Ali Ibn Asakir as a Preserver of Qisas Al Anbiya the Case of David b Jesse

Maisonneuve & Larose

'Alī Ibn 'Asākir as a Preserver of "Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyā'": The Case of David b. JesseAuthor(s): James E. LindsayReviewed work(s):Source: Studia Islamica, No. 82 (1995), pp. 45-82Published by: Maisonneuve & LaroseStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1595581 .Accessed: 10/12/2011 19:18

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Studia Islamica, 1995/2 (octobre) 82

'Ali Ibn 'Asakir as a Preserver of Q sas al-Anbiya':

The Case of David b. Jesse*

One day while David was in his tower [mibrab], he spied a worm. As he pon- dered its creation, he said, " God does not care about this thing!" Then God caused the worm to speak, and it said," O David, how well pleased with yourself you are! Verily, I am more thankful to God for what He has given me than you are for what He has given you. " All creatures celebrate His praises.

Sadaqa b. Yasar (1)

Introduction

Islam, like her older siblings Judaism and Christianity, is a religion rooted in a scripture revealed to prophets at specific times and places. This paper is a brief exploration of the portrayal of King David in the Islamic prophet stories (qisas al-anbiya) tradition in order to illustrate that, as in Judaism and Christianity, a proper knowledge of the lives of God's messengers is fundamental to a proper understanding of faith (din-

* A version of this paper was presented at the 204th Meeting of the American Oriental Society, Madison, Wisconsin, March 1994. I would like to thank Professors R. Stephen Hum- phreys, Jan Vansina, Michael Chamberlain, Nuha Khoury, and Steven Wasserstrom for their important comments and criticisms. Of course, any errors are my own.

(1) Ibn 'Asakir, Ta'rnkh madinat dimashq, 19 vols. Xerographic edition of Zahiriyya MS, Damascus, (Amman: Dar al-Bashir li'l-Nashr wa'l-Tawzi', n.d.), 5:712. Translations from Ibn 'Asakir's Ta'rikh are my own. Qur'an 17:44 in its entirety reads as follows: The seven heavens, the earth, and all who dwell in them give glory to him. All creatures celebrate His praises. Yet you cannot understand their praises. Benignant is He and Forgiving. Translations from the Qur'an are those of NJ. Dawood, The Koran, (New York: Penguin Books, 1990 [5th revised edition]).

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revealed religion). The account of King David's life which is the text for our discussion is that preserved by 'All Ibn 'Asakir (499-571/1105-1176) in his massive Ta'rkh madinat dimashq [History of Damascus].

'Ali Ibn 'Asakir - eminent scholar, historian and biographer - is, without reservation, one of the most important figures of medieval Islam. His Ta'rzkh is among the largest biographical dictionaries compiled in the medieval Islamic world - some 9,000 entries contained in nineteen stout volumes (2). Although Ibn 'Asakir's Ta'rikh has long been recognized as an important source for medieval Damascene religious scholarship, very little has been done to exploit the text (3). The reasons for this are two - (1) the sheer size of the text makes it extremely difficult to work with; (2) the text exists almost exclusively in manuscripts housed in Damascus, Istanbul, Morocco and India. Presently I am working from a xerographic reproduction of an early eighteenth century copy of the manuscript housed in the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (4). The history and accuracy of this manuscript has not been determined fully, but it is the only (almost) complete manuscript. Everything else is separate volumes or an abridg- ment. Before we turn our attention to Ibn 'Asakir's account of David and why he would include such a biography in his Ta'rikh, a few words about him and his Ta'rzkh are in order.

(2) The best discussion of the importance of biographical dictionaries in the Islamic his- toriographic tradition is Wadad al-Qald's " Biographical Dictionaries: Inner Structure and Cul- tural Significance ", in George N. Atiyeh, ed., The Book in the Islamic World: The Written Word and Communication in the Middle East (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995), 93-122. See also H.A.R. Gibb, " Islamic Biographical Literature ", in Bernard Lewis and P.M. Holt, eds., Historians of the Middle East (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962), 54-58; Ibrahim Hafsi, " Recherches sur le genre 'Tabaqat' dans la litterature arabe ", Arabica 23 (1976), 228-265; and Paul Auchterlonie, Arabic Biographical Dictionaries: A Summary Guide and Bibliography (Durham: Middle East Libraries Committee, 1987).

(3) Three studies have been published based on Ibn 'Asakir's Ta'rtkh - Nikita Elisseeff's translation of Ibn 'Asakir's geographical account of the city, La description de Damas d'bn 'Asakir (Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas, 1959); Joan Gilbert, " Institutionalization of Muslim Scholarship and Professionalization of the 'Ulama' in Medieval Damascus ", Studia Islamica 52 (1980): 105-34; and Malake Abiad, Culture et education arabo-islamiques au Sam pendant les trois premiers siecles de lIslam (Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas, 1981).

(4) Ibn 'Asakir, Ta rnkh madinat dimashq, 19 vols. Xerographic edition of Zahiriyya MS, Damascus, (Amman: Dar al-Bashir li'l-Nashr wa'l-Tawzi', n.d.). In addition, there is an abridged edition (incomplete) by 'Abd al-Qadir Badran and Ahmad 'Ubayd, Tahdhtb ta'n-kh dimashq al-kabtr, 7 vols. (Damascus, 1911-32); and a complete edition (in progress) various editors. (Damascus: Majma' al-Lugha al-'Arabiyya, 1951 - in progress). Finally, the prolific seventh/thirteenth-century lexicographer, Ibn Manuor's appropriately titled, Mukhtasar ta'rikh dimashq li-Ibn 'Asakir, 29 vols. (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1984) is an epitome of Ibn 'Asakir's Ta rikh. Ibn Manzur deletes the lengthy chains of transmitters (isnads) as well as the many variant readings of hadiths and narrative reports compiled by Ibn 'Asakir.

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IBN 'ASAKIR AS A PRESERVER OF QIA$ AL-ANBIYA'

Abo al-Qasim 'Ali Ibn 'Asakir

Abu al-Qasim is a hafiz of unquestioned trustworthiness. 'Abd al-Karim al-Sam'ani (5)

I have never seen another like Ibn 'Asakir. Sa'd al-Khayr al-Ansari (6)

Thiqat al-Din Abo al-Qasim 'All b. Abi Muhammad al-Hasan b. Hibat Allah b. 'Abd Allah Muhammad al-Dimashqi al-Shafi'i al-Hafiz, known as 'All Ibn 'Asakir, was born in Damascus in 499/1105 and died there in 571/1176 (7). He is the most famous member of the notable Banu 'Asakir, which played a crucial role in the religious and political life of Damascus from the mid-fifth/eleventh to the mid-seventh/thirteenth century. Ibn 'Asakir grew up in a strict Sunni home, which was hostile to the Isma'ili Fatimid anti-Caliphate in Cairo as well as the Isma'ili Batini missionaries who were then active in Syria (8). Like many of the scholars included in his Ta'rikh, Ibn 'Asakir began his formal education at a very young age - in his case age six. He learned the complexities of Arabic grammar, Qur'an recitation, the science of hadith (sayings of or anecdotes about the Prophet Muhammad as reported by his contemporaries) as well as each hadith's isnad (chain of authorities who transmitted the hadith from generation to generation) (9). As was customary, Ibn 'Asakir was allowed to transmit these hadiths himself only after he had reached puberty.

(5) al-Dhahabi, Kitab tadhkirat al-huff a, 4 vols. (Hyderabad: Dairatu'l-Ma'rifi'l-Osma- nia, 1955-1958), 4:1330.

(6) al-Dhahabi, 4:1331. (7) This biographical sketch of Ibn 'Asakir is based on Nikita Elisseeff, " Ibn 'Asakir ", in

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.; idem, La description de Damas dlbn 'Asakir (Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas, 1959), xvii-xvix; and idem, Nur al-Dtn: Un grand prince Mu- sulman de Syrie au temps des croisades (511-569 A.H./1118-1174), 3 vols. (Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas, 1967), 1:16-18; 3:750-780. See also al-Dhahabi, 4:1328-1334; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-a'yan, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-$adir, n.d.), 3:309-311; and James E. Lindsay, " Professors, Prophets, and Politicians: 'Ali Ibn 'Asakir's Ta 'rikh madinat dimashq ", Ph.D. dissertation (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994), 8-18.

(8) For a discussion of Isma'ili activities in Syria see Thierry Bianquis, Damas et la Syrie sous la domination Fatimide (359-368/969-1076): essai d'interpretation de chroniques Ara- bes medievales, 2 vols. (Damas: Institut Francais de Damas, 1986,1989); and Nikita Elisseeff, Nur al-Din: un grand prince Musulman de Syrie au temps des croisades, 3 vols. (Damas- cus: Institut Frangais de Damas, 1967). See also Farhad Daftary, The Isma'ilis: their History and Doctrines (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) ; idem, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1994) and Yaacov Lev, State and Society in Fatimid Egypt (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1991).

(9) For a discussion of the sources and secondary works available for a study of medieval Islamic religious scholars ['ulama'; sing. 'alim] and their role in society see " A Cultural Elite: The Role and Status of the 'Ulama' in Islamic Society ", Chapter Eight of R. Stephen Hum- phreys' Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry, revised edition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 187-208. In particular, see the pioneering work of George Makdisi,

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After his father's death, Ibn 'Asakir embarked on what would become his life-long quest for religious knowledge (talab al-'ilm). In 520/1126, he set out for Baghdad where he studied with the leading scholars at the Nizamiyya. A year later he made the pilgrimage; while in the Hijaz he heard and collected a great many hadiths from scholars in Mecca and Medina. And on his return trip to Baghdad, he stopped to study with the scholars in Kufa. In 525/1130, Ibn 'Asakir returned to Damascus via Mosul where, as was his custom, he studied with the resident scholars there (10). In 529/1134, Ibn 'Asakir set out again for the lands of the Islamic East. This time he passed through Khurasan, stopped in Isfahan, continued on to Transoxiana, and ultimately settled in Marw for an extended period. Certainly, the most influential scholar Ibn 'Asakir encountered during his time there was 'Abd al-Karim al-Sam'ani (506-562/1112-1166), an out- standing scholar in his own right and author of more than 40 works, the most notable of which is his important biographical dictionary of Eastern scholars entitled Kitab al-ansab (11). The two men became friends and fellow students, traveling together to Nishapur and Herat in their constant quest for religious knowledge. In 533/1139, Ibn 'Asakir returned to Bagh- dad, and two years later to Damascus.

