Muhammad: Meccan Opposition[21] SEI, p. 490.
[22] See n. 8, above.
[23] Geiger, WMJA, pp. 121 f, gives Midrash Rabbah Genesis, parag. 17
as the source.
[24] See Appendix D, p. 365.
[25] See Appendix D, p. 365, and Tabari, History, vol. 2, pp. 82f. It is
most probable that Isaac was meant in this passage, since Muhammad
obviously did not know that Ishmael was also a son of Abraham until just
prior to the break with the Jews in Medina (cf. Qur'an 19:50; 11:72f; 29:26;
6:84f).
[26] This word predates Muhammad in Arabic; Jeffery, Vocabulary,
p. 276; Horovitz, Untersuchungen, p. 47. See Appendix D, p. 365, for a
brief discussion of the sources for the name "Ishaq."
[27] The name for Aaron appears to have come from the Christian-
Palestinian dialect of Syriac; Jeffery, Vocabulary, pp. 283 f.
[28] See Appendix D, p. 366.
[29] See Appendix D, p. 366.
[30] See Appendix D, p. 366.
[31] Bell and Watt, Introduction, p. 134, also show that Noah's description
of rain as a blessing (71:10f), fits Muhammad's circumstances much better
than Noah's.
[32] Nöldeke and Schwally, GQ, vol. 1, p. 124; Nöldeke, "Qur'an," p. 9.
Muslim exegetes often give interesting explanations for this obvious error;
see Sahih Bukhari, vol. 6, pp. 414 f, where Ibn `Abbas is reported to have