Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/110

 92 JUDAISM AND ISLJbl.

Quran the people of Ad. 1 The commentators state that Ad was the son of Uz, the son of Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah; and Muhammad seems also to have been of this opinion, whence it comes that he transfers the events to the land of Aram or Iram. 2 Nevertheless it seems to have come about chiefly from the fact that all these occur- rences are described with an- Arabian colouring, and so they were attributed to Arab tribes, amongst which an ancient extinct one had the name of Ad ; 3 perhaps in it there is also an etymological reference to a " return" to the early evil conduct of the generation of the Deluge. In another passage there is an allusion to this occurrence, 4 where the fact itself is brought forward much more in accordance with the Biblical account, but quite without specification of time or. persons: "Their predecessors devised plots heretofore, but Grod came into their building to overthrow it from the foundation, and the roof fell on them from above and a punishment came upon them which they did not expect." On this Elpherar remarks : 5 " These are Nimrod, the son of Canaan, who built a tower in Babel in order that he might mount to heaven" ; and farther : " And when the tower fell the language of men became confused, and so they could not finish it ; then they spoke seventy-three languages, on this account the city was called Babel (confusion), before this the language of men was Syriac." The Rabbis, too, assert that before this

2 Suva LXXXIX. 6.

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3 Poo. Spec., p. 3. Siira XVI. 28.

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