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The conversions of ʿAbdallāh ibn Salām (d. 43/633): A legendary moment in the biography of Muḥammad's Jewish companion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2021

Samuel A. Stafford
Samuel A. Stafford*
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
*
sas6da@virginia.edu
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Abstract

The Jewish scholar ʿAbdallāh b. Salām is a legendary figure from early Islam who is regarded in Islamic tradition as the archetypal Jewish convert to Islam during the Prophet's career, the pre-eminent authority on Jewish scriptures in seventh-century Arabia, and a renowned Companion. This study examines the traditions on Ibn Salām's conversion that were recorded in the biographical literature and Quranic commentaries of classical Islam and identifies the literary tropes from Muḥammad's biography featured in these traditions. Scrutiny of the evidence shows that the reports on the date and circumstances of Ibn Salām's conversion were shaped by a number of factors, including, the biases of his descendants, Quranic exegesis, and anti-Jewish polemics. Ibn Salām's legendary conversion served as a vehicle for diverse groups of Muslims to promote their doctrines and supply the Prophet with Biblical legitimacy.

Keywords

JewsMuḥammadJewish converts to IslamTafsīrCompanionsBible
Type
Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 237 - 261
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

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Footnotes

*

This article is based on my PhD dissertation, “The creation of Arabian Jewish tradition: The myth and image of Muḥammad's Jewish companion ʿAbdallāh ibn Salām in the classical Islamic tradition” (University of Virginia, 2019).

Abbreviations used: GAS = F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, 9 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1967–); EI2 = P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, and W.P. Heinrichs (eds), Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition (Leiden: Brill, 1960–2007); EI3 = K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, and E. Rowson (eds), Encyclopaedia of Islam, Third Edition (Leiden: Brill, 2020–); EJIW = N. Stillman (ed.), Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, 5 vols (Leiden: Brill, 2010).

References

1 On Ibn Salām see Stafford, S., “Constructing Muḥammad's legitimacy: Arabic literary biography and the Jewish pedigree of the Companion ʿAbd Allāh b. Salām (d. 43/633)”, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 47, 2019, 133–86Google Scholar. Biographical notices on Ibn Salām include Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, 4 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1410/1990), II, 158–9; Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā, 9 vols, ed. I. ʿAbbās (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1380/1960), II, 304–5; V, 377–86; Khalīfa ibn Khayyāṭ, Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt, ed. S. Zakkār (Damascus: Maṭābiʿ Wizārat al-Thaqāfa wa-’l-Siyāḥa wa-’l-Irshād al-Qawmī, 1966), 18; Ibn Ḥibbān, Mashāhīr ʿulamāʾ al-amṣār wa-aʿlām fuqahāʾ al-aqṭār, ed. M. Ibrāhīm (al-Manṣūra: Dār al-Wafāʾ, 1411/1991), 36; Ibn Ḥibbān, Taʾrīkh al-ṣaḥāba alladhīna ruwiya ʿanhum al-akhbār, ed. B. al-Ḍannāwī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1408/1988), 156–7; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istīʿāb fī maʿrifat al-aṣḥāb, 4 vols, ed. ʿA. Muʿawwad and ʿĀ. ʿAbd al-Mawjūd (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1422/2002), III, 53–4; Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī, Maʿrifat al-ṣaḥāba, 5 vols, ed. M. Ismāʿīl and M. al-Saʿadanī, (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1422/2002), III, 156–7; al-Baghawī, Muʿjam al-ṣaḥāba, 5 vols, ed. M. al-Jaknī (Kuwait: Dār al-Bayān, 2000), IV, 102–5; Qiwām al-Sunna, Siyar al-salaf al-ṣāliḥīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2004), 244–6; Ibn ʿAsākir, Tahdhīb Taʾrīkh Dimashq al-kabīr, 7 vols (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1407/1987), VII, 446–51; Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, 80 vols, ed. ʿU. al-ʿAmrawī (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1415/1995), XXIX, 97–136; al-Suhaylī, al-Rawḍ al-unuf fī tafsīr al-Sīra al-nabawiyya li-Ibn Hishām, 4 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.) II, 373–5; Ibn al-Jawzī, Ṣifat al-safwa, 2 vols (Cairo: Dār al-Ṣafā, 1411/1991), I, 308–10; Ibn al-Athīr, Usd al-ghāba fī maʿārifa al-ṣaḥāba, 7 vols, ed. ʿA.M. al-Muʿawwad and ʿĀ. ʿAbd al-Mawjūd, (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1415/1994), 265–6; al-Nawawī, Tahdhīb al-asmāʾ wa-’l-lughāt, ed. ʿA.M. Muʿawwad and ʿĀ. ʿAbd al-Mawjūd (Beirut: Dār al-Nafāʾis, 1426/2005), 366; Ibn Manẓūr, Mukhtaṣar Taʾrīkh Dimashq li-Ibn ʿAsākir, 29 vols, ed. R. al-Naḥḥās, R.ʿA-Ḥ. Murād, and M.M. al-Ḥāfiẓ (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1408/1987), XII, 246–53; al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-kamāl fī asmāʾ al-rijāl, 35 vols, ed. B.ʿA. Maʿrūf (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1980–92), XV, 74–5; al-Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, 27 vols, ed. Sh. al-Arnaʾūṭ (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1466/2001), II, 413–26; al-Dhahabī, Kitāb Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ, 4 vols (Haydarābād: Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya, 1377/1958), I, 26–7; al-Dhahabī, Tahdhīb siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, 3 vols, ed. Sh. al-Arnaʾūṭ (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1412/1991), I, 71–2; al-Dhahabī, Taʾrīkh al-Islām wa-wafayāt al-mashāhīr wa-’l-aʿlām, 52 vols, ed. ʿU. Tadmurī (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1410/1990), III, 32–5; al-Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī bi-’l-wafāyāt, ed. D. Krawulsky (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1401/1981), XVII, 198–9; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa-’l-nihāya fī al-taʾrīkh, 15 vols (Beirut: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 1409/1988), III, 210–12; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, al-Iṣāba fī tamyīz al-ṣaḥāba, 14 vols, ed. ʿA.-A. al-Turkī (Cairo: Maktabat al-Kuliyyat al-Azhariyya, 1429/2008), VI, 190–3.