In short, between the years 520/1126 and 535/1141, Ibn 'Asakir undertook two exhaustive journeys to the centers of Islamic learning in his day: Baghdad, the Hijaz, Kufa, Mosul, and the lands of the Islamic East - Khurasan, Isfahan, Transoxiana, Marw, Nishapur, and Herat. Throughout his sojourns, he studied with hundreds of scholars (al- Dhahabi tells us that Ibn 'Asakir's teachers numbered 1,300 shaykhs and some eighty women) (12), collected thousands of hadiths and returned to

Ibn Aqil et la resurgence de l'Islam traditionaliste au xi' siecle (Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas, 1963); idem, The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); and idem, " Muslim Institutions of Learning in Eleventh-century Baghdad ", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 24 (1961), 1-56. See also, Malake Abiad, Culture et education arabo-islamiques au Sam pendant les trois premiers siecles de 'lslam (Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas, 1981); Munir-ud-Din Ahmed, Muslim Education and the Scholars' Social Status up to the Fifth Century Muslim Era in Light of Ta 'rkh Baghdad (Zurich: Verlag Der Islam, 1968); Jonathan Berkey, The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992); and Michael Chamberlain, Kno- wledge and Social Practice in Medieval Damascus, 1190-1350 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

(10) We are not told the circumstances of Ibn 'Asakir's marriage, but since his son al-Qasim was born in 527/1132, he probably married shortly after his return from Baghdad. As is common for this period, I have not been able to uncover much information at all about Ibn 'Asakir's wife or his family life in general.

(11) al-Dhahabi, 4:1316-19. al-Sam'ani, Kitab al-ansab. EJ.W. Gibb Memorial Series XX (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1912). Unlike Ibn 'Asakir's Ta'rzkh, which is arranged alphabetically, al- Sam'ani's Kitab al-ansab is arranged according to nisba.

(12) al-Dhahabi, 4:1328.

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his home in Damascus a hdfiz - an appellation conferred only on those extraordinary and pious individuals who had committed tremendous amounts of religious literature to memory and were held in the highest esteem among the religious scholars ('ulama', sing. 'alim) of their day.

Given the state of transportation in the sixth/twelfth-century Middle East, Ibn 'Asakir's extensive travels undoubtedly involved a great deal of effort as well as discomfort. Such travels were not in any way out of the ordinary, however, and were in fact very much what one would expect from any devoted medieval Muslim scholar. In fact, such travels were in many ways a required rite of passage among scholars if one hoped to achieve real prestige (especially that of a hafiz) within what had become a far-flung network of scholars in the medieval Islamic world spanning from Spain in the West to India and Central Asia in the East (13). After his return to Damascus in 535/1141, Ibn 'Asakir was content to remain in the city of his birth for the remainder of his days. In addition to his continued study of the religious sciences, Ibn 'Asakir also tried his hand at poetry and is included among the" scholar-poets " of Damascus in 'Imad al-Din al-Isfahani's Khartdat al-qasr wajartdat al-'asr (14).

Ibn 'Asakir's opportunities in Damascus were not limited to purely scholarly and literary pursuits, however. During the sixth/twelfth century three men vied successfully for political control of Syria - the ruler of Mosul and Aleppo, the atabegZangi (r. 522-541/1128-1146); his son Nur al-Din (r. 541-570/1146-1174); and Nur al-Din's subordinate, $alah al- Din (r. 571-589/1175-1193) (15). After Zangi's death, his realm was di- vided among his two eldest sons; Sayf al-Din Ghazi took Mosul and Jazira, while Nur al-Din took Aleppo. As is often the case with dynastic suc- cessions, Nur al-Din's leadership was immediately threatened, by the Franks at Edessa as well as by the Borids of Damascus in central Syria. But freed from his father's obligations in the east, Ncr al-Din was able to

(13) Sam Gellens discusses the importance of travel in search of religious knowledge in his " The Search for Knowledge in Medieval Muslim Societies: A Comparative Approach ", in Dale F. Eickelman and James Piscatori eds. Muslim Travelers: Pilgrimage, Migration and the Religious Imagination (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 50-68. See also Richard Bulliet, " Travel and Transport, Islamic ", in Dictionary of the Middle Ages; and An- dre Miquel, La geographie humaine du monde musulman jusqu'au milieu du XI' siecle, 4 vols. (Paris and the Hague: Mouton, 1967-88).

(14) 'Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, Khartdat al-qasr wa-jaridat al- 'asr (Damascus, 1955), 274. (15) P.M. Holt provides a good synopsis of this period in The Age of the Crusades: The

Near East from the Eleventh Century to 1517 (London: Longman, 1986). For a comprehen- sive and detailed discussion of this period see Nikita Elisseeff, Nur ad-DTn, un grand prince musulman de Syrie au temps des Croisades (511-569 A.H./1118-1174), 3 vols. (Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas, 1967); and Stephen Humphreys, From Saladin to the Mongols: The Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193-1260 (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1977). See also Nikita Elisseeff, " Nur al-Din Mahmud b. al-Zanki ", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.

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devote himself fully to the consolidation of his position in Syria. After nearly a decade of conflict, Nur al-Din had subdued Edessa and in $afar 549/April 1154, he entered Damascus with the collaboration of the people of the city in a bloodless conquest. From Damascus, Nor al-Din ruled Syria's Muslim districts for the next two decades. Under Ncr al-Din, Ibn 'Asakir's career would truly flourish.

Ever the astute politician, Nur al-Din sought out Ibn 'Asakir as an ally shortly after occupying the city. The alliance which developed between the two men proved mutually beneficial. The new amir found a crucial ally in implementing his program of strengthening the Sunni position in Damascus. For his part, Ibn 'Asakir found Nor al-Din to be a very gen- erous patron. Nor al-Din built for him the first dar al-hadzth (also known as dar al-sunna - a school specifically established for the purpose of the study of hadith) in Damascus. Henceforth the Banu 'Asakir, under Ibn 'Asakir's direction, used Nur al-Din's dar al-hadith as the institutional center for his jihad against the enemies of Sunni Islam throughout his realm(16). To this end, Ibn 'Asakir composed two important works: (1) Arba'zn ft al-ijtihadfi iqamat al-jihad [Forty in the Cause of Jihad] - a collection of forty hadiths exalting the virtues of jihad, which in the circumstances of the sixth/twelfth century meant a struggle against the opponents of the Sunni regime, whether Shi'ite or Crusader(17); and (2) Fadl 'Asqalan [The Virtues of 'Asqalan] - an exhortation to Muslims to retake the town of 'Asqalan which the Crusaders, under the leadership of Baldwin III, had captured in 548/1153. But most important for our purposes, it was Nur al-Din himself who actively encouraged Ibn 'Asakir to complete his massive biographical dictionary, begun in 529/1134. Near the end of his days Ibn 'Asakir witnessed his patron's death (570/1174) as well as $alah al-Din's entry into Damascus (Rabi' I 571/October 1175). Shortly thereafter, on 11 Rajab 571/25 January 1176, Ibn 'Asakir went the way of all flesh. His prestige as a leading scholar of his time as well as the importance of his contributions to the religious and political life of Damascus is evidenced in part by $alah al-Din's presence at his funeral ceremony, during which he was laid to rest along side his father and other members of his family in the Bab al-$aghir cemetery.

(16) For an excellent discussion of the ideology and propaganda of Nur al-Din's jihad see Emmanuel Sivan, LIslam et la Croisade: ideologie et propagande dans les reactions musul- manes aux Croisades (Paris: A. Maisonneuve, 1968), 59-92; and Elisseeff, Nur al-Din, 3:704-781.

(17) Ibn 'Asakir, Arba'uln hadithan (Cairo: Maktabat al-Qur'an, 1989).

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Ta'rikh madinat dimashq

Ibn 'Asakir's historical agenda in his Ta'rnkh is markedly different than that of historians like his contemporary, Ibn al-Qalanisi (d. 555/1160), who chronicled the political goings on in Damascus during the fifth/eleventh and sixth/twelfth centuries, or of a world chronicler in the tradition of al-Tabari (d. 310/923)(18) and Ibn al-Athir (d. 630/1234)(19), who wrote voluminous world histories whose scope runs from the creation of the world down to their own day, but are primarily concerned with chron- icling "Islamic" political history. That is not to say that Ibn 'Asakir was less concerned about a proper understanding and reading of the past than Ibn al-Qalanisi, al-Tabari or Ibn al-Athir. His specific concerns simply were not those of one who chronicled the activities of the court. Rather, as a bafiz and muhaddith - one who sought, preserved and transmitted hadith, all the while paying close attention to the veracity of the hadith itself (matn) as well as to each link in its chain of transmitters (isnad) - he is simply interested in different issues as well as different segments of his society.

Biographical dictionaries like Ibn 'Asakir's Ta 'rkh were written during this period in large part for the express purpose of recording biographical data of pious Muslims which would demonstrate that they possessed religious prestige and were worthy preservers of the Islamic religious tradition. The example after which Ibn 'Asakir modeled his Ta'rtkh was al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's (394-463/1002-1071) Ta'rtkh baghdad [History of Baghdad] compiled a century earlier (20). In many ways the structure of Ibn 'Asakir's text and the format of many of his biographies are quite similar to those in the Khatib's Ta rtkh baghdad. At times they are even cited verbatim from it (21). Like the Khatib, Ibn 'Asakir begins his Ta'rikh

(18) al-Tabari, Ta'rkh al-rusutl wa'l-mulzik, 15 vols. (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1879-1901); 10 vols. (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1960-69); English transl., The History of al-Tabart, various trans- lators; general editor, Ehsan Yarshater. 40 vols. projected (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1985 - in progress). Granted, al-Tabari does devote considerable attention to the pre-Islamic past - and we shall refer to his treatment of David below - but the bulk of his Ta'rikh treats the political history of the first three Islamic centuries.

(19) Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil ft al-ta'rikh, 13 vols. (Beirut: Dar $adir and Dar Beirut, 1965-67).

(20) al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tartkh baghdad aw madinat al-salam, 14 vols. (Cairo: Mak- tabat al-Khanji, 1931). See also R. Sellheim, " al-Khatib al-Baghdadi ", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.; and Ahmed, Muslim Education. There are significant lacunae in the Khatib's Ta'rikh that has come down to us. Hence, one must exercise caution when comparing it to Ibn 'Asakir's Ta'rtkh.

