Quran and Muslim Exegesis as a Source for the Bible and Ancient History r 29The use of msgd to refer to cult objects is consistent with the accounts
of the sanctuaries and shrines established by Abraham in the Bible and
Muslim exegesis. Genesis 21:22–34 narrates Abraham’s claim over a well
he dug at Beersheba in association with the Philistine Abimelech, who
is told (in Genesis 20:7) that Abraham is a prophet. Jewish exegesis ex-
plains that the “eshel” planted by Abraham in Genesis 21:33 is a sanctu-
ary or shrine that Abraham establishes at Beersheba, to be understood
in comparison with the other shrines established by Abraham where he
built altars and invoked Yahweh at the oak of Moreh in Shechem (Genesis
12:6–7), the oak of Mamre in Hebron (Genesis 13:18), and between Bethel
and Ai (Genesis 12:8). In his history, al-Tabarī preserves an account of the
episode of Abraham at the well of Beersheba in which it is stated that the
sanctuary established by Abraham was a masjid, thus linking the cultic
sites associated with Abraham’s prophetic activity with the masjid of the
Quran.^28
Muslim exegetes link Abraham also with the establishment of the sanc-
tuary at Mecca in the exegesis of Q 2:125 and 3:97, both of which refer to
the “place of Abraham” [maqām Ibrāhīm] as a place of safety. According
to reports given on the authority of Ibn ̔Abbās, the maqām Ibrāhīm en-
compasses all the locations where the rituals of the pilgrimage are per-
formed, or to the entirety of the area enclosed in the sanctuary [haram].^29
Thus the location of the sanctuary defined by Abraham corresponds to
the area required for the performance of the rites. Abraham’s establish-
ment of sanctuaries and the building of altars in Genesis is consistent with
activities described in other inscriptions, such as the inscription found in
the vicinity of a shrine at Hatra that mentions the building of an altar and
a “place” [mqm]. A Minaean inscription uses the term mqm as a reference
to the “places” of the gods Wadd and Athtar of Qabad, and a Thamudic
inscription refers to the “service of the “places” [mqmt].^30
By using these terms to describe Abraham’s cultic activities from the
Quran and Bible, Muslim exegetes also relate Abraham’s sanctuaries to
the Israelites. Q 26:57–59 and 44:25–26 refer to the “maqām karīm” of the
Israelites, which exegetes connect to the “maqām amīn” of Q 44:51–53
and the “maqām rabbi-hi” of Q 55:46 and 79:40–41. Ibn Kathīr and others
understand these passages to refer to the eschatological position of the
Israelites, but some exegetes link these locations with Eden and with the
sanctuary at Mecca.^31 Ibn al-Jawzī associates the context of Q 44:17–29