2 Along with Kaʿb al-Aḥbār (d. c. 32/652), Ibn Salām is the most renowned Jewish figure in early Islam. Both converts figure prominently in Islamic intellectual history, Quranic exegesis, Muslim–Jewish polemics, and the reception of Biblical traditions in Islam. On Kaʿb al-Aḥbār see Sh. Lowin, “Kaʿb al-Aḥbār”, EJIW; I. Wolfensohn, Kaʿb al Aḥbār und seine Stellung im Hadīt̲ und in der islamischen Legendenliteratur (Glenhausen: F.W. Kalbfleisch, 1933).

3 See B. Rogemma, The Legend of Sergius Baḥīrā: Eastern Christian Apologetics and Apocalyptic in Response to Islam (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 37–60.

4 See U. Rubin, The Eye of the Beholder: The Life of Muḥammad as Viewed by the Early Muslims. A Textual Analysis (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1995), 103–12.

5 On the “occasions of revelation” see A. Rippin, “Occasions of Revelation”, EQ, III, 569–73; Rippin, , “The function of asbāb al-nuzūl in Qurʾānic exegesis”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 51/1, 1988, 1–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; H.-T. Tillschneider, Typen historisch-exegetischer Überlieferung: Formen, Funktionen und Genese des asbāb an-nuzūl-Materials (Würzburg: Ergon, 2011).

6 From a historical perspective, it is anachronistic to speak of conversion to Islam during the Prophet's career, particularly given the theory advanced by F. Donner that the religious movement initiated by Muḥammad was ecumenical and lacked firm confessional boundaries (see his “From believers to Muslims: confessional self-identity in the early Islamic community”, al-Abhath, 50–51, 2002–03, 9–53). Similarly, it is equally problematic to speak of “Jewish” conversion to Islam at this time as the religious identity, background, and practices of the Jews that Muḥammad reportedly encountered are obscure and virtually unrecoverable from the Arabic sources. The present study, however, is not concerned with distinguishing between “sound” historical information and tendentious elaborations in the accounts of Ibn Salām, but rather, with how his conversion has been portrayed, interpreted, and embellished in Arabic literature.

