Обсуждение:Месяц
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
| Месяцы - части, в которые год делится, каждый из которых соответствует примерно длине полного оборота Луны (q.v.). Как и во многих понятиях qur'annic, чрезвычайно сложно, если не невозможно, изолировать исходное значение слова «месяц» от его более поздней экзегетической разработки (см. Экзегезу qur'ān: классический и средневековый). Несмотря на попытки идентифицировать это первоначальное значение либо контекстуально, либо со ссылкой на параллельные отрывки, влияния и стереотипы этой богатой экзегетической традиции сильно влияют на попытки понять это qur'аническое слово. Единственный способ избежать этих влияний и стереотипов - стать «чистым сланцем» и приблизиться к этому термину без предварительного знания развитой экзегетической традиции, эпистемологической позиции, которую трудно или невозможно достичь.
Термин «месяц» shahr (pl. Shuhūr и ashhur) встречается двадцать раз в тексте Корана: четыре раза в том, что обычно считается «Мекканскими сутрами» и семнадцать раз в тех, которые обычно связаны с «Мединановский» период жизни Муψаммада (см. Амир-Али, «Месяц», см. хронологию и qur'ān). В четырех мекканских сурах используется единственная грамматическая форма, хотя в двух случаях она относится к более чем одному месяцу. В сурах периода Мединан появляется в единственной, двойной и двух разных формах множественного числа. Возможно, самая ранняя сура, которая упоминает этот термин, - это q 97: 3, в котором говорится о знаменитой ночи откровения или о божественной решимости (laylat al-qadr, см. Ночь власти). В п. 46:15 особая форма появляется во фразе «тридцать месяцев». Наконец, в довольно неясном отрывке из q 34:12 Бог дает власть Соломона (qv; Sulaymān) над ветрами (см. Воздух и ветер), которое «совершило месячное путешествие по утрам и вечернее путешествие в вечернее время». В сурах периода Медина слово «месяц» обычно связано с различными религиозными обрядами (например, убой жертвенных животных и мелкие и большие паломничества , то есть «умра» и «хадж», см. паломничество, освящение животных, жертвоприношение), а также с быстрым (см. пост) Раманана (qv). В таких контекстах он часто квалифицируется эпитетом «священный» или «святой» (аль-шахр аль-Шарам, например, q 2: 194, 217; 5: 2, 97).
Ряд западных ученых приняли это объяснение (см. Пост-просветительское академическое исследование qur'ān). Однако они дали разные причины для святости этих месяцев. Дж. Вельхаузен (Reste, 88) утверждал, что до ислама большая часть Дху-Кады была занята ежегодными торжествами и ярмарками в «Уки» и «Маджанне», тогда как первые две недели Дху-Ḥijja были посвящены ежегодным ярмаркам и паломническим обрядам на Dhū l-Majāz, «Арафа» и «Мина». Что касается аль-Мухаррама, то, по мнению Уэлхаузена, это был первый месяц древнеарабского календаря (q.v.), который изначально отмечался осенью с ежегодным ḥajj. Он также утверждал, что Раджаб был его весенним коллегой, соответствующим еврейской Пасхе (там же, 98-9, см. Еврей и иудаизм). На протяжении веков оба месяца постепенно переходили из их первоначальных мест из-за неспособности доисламских арабов вести надлежащий учет времени (q.v.). Таким образом, к моменту жизни Мухаммада Раджаб отмечался осенью, а ḥajj - весной. По словам Веллхаузена, месяц ḥajj в конечном итоге превратился в три последовательных месяца из-за местных различий в расчете времени, а также в желании со стороны курайшитов (q.v.) разместить всех потенциальных паломников со всей Аравии. Интересно, как это объяснение, оно кажется довольно надуманным и не учитывает тот факт, что аль-Мухаррам является относительно поздним названием месяца Ṣafar I (см., Например, Lisan al-Arab, iv, 463), которые вместе с Ṣafar II и другие «парные» месяцы арабского календаря сформировали то, что Wellhausen описывал как «Wintersemester» (там же, 97). Если это невозможно определить, когда и почему Яфар стал священным месяцем, трудно принять тезис Веллхаузена без серьезных оговорок (см. Святость и святость). q 9:36 также имеет большое значение в том, что он предусматривает двенадцать, как надлежащее число месяцев в году, которое он описывает как часть «правой» или «истинной» религии (q.v.). Более того, стих, следующий за ¶ (q 9:37), содержит то, что некоторые ученые считают запретом «откладывать» или «переносить» (наси) священный месяц с его обычного места. Точный смысл этого отрывка и, в частности, упомянутого здесь термина наси, все же ускользает от мусульманских и западных исследователей. А.