Ascension of Muhammad

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16th Century Persian Miniature Painting : Muhammad's Ascent to Heaven

The ascension of Muhammad , the religious founder and Islam as prophet applicable Arab Abul Qāsim Muhammad ibn'Abdallāh ibn Abdul-Muttalib ibn Abd Manaf al-Quraschī (570 / 573-632), also referred to as Mohammed ascension and ascension of Muhammad , is a legend based on sura 17.1 of the Koran, where it is written, “Praise be to him who let his servant travel at night from the holy prayer place to the distant prayer place, which we have surrounded with blessings, for something of our miracles […] ”. The legend is handed down in the Islamic literature in three different variants in terms of content:

  • Ascension (Miʿrādsch) from a place in the Kaaba sanctuary in Mecca via a ladder to heaven;
  • the nocturnal journey (Isrāʾ) of the Prophet from Mecca on the miraculous mount Buraq to a place called a “distant place of worship” in the Koran with his subsequent report about it in the Quraysh circle after his return to Mecca. The first two variants go back to corresponding Quranic verses, which are also understood in historiography as separate events
  • the combination of the - Koranic - trip to Jerusalem (bait al-maqdis), with subsequent ascension (miʿrādsch) from Jerusalem. This version is documented with content variations in the hadith , the Koran exegesis , the Islamic historiography and in the Islamic legends of the prophets ( Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ ).

The Ascension in Quran, Hadith and Historiography

Al-Miʿrāj

al-Miʿrāj  /المعراج / al-miʿrāǧ is from the Arabic verbعرج / ʿAraǧa  / 'rise up, rise up' derived. Further derivations from this are u. a. miʿradsch  /معرج / miʿraǧ  / 'ladder, stairs' and al-miʿrādsch, because the ascension to heaven is said to have taken place over a ladder.

In sura 53 , verse 1–18 and in sura 81 , verse 19–25, the meeting of Mohammed with God and the prophets at different levels in heaven is reported in the form of a vision , which is then reported in the hadith literature and the Koran exegesis of the respective Verse was supplemented with legendary accounts as early as the early 8th century. These traditions, which vary in their content and wording, are found in the hadith literature in al-Bukhari (died 870), Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (died 875), Ahmad ibn Hanbal (died 855), an-Nasāʾī (died 915), in of the Koran exegesis from at-Tabarī (died 923), Ibn Kathīr (died 1373) and other commentators on the Koran.

All reports agree that Gabriel as "the Messenger of God in the seventh heaven climbed where he received revelation, together with the commitment of the first fifty daily prayers" ( "'araǧa bi-Rasuli'llāh ILA's-samā' as-sābi'a"), God should.

Muhammad's Assumption, Topkapı Palace Museum, Istanbul, 18th century

In Islamic historiography, aṭ-Ṭabarī summarizes this story as follows:

“When the Prophet had received the announcement and was sleeping by the Kaaba, as the Quraysh used to do, the angels Gabriel and Michael came to him and said: With regard to whom did we receive the order? To which they themselves replied: With reference to their Lord. Thereupon they left, but the three of them came back the next night. When they found him sleeping, they laid him on his back, opened his body, brought water from the Zamzam well, and washed what they found in his body for doubt, idolatry, paganism and error. Then they brought a golden vessel filled with faith and wisdom, and so his body was filled with faith and wisdom. Then he was lifted up to the lowest heaven. "

- at-Tabarī : Translation: Joseph Horovitz in: AJ Wensinck and JH Kramers : Concise Dictionary of Islam . Brill, Leiden 1941. p. 509

Under the title “The Ascension and the Ordinance of Prayers”, Muhammad ibn Saʿd summarizes the oldest variant of the recorded stories in his class register and dates the event to a Saturday, the 17th Ramadan , eighteen months before Muhammad's Hijra . Accordingly, the angels Gabriel and Michael accompanied Mohammed in the Kaaba sanctuary to a place between the Zamzam fountain and the Maqām Ibrāhīm . A ladder (miʿrāǧ) is said to have been set up there, with the help of which Mohammed and Gabriel climbed into heaven. Once at the top, Mohammed is said to have met the earlier prophets. According to a variant of tradition, Gabriel climbed into heaven with Mohammed and held his hand tightly. When he arrived at the zizyphus tree mentioned in sura 53, verse 14, Mohammed saw paradise and hell . Then the original fifty prayers were imposed on him, which were then reduced to five through the mediation of Moses . According to Islamic tradition, Mohammed always did this during prayer times after his return with Gabriel in Mecca.

The motif of the ladder, which in this variant of the Ascension legend enables access to heaven, was already known to pre-Islamic poets; it serves as a means to escape what one wants to avoid in this world. The adoption of the motif of Jacob's ladder (Bible) according to Gen 28.11  EU is considered certain in research; the term miʿrāǧ used in the legend of the Ascension should have been known to Mohammed through teaching the Ethiopian variants of the jubilee book . So in sura 70, verses 3-4, God is called “the one with the ladder to heaven” (ḏī l-maʿāriǧ), to whom the angels and the spirit ascend.

While in Ibn Saʿd the myth is presented relatively briefly but precisely dated, further episodes are included in the other versions of the tradition, which were widespread but undated around the same time. That the tradition Aryans called "esteemed house" - al-bait al-Ma'mur - is located in paradise and understood as the heavenly counterpart of the Kaaba shrine.

Both the ascension of Mecca and the nocturnal journey of the prophet from Mecca to the “distant place of worship”, mentioned briefly at the beginning of sura 17, are influenced by apocalyptic literature . In contrast to the Isrāʾ legend, al-Miʿrāǧ is moved to the early days of Muhammad; the opening of the chest and the purification of the heart fulfill the purpose of the consecration of the prophets, which precedes the ascension of the called one. The motif of the opening of the chest is also documented in profane literature. According to legend, the sister of the poet Umaiya ibn Abī s-Salt (died around 631-632), who is said to have read the books of the pre-Islamic monotheists and is known as Hanīf , told the prophet that a jinn in the form of a vulture opened the sleeping poet's chest, filled it with "something" and then closed it again. This gave Umaiya the gift of speaking religious poetry and referring to monotheism. The focus of this vocation experience of Muḥammad is not a jinn, but always the archangel Gabriel. According to legend, Mohammed did not receive the Koran from Gabriel, but from God himself, before whose throne he stood in heaven. The Islamic theology joined the Mi'rāǧ legend inevitably the question whether Mohammed in this encounter God would see and can see the shape. In some explanations traced back to Mohammed, he is said to have only seen light (nūr) and the throne of God and heard his voice, because two curtains separated him from God.

al-Isrāʾ

al-Isrāʾ الإسراءis derived as a verbal noun from the Arabic verb asrā “to travel, to let travel in the night” and is used in connection with Muhammad's nocturnal journey to the distant place of worship in sura 17 , verse 1:

“Praised be he who traveled with his servant (ie Mohammed) by night from the holy place of worship (in Mecca) to the distant place of worship (in Jerusalem), the vicinity of which we have blessed, to let him see something of our signs. .. "

- Koran, Sura 17, Verse 1 : Translation: Rudi Paret

In his biography of the prophets , Ibn Ishāq first presents the nocturnal journey of Mohammed "to the distant place of worship", which is indicated in the first verse of the 17th sura, according to several sources.

