Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/98

 80 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

only one event in the life of Cain and Abel is depicted. This is depicted for us quite in its Jewish colours. In this passage, and indeed throughout the Quran, they are called sons of Adam, but in later Arabic writings 1 their names are given as Qabil and Habil, which are clearly chosen out of love for the rhyming sounds. The one event mentioned is their sacrifice and the murder which it led to. 2 Muhammad makes them hold a conversation before the murder, and one is likewise given in the Jerusalem Targum 3 on the strength of the words in Genesis, " Cain said unto Abel his brother." Still, the matter of the conversation is given so differently in each case that we do not consider it worth while to compare the two passages more closely. , After the murder, according to the Quran, Grod sent a raven which scratched the earth to shew Cain how to bury Abel. What is here attributed to Cain is ascribed by the Jews to his parents, and in a Eabbinical writing we find the following passage: 4 "Adam and his companion sat weeping and mourning for him (Abel) and did not know what to do with him, as burial was unknown to them. Then came a raven, whose companion was dead, took its

1 See Abnlfeda Historia Anteislamica, Fleischer's Edition, page 12, for JA>G) T Jloii. D'Herbelot Bibliotheque Orientale under the heading

Cabil calls attention to the possibility that in the word Cabil the derivation from J** is kept to. Cf. Genesis, iv. 1.

2 Genesis, iv. 3-9. Cf. Sura V. 30-36.

3 Commonly called Pseudo-Jonathan.

4 Pirke R. Eliezer, chapter xxi.

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