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The ''Masāʾil ʿAbdallāh ibn Salām'' ('Questions of ʿAbdallāh ibn Salām'), also known as the ''Book of One Thousand Questions'' among other titles, is an
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
treatise on Islam in the form of
Muḥammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monot ...
's answers to questions posed by the
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish inquirer ʿAbdallāh ibn Salām. The work is considered
apocrypha Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
l, with neither the questions nor the answers attributable to the named protagonists. Originally composed in the tenth century and widely translated, the ''Masāʾil'' is today regarded as a piece of
world literature World literature is used to refer to the total of the world's national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European lit ...
. A
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
version appeared in the twelfth century and a
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
one by the sixteenth. From Latin it was translated into
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
,
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
,
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
and
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Port ...
; from Persian into
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
and
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...
. From the Arabic, translations were also made into Buginese,
Javanese Javanese may refer to: Of Java *Javanese people, and their culture * Javanese language ** Javanese script, traditional letters used to write Javanese language **Javanese (Unicode block), **Old Javanese, the oldest phase of the Javanese language ...
,
Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...
, Sundanese and
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...
.


Synopsis

The ''Masāʾil'' consists of a series of questions and answers within a fictional
frame story A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction * Framing ( ...
. Muḥammad has sent a letter to the Jews of the oasis of
Khaybar KhaybarOther standardized Arabic transliterations: / . Anglicized pronunciation: , . ( ar, خَيْبَر, ) is an oasis situated some north of the city of Medina in the Medina Province of Saudi Arabia. Prior to the rise of Islam in the 7th ...
requesting their conversion to Islam. The Jews therefore send ʿAbdallāh ibn Salām to ascertain if Muḥammad is indeed a prophet. In
Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the second-holiest city in Islam, and the capital of the ...
, Muḥammad receives advanced warning of the approach of ʿAbdallāh and his three companions from the angel
Gabriel In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ� ...
. He therefore sends
ʿAlī ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
to meet them and greet them by name. His foreknowledge impresses them. ʿAbdallāh announces his purpose to Muḥammad, "to enquire of you the explanation of matters which are not clear to us from our own law." Convinced of their sincerity, Muḥammad permits the Jews to ask as many questions as they like, whereupon ʿAbdallāh produces "one hundred principal questions which had been carefully chosen." The exact number of questions asked is unclear, since some are clearly intended only as followups. The ''Masāʾil'' is a rambling work. The questions posed by ʿAbdallāh range across various fields well beyond theology. The first question is, "Are you a prophet 'nabiyy''or a messenger 'rasūl''">rasūl.html" ;"title="'rasūl">'rasūl''" Muḥammad answers that he is both. Asked about prior prophets, Muḥammad claims that they all proclaimed the same "law and faith". True faith is required for admission into Jannah">Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the bel ...
. He refers to the written revelation he received from God, the Qurʾān, as ''al-Furqān'' ('separation') because it came to him in parts, unlike the Torah in Islam, Torah, the Zabur, Psalms and the Injil, Gospels, which were revealed, respectively, to Moses in Islam, Moses, David in Islam, David and
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
all at once. Subsequent theological questions concern the Torah, the creation of Adam and Eve, the nature of Heaven and Hell (including their respective levels),
angels In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
and
Judgement Day The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...
. There is an exchange on the significance of the numbers 1–100. Other topics include
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
,
medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, and Health promotion ...
and
geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, a ...
. Muḥammad quotes the Qurʾān seventeen times in support of his answers. ʿAbdallāh tests him with
riddles A riddle is a statement, question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that requir ...
. These are often scriptural, e.g., "What land did the sun see once, but will never again see to the end of time?" The answer is "the bottom of the Red Sea". The ''Masāʾil'' has Muḥammad claim that
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
is the centre of the world. In Heaven, the blessed will not consume pork, but will have
wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are ...
and engage in sexual intercourse, since "if any kind of pleasure were missing, beatitude would not be complete.". The final question posed by ʿAbdallāh is, "What will become of death?" Muḥammad answers that "death will be changed into a ram", that "the people of heaven, for fear of death, will plot its destruction; the people of hell, in the hope of dying, will desire it to survive" and that in the ensuing battle the ram (death) will be killed between heaven and hell. After this, ʿAbdallāh announces his conversion and recites the ''
shahāda The ''Shahada'' (Arabic: ٱلشَّهَادَةُ , "the testimony"), also transliterated as ''Shahadah'', is an Islamic oath and creed, and one of the Five Pillars of Islam and part of the Adhan. It reads: "I bear witness that there is n ...
''.


