Fallen Angels: Soldiers of Satan's Realm

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Interlude: The Legend in Islam

The Legend in Islam • • • 111 Israel, God will say to them: Your heavenly chief could not prevail against Israel, still less can you! 91 Resh Lakish declared that in the future the guardian angel of Rome will seek sanctuary from the punishment he deserves by fleeing to Bozrah. But he will make a threefold error. The city of refuge is not Bozrah, but Bezer; one cannot obtain asylum from the consequences of a deliberate crime, but only of unintentional homicide; and the cities of refuge are a protection only to men, but not to angels. And so the angel of Rome will suffer his just doom.92 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Interlude: The Legend in Islam compilation of the Talmud did not close an . epoch in the development of Jewish thought. A vast body of material which had circulated orally or in private notebooks was now safely preserved in writing; but the content of the living tradition was not exhausted even by these voluminous works. The scholars continued to study the same subjects in much the same spirit as previously. The great Midrashim, collections of sermonic material, were edited in Palestine in the centuries following the completion of the Talmuds. These works contain the teachings and reflect the conditions of the talmudic period, not of the age in which they were compiled. Some Midrashim are quite late: Exodus Rabba, for example, is dated by Zunz in the eleventh or twelfth century. Yet in substance and tone it does not differ much from earlier collections: it can be used as a source for "talmudic" Judaism. But in the post-talmudic centuries other Jewish writings appeared (some in midrashic form) which reveal new trends of thought and reflect the influences of their own time. Among these influences, the rise of Islam was certainly one of the most important . The decisive events of Mohammed's career occurred between 622 and 632 C.E. At his death (in 632) he was master of Arabia; 112 • • • Fallen Angels less than twenty years later, his successors had conquered Syria, Palestine and Persia. Thus the chief centers of Jewish life passed under Moslem rule. The new prophet derived his doctrine largely from Judaism, with some additions from Christianity. The Koran, which he promulgated as the ultimate revelation of God, is full of bits of biblical-aggadic lore, which Mohammed had picked up from Jewish and Christian acquaintances. Sometimes he gave the old stories a new twist, either because he had not understood, or because his own taste prompted him to change, what he had heard. Many of his followers likewise borrowed Jewish aggadic traditions , which they handled with much originality. In late Hebrew writings, old Jewish legends sometimes crop up in their Islamic form; and our literature even contains some stories of purely Mohammedan origin. The Arab writings not infrequently mention fallen angels; and the legends appear with certain novel features. Some of these appear also in die later Jewish books. Did the Jewish writers depart from their own traditions to copy the Islamic sources? There is some reason, we shall see, to doubt this. But we are handicapped in drawing definite conclusions because few of the Jewish documents can be accurately dated. We cannot even divide them with certainty into pre-Mohammedan and post-Mohammedan works. Besides, we may find in a single writing some elements that certainly and others that possibly reflect Islamic influence, while other new trends almost surely are the product of internal development. The only practical procedure therefore is to present in this interlude some salient items from Moslem literature, and then to treat the "new" aggada in a separate chapter. IBLIS. The angels—so the rabbis declared—opposed the creation of man and resented the favor God showed him. Adam, however, displayed his superior qualities by naming the animals, a feat the angels could not equal.1 Mohammed borrowed this legend and combined it with the apocryphal story that Satan fell because in his pride he refused to worship Adam. This combination occurs repeatedly in the Koran; in the fullest version, Iblis explains why he will not worship the man: "I am better than he; Thou hast created me of fire, while him Thou hast created of dust." Thereupon God banishes Iblis for his arrogance; but the Devil is The Legend in Islam • • • 113 reprieved long enough to lead Adam and Eve astray, and he still tempts mankind to sin.2...