On the original meaning of the Qur'anic term al-shaytan al-rajim.

• Author: Silverstein, Adam
• Position: Essay

Satan appears in the Qur'an over seventy times, either as Iblis or as al-shaytan, (1) the latter sometimes accompanied by the epithet al-rajim. (2) It will be argued below that the phrase al-shaman al-rajim originally referred to Satan's occupation as a prosecutor in the heavenly court. In time this original meaning of the phrase came to be forgotten and the term rajim was eventually reinterpreted by Near Eastern monotheists to mean either "pelted with stones" or "accursed."

RAJIM MEANING "PELTED WITH STONES"

A commonly held view among early Muslim exegetes, lexicographers, jurists, and others is that the term al-shagan al-rajim means "the stoned Satan," referring to the fact that Satan is physically pelted with stones, both on earth and in the astral sphere. (3) The earthly stoning of Satan takes place during the hajj ritual, on the tenth to twelfth days of Dhu l-Hijja, when pilgrims hurl stones at three pillars at Mind (the ritual of ramy al-jamarat). The practice is believed to re-enact Abraham's pelting of Satan with stones during his pilgrimage to Mecca in the remote past. (4) Anthropologists of religion have interpreted the ritual in other ways, suggesting that it originally signified the expiation of sins by casting them into an abyss. (5) Whatever the case may be, from contexts other than the off it is clear that in pre- or, at the very latest, early Islamic times, stoning a site associated with evil was a common practice. Most famous perhaps is the stoning of Abu Righal's grave (for his guidance to Abraha during the latter's campaign against Mecca), (6) which is well attested already in Umayyad poetry. (7) To this well-known evidence should be added the Biblical case of Achan, who pillaged and concealed booty acquired in the conquest of Jericho, for which "All Israel stoned him with stones ... And they raised over him a great heap of stones, unto this day" (Josh 7:25-26). (8) Other Biblical precedents abound, (9) suggesting that in the pre-Islamic Near East ceremonially pelting one's enemies with stones was practiced. (10)

The astral stoning of Satan is referred to in the Qur'an itself (67:5), (11) where we are told: And verily We have beautified the world's heaven with lamps (masabih), and We have made them missiles (rujum) for the shaytans, and for them We have prepared the doom of flame." (12) If nothing else, it should be recognized that as far as the Qur'an is concerned Satan is in fact physically pelted; (13) thus, whatever the literal meaning of al-shaytan al-rajim turns out to be, it is probably not the Qur'an's preferred answer to the question.

Of considerable significance in this context is the fact that Jews in late antiquity used language that suggested that Satan could be warded off by throwing things at him. Even the Muslim formula of isti'adha, in which refuge from Satan the rajim is sought from God, (14) has Talmudic parallels. In the Babylonian Talmud (hereafter, BT), we repeatedly hear rabbis exclaim: "An arrow in your eye, Satan!" (15) In one instance we are told that a certain Pelimo used to say "An arrow in Satan's eye!" every day, until eventually Satan revealed himself to Pelimo and asked why the latter cursed him so. Pelimo retorted, "What should I be saying [to ward you off]?" to which Satan replied, "[Say] God (rahmana) rebuke Satan!" (16) The Talmud then continues with an account of Rabbi Hiyya bar Ashi, who used to prostrate himself in prayer and exclaim, "God (rahmanii) save us from Satan!" (17) That the isti'adha is associated with Qur'anic recitation during prayer supports the parallel, though for our purposes the relevant point is that some Jews on the eve of Islam believed that Satan could be warded off by pelting him with objects.

RAJIM MEANING "ACCURSED"