(21) For a discussion of Ibn 'Asakir's scholarly biographies during the Fatimid period see James E. Lindsay, " Damascene Scholars During the Fatimid Period: An Examination of 'All b. 'Asakir's Ta 'rikh madinat dimashq ", Al-Masaq: Studia Arabo Islamica Mediterranea 7 (1994), 35-75.

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with a lengthy geographical description of the city, including extensive discussions of the layout of the city, the Umayyad mosque, churches, synagogues, markets, water canals, and the outlying areas of the city (22). Beginning with the prophet Muhammad (Ibn 'Asakir lists the Prophet under Ahmad), Ibn 'Asakir then presents his collection of biographies in alphabetical order. In addition to entries for thousands of pious Muslims, he also includes a considerable number of entries for men of the court, most of whom are from the Rashidun, Umayyad and early 'Abbasid per- iods (ca. 600-850) (23).

Since the public world of religion and politics in medieval Islamic societies was the world of men, only rarely does Ibn 'Asakir have much to say about women. Although he does include 196 biographies of women, there is little mention of them playing any sort of public role in the life of the city. That is not to say that their roles were unimportant; they most definitely were. It is simply that in medieval Islamic societies one was very reluctant to discuss the activities of respectable women. Like the Khatib, Ibn 'Asakir places his biographies of women in a separate section at the very end of his last volume (19) (24).

Although Ibn 'Asakir entitled his collection Ta rzkh madinat dimashq, he casts his net far beyond the city proper and focuses his attention on individuals from the whole of Syria, many of whom hailed from Aleppo and Hims to the north as well as from such coastal towns as Beirut, Tyre, Sidon and Ascalon. A smaller number are linked to Jerusalem, a small and rather isolated shrine-city in early Islamic times. From 492/1099, of course, it was in Crusader hands. In short, Ibn 'Asakir's Ta'rikh is a massive biographical dictionary devoted primarily to thousands of Muslim religious scholars or government officials, of even minor significance, who hailed from, resided in, or merely passed through Syria or her capital and

(22) See Nikita Elisseeff's French translation of this portion of the text, La description de Damas d'Ibn 'Asakir (Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas, 1959). For an English translation of the geographical description of the Khatib's Ta'rtkh Baghdad see Jacob Lassner, The To- pography of Baghdad in the Early Middle Ages: Texts and Studies (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970).

(23) See James E. Lindsay, " Caliphal and Moral Exemplar ? 'Ali Ibn 'Asakir's Portrait of Yazid b. Mu'awiya ", Der Islam (forthcoming).

(24) Most of these 196 biographies are quite short. In spite of their terseness they may prove quite useful for enhancing our understanding of the role of women scholars in medieval Damascus as well as reconstructing some of the marriage alliances among the notable and scholarly families of Damascus. Ms. Sukayna al-Shihabi has done a beautiful job of editing this section of Ibn 'Asakir's Ta'rlkh. See Ibn 'Asakir, Ta 'rkh madinat dimashq: tarajim al-nisa'. Ed. by Sukayna al-Shihabi (Damascus: Majma' al-Lugha al-'Arabiyya, 1982). It should be noted that whereas Ibn 'Asakir groups these biographies of women at the end of his last volume, Ibn Manuzr simply orders them alphabetically throughout his Mukhtasar, albeit at the end of the section for the appropriate letter.

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who played a role in the preservation and transmission of religious knowledge there during the first six Islamic centuries.

'All Ibn 'Asakir as a Preserver of Qitas al-Anbiya'

Geographically, Ibn 'Asakir limits his scope to Syria. Chronologically, however, there are no limits ; he reaches back to the beginning of human time - to Adam, the first man and first prophet in God's creation. The breadth of vision which Ibn 'Asakir brings to his Ta'rtkh clearly reflects his concern with the proper understanding of history is as Heilsgeschichte or sacred history - that is, an account of God working through His human agents to accomplish His will in Damascus specifically and Syria more broadly. Ibn 'Asakir develops this theme through his close attention to the sacred figures who lived in Syria prior to the coming of Islam. These include no fewer than twenty-six Biblical and extra-Biblical prophets and kings which represent many of the more worthy figures of the qisas al- anbiya'tradition. They are: Adam, Cain, Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Job, Shu'ayb, Moses, al-Khiglr, Balaam, Joshua*, Saul (Talnt), David, Solo- mon, Elijah, Jonah*, Ezra ('Uzayr), Jeremiah, Dho al-Kifl, Alexander (Dho al-Qarnayn), Zechariah, John the Baptist, Jesus, Hod*, and of course the final prophet and messenger of God - Muhammad. In addition to these men, Ibn 'Asakir includes biographies of six Biblical women venerated in the qisas al-anbiya' tradition - Bilgis (Queen of Sheba)*, Eve*, Rahma b. Misha (Job's wife)*, Sarah, Hagar, and Mary (25).

Even a cursory glance at Ibn 'Asakir's Ta rikh madinat dimashq shows that, of its thousands of biographies, the lives of the prophets tend to be the lengthiest (26). Only the prophet Muammad (27), 'Ali b. Abi Talib (28), al-Hasan (29), al-Husayn (30), the Rashidon (31), and certain Umayyad ca- liphs (32) receive equal or greater attention. That Ibn 'Asakir should devote

(25) Those biographies which are missing from the Zahiriyya MS. and can be found in Ibn Manzior are indicated with an *.

(26) E.g., Moses, Ibn 'Asakir, 17:301-94; Solomon, 7:564-603; and Jesus, 14:27-106. (27) Ibn 'Asakir, 1:371-560. (28) Ibn 'Asakir, 12:111-434. (29) Ibn 'Asakir, 4:485-556. (30) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:12-93. (31) Abu Bakr, Ibn 'Asakir, 9:520-770; 'Umar b. al-Khattab, 12:706-726; 13:1-201;

'Uthman b. 'Affan, 11:143-434. (32) Mu'awiya (I) b. Abi Sufyan, Ibn 'Asakir, 16:671-764; Yazid (I) b. Mu'awiya b. Abi

Sufyan, 18:389-98; Marwan (I) b. al-Hakam b. Abi al-'As, 16:338-363; 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan, 10:502-530; al-Wahd (I) b. 'Abd al-Malik, 17:838-851; 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Marwan, 12:257-330; al-Walid (II) b. Yazid (II) b. 'Abd al-Malik, 17:921-938; Marwan (II) b. Muhammad b. Marwan, 16:381-393.

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so much of his attention to these figures from the (at times murky) pre- Islamic past stems, in part, from his local particularism, if not patriotism; after all, Syria was the privileged home of God's chosen prophets and messengers. In addition, Ibn 'Asakir is able - indeed, almost compelled - to draw on the sophisticated and well-documented qi$as al-anbiya' tradition which had been developed by his time (33).

However, Ibn 'Asakir's interest in personalities and events of generations past goes far deeper than pride in his place of birth, the virtues of Damascus (fada 'il dimashq), or the mere availability of sources. To repeat a point made above, Ibn 'Asakir is writing sacred history. Hence, his choice to include so many prophetic biographies in his Ta'rikh is rooted in the larger qisa$ al-anbiya' tradition of vindicating the message and mission of Muhammad the messenger of God by demonstrating the continuity between the lives and ministries of the ancient prophets in Syria and Muhammad's life and ministry in first/seventh-century Arabia. In short, Ibn 'Asakir implicitly (and at times explicitly) portrays David and the other Syrian pre-Islamic prophets as prefigurings of Muhammad - prophets and messengers whom God used to lay the foundation for the final prophetic work of Muhammad.

Whereas the quss$a (sing. qas$) are concerned with spinning continuous and coherent narrative tales of the lives of the prophets, Ibn 'Asakir's agenda is that of a muhaddith - that is, to compile hadiths and narrative

(33) For a general discussion of the qisaS al-anbiya'tradition see G. Vajda, " Isra'iliyyat"; and T. Nagel, " Kisas al-anbiya'", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.; and S.D. Goitein, "Isra'iliyyat" (in Hebrew), Tarbiz 6 (1934-35), 89-101, 510-22. See also Reuven Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1990); Jacob Lassner, The Demonization of the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries of Gender and Discourse in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993); Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, Intertwi- ned Worlds: Medieval Islam and Bible Criticism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992); Gordon Newby, A History of the Jews of Arabia (Columbia: University of South Ca- rolina Press, 1988); idem, The Making of the Last Prophet (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989); Moshe Perlmann, "The Medieval Polemics between Islam and Ju- daism ", in Religion in a Religious Age, ed. S.D. Goitein (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974): 103-29; and Steven Wasserstrom, Between Muslim andJew : The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995). Professors Gayane Karen Merguerian and Afsaneh Najmabadi are preparing a fascinating study of the Zulaykha and Yusuf story based on surat Yusuf (Qur'an 12). For specific treatments of particular qussas see Raif Georges Khoury, Wahb ibn Munabbih, 2 vols. (Wiesbaden: Otto Har- rassowitz, 1972), 1:189-316; idem, Les legendes prophttiques dans lIslam depuis !e l" jusqu au III siecle de l'Hegire. D'apres le manuscrit d'Abli Rifa'a 'Umara b. Watlma b. Musa b. al-Furat al-Farisi al-Fasawf "Kitab bad' al-khalq wa-qi$a$ al-anbiya'" avec edition cri- tique du texte (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1978), 137-185; Moshe Perlmann, " A Legen- dary Story of Ka'b al-Abbar's Conversion to Islam ", inJoshua Starr Memorial Volume (New York: Conference on Jewish Relations, 1953), 85-99; idem, " Another Ka'b al-Abbar Story", Jerusalem Q_aterly Review 14 (1954): 48-58; and W.M. Thackston, The Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisa ' (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978), ix-xxxiv.

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reports about the prophets (an issue we shall have more to say about below). Nevertheless, it is clear that Ibn 'Asakir would have agreed with the venerable qass al-Tha'labi's interpretation of Qur'an 11:120, "The whole which we have related of the histories of our apostles do we relate unto thee, that we may confirm thy heart thereby '. Al-Tha'labi argued that within this passage there were five wisdoms about the lives of the prophets that past sages had discovered: (1) proof of Muhammad's proph- ecy; (2) a moral example for Muhammad himself; (3) proof of the su- premacy of Muhammad's nation ; (4) a means of improving the character and mind of the community; (5) that the histories of the prophets were revealed to evoke the memory of God's messengers according to Abra- ham's petition to God, "Grant that I may be spoken of with honour among the latest posterity " (Qur'an 26:84) (34).

