Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/106

 88 JUDAISM AND

view, and was determined to make every thing accord with his ideas. In another place he goes so far as to interpolate a verse into Noah's discourse, which is entirely characteristic of his own, and in which the little word (translated "speak") 1 actually occurs, which is always regarded as a word of address to Muhammad from God (or Gabriel). The same thing will be noted further on in the case of Abraham.

After Noah the next mentioned is Had 2 who is evidently the Biblical Eber. 3 This seems a striking example of the ignorance of Muhammad, or, as it appears to me more probable here, of the Jews round about him. According to the Babbinical opinion 4 the name Hebrew is derived from Eber, but in later times this name was almost entirely forgotten and the name Jew 5 was commonly used. The Jews, to whom it was known that their name was derived from an ancestor, believed that the name in question was that in use at the time, and that the ancestor therefore was this patriarch Hud. 6 His time is that in which a second punitive judgment from God on account of bold, insolent behaviour is mentioned in the Scripture,

i y t XI. 37. Of. XXIX. 19- 2

3 -Q$ 4

Compare Mid. Kabbah on Genesis, para. 42

-OB

S

" Abram was called the Hebrew because he was descended from Eber." (Genesis, xiv. 13.).

S j~

t iTflj-p Yahudi. Among the Arabs sometimes o*& Yahud, more

o > '* often oyj> Hud.

6 Elpherar (on Sura VII. 63) gives along with an incorrect genealogy the following correct one, py ^ *L ^ A&asijt ^ ^JL. 0^ and the author of the book ^A^\ <!M says directly " Hud is y^c."

(Mar. Prod, iv. 92.)