Some parascriptural dimensions of the "Tale of Harut wa-Marut".

• Author: Reeves, John C.
• Position: Critical essay

"... dass wir in unserm AT nur ein Bruchstiick der alten religiosen Literatur besitzen." (1)

One of the more perplexing problems facing modern students of the Quran and the interpretive lore surrounding it, as embodied in early hadith, traditional commentaries, and collections of prophetic legends, involves the recovery of its oral or written sources and the literary and social contexts in which such material is rooted. There are few modern critical scholars who would deny the fundamentally generative role played by scripture ("Bible") in the formulation and expression of Quranic discourse. Beginning in the nineteenth century with the influential prize essay of Abraham Geiger (2) and continuing with varying degrees of emphasis and success up to the present, Western scholars have devoted considerable effort and energy to show that it is not simply the various canonical versions of the Bible familiar from later communities of Jews or Christians that buttress the Quran's or its interpretive tradition's frequent appeals to scriptural characters, episodes, and exemplars; rather, it is a type of "Bible" that presupposes and operates with certain distinctive readings or traditions that are paralleled in Jewish midrashic treatments of these same characters or episodes, or in the case of Christian materials, the traditions or interpretations that are also attested in so-called apocryphal and even allegedly heterodox works. It is this broad spectrum of amplificatory materials that my titular adjective "parascriptural" embraces: communities of readers in Near Eastern late antiquity performed, experienced, and transmitted "Bible" as well as other scriptures in a variety of registers and interpretive formats. (3) Muhammad was not the only religious leader in late antiquity whose Bible was invested with a scope, whether material or conceptual, that transcends reputedly orthodox norms as to what that label supposedly encompassed. But he is surely our most important witness to what might constitute authentic "biblical" lore in the Hijaz during the early seventh century.

One intriguing example of this more expansive understanding of scriptural lore presents itself in the curious reference in the Quran (2:102) to two "angels" in Babylon named Harut and Marut who bear responsibility for the spread of "magic" (sihr) and other revelatory knowledge among the people. These two names do not figure anywhere else in the Quran or appear in any canonical version of the Jewish or Christian scriptures that would have predated or been contemporary with Muhammad or the first few generations of Muslim scholastics. (4) The Quranic verse is characteristically terse: we are not, for example, told who these two particular angels are, how they came to be in Babylon, or why they would implicate themselves in the transmittal of disreputable knowledge to humanity. The verse does, however, remark that Harut and Marut "never taught anyone without first warning: We are a temptation; so do not become irreligious!" (5) It then goes on to affirm that while the empirical application of their teachings might produce marital discord, they remain essentially harmless except for those cases when God permits their efficacy. The unfortunate miscreants who persist in adhering to such teachings and in rejecting God "will have no portion in the World to Come." (6)

The present article discusses the ways in which early Muslim commentators and traditionists have embedded and amplified this enigmatic verse within a rich layer of interpretive lore. It also seeks to show that while the extant discursive narratives of an elaborated "Tale of Harut and Marut" are indubitably Muslim in their cultural identity, the fundamental building blocks out of which the "Tale" has been fashioned are "biblically" grounded and indeed rely upon one or more versions of an articulated "Bible" that appears older than its canonical written forms currently attested among western Jewish and Christian communities. (7)

I

Early Muslim tradents recount an elaborate contextual background within which to situate this problematic verse. Arguably its most artificial--by which I mean its most consciously literary--form figures in those medieval anthologies of stories culled from a variety of both written and oral sources that come to be known as "prophetic legends" (qisas al-anbiya>), encyclopaedic assemblages in which the narrative lore associated with Muhammad's scriptural predecessors is accumulated and collated under chronologically sequenced nominative rubrics. Within such standard collections, such as those assembled by al-Thaclabi and al-Kisa'i, it takes the form of a self-contained story packaged alongside legends about the prophet Idris and normally introduced with the incipit "Tale of Harut and Marut" (qissat Harut wa-Marut). By way of contrast, in the tafsir or traditional Quranic commentary tradition we encounter a wealth of fragmentary and dissembled clusters of narrative materials and illustrative comments associated with particular named tradents, a few of whom are even traced to the Prophet himself. (8) These more malleable clusters by and large can be successfully correlated with the "prophetic legends" renditions inasmuch as the latter anthologies frequently reproduce the isnads of the authorities upon whom they rely.