My rationale for choosing King David as the representative prophet for this study is simple; I have long found the David of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles an intriguing character. Not only is he the paradigmatic gentle shepherd, devoted friend, psalmist, and musician, he is also a bloody-minded soldier, lousy father, adulterer, and murderer - an earthy man whose behavior does not appear to be any better or worse than his predecessor, Saul, whose kingdom God took from him, in part, because he had shown mercy to his enemies and was not bloody-minded enough. Simply put, David truly is one of the more unsavory characters in the Bible. Nevertheless, in both the Jewish and Christian traditions, this enig- matic and unsavory man was chosen by God to play a central role in His dealings with His chosen people as well as the gentile nations, for it is through David's line that the messiah is to come - a doctrine lost on neither the rabbis nor the gospel writers, as is pointedly emphasized in St. Matthew's and St. Luke's genealogies of Jesus (35). But it is the Islamic David who concerns us here. So, let us now turn our attention to him.

As we examine Ibn 'Asakir's portrayal of King David we shall attempt to place his treatment in the larger context of the qisa$ al-anbiya' tradition (36). However, an exploration of the elusive process by which the prophets of the Jewish and Christian traditions were incorporated into

(34) This assessment of al-Tha'labi, 'Ara'is al-majPlis: QLas al-anbiya'(Beirut: al-Mak- taba al-Thaqafiyya, n.d.), 2f. is based on Wheeler Thackston, The Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisa ' (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978), xvi-xvii.

(35) It should be noted that whereas the rabbis agree the messiah is of Davidic lineage, during the second temple period and earlier there existed varying conceptions of the messiah(s) in Jewish tradition - e.g., we find priestly and prophetic messianic traditions, as well a Davi- dic kingly tradition. There is a substantial bibliography on this subject. The best place to begin is the EncyclopaediaJudaica. See Harold Louis Ginsberg, " Messiah "; David Flusser, " Mes- siah: Second Temple Period"; and Gerald J. Blidstein, "Messiah: Messiah in Rabbinic Thought ", in Encyclopaedia Judaica.

(36) For the qisas al-anbiya' tradition's treatment of David, see Raif Georges Khoury,

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the Islamic tradition is well beyond the scope of this discussion. So suffice it to say that early Muslim scholars' interest in the lives and actions of the ancient Hebrew prophets, especially those mentioned in the Qur'an, stemmed in large part from their desire to vindicate the prophetic message and mission of Muhammad. In the Qur'an Muhammad is portrayed as God's final messenger in a long line of messengers and prophets, whom God, in His mercy, has sent in various epochs and to various communit- ies with the same identical message - turn from wickedness and idolatry to belief in and submission to the One God, the Merciful, the Compas- sionate. Consequently, during the first few centuries of Islam, Muslim scholars sought out Jewish and Christian converts to Islam as well as others learned in Jewish and Christian traditions in order to flesh out the scanty prophetic narratives found in the Qur'an. By Ibn 'Asakir's day Muslim scholars had thoroughly " Islamized " these Biblical and extra-Bib- lical prophets, much as the Church fathers had "Christianized" the prophets and other figures found in the Hebrew scriptures (37).

A reader is immediately struck by how sharply the structure that Ibn 'Asakir employs in his prophetic biographies differs from that of the principal preservers of qisa$ al-anbiya'. Whereas Wahb ibn Munabbih, al-Farisi, al-Tabari, al-Tha'labi, and al-Kisa'i provide lengthy continuous narratives which are modeled on (and at times contradict) Samuel's account, Ibn 'Asakir does not. Although he treats many of the same events or issues in David's life as they do, his agenda is that of a Syrian muhaddith - that is, to collect those " Davidic " badiths and narrative reports which can be traced through Damascene and Syrian transmitters (in many in- stances to Wahb ibn Munabbih). In addition, as a mubaddith, Ibn 'Asakir's principal concern in each of his biographies - scholarly, political, or pro-

Wahb ibn Munabbih, 2:33-115; idem, Les legendes prophetiques, 91-130; al-Tabari, Ta'rikh, 1:559-572; William M. Brinner, transl., The History of al-Tabart, vol. 3: The Children of Is- rael (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991), 140-151; al-Thalabi, ,Qai al-anbiya': al-musamma 'ara'is al-majalis (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr al-Islami, n.d.), 309-338; al-Kisa'i, Qsa$s al-anbiya', ed. Isaac Eisenberg (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1923), 250-277; W.M. Thackston, transl., The Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisa'- (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978), 270-300. Professor William M. Brinner is preparing an English translation of al-Tha'labi's Q,sas al-anbiya'

(37) Professor Jacob Lassner has published several thought provoking articles which treat Jewish prophetic traditions and the formation of the qisas al-anbiya'. See Jacob Lassner, " The Covenant of the Prophets: Muslim Texts, Jewish Subtext ", Association for Jewish Studies Revue 15 (1990): 207-38; idem, "The 'One Who Had Knowledge of the Book' and the 'Mightiest Name' of God. Qur'anic Exegesis and Jewish Cultural Artifacts ", Studies in Muslim Jewish Relations 1 (1991); idem, " The Origins of Muslim Attitudes Toward Jews and Ju- daism "Judaism 39 (1990): 494-507. Professor Lassner develops many of these same themes more fully in his latest monograph, The Demonization of the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries of Gender and Discourse in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). See also note 33 above.

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phetic - is not the story which can be told; rather, he is concerned with issues of doctrine and moral example which can be gleaned from the thousands of hadiths and narrative reports he spent his life collecting. Not surprisingly, we find some hadiths and narrative reports which comple- ment one another or flesh out certain details, while others simply contradict or are at variance with one another.

As is the case with most of Ibn 'Asakir's biographical accounts he does not speak in his own voice with respect to their veracity. That is not to say, however, that Ibn 'Asakir does not present his own point of view or interpretation of David's life ; he definitely does. But he accomplishes this by choosing to focus on certain episodes in David's life while either omit- ting or glossing over others, an issue we will return to later in our discussion. Consequently, Ibn 'Asakir's account is a sympathetic portrayal of King David which, for the most part, reflects the tradition available to him and, according to that tradition, represents a faithful accounting of what " actually occurred " in the life of David.

Before we turn our attention to Ibn 'Asakir's treatment of David, it should be noted that there are a number of lacunae in the Zahiriyya manuscript. The likelihood that Ibn 'Asakir may have recorded more than twenty-six of these prophetic biographies is suggested by the seventh/ thirteenth-century lexicographer Ibn Manzur's inclusion of an additional six biographies in his Mukhta$ar (Hud, Joshua, Jonah, Btlgis the Queen of Sheba Eve, and Job's wife, Rahma b. Misha), thus bringing our total to thirty-two (38). However, one can only hope at this point that a thorough examination of other manuscripts (none of which I have had access to) may account for the absence of such important figures as Idris (Enoch), Aaron, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Esau, Joseph, and Samuel. It is important to note as well that Ibn 'Asakir's treatment of David, as preserved in the Zahiriyya manuscript, is incomplete. David's is the last biography in volume five, which stops at an arbitrary mid-point. Since the Zahiriyya copyist does not begin volume six with the continuation of David's biography, as he does with other lengthy biographies which he divides between two volumes (e.g. 'Umar b. al-Khattab), it appears that he, too, was working from an incomplete manuscript (39). But all is not lost; Ibn Manzur preserves a much longer version of David's biography. It is fair to assume that this is a paraphrase or an abridged version of Ibn 'Asakir's original

(38) Ibn Manzar, Mukhta$ar ta'rikh dimashq li-Ibn 'Asakir, 29 vols. (Damascus: Dar al- Fikr, 1984). Hod, 27:146-157; Yanis (Jonah) 28:105-116; Yushi'b. Nan b. Afra'im (Joshua b. Nan), 28:95-102; Bilgis bt. Sharahil (Queen of Sheba); Hawa' Umm al-Bashar (Eve), 7:311-320; Rahma bt. Afra'im b. Yasuf b. Ya'qub, Zawj Ayyub (Job's wife), 8:352-358.

(39) 'Umar b. al-Khattab is the last entry in volume twelve; the first entry in volume thirteen is entitled baqiyyat tarjamat 'Umar b. al-Khattab [the remainder of the biography of 'Umar b. al-Khattab]. Ibn 'Asakir, 12:706-726; 13:1-201.

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text. However, the additional material found in Ibn Manzur essentially reinforces the kinds of themes and issues treated in what remains of Ibn 'Asakir's account. Hence, to ensure that we are representing Ibn 'Asakir's representation of David, we will focus our attention on the biography of David found in the last nineteen pages of the Zahiriyya manuscript's fifth volume (40).

'Ali Ibn 'Asakir's David

As an Ash'ari, Ibn 'Asakir, like most Muslims, considered the Qur'an to be the eternal and uncreated speech of God. Hence, he accepts the very few and terse Qur'anic passages concerning David as indisputably authoritative and incorporates many of them into his account. Most of what we find in Ibn 'Asakir, however, is not Qur'anic but is drawn in some fashion from Jewish or Christian scriptures and legendary accounts. The remaining material appears to be legendary or folkloric in nature, but I have not been able to locate it outside the qisa$ al-anbiya' tradition as preserved by Wahb ibn Munabbih, al-Farisi, al-Tabari, al-Tha'labi, and al-Kisa'i (41). Whether this material represents otherwise lost variants of Jewish and Christian traditions or a distinctively Islamic adaptation of Davidic material, I do not know.

Ibn 'Asakir opens his entry with David's given name, the Arabized version of his genealogy back to Abraham, and three honorifics by which David was known in the Islamic tradition - the Jerusalemite, God's prophet, and God's deputy on earth. As the Gospel writers seek to establish Jesus' messiahship through his genealogical connection to the house of David ; so too does Ibn 'Asakir seek to establish David's position among God's prophets through his blood ties to Abraham the hanif(42). Then, with a muhaddith's tenacious attention to veracity, detail, and variant readings, Ibn 'Asakir fashions a portrait of David composed of passages from the Qur'an, Qur'anic commentary, and non-Qur'anic material on the authority of the Prophet himself or an authoritative early Muslim author of qisas al-anbiya', complete with its chain of transmitters (isnad)

(40) For an English translation of Ibn 'Asakir's biography of David b. Jesse see Lindsay, "Professors, Prophets, and Politicians ", 171-230.

(41) See I Samuel 16-31; II Samuel 1-24; I Kings 1-2; and I Chronicles 11-29 for the Biblical accounts of David's life. A synopsis of many of the legendary accounts can be found in Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 7 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1909-36), 4:81-121; and Angelos S. Rappoport, Myth and Legend of Ancient Israel, 3 vols. (New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1966), 3:11-47.

