Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/131

 ' JOSEPH. 113

tearing of the clothes, whether they were torn in front or at the back, l is found in the same way in the Sepher Hayyashar. In the words, " and a witness bore witness/' 2 which we here do not take strictly according to the meaning of the contest, but rather in the sense of an " arbitrator decided," 3 others see an allusion to a witness

JLc " Several Arabic commentators say that lx/ means food, because

the people when they sit eating lean against pillows. Therefore food is called by way of metonomy \&/." On this word the same Elpherar further comments as follows: \d\ AjSL*> IXx* oU_j\ ^ \Jb

J\S



"In the copy of Shirwaz \x& is written with a vowelless te(uu).

Opinions are divided as to the meaning of this word. Ben 'Abbas says it is an ovange. Muj&hid asserts the same thing. Some say an orange is thus called in Abyssinia. Dhuhak says it is the Indian fruit Zumaward.

tf G.y

'Akr says uOu/ js every thing which is cut with a knife. Abu Zaid } the Christian, says that whenever anything is cut with a knife it is called

O G- GJ OG_

by the Arabs tau/ } since cdx* and tU> with mini (j) and be, (>_>) mean


 * 6 C,J

among the Arabs cutting." According to the reading cds/ which some

ejCii adopt, it would mean an orange or Bji'\, and we are told expressly in

Sepher Hayyashar that Joseph's mistress offered this fruit to the women

visiting her. Now our reading seems to me the right one, and the

& GJ meaning given to cdx* very doubtful, for the Arabic commentators

themselves are much divided in opinion, and their explanations are derived only from the passage itself, as often happens. Nevertheless from their words this much is clear, that the whole legend as it is found in the above-mentioned Jewish book has passed over to the Arabs, so that later commentators have tried to discover every detail in the words of the Quran.

1 Sura XII. 25. 2 IfiAl Jig* ^ S6ra XII> 26 <

So also Elpherar. F