Notes 275but another in his semblance, who was crucified echoes similar Monophysite, as well
as Gnostic, beliefs regarding Jesus’ divine nature. Some other tribes known to have
converted to Christianity are the Taghlib, the Bakr ibn Wa’il, and the Banu Hanifa.
It is unclear exactly when Zarathustra preached his faith. Dates of the Prophet
range from the purely mythical (8000 B.C.) to the eve of the Iranian Kingdom (sev-
enth century B.C.). I believe the most logical date for the birth of Zoroastrianism is
c. 1100–1000 B.C. See my article “Thus Sprang Zarathustra: A Brief Historiography
on the Date of the Prophet of Zoroastrianism,” in Jusur (1998–99). The influence of
Zoroastrian eschatology can be seen quite clearly in Jewish apocalyptic movements
such as that of the Essenes (or whoever is responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls), who
developed a complicated eschatology in which the sons of light battle the sons of
darkness (both Zoroastrian terms) at the end times, ultimately ushering in the reign
of the Teacher of Righteousness. For more on Zoroastrianism, I suggest Mary
Boyce’s comprehensive three-volume set History of Zoroastrianism (1996). Those
with less time on their hands can try her abridgment, Zoroastrians, Their Religious
Beliefs and Practices (2001), or alternatively, Farhang Mehr, The Zoroastrian Tradition
(1991). Briefly, Mazdakism was a socio-religious movement founded by a Zoroas-
trian heretic named Mazdak, who emphasized equality and solidarity, primarily
through the communal sharing of all goods and properties (including women).
Manichaeism, the doctrine founded by the Prophet Mani, was a Gnostic religious
movement heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Judaism which
preached a complex, radical dualism between the forces of darkness/evil and the
forces of light /good.
The story of Zayd and the Hanif can be found in Ibn Hisham, pp. 143–49. See
also Jonathan Fueck, “The Originality of the Arabian Prophet,” in Studies on Islam,
ed. Schwartz (1981). The epitaphs of Khalid ibn Sinan and Qass ibn Sa’idah are
quoted in Mohammed Bamyeh’s truly indispensable book, The Social Origins of Islam
(1999). For more on Abu Amir ar-Rahib and Abu Qais ibn al-Aslat, both of whom
vigorously opposed Muhammad’s Muslim community in Medina, see Rubin’s
“Hanafiyya and Ka‘ba.” Once again, Rubin definitively demonstrates that Hanifism
existed before the rise of Islam, though other scholars, including Montgomery
Watt, Patricia Crone, and John Wansbrough, disagree. Although it is obvious that
Zayd’s verses were put into his mouth by later Arab chroniclers, the content of his
poetry nonetheless reveals what these Arabs thought Hanifism represented.
An analysis of the Zayd and Muhammad traditions can be found in M. J. Kister,
“A Bag of Meat: A Study of an Early Hadith,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
African Studies (1968). The story I narrate here is an amalgamation of two of these
traditions: one from folios 37b–38a in the Qarawiyun manuscript 727 and translated
by Alfred Guillaume in “New Light on the Life of Muhammad,” Journal of Semitic
Studies (1960); the other recorded by al-Khargushi and translated by Kister. While
the exact definition of tahannuth is still debated by scholars, Ibn Hisham and al-
Tabari both indicate that this was a pagan religious practice connected in some way
to the cult of the Ka‘ba, which took place in the “edens,” “valleys,” and “mountains”
of Mecca. For more on the subject see M. J. Kister, “al-Tahannuth: An Inquiry into
the Meaning of a Term,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (1968).
F. E. Peters notes in The Hajj (1994) that the Arabic term for “erring” in verse 7
(dalla, meaning “misguided” or “astray”) “leaves little doubt that the ‘error’ was not
simply that Muhammad was confused but that he was immersed in the same repre-
hensible practices in which the Quraysh persisted even after God had sent the ‘guid-
ance’ to them as well.”