7 S.J. Wasserstrom, Between Muslim and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), 175.

8 According to Uri Rubin, the Islamic self-image refers to “the manner in which the Muslims defined their own position vis-à-vis their monotheistic predecessors in world history”. Between Bible and Qurʾān: The Children of Israel and the Islamic Self-Image (Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1999), 1.

9 See the traditions of Ibn Salām's conversion in Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, 2 vols, ed. M. Rawwās Qalʿajī and ʿA.-B. ʿAbbās (Beirut: Dār al-Nafāʾis, 1406/1986), II, 331–7; al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, 7 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1408/1988), II, 527–32.

10 See the traditions reported in Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Ḥidāyat al-ḥayāra fī ajwibat al-yahūd wa-’l-naṣārā, ed. ʿU.J. Ḍumayriyya (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid li-l-Nashr wa-’l-Tawzīʿ, 1436/2014), 92–6.

11 P. Crone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), 219.

12 Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, 363; Khalīfa ibn Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, ed. S. Zakkār (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1414/1993), 29; al-Fasawī, Kitāb al-Maʿrifa wa-’l-taʾrīkh, 3 vols, ed. A.Ḍ. al-ʿUmarī (Baghdād: Riʾāsat Diwān al-Awqāf, 1394/1974), I, 264; Ibn Abī Khaythama, al-Taʾrīkh al-kabīr, 4 vols, ed. Ṣ. Halal (Cairo: al-Fārūq al-Ḥadītha li-l-Ṭibāʿ wa-’l-Nushr, 1424/2004), I, 376; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istīʿāb, III, 54; Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, XXIX, 100, Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī, al-Istibṣār fī nasab al-ṣaḥāba min al-anṣār, ed.ʿA. Nuwayhiḍ (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1972), 193; Ibn al-Jawzī, al-Muntaẓam fī taʾrīkh al-mulūk wa-’l-umam, 18 vols in 16, ed. M.ʿA.-Q. ʿAṭāʾ and M.ʿA.-Q. ʿAṭāʾ (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1992), III, 77; al-Nawawī, Tahdhīb al-asmāʾ, 366; al-Dhahabī, Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ, 4 vols (Ḥaydarābād: Maṭbaʿat Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya), 1388/1968 I, 26, al-Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī bi-’l-wafāyāt, XVII, 199; Ibn Kathīr, Shamāʾil al-rasūl wa-dalāʾil nubuwwatihi wa-fadāʾilihi wa-khaṣāʾiṣihi, ed. M. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat ʿĪsā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1386/1967), 329; Ibn Kathīr, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, 4 vols, ed. M. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿārifa, 1396/1976), II, 294–5; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, al-Iṣāba, VI, 108; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Tahdhīb al-tahdhīb, 12 vols (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1968), V, 249; al-Khazrajī, Khulāṣat tadhhīb tahdhīb al-kamāl fī asmāʾ al-rijāl, 3 vols, ed. M.M. al-Shūrā (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1422/2001), II, 77.

13 Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, XXIX, 100; al-Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām, II, 414; al-Dhahabī, Tahdhīb Siyar aʿlām, I, 72.

14 Ibn ʿAsākir, Tahdhīb, VII, 446; Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, XXIX, 99; al-Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām, II, 414; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, al-Iṣāba, VI, 108.

15 The biographies of Ibn Salām also identify him with the Q. 46:10. See Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 382; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istīʿāb, III, 54; Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, XXIX, 130–1; al-Nawawī, Tahdhīb, 366; Ibn Manẓūr, Mukhtaṣar, XII, 247; al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb, XV, 74; al-Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām, II, 417; al-Khazrajī, Khulāṣat tadhhīb, II, 77; al-Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī bi-’l-wafāyāt, XVII, 199.

16 All citations from the Quran follow the translation of A. Jones, The Qurʾān (Exeter: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 2007).

