Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/155

 JETHRO. 137

Muhammad * Miriam is the mother of Jesus. 2 Although Miriam's name is not mentioned in the passage where she is alluded to in the history of Moses, 3 yet there is not the slightest doubt that Muhammad took "both Marys for one and the same person; for the Talmudic utterance already cited, viz., that Miriam did not die through the angel of death, could easily be turned into a statement of a long, if not endless, life for her, especially by Muhammad, who treats chronology pretty much according to his own plea- sure. The other person who appears in the history of Moses is his father-in-law Jethro. Now it is true that his name, like that of Miriam, is not mentioned in the story of Moses, 4 hence the Muhammadan tradition connects this Midianite (as the Quran simply designates the father-in- law of Moses) with Shu f aib, the Arabic name for Jethro, and so they came to be considered as one and the same, not however without more or less opposition. Thus Blpherar says : 5 " Opinions are divided as to the name of Moses' wife's father. Many say he was the prophet Shu'aib j others that he was Jethro the nephew of Shu'aib who died before him ; others again that he was a man who believed on Shu'aib." But- the most widespread tradition is that it was Shu'aib himself.

Thus Elpherar always calls him by this name, when mentioning him in connection with these events and

' U.\ *e ^>T iji Suras LXIV. 12, VII. 138.

2 Of. Sura III, title and verse 30 ff. ; Sura XIX. particularly verse 29 ; Sura LXVI. 12, and Sunna 405.

3 Sura XXVIII. 10. Sura XXVIII. 23 ff. 5 Elpherar on Sura XXVIII. 23.