Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/159

 SHU'AIB. 141

there are passages 1 in which the former is mentioned, while those to whom he is sent are not called Midianites ; and so we find a new name for these people, 2 viz., " men of the wood," 3 which name is evidently derived from the thorn bushes (n?p) which were in the vicinity.

It remains for us to justify the bringing forward of two more passages, 4 and it is all the more difficult for us to do so, because in order to prove our point we must accuse Muhammad himself of a misunderstanding. In these pass- ages Shu'aib is not mentioned, but the people who are held up as a warning are called " men of the well," 5 without any other particulars being given about them. But further these " men of the well " 6 are mentioned in one passage along with the " men of the wood/' and so it seems certain that Muhammad regarded them as two different peoples ; but nevertheless we allow ourselves to believe them to be really identical.

The real reason for bringing Jethro into the Qurn is, as we have already remarked, the quarrel of the shepherds with his daughters, although the fact itself is not men- tioned in that book ; and it is thus easy to understand that the Jews may have sometimes called the Midianites by this name i.e., " men of the well." No other circumstances related about these persons mentioned in the Quran would authorize this appellation. The story of Jacob at the well (setting aside the fact that not the slightest allusion

1 'E.g. Sura XXVI. 176 ff. 9

3 Elphernr on Sura YII. 83 has : <&$\ sAa&*>\ ^ft>^ (&. 1 *" ', but this same Elpherar will not allow this with regard to Sura XXVI. 177, because in connection with Midian Shn'aib is mentioned as +&>y\ their brother,

_C,G* J - C:

which is not the case with the &&5\ v T >Wo\ J " people of the wood."

4 Suras XXV. 40, L. 12. 5 6 S<ira L. 12.