(42) Dawud b. Isha b. 'Arbid ['Awbid] b. Na'ir [Ba'az] b. Salmun b. Babshun [Nahshun] b. 'Awni'adab ['Ami Nadab] b. Aram [Ram] b. Hasrun b. Kazid [Faris] b. Yahadha b. Ya'qob b.

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down to the very person from whom he himself had heard it with his own ears or whose work he had read with his own eyes (43).

The portrait that emerges here is a David who is a great warrior, as seen in his miraculous defeat of Goliath and his armies; a prophet of great virtue and piety who is the exemplar of supererogatory prayer and fasting; a just ruler and wise judge; a musician, singer, psalmist, and Qur'an reciter; and the first to whom God revealed the techniques of ironworking. One of the more intriguing aspects of Ibn 'Asakir's life of David is his circumspect treatment of David's relationship with Bathsheba and his orchestration of her husband Uriah's murder - something which the most notable preservers of the qisa$ al-anbiya'tradition treat rather frankly in their accounts. Our primary focus in this paper is not David's affair with Bathsheba, but we cannot avoid asking why Ibn 'Asakir might be so circumspect about such an important moral failing on David's part - a question we shall address in due time.

David's career as king and prophet begins with his glorious victory over Goliath. Unlike the Bible, the Qur'an contains very little narrative material about the biblical figures mentioned in it. It appears to assume (probably correctly) that many of its initial hearers were familiar with the issues and personalities it deals with (44). In the terse Qur'anic account of the Israelites' encounter with Goliath (Qur'an 2:249-252) we find only one sentence about David - David slew Goliath, and God bestowed on him sovereignty and wisdom and taught him what He pleased. (Qur'an 2:251) Yet in the qisas al-anbiya'tradition David slew Goliath is transformed into a beautiful tale (attributed to Wahb ibn Munabbih) whose origins may be found among the rabbis (45).

Ishaq b. Ibrahim wa-yuqal Dawid b. Zakriyya b. Bashwa nabi Allah wa-khalifatuhufi ardihi, min ahl bayt al-muqaddas. Ibn 'Asakir, 5:703.

The copyist of this manuscript clearly was not very familiar with Arabic versions of Hebrew names. David b. Jesse b. Obed b. Boaz b. Salmon b. Nashon b. Amminidab b. Ram b. Hezron b. Perez b. Judah b. Jacob b. Isaac b. Abraham, also called David b. Zechariah b. Bashwi, God's prophet and caliph in His land, the Jerusalemite.

The above reconstruction is based on the edited texts of al-Tabari, Ta'rfkh, 1:560; History, 3:140; and Ibn Manzar, 8:105.

(43) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:703-721. (44) For a discussion of this phenomenon in the Qur'anic account of Solomon's encoun-

ter with the Queen of Sheba which, like the Davidic material, seems as though it " were torn out of a larger tale known to contemporary audiences but beyond our grasp "(p. 42) see " The Qur'anic Story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba ", Chapter Two of Jacob Lassner's De- monizing the Qu,een of Sheba, 36-46.

(45) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:703-705. For the sake of narrative flow I have omitted the lengthy isnads which break up Ibn 'Asakir's account. For a complete English translation of this section, the reader is referred to Lindsay, " Professors, Prophets, and Politicians ", 172-77. I shall briefly explore the possible rabbinic origins of and definite rabbinic parallels to this account below.

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We first meet David one day while he was tending his sheep. He heard a voice, (presumably that of an angel) call out to him:

David, you are the one who will kill Goliath. What are you doing here ? Entrust your flock to the protection of your Lord Almighty and join your brothers, for Saul has promised his daughter in marriage and half his wealth to the one who kills Goliath (46).

David did as he was commanded and returned home. His father, Jesse, asked him why he had come home, but David was loathe to tell him what the angel had said so he replied, "I have come to visit my brothers and to see how they are faring". Jesse then gave him provisions for his brothers and David departed. Ibn 'Asakir's account continues as follows:

As David was on his way a stone cried out to him, saying, " David ! Take me, I will kill Goliath for you ". David asked," Who are you ?" The stone replied, " I am Abraham's stone with which he killed such and such. I will kill Goliath, with the help of God ". So David picked up the stone and placed it in his satchel. As David continued on his way, another stone cried out to him, saying, " David! Take me ". David asked, "Who are you ?" The stone replied, "I am Isaac's stone with which he killed such and such. I will kill Goliath, with the help of God ". So David picked up the stone and placed it in his satchel. As David continued on his way, yet another stone cried out to him, saying, " David ! Take me with you ". David asked, " Who are you ?" The stone replied, " I am Jacob's stone. I will kill Goliath, with the help of God Almighty ". David then asked the stone, " How will you kill him ?" It replied, "I will seek help from the wind. It will knock off his helmet, I will hit his forehead, penetrate it completely and kill him. So David picked up the stone and placed it in his satchel. As David approached [the battlefield] he placed his hand into his satchel and the three stones became one. He removed it and placed it in his sling. When David drew nigh [unto Goliath] he shouted, " Allahu Akbar! - God is Great!" And the whole of creation save man and jinn (that is, the angels, the bearers of God's Throne and many others) responded in kind. When Goliath and his army heard this chorus they feared that God Almighty had assembled the entire world's inhabitants against them. The wind began to howl. All grew dark about them and the wind knocked off Goliath's helmet. Then David readied the stone in his sling and as he threw it, the single stone again became three. One struck Goliath's forehead, pierce it and killed him. Another struck the right wing of Goliath's army and vanquished it; a third the left wing and vanquished it. Goliath's armies thought that the mountains had fallen down upon them. Their commanders fled in confusion, some even killing each other. [On that day] God Almighty delivered Goliath's armies unto the Children of Israel and they annihilated them. Saul departed with the Children of Israel in triumph, God Almighty having granted them the

(46) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:703.

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victory over their enemies. Saul married his daughter to David (peace be upon him) and shared with him half his wealth (47).

Such is the extent of Ibn 'Asakir's scanty narrative treatment of David's military exploits. In fact, Ibn 'Asakir's account of David's encounter with Goliath is an abridged account based directly on Wahb ibn Munabbih's biography of David (48). One of the more intriguing aspects of this account is the role played by the three stones of the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - with which they had killed such and such. Not only is it the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whom David worships, it is with their stones that David miraculously kills Goliath, the enemy of God's people.

Although neither Wahb ibn Munabbih nor Ibn 'Asakir identify their non-Muslim sources, we do find enough echoes of this story in a midrash wherein David slays Goliath with five stones to suppose that Wahb ibn Munabbih's version may have had its origins among the rabbis. In the midrashic account we find five stones (representing God, Aaron, and the three patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) approaching David of their own accord. They, too, became as one stone when David touched them, and ultimately felled Goliath. At this point, however, I am unable to be any more specific than that (49). Nevertheless, we see in Ibn 'Asakir's skillful use of Wahb's account that, from the very moment David first heard the voice of the angel in the field until God Almighty granted the Israelites victory over Goliath and his armies, God's protective and vic- torious hand is upon David, His servant, His warrior, His prophet in Syria.

The remaining hadiths and narrative reports about David are considerably more terse. Although few exceed even half a dozen lines, Ibn 'Asakir's underlying agenda throughout is to demonstrate the prophetic election, piety and virtue of David; and by association, that of God's final messenger - Muhammad. As we have seen so far, Ibn 'Asakir initially establishes David's exalted position among the prophets of God such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad through David's blood ties to Abraham the hanif. Recall that Abraham was not only the ancestor of the Jews through Isaac and Jacob, but also the founder (with his son Ishmael) of the Ka'ba at Mecca and the worship of the One True God there (50). David's standing is subsequently reinforced by the words

(47) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:703-705. (48) Khoury, Wabb ibn Munabbih, 1:48-56. (49) Ginzberg, 4:87. Shemuel 21, 108; Zohar III, 272a; and somewhat differently in the

unknown midrash quoted by Kimhi on 1 Samuel 17:40. As cited in Ginzberg, 5:251. It should be noted that whereas the qussds focus on David's miraculous defeat of Goliath, none dwell on David's role as valiant conqueror and founder of the kingdom of Israel. As is the case of Solomon, they are more concerned with David as a Muslim prophet rather than an Israelite king.

(50) For an account of Abraham's life see al-Tabari, Ta'r kh, 1:252-351; William M. Brin- ner, transl., The History of al-Tabart, vol. 2: Prophets and Patriarchs, 48-131 ; and al-Kisa'i,

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of the angel and the three stones which had so faithfully served his grandfathers.

Ibn 'Asakir illustrates the idea of prophetic continuity with a hadith which clearly demonstrates that God, in His infinite wisdom, not only chose to reveal the Qur'an to His messenger Muhammad during the month of Ramadan, He also chose to reveal His revelations to Abraham, Moses, and David during the same sacred month. According to Ibn 'Abbas,

The Messenger of God (May God bless him and grant him peace) said: The Scriptures [al-$uhuf] were revealed to Abraham on the second night of Ramadan, the Psalms [zabzr] were revealed to David on the sixth, the Torah to Moses on the eighteenth of Ramadan, and the Qur'an [al-furqan] to Muhammad (May God bless him and grant him peace) on the twenty fourth of Ramadan (51).

On one level this hadith can be understood to indicate the sanctity of the holy month of Ramadan. However, Ibn 'Asakir includes it here in his account of David b. Jesse, not in a treatise on the unique sanctity of Ramadan. It seems clear, then, that Ibn 'Asakir includes this hadith because it meets his two minimum qualifications as a muhaddith - it speaks about David, but more importantly he has determined that this hadith has a sufficiently respectable isnad to be deemed authoritative. Moreover, I would argue that Ibn 'Asakir chooses to include this particular hadith because it links together in one sentence the prophetic message and ministries of Abraham, David, Moses, and God's final messenger - Muhammad.

Elsewhere, Ibn 'Asakir records several versions of a hadith, on the authority of Abu Hurayra, in which we learn that - in addition to being the divinely chosen recipient of the Psalms - David was a superior reciter of the Qur'an. According to Abu Hurayra,

The Messenger of God (May God bless him and grant him peace) said: " The Qur'an was made easy for David. He used to command that his animal [dabbal be saddled and he could recite the Qur'an before it was accomplished. He only ate that which his hands made " (52).

