Muhammad, the Qur\'an & Islam

Appendix D

21:80 21:80 21:80 21:80 David was taught to make coats of mail. David was taught to make coats of mail. David was taught to make coats of mail. David was taught to make coats of mail.

Speyer, Erzählungen, thinks this may have come from Sanhedrin 93b, from I
Sam. 25:13 through Sanhedrin 36a, or that even an unknown Jewish
armorer may have been meant. Moed Katan, 16b, states that "David made
himself hard as steel" (Ency. Jud., vol. 5, p. 1327) and this might also have
been a possible source. Muhammad probably received his information for
this from the pre-Islamic Arab poets; Horovitz, Untersuchungen, pp. 109,

118. Cf. Tabari, History, vol 3, p. 143, n. 746.

21:96 21:96 21:96 21:96 Gog and Magog are mentioned. Gog and Magog are mentioned. Gog and Magog are mentioned. Gog and Magog are mentioned.

Horovitz, in Untersuchungen, pp. 150 f, believes that although the Arabic
for Magog could also be from the Hebrew, the name must have come from
the Syriac. The reasons for this are that in the Qur'an Gog and Magog are
associated with the end times (cf. also Rev. 20:8) and they moreover appear
in the adapted Alexander the Great legend, which is known to have come
from Syrian sources. As in many other cases, it appears that Muhammad
then invented the Arabic word for Gog to make it rhyme with the word for
Magog. Cf. Jeffery, Vocabulary, pp. 288f.

17:103 17:103 17:103 17:103 Moses given nine signs. Moses given nine signs. Moses given nine signs. Moses given nine signs.

Horovitz, in Untersuchungen, p. 20, n.1, maintains that the number "nine"
was used instead of the Biblical "ten," because Muhammad often preferred
to use numbers which are one short of a round number. However, Speyer,
Erzählungen, pp. 278 f., thinks that Muhammad was only speaking
inexactly; cf. Midrash Rabbah Numbers (12,5), where the plagues are
divided into nine and one.

27:16 27:16 27:16 27:16 David and Solomon were taught the David and Solomon were taught the David and Solomon were taught the David and Solomon were taught the

speech of birds. speech of birds. speech of birds. speech of birds.

Speyer, Erzählungen, p. 384, gives (Jerusalem) Sotah 9, 24b, the second
Targum to Esther and the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch as references. Cf.
I Kings 4:33; Ginzberg, Legends, vol. 4, p. 142; SEI, p. 55.