The nocturnal journey took place either from a place near the Kaaba sanctuary, or from the house of Umm Hāniʾ, the daughter of Abū Tālib ibn ʿAbd al-Muttalib on the back of the mount al-Burāq . In Jerusalem Mohammed is said to have met three prophets - ( Abraham , Moses and Jesus ) - and prayed with them as their imam . He is said to have met Moses and Abraham - in the company of the Archangel Gabriel - on the way. According to other reports, the common prayer took place in Bethlehem (Bait Laḥm). Ibn Ishaq then combines this event with the Miʿrāǧ legend using the following words of Muhammad: "After I finished what was in Bait al-maqdis, a ladder was brought to me ..." So it is still with Ibn Ishāq clearly recognizable that the tradition of Muhammad's Ascension consists of two components. In the review of the biography of the prophet by Yunus ibn Bukair (d. 815) the trip to Jerusalem is described as a dream; the Ascension is not mentioned in this variant. It is assumed that the motif of the Ascension, which is briefly mentioned in the tradition of Ibn Hisham , may represent a later extension of the original text by Ibn Ishaq. Both legends - isrāʾ and miʿrāǧ - are also presented separately by Ibn Saʿd and dated differently: the nocturnal journey to Jerusalem took place on the 17th Rabīʿ al-awwal , one year before the hijra.

In some versions of the Isrāʾ legend it is mentioned that the journey took place so quickly that Muhammad's bed was said to have been warm after his return and that the water jug, which he knocked over with his foot when getting up, had not yet completely run out.

al-Baihaqī , one of the best-known traditionarians of the Shāfiʿite school of law (born 994; died 1066) in the 11th century compiles and documents the variants of both legends in the second volume of his work Dalāʾil an-nubuwwa "Proof of Prophecy" on 45 pages thus the variety of ascension legends known in his time. In one of these variants of tradition a dialogue between Mohammed and the reporter is described as a dream, in which the latter is said to have said to the prophet: “Messenger of God! People of your community (umma) report after you about miracles during the ascension. - Then he said to me: these are reports of the storytellers (quṣṣāṣ). "

al-Isrāʾ and the direction of prayer of Muhammad

According to Islamic tradition, Mohammed said his prayer from Bait al-Maqdis, the Temple Mount of Jerusalem. However, it is controversial as to where the prayer took place in the “distant place of worship”. Because the question of the direction of prayer of the prophet from the Temple Mount was of particular importance for legal doctrine. When Mohammed performed the prayer in the north of the Temple Mount, he considered two directions of prayer in the history of the Islamic prayer ritual: Bait al-Maqdis and the Kaaba of Mecca. But if he prayed in the south of the Temple Mount, it was behind him and the direction of prayer was only the Kaaba. After the conquest of Jerusalem under ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb , the caliph is said to have discussed the direction of prayer from the Temple Mount with the scholar Kaʿb al-Aḥbār (died between 652 and 654), a Jewish convert to Islam. On this occasion, the latter is said to have recommended the place of prayer ( Musalla apply) on the north of the rock, which the Caliph rejected with the words, "we have been instructed (as a prayer direction) is not the rocks, but the Kaaba." Other traditions According to have God sent his prophet on the “nocturnal journey” to Jerusalem in order to combine both directions of prayer: the original Qibla from Mecca to Jerusalem and the change of direction from Medina to Mecca in December 624-January 625. Representatives of Islamic ritual law were of the opinion that the performance of prayer from the north of the rock in the direction of the Kaaba was a reprehensible innovation .

al-Isrāʾ and al-Miʿrāj

Southwest wall of the Temple Mount with the corner stone drilled through (on the edge, in the 7th row from above)

The amalgamation of both legends can already be heard in the oldest written report by Ibn Isḥāq. The journey takes place on the mount al-Burāq, the ascent into heaven from Jerusalem takes place via the ladder. Mohammed ties the mount to a place that the prophets are said to have used before him: below the Robinson Arch , on the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. According to the Islamic tradition, which at-Tirmidhi (d. 892) mentions in the exegesis of sura 17, the archangel Gabriel is said to have drilled a hole with his finger in the stone to which al-Burāq was tied. According to the geographer Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadānī (lived in the 9th century) this place can be seen on the "corner stone of the eastern minaret ".

Robinson bow

This stone is also mentioned in the two oldest works on the merits of Jerusalem: by al-Mušarraf ibn al-Muraǧǧā al-Maqdisī in the middle of the 12th century and by Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 1520) As in the old ones In traditional versions, Mohammed also tells his dream of how he got from the sanctuary in Mecca to Jerusalem. The stone is likely to be identical to the lapis pertusus mentioned by the pilgrim from Bordeaux in 333 .

In the course of the excavations in the 1980s, such a corner stone was uncovered at the location described above.

After Mohammed prayed two rakʿas in the mosque (masjid), Gabriel ascended with him (ʿaraǧa bī) to heaven, where Mohammed met prophets at different levels of heaven and finally received the five daily prayers as a religious duty .

Isrāʾ and Miʿrāǧ are sometimes used as synonyms, despite the distinction between two legends; Al-Buchārī begins in his above-mentioned “Ṣaḥīḥ” the book Kitāb al- ṣalāt with the chapter: How were the prayers made compulsory during the nocturnal journey (isrāʾ)? He then depicts the Miʿraj legend, which begins with the opening of Muhammad's chest, the purification of his heart and continues with the ascension from the Kaaba sanctuary to heaven.

al-Isrāʾ and the distant place of worship

As already mentioned, the starting point for Muhammad's ascension, which can be documented in the Koran, is the first verse of Sura 17, in which a nocturnal journey from the sanctuary in Mecca to the “distant place of worship” is briefly mentioned. The verse is then connected in traditional literature and Koran exegesis with the Ascension from Jerusalem.