17 Al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī: Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 13 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2009), XI, 281. Likewise, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 609/1209) states that most (al-aktharūn) exegetes held this view. See al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, 11 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 2005), X, 9.

18 Ibn ʿAbbās is revered in Islamic tradition as “the sage of the Muslim community” (ḥibr/ḥabr al-umma) and considered the first to author a work of tafsīr. On his legendary image see Cl. Gilliot, “ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbbās”, EI3.

19 ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī, Tafsīr, 3 vols, ed. M.M. ʿAbdihi (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1419/1999), III, 195; Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt, II, 305; V, 380, 382; al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, XI, 279; al-Samarqandī, Tafsīr al-Samarqandī: Baḥr al-ʿulūm, 3 vols, ed. ʿA.M. Muʿawwaḍ, ʿĀ.A. ʿAbd al-Mawjūd, and Z.ʿA-M. Nawwatī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1413/1993), III, 231; al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-’l-bayān, 10 vols, ed. A.M. Ibn ʿĀshūr (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1422/2002) IX, 9; al-Wāḥidī, Tafsīr al-basīṭ, 25 vols, ed. ʿA. al-Suḥaybānī (al-Riyāḍ: al-ʿUbaykān, 2018), XX, 168; Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-masīr fī ʿilm al-tafsīr, 4 vols, ed. ʿA.-R. al-Mahdī (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1431/2010), IV, 105; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 21 vols in 11, ed. S.M. al-Badrī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2010), XVI, 125; Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī, Tafsīr al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ, 8 vols (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1423/2002), VIII, 81; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm, 4 vols (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1423/2002), IV, 2622; al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr fī tafsīr al-maʾthūr, 8 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1432–33/2011), VII, 438.

20 This ḥadīth is attributed to Saʿd b. Abī Waqqāṣ (d. c. 50/670–671–58/677–678) who is often regarded in Sunnī literature as one of the ten Companions to whom the Prophet promised paradise (al-ʿashara al-mubashshara). Saʿd reports: “I never heard the Prophet say of anyone who walks on the face of the earth, ‘Truly, he is among the inhabitants of paradise (innahu min ahl al-janna)’, except for Ibn Salām. And the verse ‘and a witness from the Children of Israel has testified to its like’ was revealed concerning him.” See al-Samarqandī, Tafsīr, III, 231; al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-’l-bayān, IX, 9–10; al-Baghawī, Tafsīr al-Baghawī: Maʿālim al-tanzīl (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1423/2002), 1185; al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, VII, 379; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, IV, 2622. It is unclear if the identification of Ibn Salām with Q. 46:10 is part of the ḥadīth, and therefore, a quote of a statement made by Muḥammad; or, an embellishment of the ḥadīth that occurred over the course of its transmission history. Several scholars, such as Ibn ʿAsākir (Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, XXIX, 118), noted this ambiguity. In another tradition attributed to Saʿd (Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, XXIX, 100), Muḥammad explicitly states that the verse was revealed regarding Ibn Salām.

21 Al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, XI, 279; Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz fī tafsīr al-kitāb al-ʿazīz, 6 vols, ed. ʿA.-S. Muḥammad (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2011), V, 94; Ibn al-Athīr, Usd al-ghāba, III, 265; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ, XVI, 125; Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī, Tafsīr, VIII, 81–2; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, al-Iṣāba, VI, 110; al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, VII, 438.

22 Lecker has suggested that the family accounts featured in Ibn Salām's biography are particularly vulnerable to bias, arguing that his descendants’ role in circulating traditions “calls for a careful evaluation of the evidence” (“ʿAbdallāh b. Salām”, EI3). The family accounts of the conversion are examined below.

23 Al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, XI, 279; Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz, V, 94; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ, XVI, 125; Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī, Tafsīr, VIII, 81–2; al-Suyūṭī, Asbāb al-nuzūl (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfiyya, 1422/2002), 232. In other family traditions Ibn Salām claims that “those who possess knowledge of the Scripture” (Q. 13:43) also referred to him. See al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, VII, 409; al-Māturīdī, Taʾwīlāt ahl al-sunna, 10 vols, ed. M. Bāsallūm (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2005), VI, 357; Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz, III, 320; al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, IV, 668.

