Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/102

 8-L JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

we not say unto Thee at the creation : ' What is man that Thou art mindful of him ? ' But He said : ' What shall become of the world ? ' They answered : ' We would have made use of it.' ' But it is well-known to Me that, if you lived on the earth, lust would overcome you, and you would become even worse than man/ ' Then give us permission fco live with men, and Thou wilt see how we shall sanctify Thy name.' ' Go and live with them.' Then Shamhazai saw a maiden by name Istahar. He cast his eyes on her and said : ' Listen to me j ' to which she replied : ' I will not listen to thee until thou teachest me the explicit name of God, through the mention of which thou risest to heaven/ He taught her this name which she then uttered and rose unspotted to heaven. Then God said : ' Because she turned herself from sin, well ! fasten her between the seven stars, that ye may enjoy her for ever ' ; and so she was fastened into the Pleiades. But they lived in immorality with the daughters of men, for these were beautiful, and they could not tame their lusts. Then they took wives and begat sons, Hiwwa and Hiyya. Azael was master of the meritricious arts and trinkets of women which beguile men to immoral thoughts/' It is evident that this story is alluded to in the passage in the Quran, 2 where the two angels Harnt and Marut are said to have taught men a charm by which they might cause division between a man and his wife. 3 During this state of

1 Psalm, viii. 6. Sura II. 96.

3 This connection and comparison which might well appear very doubt- ful, and which seemed even to me at first nothing more than a conjecture, receives full corroboration from that which later Arabian authors, quite in harmony with the Mid. Yalkut, say about the angels. We find in Maraccius Prodromi iv, 82, the following :

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