In research there are different views on the definition and location of the Koranic "distant place of worship" - al-masjid al-aqṣā. Bertram Schrieke assumed that the designation in sura 17, verse 1 refers neither to the Temple Mount nor to the city of Jerusalem, but to a heavenly sanctuary. While Josef Horovitz agreed with this interpretation, A. Guillaume took the view that the night journey of Muhammad mentioned in the Quran verse in question was a small pilgrimage (ʿumra) carried out secretly in February 630 from a place called "the distant place of worship" in the Jiʿrāna valley, around 15 km north of Mecca, to Mecca and back. Both M. Plessner and Rudi Paret have not only rejected this interpretation, but also understand Jerusalem by the Koranic term "distant place of worship". In the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān all theses are taken into account: "The most distant place (" al-aqṣā ") of prayer may have been in heaven, in Jerusalem or perhaps in a place close to Mecca"

al-masjid al-aqṣā: the distant place of worship

A more precise definition of the Koranic "distant place of worship" is made possible by verse 7 of the same sura, in which the destruction of the Jewish temple - called masjid - by the enemies of the Jews is indicated:

“And if the threat from the last (time) is fulfilled (w. Comes), they (ie the enemies) should play badly with you (w. Do bad things to your face) and enter the place of worship (in Jerusalem), as at the first time , and completely ruin ... "

- Koran, sura 17, verse 7 : translation by Rudi Paret

The "new Jerusalem" as a new Christian foundation, to which Eusebius of Caesarea , probably under the influence of the Revelation of John ( Rev 3,12  EU or Rev 21,2  EU ), refers and its importance through the building of the Holy Sepulcher under Constantine I. is underlined, arises near the destroyed temple mount, which in sura 17, verse 7 as al-Masjid , d. H. Place of worship, place of prostration, of prayer. Thus the Koran "appropriated" the Temple Mount as a destroyed sanctuary and made it the goal of a visionary journey of Muhammad, who can now assert himself in the circle of the biblical prophets and - as mentioned above - pray together with them. No special building, but the whole city represents the holy unity; in the Koranic al-masjid al-aqṣā an Islamized version of the earthly Jerusalem seems to live on.

The Koranic term “aqṣā” also always serves to describe a place on earth. In Sura 28 , verse 20 and Sura 30 , 20 is of "a lying far away district of the city" speech; in Sura 8 , 42 the “nearer valley side” and the “further valley side” are mentioned. They refer to the topography (cartography) of the battlefield near Badr . There is no indication in the Koran that al-aq aā must be related to a place in heaven.

The continuation of the first verse "... whose surroundings we have blessed ..." refers to places in the Holy Land and not only to the destroyed Temple Mount: Sura 7, verse 137: "And we gave the people who were (before) oppressed eastern and western regions of the land (ie the whole land) to the inheritance, (-that land) we have blessed ”(ie to the children of Israel). In sura 21 , verse 71 it says similarly: "And we saved him and Lot to the land which we blessed for the people in all the world".

Even the earliest Koran exegetes are of the opinion that the distant place of worship points to a shrine in Jerusalem. While the Koranic expression in itself remains abstract and is the subject of a vision, exegesis and traditional literature endeavor to localize the sanctuary. This is done from the standpoint of those generations of scholars who have known Jerusalem since its conquest in 638; they called the city by the Islamic name: Bait al-Maqdis .

This name stands for the city of Jerusalem in all Islamic literature:

  • Four cities are part of paradise: Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem (bait al-maqdis) and a city called Mansura ... * The mountain of Jerusalem jabal bait al-maqdis has priority over the mountain Qāsiyūn near Damascus by the grace of God.
  • The destruction of Jerusalem (bait al-maqdis) is mentioned several times in Islamic eschatological literature.
  • Abū Ḥafs al-Mauṣilī, a preacher at the Aqsa Mosque in the 13th century, wrote a critical treatise on hadiths that deal with the virtues of Jerusalem (bait al-maqdis), the Dome of the Rock, Asqalān (now Ashkelon ) and Qazvin .
  • In poetry, besides other holy places of Islam, Bait al-maqdis is also mentioned: "And leave Medīna, for it is to be feared, and go to Mecca or Jerusalem ( bait al-maqdis )." And:
  • "O friend, I made the pilgrimage and visited Jerusalem ( bait al-maqdis )."

It is worth noting that the oldest traditions do not name a specific mosque in Jerusalem called al-masjid al-aqṣā. This is consistent with the abstract meaning of the term in the Quran.

The Ascension in Theology

In Islamic theology the question is discussed whether the nocturnal journey took place in sleep or in the waking state and whether it was Muhammad's body or just his mind that wandered. Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī , with reference to the different interpretations of the legend of the Ascension (miʿrādsch) in the first chapter about the ritual prayer in al-Buchārī, states that this, as well as the nocturnal journey, took place in one and the same night while awake (isrāʾ ). According to other views, according to Ibn Hajjar, both journeys took place in sleep either on the same or on different nights. He himself, as a commentator on al-Buchari's work, is of the opinion that the night trip to Jerusalem was made while awake. Proof of this is the clear literal meaning of the Quran (ẓāhir al-Qurʾān) and the fact that the Quraish accused the Prophet of lying about his alleged nocturnal journey. If the journey had taken place in his sleep as a dream, he concluded, the Quraysh could not have accused Mohammed of lying. Followers of the Muʿtazila have declared the nocturnal journey to Jerusalem a dream; even al-Hasan al-Basri said to have Mu'tazilite reportedly hold this view.

Aṭ-Ṭabarī argues similarly in his Qur'an comment: in the Qur'an it is said that God caused his servant (bi-ʿabdihi) and not his spirit to travel. In the latter case, the services of the miraculous Buraq would have been superfluous, since mounts carry bodies and not spirits. If Muhammad had not physically ascended to heaven, the event would provide no evidence of his divine mission.

Belief in the ascension of Muhammad is part of Islamic dogmatics. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan al-Ašʿarī (d. 935) mentions them in his presentation of the “basic features of the view of traditional believers and Sunna faithful ” as follows: “They believe in ... the ascension (of the Prophet), the dream in sleep .. . " An-Nasafī († 1142), one of the most important legal scholars of the Hanafis of his time, stated in his creed (ʿAqīda): " The ascension of the Prophet in a waking state in his person to heaven (and) then to the (heavenly) The heights to which Allaah wanted is truth. ” The philosopher and Islamic legal scholar Avicenna had also studied the heavenly journey of Muhammad .