24 A similar debate occurred over whether Ibn Salām is referred to in Q. 13:43. See al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, VII, 411; al-Ṭabarānī, Tafsīr, XIII, 23–4; al-Samarqandī, Tafsīr, II, 198; al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-’l-bayān, V, 302–3; al-Wāḥidī, al-Basīṭ, XII, 389; al-Baghawī, Tafsīr, 680; Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz, III, 320; al-Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān, VI, 41; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ, IX, 220; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, II, 1566.

25 Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ, XVI, 125.

26 Al-Samarqandī, Tafsīr, III, 231; al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-’l-bayān, IX, 10; al-Baghawī, Tafsīr, 1185; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ, XVI, 125; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, IV, 2622; al-Suyūṭī, al-Itqān, 46.

27 Al-Rāzī, Tafsīr, X, 9; al-Wāḥidī, Tafsīr al-basīṭ, XX, 169; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ, XVI, 125; Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī, Tafsīr, VIII, 82.

28 Al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, VII, 439.

29 Al-Rāzī, Tafsīr, X, 10.

30 Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz, V, 94.

31 al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, VII, 439.

32 See Q. 7:157 and 61:6. On medieval Muslim scholars’ efforts to trace Muḥammad in Jewish scriptures see H. Lazarus-Yafeh, Intertwined Worlds: Medieval Islam and Bible Criticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 75–110.

33 Al-Suyūṭī, al-Itqān, 46.

34 See Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt, V, 378–80; al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1423/2002), 818, 967–8, 1097–8; al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-’l-bayān, IX, 9; Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfahānī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, II, 356–7; al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, II, 528–9; VI, 260–1; al-Baghawī, Tafsīr, 1185; Ibn ʿAsākir, Tahdhīb, VII, 447; Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, XXIX, 106–7; al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf ʿan haqāʾiq al-tanzīl wa-ʿuyūn al-aqāwīl fī wujūh al-taʾwīl, 4 vols, ed. ʿA.-R. al-Mahdī (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1429/2008), IV, 302–3; Ibn al-Jawzī, Ṣifat al-ṣafwa, I, 309; Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, ʿUyūn al-athar fī funūn al-maghāzī wa-’l-shamāʾil wa-’l-siyar, 2 vols, ed. M.ʿI. al-Khaṭrāwī and M.-D. Mastū (Beirut: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1992), I, 332; al-Ṣāliḥī, Subul al-hudā, III, 553–4; al-Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām, I, 288, 433–4; al-Dhahabī, Taʾrīkh al-Islām, I, 33–4; II, 367–8; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa-’l-nihāya, III, 211; Ibn Kathīr, Shamāʾil al-rasūl, 329–30; Ibn Kathīr, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, II, 296; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, al-Iṣāba, VI, 109; al-ʿAynī, ʿUmdat al-qārī, XV, 210–11; al-Suyūṭī, Asbāb al-nuzūl, 17; al-Suyūṭī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ al-kubrā, 3 vols, ed. M. Khalīl Harās (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Ḥadītha, 1967), I, 473–4; al-Qasṭallānī, Irshād al-sārī, VII, 237–8; VIII, 411–12.

35 Rubin, Eye of the Beholder, 122.

36 That the pre-Islamic Arabs regarded Jews as authoritative experts on prophecy, Biblical scriptures, and exegesis is reflected in the occasions of revelation for Q. 18 (al-Kahf). According to these traditions, the Quraysh sent a delegation to the Jewish scholars of Medina to question them about the Prophet and learn which questions they should use to test him. See al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, VIII, 174–5; Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz, III, 495; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ, X, 225–6; Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī, Tafsīr, VI, 93; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, III, 1758; al-Suyūṭī, Asbāb al-nuzūl, 168; al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, VI, 357–8.

