A pre-Islamic basmala: reflections on its first epigraphic attestation and its original significance

• Ahmad Al-Jallad ^[1]
  1. [1] Ohio State University

     Ohio State University

     City of Columbus, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Jerusalem studies in Arabic and Islam, ISSN 0334-4118, Nº. 52, 2022, págs. 1-28
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The Islamic basmala is a tripartite formula traditionally translated as ‘in the name of Allāh, the most gracious, the most merciful’.It begins each chapter of the Qurʾān, except for Sūra 9, and is found in its full form in Qurʾān 27:30. Given its structure, Neuwirth has suggested that the basmala is a reworking of the Christological formula, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (e.g. Matthew 28:19). Similar invocations are found in the Ancient South Arabian monumental texts from the monotheistic period and in Gəʿəz. Yet, until recently, no directly comparable pre-Islamic formula in Arabic had been attested. In 2018, M.A. Al-Hajj and A.A. Faqʿas published a unique inscription from Jabal Ḏabūb in the region of al-Ḍāliʿ, Yemen: a South Arabian graffito in the latest stage of the minuscule script containing a variant of the basmala in a language distinct from the Late Sabaic written register. In this paper, I wish to refine the interpretation of this text, discuss its language, dating, and its significance for our interpretation of the meaning of the basmala in the pre-/paleo-Islamic period.