For the purpose of this exposition and analysis, perhaps the least complicated procedure is to identify first those sources that I am using to uncover the various elements that seem to belong to the narrative complex of the "Tale of Harut and Marut." To date I have sifted through the most relevant of the lengthy collection of traditions assembled by al-Tabari (d. 923) in his Tafsir to Q 2:102. (9) Prominent traditionists incorporated therein include the notorious Ka'b al-Ahbar, who is often fingered as a primary conduit of nefarious isra-iliyyat or "Jewish stuff" into nascent Islam, (10) as well as Mujahid, Ibn Abbas, Ibn Umar, 'Ali, Rabi', and al-Suddi. I have also examined various versions of the "Tale" that figure in the later compilations of quasi-historical and legendary lore attributed to al-Maqdisi, al-Tha'labi, al-Kisa'i, and al-Qazwini, employing the standard print editions in each case. (11) According to Roberto Tottoli, the yet unpublished manuscript of Ishaq b. Bishr's early collection of "prophetic legends" held by the Bodleian Library in Oxford contains a discrete section amounting to five manuscript leaves dealing with Harut and Marut. (12) Nevertheless al-Maqdis! does claim to transmit some traditions emanating from Ishaq b. Bishr, and these will have to serve in the interim as representative of this early compilation. (13) A number of other analogous compilations in both Arabic and Persian (e.g., Mirkhwand) include the "Tale," but they add little beyond what is already present in the aforementioned sources. (14)

A synoptic examination of the aforementioned witnesses allows one to produce a skeletal outline or sequence of narrative elements for the "Tale" that serves to unite the majority of these sources despite the discrepancies in the details of their respective stories (see Table 1). These common structural elements might be listed seriatim under the following four rubrics: (A) a prolegomenon in heaven; (B) resulting in an angelic mission to earth; (C) the corruption of these emissary angels; and (D) their consequent punishment by God.

Viewed through a more powerful lens, several further sub-themes or motifs are visible within each of the four constituent elements of the larger narrative structure. For example, under (A) a prominent motif is a tension or even a rivalry that is perceived to exist between the angels and the newly created human race. This often produces an angelic reproach or reproof of God Himself for bringing such a defective group of creatures as "humans" into existence. Or under (C) the signal transgression that effects their corruption is that of actual or attempted sexual activity with a woman of unsurpassed beauty. There are, however, some crucial differences in the way this general scenario is set up and played out among the various narrative renditions (see Table 1). Most of these variant features of what is arguably an integral extra-Quranic tale point suggestively toward its essentially folkloristic character and popular appeal predicating a variety of oral and written registers, (15) some of which extend well beyond the boundaries of Islam.

For a closer examination of the "Tale" itself, I provide below the version associated with the traditionist Mujahid. (16) I have lightly edited the text as found in the Tafsir of al-Tabari in order to minimize redundancy and omit obscurity: (17)

According to Mujahid, the subject of Harut and Marut pertains to when the angels were amazed at the wickedness of human beings even after messengers, books, and explanations had been provided for them. Their Lord said to them [i.e., the angels]: "Choose from among yourselves two angels whom I will send down to adjudicate among the human beings upon the earth." They chose Harut and Marut. [God at this point issues instructions to Harut and Marut to observe the divine ordinances.]

Then they accordingly came down--and no one was more obedient to God than they--and they judged and acted justly. They would adjudicate during the daylight hours among human beings, and when it was evening they would re-ascend and remain among the angels. They would go back down [to earth] when it was morning. They continued to judge and act justly until al-Zuhara [i.e., the planet Venus] came to them in the beautiful form of a woman. She was party to a lawsuit, and they pronounced judgment against her. Passion arose in each one of them for her. One of them said to his colleague: "Do you feel similarly to how I feel?" He answered, "Yes." They sent for her [saying], "Come [back] to us and we will rule in your favor." When she returned, they spoke to her and...