37 See Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, II, 184–5; Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, II, 357; al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, VI, 263–8; Qiwām al-Sunna, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, 4 vols, ed. M. al-Rashīd al-Ḥamīd (Riyāḍ: Dār al-ʿĀṣima, 1412/1992), II, 721–3; al-Suhaylī, al-Rawḍ al-unuf, II, 401; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa-’l-nihāya, VI, 171–5; al-Ṣāliḥī, Subul al-hudā wa-’l-rishād fī sīra khayr al-ʿibād, 12 vols, ed. ʿA.-ʿA. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Ḥilmī (Cairo: al-Majlis al-Aʿlā li-l-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya, 1418/1997), III, 577, 586–90; al-Suyūṭī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, I, 473–81.

38 Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, II, 158.

39 Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, II, 155.

40 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 379. In variants of the tradition Ibn Salām asks the Prophet about three qualities (thalāth khiṣāl) [of things or affairs] that only a prophet knows. See Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Iḥsān fī taqrīb Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, 16 vols, ed. Sh. al-Arnaʾūṭ (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1412/1991), XVI, 117; Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, XXIX, 106. The Jewish sages are also said to have questioned Muḥammad about three khiṣāl. See Muqātil b. Sulaymān, Tafsīr, II, 574–6.

41 See al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, I, 376–7; al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, VI, 266–7; Qiwām al-Sunna, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, II, 721–3; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, I, 248–9; al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, I, 221–2.

42 The Masāʾil ʿAbdallāh Ibn Salām has complex transmission history and manuscript tradition. Ulisse Cecini's excellent critical edition of the Masāʾil was not published in time for me to consult for this article. See Masāʾil ʿAbdallāh ibn Salām (Doctrina Mahumet): Kritische Edition des arabischen Textes mit Einleitung und Übersetzung (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2021). On the Masāʾil see F. Sezgin, GAS, I, 304; Hirschfeld, H., “Historical and legendary controversies between Mohammed and the Rabbis”, The Jewish Quarterly Review 10/1, 1897, 112–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar; M. Steinschneider, Polemische und apologetische Literatur in arabischer Sprache: zwischen Muslimen, Christen und Juden, nebst Anhängen verwandten Inhalts, Abhandlungen fur die Kunden des Morgenlandes, VI, 3 (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1966), 112–14. Published editions of the Masāʾil works include Kitāb Masāʾil sayyidī ʿAbdallāh ibn Salām li-l-nabī (Cairo: Maṭbaʿa al-Yūsufiyya, n.d.); “Kitāb Masāʾil sayyidī ʿAbdallāh ibn Salām li-l-nabī”, in Majmūʿa mufīd dhū maqāṣid wa-fawāʾid mafhūma jalīla (Tunis: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Tūnisiyya, 1350/1931–1932), I, 7–27; al-Shaykh al-Mufīd (attributed), al-Ikhtiṣāṣ (Qum: Manshūrāt Jamāʿat al-Mudarrisīn fī al-Ḥawzat al-ʿIlmiyya, 1980), 42–51; al-Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, XXIII, 166–79; Ibn al-Wardī, Kharīdat al-ʿajāʾib wa-farīdat al-gharāʾib, ed. A. Zinātī (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqāfa al-Dīniyya, 1428/2008), 392–415. English translations of the Masāʾil include N. Davis, The Errors of Mohammedanism Exposed, or: A Dialogue between the Arabian Prophet and a Jew (Malta: G. Muir, 1847); M. Margoliouth, A Pilgrimage to the Land of my Fathers (London: Richard Bentley, 1850), II, 1–40. The only monographs on the Masāʾil are G.F. Pijper, Het Boek der duizend Vragen (Leiden: Brill, 1924); and R. Ricci, Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).

43 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 379.

44 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 379.

45 “Say, ‘Who is an enemy to Gabriel? It is he who brought it down to your heart with God's permission, confirming what was before it, and a guidance and good news for the believers. Who is an enemy to God and His angels and His messengers Gabriel and Michael? God is an enemy to those who do not believe.’”