The Shiite version of the Ascension

According to the Shiite view, the Koranic “distant place of worship” (al-masdschid al-aqṣā) is not in Jerusalem (bait al-maqdis), but in heaven. As far as documented in writing, the first Shiite interpretation is of Muhammad's ascension to the ibaditischen back Koranexegeten Hūd ibn al-Muḥakkam Huwwārī from the second half of the 9th century. In his four-volume Tafsīr work, the author reports the Miʿrāǧ legend, i. H. the Ascension from Mecca into heaven, on the back of the white mount al-Burāq and in the company of Gabriel. In a variant, the motif with the ladder is also included in the comment. The goal of the journey is - according to sura 17, verse 1 - always "bait al-maqdis" in heaven.

A little later, the Koran exegesis of the Shiite scholar Abū n-Nadr al-ʿAyyāšī (died around 932) from Samarqand , whose work Ibn an-Nadīm also knew. In the exegesis of sura 17, verse 1, the sixth imam Jafar as-Sādiq (d. 765) is said to have confirmed that the “distant place of worship” to which Mohammed had ascended is in heaven. When his audience objected that the Koranic “distant place of worship” was Jerusalem (Bait al-maqdis), he replied: “The mosque of Kufa is better”. Muhammad ibn ʿAlī al-Bāqir (d. 732) had a similar opinion : the Prophet had ascended from the Kaaba shrine directly into heaven; the area between these two points is sacred area ( haram ).

Miʿrāǧ literature with Shiite influences experienced its heyday in the era of the Safavids with numerous ornate miniatures about the ascension of Muhammad from Mecca as well as from Jerusalem to paradise.

The Ascension in Islamic Literature

The ascension legends are, as shown above, in the literary genres of the hadith literature, the prophet's biography, the prophetic legends (Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ) and in works that are summarized under the title "Proofs of Prophecy" (Dalāʾil an-nubuwwa).

  • The collections of traditions on the merits of Jerusalem ( faḍāʾil bait al-maqdis ), which, in addition to urban history and topographical information, describe the holy places of the city and its surroundings, are an independent literary genre in Islamic literature. Traditions and praises about Jerusalem have already been compiled in his exegesis by Muqātil ibn Sulaimān (d. 765), one of the earliest Koran commentators, which are quoted in works on the advantages of the city, the place of Muhammad's ascension, as late as the 11th century. Its creation is dated to the second half of the 7th century, when the Umayyad interest in the Temple Mount is historically documented.

Under the influence of the Ascension legend stands a tradition centered around the well-known scholar of the Umayyad period, Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 742). The already mentioned al-Wāsi genannteī reports in his Faḍāʾil al-Bayt al-Muqaddas (The Merits of Jerusalem) about az-Zuhrī's visit to the holy places of Jerusalem, where he met a sheikh who “learned from the scriptures” the merits of the city handed down. After the recitation of sura 17 , verse 1 by az-Zuhrī, the sheikh replied: “The day of the resurrection will only come when Muhammad's bones are transferred to Jerusalem.” The traditional literature understands books as “scriptures” (al-kutub) of Jews and Christians , the Ahl al-kitāb .

  • Monographic papers have been available since the late 8th century. Probably the oldest Kitāb al-miʿrāǧ was written by Hišām ibn Sālim al-Ǧawālikī (d. Before 799), a Shiite theologian in Kufa . The work is preserved in later writings of the Schia.
  • The Qairawan scholar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, Abū Ǧaʿfar al-Qaṣrī (d. 933-934) dedicated in his Kitāb al-Muʿǧizāt "The Book of Miracles", which was still read by scholars in the city in the 11th century and is preserved in fragments of manuscripts , a section of the isrāʾ legend.
  • The little known Abūʾl-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Muḥammad al-Bakrī, who probably died after 950, perhaps not until the 13th century, wrote a Ḥadīth al-Miʿrāǧ ǧalā ʾt-tamām wa-ʾl-kamāl "The report on the Ascension, perfect and complete ”, which is available in some manuscripts, partly from 1295. The author was best known for his popular works on the story of the prophet. adh-Dhahabī († 1348) is the first scholar biographer in Islamic literature to name him - albeit with contemptuous remarks; he is said to have been a liar, worse than Musailima , the well-known "false prophet" and opponent of Muhammad. His books were read in booksellers' markets. At the beginning of his popularly designed narrative, al-Bakrī names his sources: the author of the biography of the prophet Ibn Ishaq, the Koran exegete Muqatil ibn Sulaiman, the genealogist and historian Muhammad ibn as-Sāʾib al-Kalbī († 763) and his son Ibn al-Kalbī ( † against 819). At the end of the work he adds the name of Wahb ibn Munabbih († 728 or 732), who was known in Islamic historiography primarily for his stories of the prophets. This adaptation of the legend of the Ascension, which contains 42 folios in a manuscript in the Süleymaniye-Kütüphanesi (library) in Istanbul , is written in the first person, with Mohammed as the narrator , who in dialogue with the prophets, angels and with God in bait his experiences al-maqdis or told in the seven stations in heaven.

al-Bakrī's storytelling is not only characterized by the literary processing and content expansion of the well-known traditions of the miʿrāǧ and isrāʾ legends. He also processed verses of the Koran in his subject several times and brought them directly into connection with the legend of the Ascension. So he lets Gabriel speak to Mohammed: "Your Lord, neither tiredness nor sleep overcomes him ( sura 2 , verse 255), will speak to you in a low voice." In the description of hell, Koranic terms are updated: the fate of the sticklers and naggers will be in al-Hutama , it is the fire of God that is kindled in hell ( sura 104 , verses 4-8). In the third heaven the prophet is to say: Say: He is God, one and only ( sura 112 , verse 1). Idris is introduced to him in the fifth heaven ; he was raised to a high place one day ( sura 19 , verse 57). Gabriel said to the prophet: Muḥammad, it is difficult for me to stay behind you and there is none of us who will not (one day?) Have a certain rank ( sura 37 , verse 164). Upon seeing Israfil , Mohammed saw that the well- preserved tablet ( sura 85 , verse 22) - d. H. the Koran - hung between his eyes. When asked by God: “Does the Messenger believe in what has been revealed to him by his Lord?” Mohammed replies: The Messenger (of God) believes in that which has been revealed to him by his Lord (as revelation), and (with him) the believers ... etc. (Sura 2, verse 185) To another question from God: “Do you see me?” Mohammed replies: “My Lord, I am blinded by the light of your majesty.” He (God) asked further: “Have you found me?” I answered: “Nobody will find you and nobody can see you. The looks (of people ) do not reach you ( sura 6 , verse 103). You are the king and powerful ”.