Apart from the prestige which was David's as a superior reciter of the Qur'an, this hadith demonstrates very clearly Ibn 'Asakir's understanding

Q_sa$ al-anbiya' 128-149; Tales of the Prophets, 136-159. See also Reuven Firestone,Jour- neys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1990).

(51) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:706. For a discussion of the meanings off-r-q, see R. Paret, " Furkan in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. See also Suliman Bashear, " The title 'Faruq' and its association with 'Umar I ", Studia Islamica 72 (1990): 47-70.

(52) Ibn 'Asakir preserves five slightly variant versions of this hadith. Ibn 'Asakir, 5:708.

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of the continuity of God's message which He has revealed to His prophets and messengers over the ages. Abu Hurayra does not say that David recited the Scriptures, the Torah or even the Psalms (one can assume that he did not intend a subsequently corrupted Hebrew scripture). Rather, we learn from no less an authority than God's final messenger that David apparently recited the very same revelation - the eternal uncreated speech or God - which was revealed anew some seventeen centuries hence.

Ibn 'Asakir further strengthens the idea of prophetic continuity by incorporating into his account several slightly variant versions of a hadith which places David and Muhammad on an equal footing with Moses. When we first met David he was tending his father's sheep. Now, anyone familiar with Biblical prophets knows that David certainly was not the first shepherd chosen to be God's messenger, nor would he be the last. Ibn 'Asakir illustrates this with the following hadith attributed to Bishr b. Huzn al-Nasri:

The owners of camels and sheep were boasting before the Prophet (May God bless him and grant him peace). Then the Messenger of God (May God bless him and grant him peace) said: 'David was sent forth and he tended sheep. Moses was sent forth and he tended sheep. I have been sent forth and I tend my people's sheep in Jayad' (53).

What a fascinating hadith. We know that David was a shepherd and that Moses tended Jethro's sheep during his exile prior to leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt (54). But Muhammad was born and raised in Mecca - an important trade entrepot and shrine-city in western Ara- bia. As an adult, Muhammad was a merchant and a very successful long- distance caravan trader. When was he a shepherd ? When was he in Jayad ? And where is this Jayad ? Surely the Messenger of God must have been a shepherd if he so claimed, but what kind of shepherd might he have been? Ibn Ishaq (the second/eighth-century biographer of the Prophet) tells us that "the apostle of God used to say, 'There is no prophet but has shepherded a flock'. When they said, 'You, too, apostle of God ?', he said, 'Yes'". We also learn from Ibn Ishaq that Muhammad's mother, Amina, entrusted her son as a nursling to a woman of the Banu Sa'd (55). Hence, he might be imagined to have tended the Banu Sa'd's sheep as a child. But more importantly, it is an adult that Muhammad was a different kind of shepherd - a shepherd chosen by God to watch over, guide and

(53) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:705. (54) I Samuel 11:11, 19; 17:15, 34-35; Exodus 3:1. (55) Ibn Ishaq, Sirat rasul Allah (recension of 'Abd al-Malik ibn Hisham) ed. F. Wusten-

feld, 2 vols. (Gottingen, Dieterichsche Universitats-Buchhandlung, 1858-60), 1:105-106. trans. Alfred Guillaume as The Life of Muhammad (London: Oxford University Press, 1955. Re- printed, Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1967), 71-72.

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protect the first Believers among his people in Jayad, the district near the sacred Black Stone in Mecca (56).

This kind of pietistic interpretation is not limited to Ibn 'Asakir's portrayal of the life of Muhammad. Such pietistic interpretations are the very substance of prophetic biographies, whether Ibn 'Asakir's or those of the qus$a$. Such interpretations are possible - indeed, to be expected - because in the Islamic tradition all of God's prophets, including Muhammad, are necessarily pious and ma'sum - that is, immune from error and sin (57). If they were not, they simply could not be prophets. Yet we learn from Ibn 'Asakir that David's piety and devotion to God is unique among the prophets and, hence, all mankind, for according to Abu al-Darda',

when the Messenger of God (May God bless him and grant him peace) used to mention David's name or transmit hadith about him he would say, 'David was the most devout of all mankind' (58).

Such devotion is illustrated further in another hadith (attributed to Anas b. Malik) which beautifully conveys the piety and prestige of Abraham, David and Muhammad:

Verily a man said to the Prophet (May God bless him and grant him peace), 'O thou best of people'. The Prophet replied, 'No, He is Abraham'. Then the man said, 'O thou most devout of people'. The Prophet replied, 'No, He is David' (59).

The Prophet simply asserts in these two hadlths that David was the most devout of people, but how was his great devotion made manifest ? The most frequent and visible duty required of every believer is prayer; the second is fasting. One is to pray at the five prescribed times each day and to refrain from eating and drinking during the daylight hours for the entire month of Ramadan. Ibn Ishaq reports that one night the Prophet was taken up into the seventh heaven where God informed him that fifty daily prayers would be required of him and his companions. Muhammad described his return journey to earth as follows:

On my return I passed by Moses and what a fine friend of yours he was! He asked me how many prayers had been laid upon me and when I told him fifty he said, " Prayer is a weighty matter and your people are weak, so go back to

(56) Yaqut gives Jiyad and Jayad as possible versions of the correct name Ajyad. Ajyad is located in Mecca next to the sacred stone [mawdi' bimakka yal: al-Safa]. Yaqut b. 'Abd Allah al-Hamawi, Mujam al-buldan, 5 vols. (Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1979), 1:104-105. See also A.J. Wen- sinck-J. Jomier], " Ka'ba " in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.

(57) See W. Madelung," 'Isma " in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.; and M. Zucker, " The Problem of 'Isma - Prophetic Immunity to Sin and Error in Islamic and Jewish Literatures" (in Hebrew), Tarbiz 35 (1965), 149-73.

(58) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:707. (59) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:707.

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your Lord and ask Him to reduce the number for you and your community". I did so and He took off ten. Again I passed Moses and he said the same again; and so it went on until only five prayers for the whole day and night were left. Moses again gave me the same advice. I replied that I had been back to my Lord and asked Him to reduce the number until I was ashamed, and I would not do it again. He of you who performs them in faith and trust will have the reward of fifty prayers (60).

Clearly Moses understood well the capacity of the human spirit for

patience and perseverance in matters of obedience to God. It is equally clear that God understands very well the limitations of His creation and that, in His mercy, He has chosen not to lay upon us more than we could bear. However, we learn from Ibn 'Asakir that although God is well-

pleased with the minimum, there is yet an even higher standard to be attained - that of His servant David and the members of his household who followed his example. As we learn from Ibn 'Asakir on the author-

ity of Thabit:

David the Prophet of God (May God bless him and grant him peace) used to allot the hours of the night and day among his family. Some member of David's family was awake to pray during each hour of the day and night. (God) en- compassed them in this verse, "Give thanks, House of David. Yet few of My servants are truly thankful "(61).

Ibn 'Asakir incorporates another hadith (on the authority of Wuhayb b. al-Ward) into his account which portrays even more vividly David and his household's devotion to prayer and supplication:

David the prophet (May God bless him and grant him peace) used to [pray] in turn throughout the night with the members of his household. An hour did not pass in his house without someone praying or mentioning the name of God. When it was David's appointed time, he rose to pray. It was as though his heart contained his and his household's worshipfulness. God looked upon his heart and was pleased with that which he saw of (David's) worshipfulness and that of his household (62).

It should be noted here that such a portrayal of David as a pious king who was given to long nights of prayer and supplication, like so much of the qi$as al-anbiya' tradition, is to be found among the teachings of the

(60) Ibn Ishaq, Sirat rasul Allah, 1:271; Life of Muhammad, 186-187. al-Tabari also preserves a slightly variant version of this story. al-Tabari, Ta'rtkh, 1:1159; W. Montgomery Watt, transl., The History of al-Tabari, vol. 6: Muhammad at Mecca, 79-80.

(61) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:711. Qur'an 34:13 in its entirety reads as follows: They made for him [Solomon] whatever he pleased: shrines and statues, basins as large as watering troughs, and built-in cauldrons. We said: 'Give thanks, House of David.' Yetfew of My servants are truly thankful.

(62) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:712.

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rabbis as well (63). Although David is portrayed as such, he certainly cannot be said to have had a low opinion of himself nor of his prowess as a proclaimer of God's praises. Ibn 'Asakir treats David's prayerful piety in a way that echoes a rabbinical motif of tweaking David's pompous piety through an encounter with a lowly frog (64). Ibn 'Asakir records several anecdotes in which God uses lowly creatures - a worm, a parrot, and a frog - to convict David in his prideful heart. $adaqa b. Yasar's narrative report, with which we began this paper, illustrates this well,

One day while David was in his tower [mihrab], he spied a worm. As he pon- dered its creation, he said, " God does not care about this thing !" Then God caused the worm to speak, and it said," O David, how well pleased with yourself you are! Verily, I am more thankful to God for what He has given me than you are for what He has given you ". All creatures celebrate His praises (65).

Elsewhere we learn from Mughayra b. 'Utayba that God brought low David's pious pride through a lowly frog,

David said, " O Lord! Is there any one of your creation who spends more of the night remembering you than I ?" God inspired him, " Yes, the frog ". And God revealed to him, "Give thanks, House of David. Yetfew of my servants are truly thankful "(66). David replied,

" Lord ! How can I endure your thanks when you are the one who shows Your favor to me... ? Blessings are from You, O Lord; and thanksgiving is from You. So, how can I give You thanks ?" Then God said, " Now you truly know me with My knowledge [ma'rifat] " (67).

However, Ibn 'Asakir also preserves for us the following narrative report (on the authority of Ibn Shihab) about David's praises to God,

David (Peace be upon him) said, " Praise be to God ! How seemly it is to honor and glorify Him ". God inspired him, " David! Verily, you weary those who memorize (?) [al-hafaza] "(68)

Could it be that Ibn 'Asakir does not want his readers to be left with the impression that David's example of pious prayerfulness and praise is necessarily welcome in all quarters ? One suspects that Ibn 'Asakir quite

(63) The Talmud of Babylonia: An American Translation, I: Tractate Berekhot. trans. Jacob Neusner (Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1989), 1:3b; The Midrash on Psalms, 2 vols. transl. William G. Braude. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959), 22:8; 57:4. See also Rappoport, Myth and Legend, 3:26-27.

(64) Rappoport, Myth and Legend, 3:27. (65) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:712. Qur'an 17:44 in its entirety reads as follows: The seven heavens,

the earth, and all who dwell in them give glory to him. All creatures celebrate His praises. Yet you cannot understand their praises. Benignant is He and Forgiving.