Much of the (largely Jewish) evidence for the idea that on the eve of Islam Satan could be physically pelted has gone unnoticed by modern scholars. (18) Instead, scholars since the nineteenth century have adduced (largely Christian) evidence for the fact that the literal meaning of al-shaytan al-rajim is "Satan the accursed." This argument points to Ethiopic texts in which the root r-g-m (to curse') is attested in relevant contexts. (19) In the Ethiopic Bible, for instance, the cursing of the serpent in Gen 3 is expressed using the root r-g-m (the Hebrew arar in verse 14 is rendered by the Ethiopic ragamt). (20) In later Ethiopic sources the same root is even seen to be used adjectivally with reference to Satan (the phrase saytan regum 'cursed Satan' is attested). (21) The theory, which has much to recommend it on both semantic and philological grounds, has gained widespread support, with such leading scholars as Theodor Noldeke, Franz Rosenthal, Arthur Jeffery, S. D. Goitein, and--most recently--Manfred Kropp adopting this meaning above all others. (22) It would be foolhardy to argue against such scholastic heavyweights, especially considering that there is evidence to suggest that the Qur'anic version of Satan's fall was influenced by Coptic accounts that were transmitted to the Hijaz from South Arabia, (23) and that the story of Satan refusing to follow the angels in prostrating to Adam (where, as we shall see, Satan is declared rajim in the Qur'an) was developed and circulated in predominantly Christian circles. Moreover, in late antique Syriac sources (24) one could be "stoned" with curses, just as one "hurls abuse" or "casts aspersions" in English. (25) In fact, already in the Bible we find stoning and cursing one's enemies to be closely associated: King David's enemy Shimei ben Gera is said to have "kept on cursing [David] as he came and he cast stones at David. ... So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him" (2 Sam 16:5-6, 13). (26)

RAJIM AS A FIXED "SURNAME"

As the foregoing discussions of "stoned" and "accursed" demonstrate, there is too much suggestive evidence for each option to allow us conclusively to privilege one etymology over the other. The evidence as it stands allows us to offer no better a translation of al-shaytan al-rajim than "Satan, the one physically and metaphorically pelted" (or some more elegant version of this), and it should be borne in mind that the Queanic phrase al-shaytan al-rajim may well have had different resonances among Jewish and Christian audiences respectively. All this being said, the precise etymology or even meaning of rajim might not have concerned Near Eastern monotheists on the eve of Islam, who might have simply appended the phrase rajim (or a cognate thereof) to Satan or to other forces of evil with little concern for the term's literal implications.

A problem with both "stoned" and "accursed" in this context is that they are passive in both form and meaning. (27) Though this is by no means a decisive objection to these options, it does seem odd that Muslims would be told to "seek refuge in God from Satan the pelted [with stones or curses]" (Q 16:98), as it is Satan who should be on the defensive, seeking refuge from the actions of others. The passive meaning of rajim only poses a problem to us if those using this term with reference to Satan were conscious of the term's meaning, whereas in fact it would appear that on the eve of Islam the epithet rajim could be employed as a sort of surname, appended to Satan irrespective of its literal or original meaning. (28) This is supported by Mandaic and Syriac evidence: in the former case, magical incantations against evil forces include the phrase rgima, 'paralysed' or petrified. The incantations appear on magic bowls dating from ca. 600 C.E., and are thus immune to the sorts of criticism leveled at literary sources from this period. (29) A Mandaic reference that is as interesting as it is problematic comes from the Ginza Raba (15.2), (30) where the phrase satana rgimea is found. The problem with this attestation is that it only occurs in one version of the Ginza and may well be a post-Islamic interpolation, influenced by Qur'anic usage. The Syriac evidence comes from pseudo-Ephrem's Letter to the Mowitaineers, (31) where daggala raima is used as a fixed phrase. (32)

There are three problems with using these texts for our purposes. First, although some have argued that Ephrem's letter is authentic, (33) a more likely (and, in scholarly circles, common) attribution is to Jacob of Edessa (640-708), who--though himself a seventh-century writer--is post-Qur'anic. Second, even evidence from ca. 600, which predates the Qur'an itself, might still have been influenced by Arabic usage. The assumption that the Arabic used in the Qur'an is no older than the Qur'an itself has been irrefutably challenged by the numerous inscriptions from pre-Islamic Arabia in which Arabic is used as a literary language (to say nothing of the Mill poetry, of course). Al-shaytan al-rajim has yet to turn up in either inscriptions or poetry, but the general point about the dating of Qur'anic Arabic must be taken. Third, even assuming that Satan was known as rajim before Islam, and without particular reference to the literal meaning of the epithet, we might still wonder what the literal, original meaning of rajim was. The theory of an Ethiopic derivation, contrasted with the Queanic evidence of Q 67:5 (where Satan is physically pelted with "missiles") and the Talmudic references in which we find rabbis seeking to ward Satan off by hurling objects at him, suggests that by the time the phrase al-shaytan al-rajim was used in the Qur'an, its original meaning had been forgotten, (34) a point made by both Noldeke and Rosenthal. (35) Bearing this in mind, the question to which we will turn in the following is what was the forgotten meaning of the term?

Before turning to this article's ultimate theory, a few stray options--that is to say, possibilities that have not been suggested or, if suggested, meaningfully pursued--deserve our attention.

The first...