Моберг (Ан-Наси) предложил убедительное решение этой проблемы. Разрабатывая мусульманскую экзегетическую традицию, Моберг утверждал, что рассматриваемый стих относится к интеркаляции дополнительного месяца каждые два или три года доисламскими арабами, которые стремились сохранить свой лунный календарь в соответствии с сезонным. По словам Моберга, эта практика была обусловлена особенностью лунного календаря, чьи месяцы составляют в среднем около 354 дней в году, в отличие от 365 дней солнечного / сезонного аналога. Разница примерно одиннадцать дней в году была обусловлена интеркаляцией, которая, по мнению некоторых мусульманских авторов, была поручена некоторым членам племени Бану Кинаны (см. Племена и кланы). В результате доисламские арабы оказались в живых благодаря комбинированному лунно-солнечному календарю, что способствовало их торговле с сельскохозяйственными популяциями Плодородного Полумесяца и Месопотамии (см. Iraq, caravan), которые, естественно, полагались на сезонный календарь (Парет, Мохаммед, 19-20, Beeston, Epigraphic, 18-9). В результате интеркаляции арабские племена столкнулись с проблемой того, как бороться с тремя последовательными священными месяцами, которые традиционно ассоциировались с джаджем, а именно с Дху-Кадой, Дху-Ḥijja и аль-Мухаррам. Поскольку промежуточный месяц был вставлен после последнего месяца года (т. Е. Dhū l-Ḥijja), они могли относиться к нему как к нечестивому и, таким образом, участвовать в рейдах и войнах против своих соседей (см. Экспедиции и битвы). В качестве альтернативы, они могут объявить его священным и, следовательно, соблюдать «мир Божий», как того требует арабский обычай. В первом случае преемственность трех святых месяцев была бы прервана, и первоначальный священный месяц был бы отделен от двух его предшественников промежуточным светским месяцем. В последнем случае, однако, первоначальный священный месяц (Dhū l-Qa'da) потеряет свой священный статус и будет перенесен (nasa'a) на интеркалированный месяц.
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Months — The portions into which the year is divided, each one corresponding approximately to the length of a complete revolution of the moon (q.v.). As with many qurʾānic notions, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to isolate the original meaning of the word «month» from its later exegetical elaboration. Despite efforts to identify this original meaning either contextually or by reference to parallel passages, the influences and stereotypes of this rich exegetical tradition impinge heavily upon attempts to understand this qurʾānic word. The only way to avoid these influences and stereotypes is to become a «clean slate» and to approach this term without any prior knowledge of the developed exegetical tradition, an epistemological stance that is difficult or impossible to achieve.
The term «month» shahr (pl. shuhūr and ashhur) occurs twenty-one times in the text of the Qurʾān: four times in what are generally believed to be «Meccan» sūras and seventeen times in the ones which are ¶ usually associated with the «Medinan» period of Muḥammad’s life (cf. Amir-Ali, The «month»). In the four Meccan sūras only the singular grammatical form is used, although in two instances it refers to more than one month. In the sūras from the Medinan period it appears in the singular, dual and two different forms of the plural. Perhaps the earliest sūra to mention the term is q 97:3, which deals with the famous night of revelation or of the divine determination (laylat al-qadr, see night of power). In q 46:15, the singular form appears in the phrase «thirty months.» Finally, in a rather obscure passage from q 34:12, God gives Solomon (q.v.; Sulaymān) power over the winds, which «made a month’s journey in the morning and a month’s journey in the evening.» In the sūras from the Medinan period the word «month» is usually associated with various religious rites (e.g. the slaughter of sacrificial animals and the minor and greater pilgrimages, that is the ʿumra and the ḥajj) as well with the fast of Ramaḍān (q.v.). In such contexts, it is often qualified by the epithet «sacred» or «holy» (al- shahr al-ḥarām, e.g. q 2:194, 217; 5:2, 97). It is often argued that some of these passages, namely q 5:2 and 97, refer to an ancient religious festival and pilgrimage which the pagan tribes of Arabia celebrated in Rajab (Wellhausen, Reste, 98-101). Originally observed in spring, Rajab was the month of the ʿumra pilgrimage, during which pre-Islamic Arabs (q.v.) abstained from warfare and brought sacrificial animals to the Meccan sanctuary (ibid., 94; Kister, Rajab, 191-2). Whether the festival of Rajab also involved ¶ a period of obligatory fasting remains unclear. The special place, however, of this month in Muslim popular piety, which appears to be a carryover from the pagan Arabian past, is richly attested by Muslim literature and ethnographic evidence from various areas of the Muslim world (Kister, Rajab, 191-2). At the same time, q 9:5 mentions several sacred months (al- ashhur al-ḥurum, cf. q 2:197); furthermore, q 2:197 specifies that the ḥajj should take place «in months well known.» These statements caused some confusion among Muslim interpreters who could not understand why the plural form (and not the dual or the singular) was used in these passages. Those