Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/56

 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

38 JUDAISM ANI> ISLAM.

formed by the addition of the suffix an * (like mi) to the word " rab, " thus, our lord or teacher. For though the termination "an" is common in later ,Hebrew, 2 yet the weaker word "rabbi " shows that people did not hesitate to append a suffix to the word rab, and then to treat the whole as a new word. However that may be, rabban is a word of itself now, and is only conferred as a title on the most distinguished teachers. The Eabbinical rule runs thus 3 ' ' Greater than rabbi is rabban. " It appears as a title of honour in Suras III. 73, V. 48, 68. Rabbani is evidently a word of narrower meaning than the word ahbar explained above ; and this explains why rabbani is put before ahbar in the two passages last mentioned, where they both appear, and also the striking omission of our word in the other two places where ahb&r occurs, and where Muhammad finds fault with the divine reverence paid to teachers, describing them with the more general word. The case is the same with qissis and ruhban. Both classes are mentioned with praise in Snra V. 85, and with blame in Sura IX. 31, 34, the latter class however only in connection with, ahba>, in that ruhban (like ahbar) is of wider meaning : and further, on account of the combina- .tion in one passage of two different classes among the Jews and Christians, viz., the ahbar and .the ruhban, (Cf. other similar combinations) no special differentiation was to be attempted.

Sabt 4 day of rest, Saturday. This name continued to be applied to Saturday throughout the Bast by Christians as well as Muslims, though it had ceased to be a day of

1 Suffix ] like sfo

e 8 Suffix } Syriac, ono, Arabic >