The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions

80 r Shimon Shtober

al-Nabī ilā al-bayt; Barūch also named al-Maqtūl fī sabīl al-Nabī;

̔Asa’el also named Khatan al-Nabī; Hafs abū Safiyya mar’at al-Nabī.

These are the sages who came to him and were converted to Islam

by him, in order to prevent him from harming Israel even in the

slightest. They produced for him a Quran and interpolated the writ-

ing of their names, each of them within a sūra, without ground for

suspicion. And they wrote in the sūra: “Thus did the sages of Israel

counsel the wicked ALLaM in the name of Allāh.”

3. Ms. Cambridge University Library T-S 8K 20.2, fol. 2a-b (written in
   Hebrew):^64

And if they had done to us as our enemies^65 who were brought by

Essar Hadon [an Assyrian emperor] from Kutha had wrought us

and like those who came after them with the shepherd [Muham-

mad] had done, the one who sojourned in the place known as the

New Mountain. He had dealings with the monk [Bahīrā] who dwelt

in the place named Balqīn, perched on a post known by the name

of the Sign of the Sun. He had likewise dealings with the ten el-

ders: Abraham also named Ka ̔b al-Ahbār; Absalom also named

̔Abd Allāh b. al-Salām; Ya ̔akov also named ̔Umar al-Shahīd and

Yōhanan also named al-Munhazam ilā al-Janna and their friends,

each by his name and his titles. They came to him and composed

that shameful sign [the Quran], and so they wrote and interpolated

their names, each and everyone. And so it is written in the sūra of

the Cow:^66 “Thus did the sages of Israel advise the wicked ALLaM

[Muhammad].” All this was done in order to save the people of the

Lord so that he does not harm them with his plottings.

4. The Commentary of Abū al-Faraj Furqān b. Asad^67 on Deuteronomy
   32:28; manuscript of the Russian National Library, Firkovitch Collection
   II, no. 2086, fol. 87 (written in Judeo-Arabic):

And he said that the meaning of the phrase “void of counsel” (Deu-

teronomy 32:28) refers to the counsels of the ten [sages] who say that

they have composed this one, single book [the Quran]. And here

was [the threat of] annihilation of Israel.