who held that two Arabian «sacred» months are implied, namely Rajab, which initially was the season of the lesser pilgrimage (ʿumra) and Dhū l-Ḥijja, which was the month of the ḥajj proper, were unable to explain why the dual form of the word shahr was not used here. Others, such as al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) and Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373), considered the plural form to be a reference to the months that immediately precede Dhū l-Ḥijja, namely Shawwāl and Dhū l-Qaʿda, all of which formed a triad of holy months (Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, ii, 541; cf. Ali, Holy Qurʾān, 79, n. 217). This explanation is tenuous. While the sacredness of Dhū l-Qaʿda is abundantly attested by both the pre-Islamic and early Islamic traditions, Shawwāl did not play any special role in either. Nor was it protected by the taboo against violence which was associated with the four sacred months mentioned in q 9:36. Most Muslim commentators agreed that the passage in question refers to Dhū l-Qaʿda, Dhū l-Ḥijja, al-Muḥarram and perhaps also to Rajab. A number of Western scholars accepted this explanation. They ¶ provided different reasons, however, for the sacredness of these months. J. Wellhausen (Reste, 88) argued that before Islam most of Dhū l-Qaʿda was occupied by annual festivities and fairs at ʿUkāẓ and Majanna, whereas the first two weeks of Dhū l-Ḥijja were dedicated to the annual fairs and pilgrimage rites at Dhū l-Majāz, ʿArafa, and Minā. As for al-Muḥarram, in Wellhausen’s view, it was the first month of the ancient Arabian calendar (q.v.), which was originally celebrated in autumn with the annual ḥajj. He also argued that Rajab was its spring counterpart, corresponding to the Jewish Passover (ibid., 98-9). Over the centuries, both months gradually moved from their original places due to the inability of pre-Islamic Arabs to keep proper record of time (q.v.). Thus, by the time of Muḥammad’s life Rajab was celebrated in autumn, while the ḥajj now took place in spring. According to Wellhausen, the month of the ḥajj eventually turned into three consecutive months due to local differences in time-reckoning as well as the desire on the part of the Quraysh (q.v.) to accommodate all prospective pilgrims from across Arabia. Interesting as this explanation is, it seems rather far-fetched and fails to account for the fact that al-Muḥarram is a relatively late name of the month of Ṣafar I (see e.g. Lisān al-ʿArab, iv, 463), which together with Ṣafar II and the other «paired» months of the Arab calendar formed what Wellhausen described as the «Wintersemester» (ibid., 97). Unless it can be determined when and why Ṣafar I became a sacred month, it is difficult to accept Wellhausen’s thesis without serious reservations. q 9:36 is also significant in that it stipulates twelve as the proper number of the months of the year, which it describes as being part of «the right» or «true» religion (q.v.). Furthermore, the verse that follows ¶ (q 9:37) contains what some scholars regard as the prohibition to «postpone» or «transfer» (nasīʾ) the sacred month from its usual place. The exact meaning of this passage and especially of the term nasīʾ mentioned here still eludes both Muslim and Western researchers. A. Moberg (An-Nasīʾ) suggested a compelling solution to this problem. In elaborating on the Muslim exegetical tradition Moberg argued that the verse in question refers to the intercalation of an additional month every two or three years by the pre-Islamic Arabs who strove to keep their lunar calendar in line with the seasonal one. According to Moberg, this practice was necessitated by the particularity of the lunar calendar, whose months total an average of about 354 days per year as opposed to the 365 days of its solar/seasonal counterpart. The difference of approximately eleven days per year was made up by the intercalation, which, according to some Muslim authors, was entrusted to certain members of the Banū Kināna tribe. As a result, pre-Islamic Arabs found themselves living by a combined lunar-solar calendar, which facilitated their trade with the agricultural populations of the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia, who, quite naturally, relied on a seasonal calendar (Paret, ...). In consequence of the intercalation, the Arab tribes faced the problem of how to deal with three successive sacred months, which had been traditionally associated with the ḥajj, namely Dhū l-Qaʿda, Dhū l-Ḥijja, and al- Muḥarram. Since the intercalary month was inserted after the last month of the year (i.e. Dhū l-Ḥijja), they could treat it as profane and thus engage in raids and warfare against their neighbors. Alternatively, they could declare it sacred and ¶ hence observe "God’s peace, " as required by Arabian custom. In the former case, the succession of three holy months would be