In his presentation, al-Bakrī also goes into Muhammad's conflict with the unbelieving Meccans and, in his dialogue with God, launches corresponding Quranic verses that are missing in the other ascension legends. “Your people say of you, 'Truly, he is a poet'. Thereupon I said for you: And we did not teach him (i.e. Mohammed) poetry. It is not for him. “( Sura 36 , Verse 69). And: “Your people say: 'You are obsessed'. Then I said for you: Your compatriot (i.e. Mohammed) is not possessed. “( Sura 81 , verse 22). And: "Mohammed, your people say of you: 'he is misguided and is in error'. Then I said for you: By the star when it falls (as a shooting star from the sky?) (Or: By the star (the Pleiades) when it goes down?)! Your farmer (i.e. Mohammed) is not misguided and is not mistaken. "

  • In his Kitāb al-miʿrāǧ, the mystic ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Hawāzin, Abū ʾl-Qāsim al-Qušairī (born 989; died 1072) from Nishapur examines the well-known traditions of the legend of the Ascension and at the same time presents those visions of the Ascension that one finds in the ascribes Islamic mysticism to the Sufi saints . It also deals with the ascension of other prophets: Idris (Enoch), Ibrahim , Elijah (Ilyās), ʿĪsā ibn Maryam (Jesus) and Moses . In this book the miʿrāǧ and isrāʾ legends are consciously linked: the ascension takes place via a ladder, the steps of which are precisely described, starting from bait al-maqdis , which the author - like Ibn Ishaq in his biography of the prophets - Īliyā, d. i. Aelia calls. Some of the motifs in the depiction are influenced by Shiite traditions, which the author may have got to know in his home country.
  • An Eastern Turkish version of Miʿrāǧnāme , the author of which is unknown, is in a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and apparently goes back to Persian models. It was calligraphy in 1436 in the Timurid town of Herat and contains numerous miniatures from the hand of various masters, which were inserted into the text in Uighur script . On the margins of the pages there are comments and explanations in Arabic script from a later hand. The main character is always Mohammed, who, accompanied by the Archangel Gabriel, rides through paradise and hell on a human-faced mount, the burāq. The miniatures of the manuscript represent the pinnacle of Timurid book illumination in the Herat school. After several editions of the manuscript since 1889, a new edition of the same in transcription, German translation and commentary since 2008 is now available, one in the manuscript library of the Süleimānīya (Istanbul ) discovered copy of the work was also taken into account. The miniatures have been published in a facsimile edition by Marie-Rose Séguy.
  • Standing possibly under the influence of the Timurid Mi'rāǧnāme and its tradition are nine images from the reign of the last Ilchanenherrschers Abu Sa'id , ruled from 1316 to 1335, originally as illustrations to a closer unknown book received Tabriz have been made. The sheets are now cataloged in the library of Topkapı Palace . In one of the first pictures, the artist depicts Mohammed sitting on the rock of the Dome of the Rock in the company of the earlier prophets. In the artistic representation, the point is thus the starting point for the Ascension.
  • Another version of Muhammad's ascension from Mecca to heaven - and not as his “nocturnal journey” to Jerusalem - was also written by the Egyptian mystic ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Aḥmad asch-Scharānī (d. 1565). He dedicates the 34th chapter of his work on the Islamic doctrine of the Prophet's ascension to heaven: “About the reality of the nightly ascension of the Prophet and the circumstances accompanying it; about the fact that he (raptured into heaven) only found that conception of God which was the subject of his knowledge on earth, confirmed by the view, and that that conception firmly impressed on his spirit did not suffer any change while he was on earth. "

The ascension legend in Europe

When several variants and representations of Muhammad's Ascension were in circulation in the Islamic Orient of the 13th century, the Kitāb al-miʿrāǧ by an anonymous in Arabic came to Europe. It is known under the title Liber Scalae Machometi ("The Book of the Ladders of Muhammad").

Petrus Venerabilis (born 1094; died 1156), abbot of the monastery of Cluny , commissioned the first translation of the Koran into Latin from the translation school of Toledo during his trip to Spain , which Robert von Ketton (died around 1160) concerned in 1143. A more identifiable Arab named Mohammed is also said to have been involved in the translation. To this translation, Petrus Venerabilis added further texts of polemical content against Islamic teaching, which are known under the name Collectio Toletama ( Corpus Toletanum ). One of the copies of this collection was supplemented around a hundred years later with the Latin translation of the Kitāb al-miʿrāǧ by the Arabic Anonymous.

The lost Arabic original is in the circle of scholars of Alfonso X (Castile) , the Wise (El Sabio) (reign 1252–1282), the Jewish doctor Abraham al-Faquim, Ibn Wakar, († 1284) also in the translation school of Toledo the title La escala de Mahoma was first translated into Old Spanish. His work was the basis for the Latin and Old French translation of the book by Bonaventura de Siena around 1264, which was discovered by the Italian medievalist Enrico Cerulli. The Latin version in German and the old French version, this one based on the manuscript of the Bodleian Library ( Oxford ), in English translation, are now in print. According to the current state of research, the Arabic original and its old Spanish translation have not been preserved; from the latter there is only a fragmentary excerpt in the Escorial manuscript library . The Latin translation has in many places been written in the sense of Western Christian usage: the biblical names, which are also used in Islam, then appear in the corresponding form: Gabriel instead of Arabic: Jibrīl , Abraham, instead of Arabic: Ibrāhīm , Moyses (Moses) instead of Arabic: Mūsā etc. In this context, it is erroneously stated that the name of Muhammad in the Latin text as propheta is also to be seen in this “embedding in the Christian tradition” , since Muhammad in Islam always as a messenger of God ( rasūl ), never but is called the Prophet ( nabī ). It should be noted that in the zuqnin chronicle - probably from the late 8th century - documented in the " Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium ", the name of Mohammed as the Prophet himself in circles oriental Christians known was:

“Since he (Mohammed) described to them (the Arabs) the only God and they (the Arabs) defeated the Byzantines under his leadership, and since he gave them laws according to their wishes, they call him 'Prophet' ( nbîyâ ) and 'Messenger '( rasùlâ ) of God. "

Text comparisons between the Liber Scalae and the above-mentioned narrative variant by al-Bakrī - based on a manuscript, the origin of which is also dated to the 13th century - revealed an unequivocal relationship between the two texts. In Liber Scalae , too , the legend is told in the first person, with Mohammed as the narrator. The opening of Muhammad's chest and the purification of his heart, which al-Bakrī mentions in accordance with the earlier stages of development of the legend, is absent in the work of Anonymous. On the other hand, extensive parts of eschatological character are preserved in the latter, which in turn are missing in al-Bakrī. It can be assumed that the Liber Scalae is a literary product in which several variants of transmission from Islamic literature, including al-Bakrī's work, have been evaluated. Key experiences of Muhammad, his encounter with God, are reported by the anonymous according to the old tradition: the transfer of knowledge, which distinguishes the prophet from other people, happens through the touch of his head by God's hand. Mohammed does not see God himself, but only his throne and receives the entire Koran.