46 Al-Suyūṭī, Asbāb al-nuzūl, 17; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, I, 249–50.

47 J. Wansbrough, Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2004), 62.

48 Some of these traditions closely resemble the conversion reported by Anas. See al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, I, 476–7; al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-’l-bayān, I, 238–9; al-Māwardī, Tafsīr, I, 162–3; al-Wāḥidī, Asbāb al-nuzūl, ed. K.B. Zaghlūl (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1411/1991), 32; al-Wāḥidī, al-Wasīṭ, I, 178; al-Baghawī, Tafsīr, 50; Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz, I, 183; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, I, 248–9; al-Suyūṭī, Asbāb al-nuzūl, 18; al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, I, 221–2.

49 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 380.

50 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 380.

51 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 380.

52 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 380.

53 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 380.

54 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 380.

55 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, V, 380.

56 Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, II, 158–9. Ibn Isḥāq's tradition was subsequently transmitted in the later sīra works. See, for example, al-Suhaylī, al-Rawḍ al-unuf, II, 373–5; Ibn Kathīr, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, II, 297–8; al-Ṣāliḥī, Subul al-huda, III, 552–3.

57 See Hirschfeld, H., “Sur l'histoire des Juifs de Médine”, Revue des Études Juives 10, 1885, 12–3Google Scholar n. 2; Hirschfeld, “Historical and legendary controversies”, 110; A. Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1955; repr. Oxford University Press, 2009), 240–41; N. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands, 113–4; R. Firestone, “Jewish culture in the formative period of Islam”, in D. Biale (ed.), Cultures of the Jews: A New History (New York: Schocken, 2002), 267–8; Sh. Shtober, “Present at the dawn of Islam: polemic and reality in the medieval story of Muḥammad's Jewish companions”, in M. Laskier and Y. Lev (eds), The Convergence of Judaism and Islam: Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011), 66–7.

58 Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, II, 158.

59 M. Lecker, “The assassination of the Jewish merchant Ibn Sunayna according to an authentic family account”, in N. Boekhoff-van der Voort et al. (eds), The Transmission and Dynamics of the Textual Sources of Islam: Essays in Honour of Harald Motzki (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 182.

60 The Banū ʿAmr b. ʿAwf were a clan of the powerful Aws tribe that, along with the Khazraj, comprised the most powerful tribes in Medina at the time of the hijra. They reportedly converted to Islam before the hijra. Upon arriving in Medina, Muḥammad stayed in Qubāʾ where they resided and quickly gained a foothold in Medina. See M. Lecker, Muslims, Jews, and Pagans: Studies in Early Islamic Medina (Leiden: Brill, 1995), 50–73.

61 Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, II, 158.

62 See, for example, Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, I, 230–1; Ibn Kathīr, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, I, 286.

63 For traditions of the Jews announcing the coming of a prophet to the Arabs before Islam see Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, II, 189; Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, I, 77, 82; al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, II, 74–7.

64 Rubin, Eye of the Beholder, 39; al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, XI, 280; Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Iḥsān, XVI, 119–20; al-Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-kabīr, 25 vols, ed. H.ʿA.-M. al-Salafī (Cairo: Maktabat Ibn Taymīya, 1980), XVIII, 46–7; al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī, al-Mustadrak, III, 469; Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, XXIX, 112–3; Ibn Manẓūr, Mukhtaṣar, XII, 249; al-Ṣāliḥī, Subul al-hudā, I, 133–4; al-Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām, II, 425–6; al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, VII, 437–8.

65 Bayt midrās can refer in general to a synagogue or, specifically, to the Jewish literacy or Torah school (kuttāb) of the Banū Qaynuqāʿ. It was the only place in pre-Islamic Medina where literacy was taught. M. Lecker, “Buʿāth”, EI3.

66 For traditions of Muḥammad visiting the bayt al-midrās see al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, III, 217–18; al-Wāḥidī, Asbāb al-nuzūl, 102; al-Baghawī, Tafsīr, 196; Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al wajīz, II, 415–16; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ, IV, 33; Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī, Tafsīr, II, 433–4; al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, II, 170.