Textual history


Arabic text

The ''Masāʾil'' was probably written in the tenth century. Although ʿAbdallāh was a historical Jewish convert to Islam from the time of Muḥammad, the ''Masāʾil'' is an apocryphal work, a late development of the ʿAbdallāh legend, "amplified dramatically" and not an authentic record of actual discussions. It ultimately derives from Jewish sources and was probably composed by a "Jewish renegade". The earliest reference to the ''Masāʾil'' dates to 963 and is found in al-Balʿamī's Persian translation of
al-Ṭabarī ( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari i ...
's Arabic ''Annals of Apostles and Kings''. The Arabic ''Masāʾil'' circulated as a standalone work, but was also incorporated into the ''Pearl of Wonders'' of Ibn al-Wardī. The earliest manuscript of the former type dates to the fifteenth century, while the earliest copy of the ''Pearl'' is from the sixteenth. The first printed edition of the ''Masāʾil'' appeared in
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...
in 1867. An English translation from the Arabic by Nathan Davis was printed in 1847 under the title ''The Errors of Mohammedanism Exposed: or, A Dialogue Between the Arabian Prophet and a Jew''.


Western tradition

Earlier than the surviving Arabic texts is a Latin translation by
Hermann of Carinthia Herman of Carinthia (1105/1110 – after 1154), also called Hermanus Dalmata or Sclavus Dalmata, Secundus, by his own words born in the "heart of Istria", was a philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and translator of Arabic works in ...
from 1143. This survives in one manuscript of the twelfth century and in many of the thirteen and fourteenth. It provides indirect testimony of an early Arabic version. The Latin translation, entitled ''Liber de doctrina Mahumet'', was commissioned by Abbot
Peter the Venerable Peter the Venerable ( – 25 December 1156), also known as Peter of Montboissier, was the abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Cluny. He has been honored as a saint, though he was never canonized in the Middle Ages. Since in 1862 Pope Pius IX ...
as part of a body of Islamic translations for Christian scholars, the
Corpus Cluniacense The ''Corpus Cluniacense'' or ''Corpus Islamolatinum'', sometimes erroneously the ''Corpus Toledanum'', is a collection of Latin writings about Islam compiled in 1142–1143. At its centre are translations from Arabic of five Islamic works, in ...
, which also includes a Latin translation of the Qurʾān. The Latin version was first printed as part of the Corpus in 1543. It was later translated into
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
(printed 1658),
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
(printed 1625),
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
(printed 1540),
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
and
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Port ...
. In a description of the
Moluccas The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...
based on the 1598 expedition of
Jacob Corneliszoon van Neck Jacob Corneliszoon van Neck (often anglicized to Jacob Cornelius van Neck) (1564–1638) was a Dutch naval officer and explorer who led the second Dutch expedition to Indonesia from 1598 to 1599. Early life Van Neck was from an Amsterdam family ...
and , the ''Liber de doctrina Mahumet'' is quoted to help make sense of Islamic customs. Thus, because of the Latin edition, Christians from the North Sea and Muslims from the Banda Sea could make use of the same text for a basic understanding of Islam in the early modern period.