The Ascension Legend and Dante

At the end of the 19th century, the British orientalist Reynold Alleyne Nicholson discovered the "Letter of Forgiveness" ( Risālat al-ġufrān ) of the Syrian poet Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī († 1057). The first eschatological part is about a journey through the realms of the hereafter and has striking similarities with the Commedia by Dante Alighieri , written between 1307 and 1320 . The Spanish priest and orientalist Miguel Asín Palacios (1871–1944) examined the possible relationship between these works for the first time in 1919 in his extensive work La escatologia musulmana en la Divina Comedia , which, however, met with strong rejection in circles of European Romanists. However, Palacios had gathered a bewildering plethora of scattered parallels from religious and fictional literature that Italian patriots understood as an attack on a national sanctuary.

After Bonaventura de Siena discovered the Latin translation of the above-mentioned Liber scalae Machometi (1264), several researchers after Palacios - such as the Italian Enrico Cerulli - assumed that Dante might have had knowledge of this translation. Dante as an opponent of Islam with his negative representations of Mohammed and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and their agony in hell followed a polemical inspiration in his work . While the poet al-Maʿarrī, whose work was not known in Europe at Dante's time, could directly fall back on Islamic ideas in the versions of the Ascension legend known at the time, Dante used a comparable version, apparently the Liber scalae Machometi , in Latin translation . The motifs of both sources are comparable with one another.

See also

literature

  • Anthony A. Bevan: Mohammed's Ascension to Heaven . In: Studies on Semitic Philology and History of Religion. Dedicated to Julius Wellhausen on his seventieth birthday on May 17, 1914 . Giessen 1914. pp. 51-61.
  • Hartmut Bobzin : Mohammed. CH Beck. Knowledge. 3. Edition. Munich 2006. pp. 87-90, ISBN 978-3-406-44744-0 .
  • Carl Brockelmann : History of Arabic Literature . Second edition adapted to the supplement volumes. Brill, suffering. Vol. 1 (1943), Vol. 2 (1949). Supplement Volume 1-3 (1937-1942).
  • Heribert Busse : Jerusalem in the story of Muhammad's night journey and ascension . In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 14 (1991), pp. 1-40.
  • Frederick S. Colby: Narrating Muḥammad's night journey. Tracing the development of the Ibn ʿAbbās ascension discourse. State University of New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-7914-7517-1 .
  • Ana Echevarría: Eschatology or biography? Alfonso X, Muhammad's ladder and a Jewish go-between. In: Cynthia Robinson, Leyla Rouhi (Eds.): Under the influence. Questioning the comperative in medieval Castile . Brill, Leiden 2005, pp. 133-152.
  • Christiane J. Gruber, Frederick Stephen Colby (eds.): The Prophet's Ascension: Cross-cultural Encounters with the Islamic Miʻrāj Tales . Indiana University Press 2010.
  • P. Heath: Allegory and Philosophy in Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā). With a Translation of the Book of the Prophet Muḥammad's Ascent to Heaven. Philadelphia 1992.
  • Josef Horovitz : Muhammad's Ascension . In: Der Islam 9 (1919), pp. 159-183.
  • Josef van Ess : Le miʿrāǧ et la vision de Dieu dans les premières speculations théologiques en Islam. In: MA Amir-Moezzi (ed.): Le voyage initiatique en terre d'Islam. Paris 1996. pp. 27-56.
  • Josef van Ess: The Ascension of Muḥammad and the early Islamic theology . In: Benedikt Reinert, Johannes Thomann (Hrsg.): Islamic borders and border crossings . Lang, Bern 2007, pp. 9–34, ISBN 978-3-906770-19-2 .
  • Meir Jacob Kister : Sanctity joint and divided: on the holy places in the islamic tradition . In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 20 (1996), pp. 18–65 ( full text ).
  • Klaus Kreiser , Werner Diem , Hans Georg Majer (Ed.): Lexicon of the Islamic World . Kohlhammer. Stuttgart 1974. Vol. 2, ISBN 3-17-002161-3 , p. 31.
  • Dieter Kremers : Islamic Influences on Dante's "Divine Comedy" . In: Wolfhart Heinrichs (Ed.): Oriental Middle Ages . Wiesbaden 1990. pp. 202-215.
  • Th.C. van der Meij & N. Lambooij: The Malay Hikayat Miʿrāj Nabi Muḥammad. The Prophet Muḥammad's Nocturnal Journey to Heaven and Hell . Text and Translation of Cod. Or. 1713 in the Library of Leiden University. Edited and translated with the assistance of Oman Fathurahman. Brill, Leiden 2014. Biblioteca Indonesica , 37
  • Tilman Nagel : Mohammed. Life and legend. Oldenbourg, Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2008, pp. 244–250.
  • Uri Rubin: Muhammad's night journey (isrāʾ) to al-masdjid al-aqṣā . Aspects of the earliest origins of the islamic sanctity of Jerusalem. In: al-Qantara 29 (2008), pp. 147-164.
  • Uri Rubin: Between Arabia and the Holy Land : A Mecca-Jerusalem axis of sanctity. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 34 (2008), pp. 345–362.
  • Max Scherberger: The Miʿrāǧnāme. The journey to heaven and into hell of the prophet Muḥammad in Eastern Turkish tradition. (= Working materials on the Orient . Volume 14). Ergon Publishing House. Wuerzburg 2003
  • Gregor Schoeler : Abū l-ʿAlāʿ al-Maʿarrī: Paradise and Hell. The journey to the hereafter from the “Epistle on Forgiveness” . Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48446-8 (= New Oriental Library ).
  • Bertram Schrieke : The heavenly journey of Muhammad. In: Der Islam 6 (1916), pp. 1–30.
  • The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 7, p. 97.
  • Arent Jan Wensinck , Johannes Hendrik Kramers: Concise Dictionary of Islam . Brill, Leiden 1941. pp. 227-228 (Isrāʾ); Pp. 509-511 (miʿrādj).
  • Edeltraud Werner: Mohammed's journey beyond the hereafter. Liber Scale Machometi. Kitāb al-miʿrāj. Provided with an introduction and translated from Latin. Olms, Hildesheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-487-13424-6 (= texts and studies on religious studies . Volume 14).