(66) Qur'an 34:13. (67) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:712. (68) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:714.

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possibly felt reluctant to comment on David's piety; and if so this might account for the counter-currents in his presentation of David, for Ibn 'Asakir records another narrative report (attributed to Abo al-Mundhir) which seems to state that this sentiment was felt among the scribes as well,

David (Peace be upon him), when he sinned and God restored his favor to him said, " O God, Fill me with thanksgiving that I might be acceptable to you ". And he said," David was inspired to say, 'Praise be to God, Lord of the universe ! How seemly it is to honor and glorify Him'". He started saying it repeatedly, and a voice came from the heavens, " David ! You weary the scribes [al-kataba] "(69).

But Ibn 'Asakir is not content with narrative reports concerning weariness with David's example among scribes and those who memorize, he also includes a narrative report (attributed to Sufyan b. Sa'id) which implies that even the heavenly hosts might find David's example somewhat try- ing.

David the prophet (May God save him and grant him peace) said, " All Praise be to God! How seemly it is to honor and glorify Him ". And God inspired him, " David, You weary the angels [al-mal'ika] " (70).

Now, whereas the five daily prayers were established as a result of Muhammad's encounter with Moses and his subsequent negotiations with God Himself during his spectacular ascent to the seventh heaven, the singling out of Ramadan for a month-long fast appears to be intended to distinguish Islam and the new Muslim community in Medina from the established Medinese Jewish community which observed a fast on the Day of Atonement (the 'Ashura')(71). However, as was the case with prayer, we learn from Ibn 'Asakir that although God is well-pleased with the minimum fast during the month of Ramadan, there is yet an even higher standard to be attained. Not only is His servant David the model of pious prayer, he is the model of fasting as well. According to 'Abd Allah b. 'Amr b. al-'As,

A man came to the Prophet and said, 'O Messenger of God, Verily I am a man who fasts often. Should I fast continually [$awm al-dahr] ?' He said, 'No'. I asked, 'Should I fast two days and eat one day ?' Again, he said, 'No'. (The man) said, 'I then began to lower the number when he said to me, 'Fast the fast of David, who used to fast one day and eat one day' (72).

(69) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:714. (70) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:714. (71) See al-Tabari, Ta'rikh, 1:1281; M.V. McDonald, transl., The History of al-Tabari, vol.

7: The Foundation of the Community, 25-26. See also P. Marcais, " 'Ashura' ", in Encyclopae- dia of Islam, 2nd ed.; and K. Wagtendonk, Fasting in the Koran (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1968).

(72) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:707.

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Later in his account, Ibn 'Asakir cites another hadith (attributed to 'Abd Allah b. 'Amr b. al-'A) in which the Prophet matter-of-factly holds David up as the exemplar of the most just and proper fast:

The Prophet (May God bless him and grant him peace) said, 'Fast the fast of David (Peace be upon him). Fast one day and eat one day. Verily, this is the most just fast with God Almighty. This is God's proper fast' (73).

But it is the following hadith (also attributed to 'Abd Allah b. 'Amr b. al-'As) which sums up best David's transformation from the earthy shepherd boy and king found in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles into the pious exemplar of supererogatory prayer and fasting we find in the qisas al- anbiya' tradition:

The Messenger of God (May God bless him and grant him peace) said, "The best fast is the fast of David, who used to fast one day and eat the next C4). The best prayer is the prayer of David, who used to sleep during the first half of the night, pray until the sixth hour, then go to sleep " (75).

Clearly, David has been transformed into an Islamic prophet of great virtue and ascetic piety who behaves as a Muslim. When David goes into battle, he invokes the name of God, shouting Allahu Akbar! - God is Great! When David prays, he not only prays as a Muslim, he prays all day and all night. Not only does David fast as a Muslim, he fasts far more often than the required minimum - he fasts one day and eats the next. But David's piety is not restricted to supererogatory fasting and prayer alone. We see his pious desire to live beyond the reproach of God and men illustrated by his practice of frequently venturing into the streets of his kingdom incognito to inquire about his standing among his subjects. Ibn 'Asakir tells us (on the authority of Wahb ibn Munabbih) that when David used to ask passersby if anyone was angry with him, they would reply, " No, He is the best of God Almighty's creation for himself and his community " (76).

However, Ibn 'Asakir also tells us that God did not entirely agree with their assessment of their king, for one day He sent an angel in the form of a man and when David met him in the street and asked him the same question, the angel replied, " He is the best of people for himself and his community, yet save one fault he would be perfect ". Now, when David inquired as to what that fault might be, the angel answered, " He eats and feeds his family from the Muslims' treasury "(77). Struck by the angel's reply, David asked God to provide him with another source of wealth so

(73) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:708. (74) Lit: nisf al-dahr. (75) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:707. (76) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:710. (77) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:710.

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that he and his family might no longer be dependent on others for their livelihoods.

God's answer to David's pious petition is made plain in Qur'an 34:10-11 - On David We bestowed our bounty. We said: 'Mountains, and you birds, echo his songs of praise'. We made hard iron pliant to him. 'Make coats of mail and measure their links with care. Do what is right: I am watching over all your actions' Not only did God make iron pliable for David, He chose him to be the first of His creation that He would teach to make coats of mail. Ibn 'Asakir then tells us (again on the authority of Wahb ibn Munabbih) what David in fact did with the many coats of mail he fashioned with his divinely appointed skills. "And when (David) had made a certain number of them he would sell them and give one third as alms, another third he designated for his and his family's needs. He reserved the remaining third to donate in other ways "(78). Not only does this passage provide a commentary for what appears to be a rather strange Qur'anic passage; the commentary yet again portrays David as an exemplar of piety by virtue of his response to the angel's admonition and his faithful stewardship of his new gifts (79).

Although David for a time did exercise poor judgment by feeding his family from the " Muslims' treasury ", Ibn 'Asakir preserves two stories which illustrate David's divinely aided sagacity as king and judge among his people as well as serve as poignant commentary on Qur'an 38:20 - " We strengthened his kingdom, and gave him wisdom and discrimi- natingjudgment "(80). The first story (attributed to Ibn 'Abbas) involves a dispute between two Israelite men over a missing cow. One accused the other of stealing his cow, while the accused denied the charge. When the plaintiff could not provide David with any proof for his claim, David asked the men to leave him so that he could deliberate on their affair. That night God inspired David that he should put the accused to death; however, the next day David - not wanting to punish the man without any proof - dismissed the previous night's inspiration as a mere dream. Again God inspired David that he should put the accused to death, but David failed to do it a second time. Finally God inspired David that if he did not do as he was told, God Himself would punish David. Being an

(78) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:710. (79) At this stage in my research, I have not been able to find any precedents for this

interpretation. Jewish rabbis, of course, were not supposed to accept any wages for their teaching services. Having been trained as a rabbi, St. Paul, insists that he supported himself as a tentmaker (Acts 18:1-3; 20:33-35) and refused to take any wages for his teaching services (II Corinthians 11:7-11; I Thessalonians 2:9). But I have not been able find any rabbinic or Christian portrayals of David as an armorer.

(80) Fasl al-kbitab presumably means "deciding between two opposing statements; or discriminating judgment."

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obedient prophet (at least for the most part), David sent for the accused. Ibn 'Abbas' story continues as follows:

[David] said to him, 'God has inspired me that I should put you to death'. The man replied, 'You are going to kill without any proof ?' David said, " Yes, by God, I will execute God's command concerning you ". When the man realized that David would put him to death he said, 'Be not hasty with me, I have something to say to you. Truly, by God, I am not guilty of this. But I did take the father of this (man ?) and kill him. For this I am responsible'. So David ordered that he be put to death and he was. Because of this the Children of Israel's respect for David was strengthened and so too was his kingdom, for that is God's word: 'We strengthened his kingdom '(81).

The second story (attributed to Wahb ibn Munabbih) also includes a

dispute between two Israelite men. According to Wahb, God provided David with a chain which He had suspended between heaven and earth near the Rock in Jerusalem. Wahb then states that when a dispute arose between individuals, David would tell them to go to the chain and he who was in the right would be able to grasp it (82). Wahb illustrates this with the following story.

A man entrusted a pearl of great price to another man. He then wanted it returned. But (the man to whom he had entrusted it) said to him, " I already returned it to you ". (The first man) brought charges against him, but he was set free. Then (the second man) found a staff, made a hole in it in which he placed the pearl; and with him he went to see David. David said, " Go to the chain ". So they went. The owner of the pearl came and said, " My God ! Verily, You know that I entrusted [him with] this pearl, but he never returned it to me. I petition You, that I may take hold of (the chain)". He then took hold of it. The other said, "Like you, I too will petition. Take this my staff". And he handed it to him. He said, " O my God! Verily, You know that I returned his pearl to him. I petition You, that I may take hold of (the chain) ". He then took hold of it. Then David said, " What is this ! Both the offender and the offended take hold of (the chain)?" Then God inspired him," The pearl is in the staff ". And the chain was raised (83).

(81) Qur'an 38:20. (82) Naser-e Khosraw in his description of Jerusalem (438/1047) describes a structure on

the site where this chain was alleged to have hung. " Next to this structure [the Dome of the Rock] is another dome called Qobbat al-Selsela [the Dome of the Chain], which is where David hung the chain that could not be reached by anyone other than the innocent, for the guilty and unjust could never pull it. This is well known to the learned ". Naser-e Khosraw, Naser-e Khosraw's Book of Travels (Safarnama), tr. W.M. Thackston, Jr. (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1986), 32.

(83) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:717.

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Both Ibn 'Abbas and Wahb describe disputes in which David clearly finds himself at a loss as to how he should judge between two litigants. In the first David is faced with the dilemna of having to put a man to death for stealing another's cow, but without any proof. In the second, he is dumbfounded that both parties could be telling the truth about the missing pearl. Is not one bearing false witness against the other ? In each account we learn that, through God's inspiration and intervention, David had been set apart from other men in matters of judgment for God said: " We strengthened his kingdom, and gave him wisdom and discrimi- natingjudgment "(84).