67 Al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, XI, 280.

68 Traditions in the sīra literature recount how various Companions saw a distinctive physical mark on the Prophet's body that they recognized as the “seal of prophecy”. See Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, I, 366–8; al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, I, 259–67; al-Baghawī, al-Anwār fī shamāʾil al-nabī al-mukhtār, 2 vols, ed. I. al-Yaʿqūbī (Damascus: Dār al-Maktabī, 1416/1995), I, 154–7; al-Qasṭallānī, al-Mawāhib al-laduniyya bi-’l-minaḥ al-Muḥammadiyya, 4 vols, ed. Ṣ. Aḥmad Shāmī (Beirut: Maktabat al-Islāmī, 1425/2004), I, 160–7; al-Dhahabī, Taʾrīkh al-Islām, II, 431–4.

69 Ibn ʿAsākir, Tahdhīb, VII, 447.

70 On Baḥīrā and his legendary encounter with Muḥammad see B. Rogemma, “Baḥīrā”, EI3; Rogemma, Legend of Sergius Baḥīrā, 37–56.

71 Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī, Tafsīr, 7 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2006), VII, 576; Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa, II, 355; al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-manthūr, VIII, 670.

72 Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr, VII, 576.

73 In variants of the tradition Muḥammad refers to Ibn Salām as the “sage of Yathrib” (ʿālim ahl Yathrib). Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq, III, 387; al-Qasṭallanī, al-Mawāhib al-laduniyya, III, 176.

74 See, for example, al-Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 10 vols (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.), IX, 271; al-Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān, IX, 108; al-Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, XXIII, 166–79.

75 Bar-Asher, M.M., “The Qurʾān commentary cscribed to Imam Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī”, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 24, 2000, 364–5Google Scholar. The defining feature of pre-Buwayhid Imāmī exegesis are discussed in Bar-Asher, Scripture and Exegesis in Early Imāmī Shiism (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 71–86.

76 Bar-Asher, “Qurʾān commentary”, 379.

77 Bar-Asher, “Qurʾān commentary”, 366.

78 Bar-Asher, “Qurʾān commentary”, 370.

79 al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī, Tafsīr li-l-imām Abī Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAskarī, ed. S. ʿAlī ʿĀshūr (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1421/2001), 361.

80 The title walī al-ʿahd (lit. “successor [by virtue of] a covenant”) refers to the designated successor to the caliphs or Muslim rulers. Here the phrase refers specifically to Muḥammad's immediate successor. See A. Ayalon, “Walī al-ʿAhd”, EI2.

81 Tūmār (pl. ṭawāmīr) generally refers to a roll or scroll, and specifically, to a scroll of papyrus containing writings. Here the term denotes scrolls of Jewish scriptures that were in Ibn Salām's possession. See E.W. Lane, An Arabic–English Lexicon, V, 1880.

82 Waṣī is a theological term in Shīʿism variously rendered as legatee, executor, successor, or inheritor. It was first used to describe ʿAlī, who was viewed as the legatee of Muḥammad's worldly possessions, and political and spiritual authority. See E. Kohlberg, “Waṣī”, EI2.

83 On the concept of walāya see M.M. Dakake, The Charismatic Community: Shiʿite Identity in Early Islam (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 1–69.

84 In Shīʿī terminology, the qāʾim (lit. “the one who rises”) refers to the Mahdī, a descendant of Muḥammad's family (Āl Muḥammad, Ahl al-Bayt) who is expected to rise against illegitimate regimes and restore justice on earth. See A.A. Sachedina, Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdī in Twelver Shiʿism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981).

85 al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī, Tafsīr, 361–2.

86 M.M. Bar-Asher, “Qurʾān commentary”, 378.

87 See Eliash, J., “On the genesis and development of the Twelver-Shīʿī three-tenet Shahāda”, Der Islam 47, 1971, 265–72Google Scholar.

88 Although it should be noted that the commentary does include a version of the ruse Ibn Salām devises to trick the Jews (al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī, Tafsīr, 362). This further supports the claim that the individuals who circulated the tradition were keenly aware of the conversions reported by Sunnī authors.

89 Brockopp, J.E., “Contradictory evidence and the exemplary scholar: the lives of Sahnun b. Saʿid”, International Journal of Middle East Studies 43/1, 2011, 116CrossRefGoogle Scholar.