stoup at the door of
tively ' les rapprochementsdes lignes de churchesand in Islam by the large mtda'a
pensee tantot paralleles,tantat divergentes, in the courtyardof mosques.
entre le Coran et les traditions juive et Amongthe pointsthat need reconsideration
chretienne'. Amongthe doctorsof the Church or amplificationtbe following may be men-
whomthe authorcitesfrequentlyis St. Thomas tioned:
Aquinas, 80 that it is abundantlyclear that p. 17. Onemay agreethat the three mono-
he is not concernedwith borrowedmatter as theistic religionsare at one in affirmingthat
such. God cannot be seen by mortal eyes. Never-
Thosewhoarefamiliarwith the closeaffinity theless in Gen. sxxii, 31, Jacob says that he
between Christianand Muslim scholasticism has seen God face to face and lives; and
will not be surprised that many of the Exod. xxxiii, 11, says that God spoke to
doctrines of the Qur'anare in accord with Moses face to face as a man speaks to his
those of the two earliermonotheisticreligions, friend. (Thelatter text is quotedon p. 356 in
though they may not be familiarwith all the anothercontext.)
parallels which M. Massonhas adduced and p. 49. Hesed is not so much' loving mercy'
documented. as ' loyalty ' and correspondsto mawadda in
The author divides his long treatise into SuraIV, 75, etpass1,mandshouldbe citedunder
 REVIEWS
the heading of ' divine fidelity' rather than
' divine mercy', cf. M. A. Ghul in BSOAS,
XXII, 1, 1959,16f.
p. 174. The referenceto eighteenangels of
torment in connexionwith Sura XCVI seems
strange as nineteen are mentioned in Sura
LXXIV, 30-31.
p. 276. Thereis a cc)nfusionof the Hebrew
femininepluralbt with the abstractending?t
whichis hardto understandbecausethe author
rightlytranslatesmalakut by ' royaume'. The
list of wordsborrowedfromAramaicor Syriac
couldeasilyhave beenenlarged.
p. 283. Sura IX, 112, rendered' Promesse
d'Allah! Verite contenue dans le Tora',
reads strangelyand shouldrun ' as a promise
bindingon Him in the Tora'.
p. 316. rajtm shouldbe rendered' accursed'.
p. 593. Admittedlythe originof the name
Nasara is a difficult problem. The author
does not seem to be aware of this. It is
difficult to believe that he is right in saying
that it is a pejorativeterm borrowedperhaps
from the Synagoguefor the reasonsthat the
Syriac Nasraye lay to hand, and that there is
an obvious connexion with Anscir in Sura
III, 45, wherethe disciplesof Jesus call them-
selves such. Further, M. Masson, while
quoting Matt. ii, 23, and Acts ii, 22, f&ilsto
point out that the Greektext has the form
Nazoraios which cannotpossiblybe connected
with Nazarethwhich would requirethe form
Nazarenos that is found commonly in the
Second Gospel.
Broadly speaking the author has fulfilled
his purposeand his bookwill remaina mine of
informationfor futureworkersin this field.
ALFRED GUILLAUME
SAMAL S. SALIBI:Maronttehtstorzansof
rBedtaevalLebanon. (AmericanUni-
versityof Beirut. Publicationof the
Facultyof ArtsandSciences.Oriental
Series,No.34.)262pp.,map.Beirut:
[American Universityof Beirut],1959.
The historyof Lebanon,like that of Iceland,
will not have manylovers,but those who have
once been attracted by it are enthralledfor
ever. The historian can see, reflectedin it
as in a very small clear mirror, the great
-themesof history faithfulnessto beliefs,love
of ancestorsand country,the struggleof men
with n&tureandeachother,the fruitfultension
of opposites; the issues are no less clear
becauseits rulersare lords of villages and its
armiesrough bands of villagers. In the last
few centuriesthis miniaturehistory has had
an unbrokensuccessionof historians,almost
all of them Lebanese,for the story of Lebanon
has been written from inside, preservedin
395
writingandthe collectivememoryby menwho
helped in the making or watched it being
made, not restored to life by the universal
curiosity of modern Europe. Latest in the
line, and perhapsthe most promisinghistorian
in the MiddleEast to-day, Dr. Salibihas taken
as his theme not Lebanon itself but its
chroniclers,and he submits three of them-
Ibn al-Qila'i,Duwaihi,andTannusShidiaq to
a searchinginvestigationof their methodsand
content. This is necessary,because,although
tELehistoriansof Lebanonhave had the ad-
vantage of seeing their subject from within,
they have been concernednot only to state
the truth but to defend a thesis. Mainly
Maronites,and until the nineteenthcentury
almost all priests, they have tried above all
to defendthe themeof the perpetualorthodoxy
of their Church,and to refute the accusation
that, at some time in its history, it held the
Monothelete heresy. They must be read
carefullyand criticallytherefore,if we are to
discoverhow far they can be trusted.
Dr. Salibi's analysisis concernedwith that
part of their work which deals with medieval
history,but it throwslight also on the modern
developmentof historicalwritingin Lebanon,
and the growthof the Lebanesenationalcon-
sciousness. Ibn al-Qila'i, as he shows, was
not in the strict sensea historianat all:
' His aim was not to give a factualpicture
of the past and relateit to his owntime. He
only used historical material (which he
frequently distorted and confused with
legend)to prove to his communitythat the
Roman Faith was the orthodoxfaith, that
the Maronite Church was orthodox by
origin, and that the preservation of its
originalunion with Rome was natura]and
necessary' (p. 33).
By contrast, Duwaihi was a real historian.
His purposewas muchthe same,andhis works
are not wholly free from special pleading;
but, trainedin tlle MaroniteCollegeat Rome,
he knew the Latin and Italian as well as the
Arabic traditions of history-writing,and his
books are based on a carefuland responsible
use of all the differenttypes of sourceavailable
-' the older Maronitehistories, the western
chroniclesand pilgrim and travel literature,
the papal correspondence,the Maronite
scholiaand inscriptions,and the non-Maronite
EasternChristianhistoriesand churchbooks'
(p. 102). Shidiaq too, although a mediocre
and uncritical writer, had the first of the
historian'sgifts, that of reproducinghis sources
honestly and faithfully. But his real im-
portancelies elsewhere: he was the first to
attempt a history of the whole of Lebanon,
seen as a unity. Duwaihi,it is true, writes of
Druzes as well as Maronites,but he rarely