Remarks

  1. ^ Translation quoted from: Gotthard Strohmaier : Avicenna. Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-41946-1 , p. 79 f. ( Muhammad's Ascension ).
  2. ↑ a b H. Busse (1991), p. 7
  3. ↑ Richard Bell : Muhammad's Visions. In: The Muslim World. Volume 24, 1934, pp. 145-154; Rudi Paret : Mohammed and the Koran. Pp. 44-46.
  4. ↑ H. Busse (1991), pp. 4–5, has compiled the relevant sources and their variants.
  5. ↑ The information in Hans Wehr : Arabic dictionary for the written language of the present (ʿ-r-ǧ): the ascension (which Mu hatammad undertook from Jerusalem on 27th Raǧab) must be corrected accordingly. This is not due to the traditional material, but to the arbitrarily determined feast day of the Muslims
  6. ↑ H. Busse (1991), p. 8
  7. ^ So in the translation of "sidrat al-muntahā" by Rudi Paret ; H. Busse (1991), p. 7 says: Lotus tree
  8. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 7, p. 97
  9. ↑ AJ Wensinck and JH Kramers: Short dictionary of Islam . Brill, Leiden 1941. p. 510; Rudi Paret: The Koran. Commentary and Concordance . P. 488 with reference to J. Horovitz (1919), p. 176
  10. ↑ H. Busse (1991), p. 10
  11. ↑ H. Busse (1991), p. 6; in detail: Mary Dean-Otting: Heavenly journeys. A study of the motif in Hellenistic and Jewish Literature. Frankfurt a. M., Bern, New York 1984
  12. ↑ AJ Wensinck and JH Kramers: Short dictionary of Islam . Brill, Leiden 1941. p. 509; H. Birkeland: The legend of the opening of Muhammad's breast . Oslo 1955
  13. ^ Fuat Sezgin: History of Arabic literature. Volume II. (Poetry). Brill, Leiden 1975
  14. ↑ Ignaz Goldziher: Treatises on Arabic Philology . Volume 1, p. 213. (Reprint: Georg Olms Verlag Hildesheim 1982)
  15. ^ Josef van Ess: Theology and Society. Vol. 4, pp. 391-392
  16. ↑ Hence the name of the sura: al-Isrāʾ: "the nocturnal journey". Other names of the sura are: Subḥāna: "Blessed be he ...", since it is the first word after the Basmala , and Banī / Banū Isrāʾīl: "the children of Israel", as they are mentioned in verse 101. See Rudi Paret: The Koran. Commentary and Concordance. P. 539; Lamya Kandil: The surenames in the official Cairin Koran edition and their variants. In: Der Islam 69 (1992), pp. 44-60; here: p. 50
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  18. ↑ A. Guillaume (1970), pp. 184-185
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  23. ^ Carl Brockelmann : History of the Arabic literature . Second edition adapted to the supplement volumes. Brill, Leiden 1943. Vol. 1, pp. 446-447; The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 1, p. 1130, where the following work is not mentioned
  24. ↑ 1st edition. Cairo 1969. Vol. 2, pp. 106-151
  25. ↑ D. h. they are worthless. See Vol. 2, p. 151; Frederick S. Colby (2008), pp. 124-125
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  31. ↑ Faḍāʾil bait al-maqdis wa-ḫalīl wa-faḍāʾil aš-šām (The Merits of Jerusalem, Hebron and the Merits of Syria). Edited by Ofer Livne-Kafri. Shfaram 1995. pp. 79-80 and pp. 248-249
  32. ^ Faḍāʾil bait al-muqaddas . Ed. Isaac Hasson. Jerusalem 1979. (The Max Schloessinger Memorial Series. Texts 3). P. 99
  33. ^ H. Busse in his review of Andreas Káplony: The Ḥaram of Jerusalem 324-1099. Temple, Friday Mosque, Area of ​​Spiritual Power. Stuttgart 2002. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. (JSAI) 29 (2005), p. 431ff; here: pp. 436–437
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  35. ↑ H. Busse (1991), pp. 16-17 and note 88
  36. ↑ For details on the variants of the combined version, see H. Busse (1991), pp. 15–21
  37. ↑ K. aṣ-ṣalāt, Chapter 1. No. 349. In: Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī: Fatḥ al-bārī . Vol. 1, pp. 458-459. Cairo 1960
  38. ↑ Der Islam 6 (1916), p. 14
  39. ↑ Der Islam 9 (1919), pp. 162-163
  40. ^ Alfred Guillaume: Where was al-masjid al-aqṣā? In: al-Andalus 18 (1953), pp. 323-336
  41. ↑ Muhammad's clandestine ʿUmra in Dhū ʾl-Qaʿda 8 H. and Sura 17,1. In: Rivista degli Studi Orientali 32 (1957), pp. 525-530
  42. ↑ The distant place of worship in Sura 17.1. In: Der Islam 24 (1959), pp. 150–152
  43. ↑ R. Paret: The Koran. Commentary and Concordance . P. 296: "In fact, Jerusalem (or a place within Jerusalem) is meant".
  44. ↑ Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān , Brill, Leiden 2006. Vol. 1, p. 125: “… the farthest (al-aqṣā) place of prayer might have been in heaven, in Jerusalem, or perhaps in a location near Mecca.” See also Vol. 1, p. 177 and Vol. 3, p. 427; Uri Rubin in al-Qantara (2008), p. 149, note 5
  45. ↑ FE Peters: Jerusalem: the holy city in the eyes of chronicles, visitors, pilgrims, and prophets from the days of Abraham to the beginnings of modern times. Princeton 1985. pp. 132-140
  46. ^ Uri Rubin: Between Arabia and the holy land: a Mecca-Jerusalem axis of sanctity. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (JSAI), 34 (2008), pp. 345–362; here: pp. 347-348; alternatively in al-Qantara (2008), pp. 153–154
  47. ↑ Uri Rubin, in al-Qantara (2008), p. 155: “In short, the Qurʾānic al-Masjid al-Aqṣā seems to reflect an Islamized version of the earthly - yet divinely purified - Jerusalem, as envisioned in Christian texts of late-antiquity "-
  48. ^ Uri Rubin, in al-Qantara (2008), p. 150
  49. ↑ Uri Rubin, in al-Qantara (2008), p. 151
  50. ↑ For further examples see Uri Rubin in al-Qantara (2008), p. 152, note 14
