Muhammad: His Call[49] Ibn Sa`d, Classes, vol. 1, 1, p. 230; Tabari, History, vol. 6, p. 89. For
more information on Abu Lahab, see SEI, p. 11; EI², s.v. "Abu Lahab."
[50] See Appendix B. Bell did not try to date Qur'an 111; see EI², p. 418.
[51] Ibn Hisham in Guillaume, Muhammad, pp. 159 f.
[52] Watt, Muhammad, p. 80; Watt and Bell, Introduction, p. 11, maintain
that Qur'an 111 was revealed after Abu Lahab refused to offer Muhammad
protection; cf. Ibn Sa`d, Classes, vol. 1, 1, p. 244. Barth, in SEI, p. 11,
holds that the use of the perfect tense in Qur'an 111:2 presupposes Abu
Lahab's death, and thus that this sura must have been revealed after the
battle of Badr.
[53] Some Sira traditions date Qur'an 108 much later; cf. Guillaume,
Muhammad, p. 180.
[54] At least some Arab Christians contemporary with Muhammad also
regarded the Ka`ba as holy; see p. 8, n. 24.
[55] The Qur'an indicates that the belief in the Judgment and Resurrection
were alien to Arab paganism; cf. 82:9; 75:3; etc. The works of the pre--
Islamic poets also reveal practically no acquaintance with the doctrines of
Judgment and Resurrection; cf. Andrae, Ursprung, pp. 43 f.
[56] Cf. Qur'an 102:1f and Carmina Nisibena 74:97-98 (Ephraem the
Syrian) - "The foolish worldly man divides and covets to receive more, and
death extinguishes him and gives him three cubits (of) room in the grave.'"
Trans. from Andrae, Ursprung, p. 130.
[57] Cf. Andrae, Mohammed, p. 54; Ahrens, "Christliches," ZDMG, 84
(1930), p. 58.