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"MUSA":
7th Zuj, Original Book page : 638, 639, 640, pdf page : 692
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MUSA, the name in Arabic for the Biblical prophet
Moses.
1. In the Kurgan. Here, Musa is considered as the
precursor of, the model for, and the annunciator of
Muhammad (VII, 156). The two prophets share the
same belief (XLIII, 11). Musa is also conceived in
Muhammad's image. Charges are brought against
him similar to those made against Muhammad and he
is said to want to pervert people from the faith of their
fathers (X, 79); he practises magic (XXVIII, 18).
Musa and Harun seem rather to be sent to the stubborn
Pharaoh [see FIRCAWN] than to the believing
Israelites. Revelation is granted him: tawrdt, kitdb,
furkdn, suhuf(ll, 50; XXI, 49; LIII, 37; LXXXVII,
19), illumination, instruction and guidance. The picture
of him is made up of Biblical, Haggadic and new
elements. Musa is exposed, watched by his sister,
refuses the milk of other nurses and is suckled by his
own mother. Coming to the assistance of a hardpressed
Israelite, he kills an Egyptian but repents of
his crime to which Satan had tempted him. He is pursued
and escapes to Madyan [see MADYAN SHUCAYB] .
At a well there he waters the flocks of the two
daughters of a shaykh. One of them invites him home
modestly. He receives her as his wife at the price of 8-
10 years service. This preliminary history is told in
sura XXIII, 1 - 2 8 ; the mission itself is often mentioned.
Musa receives from the burning bush in the holy
valley of Tuwan (XX, 12; LXXIX, 16) a message, a
voice which orders him to take off his shoes, the
message to Pharaoh, the signs of his mission, the rod,
the snake and the hand that becomes white. His
speech is difficult to understand (XLIII, 52); Harun
accompanies him as wazir (XX, 30; XXV, 37).
Pharaoh reproaches Musa with ingratitude, saying he
had been brought up by them (XXVI, 17). Pharaoh
assembles his magicians but their rods are devoured
by Musa's. The magicians profess their belief in God
and are mutiliated in punishment (VII, 106-123; XX,
59-78; XXVI, 36-51). Pharaoh wishes prayers to be
offered to him as God and orders Haman [q.v.] to
build him a tower so that he can reach the God of
Musa (XXVIII, 38; XL, 38). Musa performs nine
miracles (XVII, 103; XX, 59-78; XXVII, 12). These
are: 1. the rod and snake; 2. white hand; 3. deluge;
4. locusts; 5. lice; 6. frogs; 7. blood; 8. darkness; 9.
separation of the waters of the sea (cf. e.g. al-TabarT,
i, 485).
Musa spends 30 and 10 nights with God (VII, 138).
He brings instruction and admonition on the tablets.
In his absence, al-Samirl makes the lowing golden calf
(VII, 146; XX, 79-98). Musa breaks the tablets. He
desires to see God. God crumbles the hill to dust (VII,
139). Israel fears war and has to wander 40 years in
the wilderness (V, 24-9). Musa's enemies, Karun
[q. v. ] (Korah), Pharaoh and Haman, perish (XXIX,
38).
Some details differ from the Biblical story. Instead
of Pharaoh's daughter, it is his wife who rescues the
infant; instead of seven shepherdesses Musa assists
two. Instead often plagues, the Kur'an speaks of nine
miracles. Musa strikes twelve springs out of the rock,
one for each tribe (II, 57, a memory of the twelve
springs of Elim, Exodus xv. 27). The divergence is
greater when Haman is made minister to Pharaoh.
Then there are new features: Musa repents of having
slain the Egyptians. Musa sees the burning bush at
night and desires to take a brand from its fire for his
house (XX, 10; XXVIII, 29). Pharaoh's magicians
die for their belief in God.
The following seems to originate in Haggada: God
forbids the infant to be suckled by an Egyptian mother
(XXVIII, 11). In the Haggada Moses is offered to all
Egyptian suckling mothers; but the mouth that is to
speak with God cannot imbibe anything impure (Sota,
12b). That God tilts the mountain over Israel (II, 60,
87; VII, 170) is explained from the Haggada: Israel
hesitated to accept the Pentateuch and God tilted
Sinai over them: Torah or death (Sabbath, 80a; ^Aboda
Zara, 2b). The turning of the sabbath breakers into
apes (II, 61; IV, 50; V, 65; VII, 166) recalls the Haggada
in which the builders of the tower of Babel
become apes (Sanhedrin, 109a). Karun is represented
as an exceedingly rich man, the keys of whose treasure
can hardly be carried by many strong men (XVIII,
76, 79); the Haggada says that Korah found a hidden
Egyptian treasure; 300 mules carried the keys of his
treasury (Pessachim, 119a; Sanhedrin, llOa; Pal. Sanh.,
x, 27d; Ginzberg, Legends, vi, 99, 560). The Kur'anic
story of a believer at the court of Pharaoh who wants
to save Musa is not quite clear (XL, 29). Ought we
to compare Jethro in the Haggada who advises
clemency at Pharaoh's court (Sota, 11 a; Sanhedrin,
106a; Ginzberg, v, 392, 21, v, 412, 101)?
The story of Musa accompanying a wise man
onajourney seems without parallel (XVIII, 59-81).
The attempt is often made to distinguish this Musa of
al-Khadir [q.v.] as Musa b. Manasse from Musa b.
clmran.