Eastern tradition

In South India, the Arabic ''Masāʾil'' was translated into Persian by the sixteenth century. There are several additions found in the Persian text. It was in Persian that it first became known as the ''Book of One Thousand Questions'' and also as the ''Book of Twenty-Eight Questions''. It was translated into
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
under the titles ''Hazār Masʾala'' (One Thousand Questions) and ''ʿAqāʾida Nāma'' and was popular in the nineteenth century. There is also a
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...
version, ''Āyira Macalā'', that was translated by Vaṇṇapparimaḷappulavar and published in a ceremony at the court of the Madurai Nayaks in 1572. It was based on a Persian version and is the earliest Muslim work in Tamil that survives complete. In the
Indonesian archipelago * See also: Names of Indonesia , location = Southeast Asia and Oceania , waterbody = * Indian Ocean * Pacific Ocean , total_islands = ± 17,000–18,000 islands , major_islands = , area_km2 = 8,300,000 , area_footnotes = , rank = , length ...
, the ''Masāʾil'' was translated into Buginese,
Javanese Javanese may refer to: Of Java *Javanese people, and their culture * Javanese language ** Javanese script, traditional letters used to write Javanese language **Javanese (Unicode block), **Old Javanese, the oldest phase of the Javanese language ...
,
Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...
and Sundanese. The Arabic ''Masāʾil'' seems to have reached
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
by 1711. It was translated into Javanese by the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, probably from Arabic. Its Javanese title is ''Samud''. Like some later Arabic versions, it gives the number of questions as 1,404. The Malay version, on the other hand, was translated from Persian. It is known from over thirty manuscripts and goes by variations of the title ''Seribu Masala'' ('thousand questions').
François Valentyn François Valentyn or Valentijn (17 April 1666 – 6 August 1727) was a Dutch Calvinist minister, naturalist and author whose ''Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën'' ("Old and New East-India") describes the history of the Dutch East India Company while als ...
saw a copy on
Ambon Ambon may refer to: Places * Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia ** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province ** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796 * Ambon, Morbihan, a co ...
in 1726.


Reception

In western Europe, it was seen "as a supplement to, or commentary on, the Qurʾān". It was commonly regarded as an authoritative text second only to the Qurʾān. Although the work was widely copied and quoted in Arabic, it was never a highly regarded text among Islamic theologians. In twentieth-century India, the reformer
Ashraf Ali Thanwi Ashraf Ali Thanwi (often referred as Hakim al-Ummat and Mujaddid e Millet; 19 September 1863 – 20 July 1943) was a late-nineteenth and twentieth-century Sunni scholar, jurist, thinker, reformist and the revival of classical sufi thought from I ...
advised against reading it. Nevertheless, it "came to be regarded as a catechism of Islamic belief" among Muslims in insular southeast Asia. Steven Wasserstrom labelled it "a popular mini-encyclopedia of Islamic cosmology and doxology". The Latin translation was influential in Europe. It was used as a source on Islam by Alfonso de Espina,
Nicolas of Cusa Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (), was a German Catholic cardinal, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Rena ...
,
Dionysius the Carthusian Denis the Carthusian (1402–1471), also known as Denys van Leeuwen, Denis Ryckel, Dionysius van Rijkel, Denys le Chartreux (or other combinations of these terms), was a Roman Catholic theologian and mystic. Life Denis was born in 1402 in that ...
,
Ludovico Marracci Ludovico Marracci (6 October 1612 – 5 February 1700), also known by Luigi Marracci, was an Italian Oriental scholar and professor of Arabic in the College of Wisdom at Rome. He is chiefly known as the publisher and editor of Quran of Muhammad i ...
and the author of the ''
Theophrastus redivivus ''Theophrastus redivivus'' (meaning "The revived Theophrastus") is an anonymous Latin-language book published on an unknown date sometime between 1600 and 1700.Hall, H. Gaston (1982). ''A Critical Bibliography of French Literature; Volume III A: T ...
''. Today, the ''Masāʾil'' is sometimes treated as an example of
world literature World literature is used to refer to the total of the world's national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European lit ...
., citing .


Notes


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend 10th-century Arabic books Islamic texts