interrupted and the original sacred month would be separated from its two predecessors by an intervening profane month. In the latter case, however, the original sacred month (Dhū l-Qaʿda) would lose its sacred status and that would be transferred (nasaʾa) to the intercalated month. That neither solution was satisfactory for the fledgling Muslim community is attested by q 9:37, which, according to the tradition, was revealed during the last year of the Prophet’s life. Whether the practice condemned by q 9:37 involved actual manipulation of the calendar in the form of intercalation or was simply the realignment of sacred and profane months within a year is a moot point (see e.g. Effendi, Mémoire; Fück, Zur an- nasīʾ; Plessner, Review). Later, F.C. de Blois (Taʾrīkh) suggested that a prototype of this practice can be found in an early Sabaean inscription. There, a Sabaean community asks God’s forgiveness for deferring certain ritual activities until a later date. If we accept the traditional dating of q 9:37, which places it in the tenth year after the emigration (q.v.; hijra) of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina (q.v.), i.e. shortly before the Prophet’s death, it can be argued that the prohibition of the nasīʾ was occasioned by the desire on the part of the Muslim community and its leader to dissociate themselves from the practices of their pagan neighbors and to reassert themselves as a totally new religious community. This line of argument could further suggest that it also marked the rupture with the Judaic tradition, whose adherents practiced intercalation to keep their religious holidays within the same season. Seen from this perspective, the prohibition of intercalation may fall into the same cat-¶ egory as the relocation of the fast of the ʿĀshūra to Ramaḍān or the change of the direction of the prayer from Jerusalem (q.v.) to the Meccan sanctuary. In other words, it may constitute either conscious or unconscious assertion of a separate identity by the new religious community and its leader. A review of qurʾānic passages that contain the word «month» reveals that it is often linked to the lunar calendar. Thus, in q 2:185, the word shahr seems to denote the new moon that signals the beginning of a new calendar month. This usage is richly attested by Arab lexicographers who trace the etymology of the word to the root sh-h-r, "to be apparent, " or «to manifest one/itself» (Lisān al-ʿArab, iv, 431-3; cf. Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, i, 552). This meaning is further confirmed by epigraphic evidence from south Arabia, where sh-h-r was «a synonym for the first day of the calendar-month» (Beeston, Epigraphic, 8). In many verses, the new moon is expressly described as the measurement of time par excellence. A typical example is q 2:189: «They will question you concerning the new moons (al- ahilla). Say: ‘They are appointed times for the people, and the pilgrimage.’» This and other similar verses indicate that the beginning of the month or of the year must be established by an actual observation of the new moon (q 10:5; cf. 71:16). According to Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 69/688), the meaning of this verse is that «by means of it (i.e. the new moon) [the people] determine the affairs of their religion, the waiting periods of their wives, the time of their pilgrimage and the due dates for their debts» (Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, i, 580). This commentary conveniently demarcates the spheres of human activities that are to be regulated by lunation. In another exegetical statement «the ¶ affairs of their religion» are specified as «the periods of fasting and of breaking the fast.» They are to be determined by the «observation of [the moon’s] waning and waxing» (ibid., 581; cf. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, i, 503). q 10:5 and 36:39 give us an insight into how pre-Islamic Arabs and the first Muslims reckoned their time. These verses refer to the system of twenty-eight lunar mansions (manāzil), i.e. stars, groups of stars or spots on the sky in which the moon «is located on each successive night of the sidereal (not the synodic) month» (de Blois). Whereas later Muslim astronomers abandoned this system in favor of more precise astronomical calculations, it has survived until today and lies at the foundation of agricultural calendars in many Arab countries and their neighboring areas. One consequence of the qurʾānic injunction to use the moon for keeping time is the practice of watching for the new crescent to determine the beginning and the end of Ramaḍān. Of all Muslim schools of law and sects only the Ismāʿīlīs rely on mathematics to calculate the length of their months. All other Muslim communities insist that the beginning and end of the new month, especially of Ramaḍān, be determined by the sighting of the new crescent. The