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Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān / John the Baptist
The New Testament herald of Jesus (q.v.) who also figures in the Qurʾān (see scripture and the qurʾān ). John the Baptist, son of Zechariah (q.v.), called in Arabic Yaḥyā b. Zakariyyā, is mentioned by name five times in the Qurʾān. In q 3:39, John is described as noble, chaste and a prophet who will “witness the truth (q.v.) of a word from God,” that is, Jesus (see prophets and prophethood; word of god; witnessing and testifying). q 6:85 speaks of John along with Zechariah, Jesus and Elias (see elijah ) as being of the “righteous.” q 19:7 announces the forthcoming birth of John to Zechariah (see good news ) with the remark that this name was being used for the first time (or that this was the first prophet by that name; cf. Luke 1:59-63). q 19:12 conveys the command to John to be a prophet with a book (q.v.; usually taken by Muslim exegetes [see exegesis of the qurʾān: classical and medieval ] to mean that John confirms the Torah [q.v.], not that he brought a new scripture). q 21:90 explains that John's birth was a response to Zechariah's prayer, and the curing of his wife's barrenness. The spelling of the name Yaḥyā for Yoḥanan is known from pre-Islamic times and is probably derived from Christian Arabic usage (see christians and christianity ). Muslim exegetes frequently trace the name to a root sense of “to quicken” or “to make alive” and connect this to the barrenness of John's mother and to his people's absence of faith, themes that are present in the Qurʾān.
Although the qurʾānic details of the story of John are few, extended discussions concerning him have arisen throughout Muslim history. For example, the idea that John was “chaste” ( ḥaṣūr) provoked a good deal of debate (see abstinence; asceticism). ¶ In their discussions of q 3:39, some exegetes understood this word to be intended in its sexual sense of being incapable of coitus (“he had a penis no bigger than this piece of straw,” Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, vi, 377, a prophetic ḥadīth on the authority of Saʿīd b. al-Musayyab) or of abstaining from it. Other exegetes rejected that view, for it would suggest some sort of imperfection on the part of the prophet, and argued that the word means only that John was free from impure actions and thoughts, and that it does not preclude John's having been married (see marriage and divorce ) and fathering children (q.v.).
The Muslim rendering of the birth, life and death of John have, in general, been elaborated on the basis of the Christian accounts. John, it is said, was born six months prior to Jesus. He became a prophet, traveled to Palestine, met and baptized Jesus in the Jordan river and departed with twelve disciples to teach the people (see apostle; baptism). At the instigation of Salome, Herod had John put to death prior to Jesus' death and ascension. Many of the accounts, however, have become confused and place John's life in the era of Nebuchadnezzar. This is especially evident in stories related to John's death (which is not mentioned in the Qurʾān). The Israelite king Josiah, it is said, killed John, the son of Zechariah, and Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem (q.v.) as a result. In these accounts, the king's action is motivated by his desire to marry his own niece, an action of which John disapproved. The conspiracy of the girl's mother then led to the death of John (cf. the story of Salome, Matt 14:1-11; Mark 6:16-29). Nebuchadnezzar invaded in order to solve problems that arose as a result of John's death (or God simply inspired him to do so). The source of this chronological confusion is likely found in the name Zech-¶ ariah (a name which had already occasioned confusion within the biblical tradition) with a conflation taking place of the author of the biblical book of Zechariah, the Zechariah of Isaiah 8, the prophet Zechariah of 2 Chronicles 24:22 (who was killed by King Joash), and Zakariyyā, the father of John. Al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923), in recounting these traditions, indicates that he is well aware that many regard these stories as false and based on a historical error, there being 461 years between the lives of Nebuchadnezzar and John the Baptist.
- Bibliography
- Primary
Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, 4 vols., Cairo n.d.
Kisāʾī, Qiṣaṣ
Muqātil, Tafsīr
Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, ed. Shākir
id., Taʾrīkh, ed. de Goeje
al-Ṭarafī, Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad, Storie dei profeti, Ital. trans. R. Tottoli, Genova 1997, 27, 297, 300-3, 312, 346
Thaʿlabī, Qiṣaṣ
- Secondary
M.M. Ayoub, The Qurʾān and its interpreters. ii. The House of ʿImrān, Albany 1992, 109-12 (on the meaning of John as “chaste”)
E. Beck, Das christliche Mönchtum im Koran, Helsinki 1946
J.C.L. Gibson, John the Baptist in Muslim writings, in mw 45 (1955), 334-45
Horovitz, ku
Jeffery, For. vocab.
G. Parrinder, Jesus in the Qurʾān, London 1965, chap. 5
H. Schützinger, Die arabische Legende von Nebukadnezar und Johannes dem Täufer, in Der Islam 40 (1965), 113-40
D. Sidersky, Les origines des légendes musulmanes dans le Coran et dans les vies des prophètes, Paris 1933, 139-40
R. Tottoli, Biblical prophets in the Qurʾān and Muslim literature, Richmond, Surrey 2002
id., Le Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ di Ṭarafī, Ph.D. thesis, Naples 1996, 487-8 (notes to paragraphs 426-31; includes list of Arabic sources parallel to al-Ṭabarī)
- Cite this page
Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition / Yaḥyā b. Zakariyyāʾ
, the New Testament John the Baptist, mentioned by name five times in the Ḳurʾān. The spelling of the name is evidenced from pre-Islamic times and is probably derived from Christian Arabic usage (see J. Horovitz, Koranische Untersuchungen , Berlin 1926, 151-2; A. Jeffery, Foreign vocabulary of the Quran , Baroda 1938, 290-1); Muslim exegetes frequently trace the name from a root sense of “to quicken” or “to make alive” in reference to John’s mother’s barrenness and his people’s absence of faith. In Ḳurʾān, III, 39, John is spoken of as noble, chaste and a prophet who will “witness the truth of a word from God”, that is, Jesus. VI, 85 speaks of John along with Zechariah, Jesus and Elias as being of the “righteous”. XIX, 7 gives the announcement of the forthcoming birth of John to Zechariah with the note that this name was used for the first time (or that this was the first prophet by that name; cf. Luke, i. 59-63 for the likely background to this verse. Also see Ibn Kat̲h̲īr, Tafsīr , Cairo (Ḥalabī) n.d., iii, 112 and Mukātil b. Sulaymān, Tafsīr, Cairo 1983, ii, 621: this is the first time a child had been named Yaḥyā, and that he had the name because he was the first child ever born to an aged father and a barren mother). XIX, 12, conveys the command to John to be a prophet with a book (usually taken by Muslim exegetes to mean that John confirms the Torah, not that he brought a new scripture); and in XXI, 90, John’s birth is explained as a response to Zechariah’s request, his wife’s barrenness being cured for the occasion.