2. Musa in post-Kur^anic legend. The
histories of the prophet (especially al-Thaclabi's) supplement
the Kur-'anic story with much from the Bible,
Haggada and folklore.
Much is added from the Haggada. Pharaoh's sick
daughters are cured as soon as they touch Moses's
cradle. Exodus Rabba, i, 23, makes Pharaoh's daughter
be cured of leprosy. The infant Musa scratches
Pharaoh's chin._Pharaoh wants to slay him. On the
intercession of Asiya [q. v. ] he tests him by putting
gold and jewels on one side and burning coals on the
other. Musa reaches for the gold but Gabriel directs
his hand to the burning coal. Musa puts his burned
hand on his tongue and therefore becomes a stammerer
(Ginzberg, v, 402, 65; Hamilton, in Zeitschr. f.
romanische Philologie, xxxvi, 125-59).
Elements of other legends are woven into the
legends of Musa. The Abraham-Nimrod legend supplies
the following features: Pharaoh frightened by
dreams persecutes the infants; Musa is hidden from
the assassins in the burning oven but the fire becomes
cool and does him no harm. Pharaoh orders prayers
to be offered for himself as to a god, has a tower built
and shoots an arrow against heaven; the arrow comes
back blood-stained and Pharaoh boasts he has slain
God (al-Taban, i, 469). From the story of Jacob and
Laban come the following: Musa serves 8-10 years for
his wife (XXVIII, 27). His father-in-law offers him
the spotted lambs born in his flock and the ewes for
the watering troughs bear spotted lambs (al-Thaclabi,
112). There are frequent references to a pious Egyptian
woman who is martyred by Pharaoh with her
seven children, the youngest of whom is still at its
mother's breast (in al-ThaclabI, 118, 139); this is of
course modelled on the martyr mother of the Maccabees.
There are many fanciful embellishments, e.g. the
miracle of the snakes, the plagues and the scenes on
the Red Sea; Moses's rod in pajticular plays a great
part. It came from Paradise; Adam, Habil, Shim.
Idris, Nuh, Hud, Salih, Ibrahim, IsmacTl, Ishak and
Yackub had previously used it (al-Kisa°I, 208). In al-
Taban (i, 460-1), an angel brought the rod. Musa
obtained it from his wife; his father-in-law quarrels
with him about its ownership and an angel decides in
favour of Musa. It is a miraculous rod and Thaclabi
(111-16) in particular relates the wonders it performs.
It shines in the darkness; it gives water in a drought,
and placed in the ground it becomes a tree bearing
fruit; it produces milk and honey and fragrant scent;
against an enemy it becomes a double dragon. It
pierces mountains and rocks; it leads over rivers and
sea; it is also a shepherd's staff and keeps beasts of
prey from the herds of Moses. When Musa was asleep
on one occasion the rod slew a dragon, on another
occasion seven of Pharaoh's assassins.
The varied Biblical, Haggadic, legendary and fairy
tale features in the Islamic legend of Musa are thus
blended into a very full picture and in al-Thaclabf
form a regular romance.
Bibliography: Sura II, 48-130; VII, 101-60;X,
76-88; XX, 8-93; XXVI, 9-65; XXVIII, 2-76; XL,
24-56 and the commentaries thereon; TabarT, i,
414-49; ThaclabT, Kisas al-anbiyd\ Cairo 1325, 105-
56; Kisa0!, Kisas al-anbiyd\ ed. Eisenberg, 194-240;
Ibn al-Athfr, al-Kamil, Bulak, i, 61-78; A. Geiger,
Was hat Mohammed..., 19022, 149-77; M. Griinbaum,
Neue Beitrdge, 153-85; J. Horovitz, Koranische
Untersuchungen, 141-3; R. Basset, 1001 Contes, Recits
et legendes arabes, iii, 67, 85; D. Sidersky, Les origines
des legendes musulmanes dans le Goran et dans la vie des
prophetes, Paris 1933, 73-103; J. Walker, Bible characters
in the Koran, 84-111. (B. HELLER)
3. In Islamic tradition, Moses bears a special
honorific title, that of Kalim Allah, whose exact meaning
merits discussion. In effect, kalim can be interpreted
as meaning "a person who speaks to someone"
or "a person whom one addresses". The first meaning
is given by al-BaydawT (ed. Fleischer, i, 445, 583,
595), who makes the equation kalim = mukdlim, and
adopted by Ibn Manzur (LA, xv, 428), who nevertheless
adds that al-Azharl in his Tahdhib opts for the
second meaning. Several Kurgan passages speak of a
direct conversation between Allah and Moses, notably
IV, 162: wa-kallama lldhu Musa takliman, where the use
of the cognate infinite, li 'l-ta^kid, shows that this
"conversation" should be taken literally and not as a
metaphor (LA, xv, 429; al-Ashcari, Ibdna,
Haydarabad 1321, 27). These passages always
emphasise God's speech to Moses, and that may be
the reason for al-Azhari's interpretation. The Form
III kdlama is not found in the official text of the
KurDan, but sura II, 254, contains a variant, kdlama
Alldha, which could be, according to al-Baydawi, i,
130, the origin of the official title; but, in this passage,
there is no question of Moses. See also the epithet
nadji applied to Moses (KurDan, XIX, 53) and
assimilated by al-Baydawi, i, 583, to mundaji.
Bibliography: See Goldziher, Die Richtungen der
islamischen Koranauslesung, 174; Dozy, Supplement, ii,
486. _ (D.B. MACDONALD*)
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