importance of Ramaḍān for the Muslim ritual is attested by the fact that it is the only month of the calendar that is explicitly mentioned in the Qurʾān (q 2:185). Commentators add that, apart from its sacred status as the month of fasting, the holiness of Ramaḍān springs from its being the month of revelation (inzāl al-Qurʾān). ¶ The night in which, according to the tradition, the whole of the Qurʾān was revealed to Muḥammad falls on 27 Ramaḍān. Commentators consider it especially propitious, since q 97:3 describes this night (laylat al-qadr) as being «better than a thousand months.» Another important religious activity associated with a calendar month is the pilgrimage (ḥajj), which takes place during the month of Dhū l-Ḥijja. This month is second in the previously-discussed triad of sacred months, which were respected by many Arab tribes before Islam. According to commentators, their sacred functions are evident from their names. Dhū l-Qaʿda is interpreted as the period of "sitting still, " when the warlike bedouins of Arabia stayed in their tents and abstained from raiding and fighting their neighbors (Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, ii, 589). The name of Dhū l-Ḥijja is indicative of its function as the month of pilgrimage, although the actual ritual activities are limited to four days, i.e. seventh — tenth, but in practice continue until the thirteenth. The name of al- Muḥarram («the sacred» or «protected») speaks for itself . It is the month of peace, whose sanctity is assured by God himself. Likewise, the name of Rajab also connotes the idea of veneration and reverence (Lane, iii, 1033 and Lisān al-ʿArab, i, 411). Its special status is further accentuated by its numerous honorific epithets, such as «the deaf» (al- aṣamm), because no rattling of swords or other weapons was heard during it, or «the one that pours forth [divine mercy]» (al- aṣabb). Before Islam, it was celebrated by the sacrifice of the first-born of the flock — a practice that was abolished by the Prophet in a special ḥadīth. Despite this prohibition, many Muslims hold Rajab in high regard and mark it by fasting on certain days and by slaughtering sacrificial ¶ animals (Kister, Rajab). Finally, a substantial body of traditions exalts the eighth month of the Muslim calendar, Shaʿbān, which many consider to be a month of voluntary fasting. The night of the fifteenth of Shaʿbān is regarded as the holiest time of the whole month. A number of ḥadīths recommend that one should spend it in «vigil prayer and supplication, and the morrow in fasting» (Kister). Furthermore, some commentators identify it with the «blessed night» (layla mubāraka) of q 44:3, which is considered to be the night of the remission of all sins. Hence its popular name, «the night of acquittance» (laylat al-barāʾa). Some Muslims mark it with special prayers and supplications in the hope of obtaining divine rewards that are promised «to those who exert themselves in devotion during this night» (ibid., 27). At the same time, many commentators rejected this tradition, arguing that laylat al-barāʾa was the night of revelation and thus is identical with laylat al-qadr of q 97:1. Although the Qurʾān itself is silent about the special status of the months just discussed, except for Ramaḍān, their importance is thrown into sharp relief in the famous ḥadīth that quotes the Prophet as saying «Rajab is the month of God, Shaʿbān is my month, and Ramaḍān is the month of my community» (ibid., 37). |
- Primary
- A.Y. Ali, The holy Qurʾān. Text, translation and commentary, repr. Elmherst, N.Y. 1987
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, ed. S. al-Salāma, 8 vols., Riyadh 1997
- Lisān al-ʿArab
- Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, ed. Ṣ.ʿA. al-Khālidī and I.M. al-ʿAlī, 7 vols., Damascus 1997
- Secondary
- H. Amir-Ali, The «month» in the Qurʾān, in ic 51 (1977), 21-30
- A.F.L. Beeston, Epigraphic south Arabian calendars and dating, London 1956
- F.C. de Blois, Taʾrīkh, in ei2, x, 257-64
- ¶ M. Effendi, Mémoire sur le calendrier arabe avant l’islamisme, in ja 11 (1858), 109-92
- J. Fück, Zur an-nasīʾ, in olz 36 (1933), 280-3
- M.J. Kister, «Rajab is the month of God…» A study in the persistence of an early tradition, in ios 1 (1971), 191—223
- id., «Shaʿbān is my month.»
- A study of an early tradition, in J. Blau et al. (eds.), Studia orientalia memoriae D.H. Baneth dedicata, Jerusalem 1979, 15-37
- Lane
- E. Littman, Über die Ehrennamen und Neubenennungen der islamische Monate, in Der Islam 8 (1918), 228-36
- A. Moberg, An-Nasīʾ in der islamischen Tradition, Lund 1931
- Paret, Kommentar
- id., Mohammed und der Koran. Geschichte und Verkündigung des arabischen Propheten, Stuttgart 1957
- M. Plessner, Review of A. Moberg, An-Nasīʾ in der islamischen Tradition, in Der Islam 21 (1933), 226-8
- J. Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentum, Berlin 1927