Tuba (tree)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tūbā, tree as a carpet pattern

Tubā ( Arabic طُوبَىٰ, DMG Tuba  , bliss, beatitude '), even Tuba tree or Tubabaum , is a mythical tree, which the Islamic Hadith -literature According to the (heavenly) Paradise grows.

Origin and description

The tree is not mentioned by name in the Koran. However, the term ṭūbā is used in Sura 13:29 in its literal meaning as 'bliss', 'joy' or 'well-being': "Those who believe and do good works are to be extolled" ( ṭūbā lahum ). The word may be borrowed from Ethiopian or originally from India. However, some exegetes understood the verse as an implicit reference to the tree in paradise. In this case it would rather be translated: "... will have the tree Ṭūbā."

According to tradition, it has branches of emerald and pearls, and its crown is said to be so large that a rider could travel a hundred years without crossing its shadow, which is why it is said to be visible from the edges of paradise. His trunk is therefore in the palace of the prophet, the branches reach into the houses of the believers, who can feast on its delicious fruits.

symbolism

Since the life force manifests itself in the growth of a sprouting tree or as the tree of life often depicted in art , the tree is the symbol for all that is good and useful, in contrast to the cursed tree Zaqqūm , the tree of hell and an alternative to salvation, which u . a. is actually mentioned by name in the Koran as the sinner's food. The Islamic scholar Schimmel writes: "That means, the tuba tree is the materialized promise of that eternal bliss that one hopes for in paradise." It symbolizes paradise or the paradise tree, just like the cider tree the boundaries of the universe or the lotus tree the limits of everything imaginable and other trees that are used by Islamic thinkers for comparative exegesis.

In Sufism , the tree symbolizes closeness to God and appears significantly, for example, in the work of the Iranian philosopher and mystic Suhrawardi , who equates it with the Simurgh tree , which comes from Iranian mythology . In popular Islam there are numerous other myths about the tree; as a world tree it often becomes a symbol of cosmic order. The Turkish writer Elif Shafak used the image of the tubā tree, the roots of which, according to one of these legends, are not buried in the ground but rather rise up into the sky, to counter the criticism from some nationalists that it was uprooted from their culture; for, like the tree, it too has "heavenly roots".

reception

Tuba is also a Persian female given name , also common in Turkey in the form Tuğba , see Tuba (first name) . Poems and a. by the Anatolian poet Yunus Emre or outside of Islamic culture by the Irishman Thomas Moore may have contributed to the spread of the name or to the reception of the tree of paradise . The pilgrimage site of Touba in Senegal derives its name from the Koranic term and the tree of paradise.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hartmut Bobzin : The Koran. Beck, Munich 2010, p. 216.
  2. ^ Adel Theodor Khoury : The Koran. Arabic - German. Translation and scientific commentary. Volume 8.Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 1997, p. 317.
  3. ^ Karl Schlamminger, Peter Lamborn Wilson : Weaver of Tales. Persian Picture Rugs / Persian tapestries. Linked myths. Callwey, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7667-0532-6 , p. 148 f. and 154-157.
  4. ↑ Annemarie Schimmel: The signs of God: The religious world of Islam. CH Beck, 1995. ISBN 3406397549 , ISBN 9783406397547 . (P. 43, Chapter 2 Plants and Animals online at Google Books )
  5. ↑ not to be confused with the lotus tree ( Greek  λωτός ) of ancient Greece
  6. ↑ Michael MJ Fischer: Mute Dreams, Blind Owls, and Dispersed Knowledges. Persian Poesis in the Transnational Circuitry . Duke University Press, Durham 2004, p. 136.
  7. ^ Elif Shafak: The roots of the tuba tree , Berliner Zeitung, May 28, 2005.
  8. ↑ Scharnusch Parsipur: Tuba. ( Tubâ va ma´nâ-ye shab. Tehran 1989) From the Persian of Nima Mina. Unionsverlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-293-00217-X .
  9. ↑ Examples are In Paradise. In Klaus Kreiser: Istanbul: a historical city guide. (at Google Books Online p. 232, German translation by Annemarie Schimmel) or Sol cennetin ırmakları (In paradise the rivers all, at wshoffmann.de)
  10. ↑ z. B. in: Christoph Friedrich von Ammon, Leonhard Bertholdt: Critical Journal of the Latest Theological Literature, Volume 13. JE Seidel, 1822, p. 279 ( online at Google Books )
  11. ↑ Eric S. Ross: Sufi City. Urban Design and Archetypes in Touba . University of Rochester Press, Rochester 2006.