The details of the story of John in the Ḳurʾān are few, but even those slight references have given rise to a number of extended discussions throughout Muslim history. For example, the idea that John was “chaste” ( ḥaṣūr ) provoked a good deal of debate. In their discussions of Ḳurʾān, III, 39, some exegetes, such as al-Ṭabarī, considered this word to be intended in its sexual sense of being incapable of coitus (“he had a penis no bigger than this piece of straw”, al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, vi, 377, a prophetic ḥadīt̲h̲ on the authority of Saʿīd b. al-Musayyab) or of being abstentious; others, such as Ibn Kat̲h̲īr, Tafsīr, ii, 35-6, rejected that view, for it would suggest some sort of imperfection on the part of the prophet if he were unable to have sexual intercourse, and they argued that the word means that John was free from impure actions and thoughts, and that, as such, it does not preclude John having been married and having children. (The material on this word is usefully brought together in M.M. Ayoub, The Qurʾān and its interpreters. II. The House of ʿĪmrān , Albany 1992, 109-12; see also E. Beck, Das christliche Mönchtum im Koran, Helsinki 1946, 27.)
The Muslim rendering of the birth, life and death of John have, in some versions, been elaborated on the basis of the Christian accounts. John, it is said, was born six months prior to Jesus (al-Ṭabarī, i, 711); John and Jesus met in the Jordan River when Jesus was 30; and John was killed before Jesus’ ascension. The mother of Mary (Hanna) and the mother of John (Elizabeth) were sisters (see maryam, at VI, 630a, for tables presenting the Muslim understanding of the genealogical relationships). John became a prophet, travelled to Palestine, met and baptised Jesus and departed with 12 disciples to teach the people (al-Ṭabarī, i, 712). He was put to death by Herod at the instigation of Salome (ibid., i, 719).¶
However, many of the accounts have become quite confused because of the idea that John lived in the era of Nebuchadnezzar [see buk̲h̲t-naṣ[Ṣ ]ar]. It is in the stories of John’s death (not mentioned in the Ḳurʾān) that the extent of the confusion about him becomes evident. The Israelite king Josiah, it is said, killed John, the son of Zechariah, and Nebuchadnezzar attacked Israel as a result (al-Ṭabarī, i, 657). The cause of this was the king’s desire to marry his niece, something of which John disapproved. The conspiracy of the girl’s mother then led to the death of John (cf. the story of Salome, Matt., xiv. 1-11, Mark, vi. 16-29). Nebuchadnezzar invaded in order to solve problems that arose as a result of John’s death (or God simply inspired him to do so). The source of the confusion here is likely the name Zechariah, a name that had already created mix-ups within the biblical tradition (cf. Matt., xxiii. 35, for the (mis-)identification of the author of the Biblical book of Zechariah with the Zechariah of Isa., vii). The prophet Zechariah of II Chron., xxiv. 22, was killed by King Joash. The Talmud ( Giṭṭin , 57b) speaks of his “blood bubbling up warm” after his death. Nebuzaradan, Nebuchadnezzar’s commander, noticed this and he was told by the inhabitants of Jerusalem that “there was a prophet among us who used to reprove us for our irreligion, and we rose up against him and killed him, and for many years his blood has not rested.” Nebuzaradan then said to them, “I will appease him”, and proceeded to slaughter many people. It would appear that this legend has become associated in the Muslim tradition with the death of John through the common element of the name Zechariah (see D. Sidersky, Les origines des légendes musulmanes dans le Coran et dans les vies des prophètes , Paris 1933, 139-40). Al-Ṭabarī, i, 713, reports that a drop of John’s blood fell to the ground when he was killed and kept boiling until Nebuchadnezzar came to destroy Jerusalem; in a slightly different version (al-Ṭabarī, i, 715), John’s blood boiled in the pan in which his severed head (which could still talk) had been placed. Al-Ṭabarī, i, 718, also indicates that he is well aware that many hold this story to be not true and to be a historical error, there being 461 years between the lives of Nebuchadnezzar and John the Baptist.
- Bibliography
(in addition to sources mentioned in the article): J.C.L. Gibson, John the Baptist in Muslim writings, in MW, xlv (1955), 334-45
G. Parrinder, Jesus in the Qur’an, London 1965, ch. 5
H. Schützinger, Die arabische Legende von Nebukadnezar und Johannes dem Täufer, in Isl., xl (1965), 113-41
R. Tottoli, Le Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ di Ṭarafī, Ph.D. diss., Naples Univ. 1996, unpubl., 487-8 (notes to paragraphs 426-31), which includes an extensive list of Arabic sources parallel to al-Ṭabarī.
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