  51. ↑ Uri Rubin in al-Qantara (2008), pp. 157 and 158: "As for Jerusalem, the earliest isrāʾ-versions do not specify any particular destination within the city, and only say that the Prophet arrived in Bayt al-Maqdis, ie Jerusalem "; Jacob Lassner: Muslims on the sanctity of Jerusalem: preliminary thoughts on the search for a conceptual framework . In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (JSAI) 31 (2006), pp. 164–195; P. 169: "One notes that Bayt al-Maqdis, derived from Hebrew bayt ha-miqdash , meaning" The Temple, "was understood by Muslims to mean both the Temple Mount and the entire city of Jerusalem."; E. Sivan: The beginnings of the Faḍāʾil al-Quds-Literature. In: Israel Oriental Studies 1 (1971), pp. 263-271
  52. ↑ MJ Kister (1996), p. 24. Note 39
  53. ↑ MJ Kister (1996), p. 26
  54. ↑ MJ Kister (1996), p. 30
  55. ↑ MJ Kister (1996), p. 63
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  59. ↑ Fatḥ al-bārī , Vol. 1, p. 460
  60. ^ Josef van Ess: Theology and Society . Vol. 4, p. 596 with references
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  66. ^ Gotthard Strohmaier: Avicenna. 1999, p. 150.
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  68. ^ Fuat Sezgin: History of Arabic literature. Brill, Leiden 1967. Vol. 1, p. 41: there ibn Muḥkim; Uri Rubin in: al-Qantara (2008), p. 162, note 57
  69. ↑ First published by Bel-Ḥāǧǧ ibn Saʿīd Šarīfī. Beirut 1990
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  71. ^ Fuat Sezgin: History of Arabic literature. Brill, Leiden 1967. Vol. 1, p. 42
  72. ↑ Uri Rubin in: al-Qantara (2008), p. 161; Isaac Hasson: Muslim Literature in Praise of Jerusalem: Faḍāʾil Bayt al-Maqdis , pp. 169–170 and note 7th in: Symposium: Muslim Literature in Praise of Jerusalem . The Jerusalem Cathedra - 1981
  73. ↑ See: Christiane Gruber: When Nubuwwat entcounters Valāyat. Safawid paintings of the Prophet's Mohammed Miʿrāj . 1500-1550. In: Pedram Khosronejad (Ed.): The Art and Material Culture of Iranian Shi'ism : Iconography and Religious Devotion in Shi'i Islam. IB Tauris, London 2012. p. 24 ff.
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  78. ↑ Ed. Isaac Hasson. The Hebrew University. Jerusalem 1979. p. 102; Translation of it in: Symposium: Muslim Literature in Praise of Jerusalem . The Jerusalem Cathedre - 1981, p. 179
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  88. ↑ Frederick S. Colby (2008), p. 196
  89. ↑ Frederick S. Colby (2008), p. 206 with further evidence
  90. ↑ Frederick S. Colby (2008), p. 211
  91. ↑ Frederick S. Colby (2008), p. 213
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  93. ↑ Frederick S. Colby (2008), p. 223
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  98. ↑ Ed. ʿAlī Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Qādir. Cairo 1964
  99. ↑ Frederick S. Colby (2008), pp. 116-121. - The information in the en: WP en: Kitab al-Miraj , the Liber scale Machometi represents the translation of al-Qušairī's work, is incorrect.
  100. ↑ G. Schoeler (2002), pp. 34-35; Max Scherberger, pp. 38-40
  101. ↑ Max Scherberger (2003)
  102. ↑ Muhammad's wonderful journey through heaven and hell. [Bibl. Nationale Paris, Ms. Suppl. Turc 190]. Berlin. German book community. 1978
  103. ↑ Christiane Gruber: The Ilkhanid Mi'rājnāma as a Sunni Illustrated Prayer Manual . In: Christiane J. Gruber, Frederick Stephen Colby (2010), p. 27ff; This: The Ilkhanid Book of Ascension: A Persian-Sunni Devotional Tale . IB Tauris & BIPS Persian Studies (2), 2010
  104. ^ Carl Brockelmann: History of the Arabic literature . Second edition adapted to the supplement volumes. Brill, Leiden 1949. Vol. 2, pp. 441-445
  105. ↑ Gustav Flügel: Šaʿrānī and his work on the Muhammadan doctrine . In: Journal of the German Oriental Society (ZDMG), Vol. 20 (1866), pp. 14–15; For the mystical interpretation of the Ascension see in general: Qāsim al-Sāmarrāʾī (Ed.): The theme of ascension in mystical writings. Baghdad 1968
  106. ↑ Edeltraud Werner (2007), pp. 35–36
  107. ^ Joseph Schatzmiller: Jews, medicine, and medieval society. Pp. 40-41. University of California Press. London 1994; Ana Echevarría (2005), pp. 146-147; 150; Robert Luff: Knowledge transfer in the European Middle Ages : «Imago mundi». Works and their prologues. Tübingen 1999. pp. 258-260
  108. ↑ Ana Echevarría (2005), p. 135; Gregor Schoeler: Al-Maʿarrī's Paradise and Hell . Pp. 32-33. CH Beck. Munich 1992; Edeltraud Werner (2007), p. 37
  109. ↑ Edeltraud Werner (2007)
  110. ↑ Reginald Hyatte: The Prophet of Islam in Old French. Brill, Leiden 1997
  111. ↑ Edeltraud Werner (2007), p. 37
  112. ↑ Edeltraud Werner (2007), p. 51: “instead of ar. Jibrāʾīl ”is to be corrected: Ǧibrīl
  113. ↑ Edeltraud Werner (2007), p. 51 with further evidence
  114. ↑ Edeltraud Werner (2007), page 51: "In Islam, Mohammed is always the Messenger of God ( Rasul called), but never as a prophet ( Nabī ), which would be tantamount to seer, that is Muhammad in Islam do not." - With note 64: “I owe this note - among others - to Dr. Sinan Gudževič (Zagreb) ” . This representation is wrong; Mohammed is mentioned both in the Koran (sura 8, verse 64–70: multiple; sura 9, verse 73; 117, etc.) and in the hadith (AJ Wensinck et alii : Concordance et Indices de la Tradition Musulmane Brill. Leiden. Volume 6, P. 332 sn nabīy) as a prophet ( nabī , which by no means means “seer”).
  115. ↑ See: Robert G. Hoyland : The Earliest Christian Writings on Muhammad : An Appraisal. in: Harald Motzki (Ed.): The Biography of Muḥammad. The Issue of the Sources. Brill. Leiden 2000. pp. 276ff
  116. ↑ See note 12
  117. ↑ For a text comparison see Frederick S. Colby (2008), pp. 156–158; especially p. 157
  118. ^ Josef van Ess: Theology and Society in the 2nd and 3rd Century Hijra . A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1992. Volume 4, pp. 391-392.
  119. ↑ Max Scherberger (2003), p. 28.
  120. ^ Gotthard Strohmaier : Avicenna. Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-41946-1 , p. 150.
  121. ↑ Max Scherberger (2003), p. 29; G. Schoeler (2002), pp. 31-34
  122. ↑ Kremers (1990), 212; Max Scherberger (2003), p. 29.