Now, the themes of prophetic asceticism, piety, and divinely aided sagacity certainly are not unique to Ibn 'Asakir's biography of David. In fact, one finds them in Ibn 'Asakir's accounts of the other Biblical prophets as well; for the underlying implication of this recasting of Biblical and legendary accounts in an Islamic light is that Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah us the ultimate messenger of God - His prophet in the mold of such ancient, pious, and wise Biblical prophets as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc. However, it is this very issue of ascetic piety which makes Ibn 'Asakir's " Islamic" David such a fascinating (as well as prob- lematic) character. After all, if the David of Samuel were so given to prayer, fasting, smithing, and judging one should wonder how he could find the time or the physical energy to engage in unseemly activities of any sort, let alone arrange for the death of Uriah so that he could take his wife, Bathsheba, for himself. But, before we turn our attention to David's most notorious moral failing, it is necessary to examine two additional episodes in David's career as king of Israel which illuminate the flawed character of this exemplary pious prophet and king.

David and Luqman

The first report we shall examine briefly is a hadith (attributed to Ibn 'Umar) about David and the great pre-Islamic sage, Luqman, while the second is a narrative report (attributed to Wahb) which addresses David's sin in ordering a census of the Children of Israel. According to Ibn 'Umar the Prophet evaluated David's character and kingship (or khilafa) in light of that of the venerable Luqman (85). We are told that whereas Luqman never was a prophet, " he was a diligent servant ['abdan samsamatan], given to meditation, pure of thought, and a lover of God; consequently,

(84) Qur'fi 38:20. (85) A legendary hero and sage of pre-Islamic Arabia. The only mention of him in the

Qur'an is in the sura that bears his name, Sura 31. See B. Heller-EN. A. Stillman], " Lukman" in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.

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God loved him and assured him wisdom "(86). One day while Luqman was napping a voice (presumably that of an angel) came to him and asked him if he would like God to appoint him a " viceroy [khalifa] on the earth to judge rightly between people ".

Now, being a lover of a God certainly did not preclude Luqman from being a cautious man. Luqman answers the angel's question affirmatively, but with several important caveats. He said,

Verily, if my Lord is giving me a choice, I have to accept, for I know that were He to do this to me, He would help me, guide me, and protect me from sin and error. Verily, if my Lord were to give me a choice, I would accept good health but not calamity (87).

The angels found Luqman's response somewhat obtuse and asked him for clarification. The answer he gives is clearly designed to protect himself from the weighty responsibility born by a khalifa. He says,

Because the ruler is in the most difficult (88) and unhappy of positions. He is surrounded by oppression on every side; he must be helped and assisted. It is appropriate that he be saved; if he transgresses he transgresses the path to paradise. He who is debased in this world is superior to him who is honored. He who prefers this world to the next, is seduced by it and will not attain the hereafter (89).

The angels were pleased with Luqman's response, and as he slept soundly we are told that he was immersed in wisdom [fa-ghutta bi'l-bikma ghattan] (90). Next we are told that when the prophet David was asked the same question he readily accepted the caliphate, but without Luqman's conditions. Consequently, David transgressed repeatedly. Nevertheless, the Prophet tells us that

God pardons, overlooks and forgives all this. Luqman was equal to him in wisdom and knowledge. So, David said to him, 'You are blessed, O Luqman ! You have been given wisdom and calamity has passed you by'. David was given dominion (91), yet he was afflicted with calamity; that is, temptation (92).

Clearly, the bulk of this hadith is devoted to Luqman's virtue and wisdom, but the point of this hadith, at least in this context, is to explain why the exemplary and pious David, in his impulsiveness and passion, was such an habitual transgressor. But more importantly, the Prophet tells us,

(86) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:706. (87) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:706. (88) The ms. reads bi-ashall al-manazil -- ashall means paralyzed or withered. Most li-

kely this is a copyist error. (89) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:706-707. (90) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:707. (91) Al-khilafa. (92) Fitna.

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as he so often does, of God's mercy and forgiveness - especially toward His favored khalifafi ardihi - for had David employed Luqman's caution and wisdom at the outset, calamity would have passed him by as well.

David's Census

An example of the calamity which David brought upon himself and the Children of Israel can be seen in his ordering that a census be taken of all the Israelites and God's subsequent punishment of David for this prideful transgression. Before we turn our attention to Ibn 'Asakir's treatment of David's census (attributed to Wahb b. Munabbih) it should be noted that this episode is the same version preserved by al-Tabari. Al- though al-Tabari is not a link in the chain of transmitters which Ibn 'Asakir cites, the last two links in the chain (Isma'il b. 'Abd al-Karim (93) - 'Abd al-$amad b. Ma'qil (94) - Wahb b. Munabbih) are common to both. In addition, Wahb's account of David's census is the only narrative report concerning David's life preserved by both al-Tabari and Ibn 'Asakir (95).

According to Wahb, David wanted to know how many Israelites there were in his kingdom. So, in direct violation of God's commandment, David dispatched certain men to make an accounting and bring him the number of his subjects. Not surprisingly, we learn that David's disobedi- ent actions greatly angered God, who admonished David as follows:

You know that I had promised Abraham that I would bless him and his de- scendants (96), so that I would make them as numerous as the stars in heaven, and their number uncountable. Yet you wanted to know the number that I said could not be counted. So choose either that I afflict you with hunger for three years, or that I give power over you to the enemy for three months, or to death for three days (97).

Unwilling to make such a momentous decision alone, David sought the counsel of his people about this terrible dilemma he had created for them. They told him that they had neither the patience to endure three years of hunger, nor three months of the enemy's hand against them, for in either case no remnant of them would remain. Therefore, they said, " If there is no way out, then better death at His hand than at the hand of

(93) Isma'il b. 'Abd al-Karim b. Ma'qil b. Munabbih (d. 210/825). Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-tabaqat al-kabir, 9 vols. (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1904-21), 5:399.

(94) 'Abd al-$amad b. Ma'qil b. Munabbih. According to Ibn Sa'd, he related traditions from Wahb Ibn b. Munabbih. Ibn Sa'd, 5:398.

(95) Al-Tabari, Ta'rtkh, 1:571-72, History, 3:150-51; Ibn 'Asakir, 5:717-18. (96) See Genesis 22:15-18, for this blessing. (97) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:717-18; al-Tabari, History, 3:150. I have employed Professor Brinner's

translation of Wahb's account of David's census.

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anyone else "(98). Wahb then states that during a single hour of the day untold thousands of Israelites died. David was terribly distraught when he learned of their deaths, and immediately repented of the error of his ways and devoted himself to God in prayer, saying, " Lord! I have eaten the sour sorrel, but the teeth of the Israelites are set on edge (99). I sought this, I ordered the Israelites to do it, everything that happened is my [fault], so pardon the Children of Israel!" (100)

Now, this episode clearly demonstrates a major moral failing on David's part - a moral failing rooted in David's prideful heart that God's admonitions did not apply to him in the same way as they had to others, including the prophets, before him. But as we learned above in Ibn 'Umar's account of the venerable Luqman, in spite of David's impetuousness and prideful desire to know that which God had decreed could not be known, " God pardons, overlooks and forgives all this ". And He did, for Wahb informs us that God answered David's prayer and removed the punishment of death from the Children of Israel. But this is not the end of the story, Wahb then tells us that after God stayed His punishment, David saw God's angels of death sheathing their drawn swords and climbing a golden ladder from the Rock (101) to heaven. It was at this point that David got his idea to build his temple and said, " This is a site on which a place of worship [masjid] should be built "(102). In spite of David's eagerness to begin its construction immediately, God informed him that a house of worship indeed would be built, but He had decreed that it be built by the hand of another. According to Wahb, God inspired David, " This us a holy house, and you have stained your hands with blood. You are not to be its builder, then, but a son of yours, whom I shall make king after you, whom I shall name Solomon, [and] whom I shall keep safe from the world "(103). When Solomon became king, he built the place of worship as God had decreed.

It remains for us to assess how these two episodes in David's career as king of Israel illuminate the flawed character of this exemplary and

(98) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:718; al-Tabari, History, 3:151. (99) Professor Brinner provides the following note to this passage. " Ana akil al-hummad

wa-banu Isra'l yadrasuna. In II Samuel 24:17 (repeated in I Chronicles 21:17) David asks God to end the plague, saying: 'Lo, I have sinned, and I have acted iniquitously; but these sheep, what have they done ? Let Thy hand be against me, and against my father's house'. A phrase closer to the one used here occurs in Jeremiah 31:29: 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' The same occurs in Ezekiel 18:2." As cited in al-Tabari, History, 3:51, n. 779.

(100) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:718; al-Tabari, History, 3:151. (101) Al-$akhra. Presumably the rock in Jerusalem, over which the Dome of the Rock

was built. (102) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:718; al-Tabari, History, 3:151. (103) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:718; al-Tabari, History, 3:151. See I Chronicles 22:9. Professor Brin-

ner translates al-dunya here as bloodshed.

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pious prophet. We learn from Ibn 'Umar's hadith about Luqman and David that the root of David's transgression is his impetuousness and pride. Not only is he impetuous in his eager desire to be God's khalifa, his arrogance shines forth in not recognizing that he was accepting a tremendously heavy burden and responsibility which no man could hope to bear without God's help. In Wahb b. Munabbih's narrative report we again see David's arrogance in that once he assumed his position as king he believed that God's admonition to his father, Abraham, did not apply to him. Never- theless, the underlying moral message in each account is that despite David's repeated moral failings, God in His mercy saw fit to grant him forgiveness and restore him and the people of Israel to favor in His eyes. Clearly, the basis of David's repeated transgression was his impetuousness and prideful heart, but undoubtedly David's exemplary piety, which Ibn 'Asakir emphasizes repeatedly, stems from God's patience and mercy toward his favored prophet and king.

David and Bathsheba

In our brief examination of Ibn 'Asakir's David, we have seen that the David of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles has been transformed into a pious Muslim prophet and king not only by Ibn 'Asakir, but by the qi$as al- anbiya' tradition as a whole. Now, such a strong emphasis on David's piety is not unlike what one finds in the Jewish and Christian traditions (104). In fact, we have seen that much of the qussa$' portrayal of David was influenced by Jewish legendary and folkloric enhancements of Samuel's account. But, it is in the qi$a$ al-anbiya'tradition's treatment of David's dealings with Uriah and Bathsheba that we find the most significant departure from Samuel.

Although Ibn 'Asakir bases his treatment of David and Bathsheba on the qussas, his method and emphasis with respect to this issue differ from Wahb ibn Munabbih, al-Farisi, al-Tabari, al-Tha'labi, and al-Kisa'i. This is manifested in two ways. First, whereas the qussas construct their narratives around the authoritative Qur'anic account, Ibn 'Asakir does not. Nor can we attribute this omission to the incompleteness of our text, since we find no mention of the relevant Qur'anic material in Ibn Manzur's account. Apparently Ibn 'Asakir simply chooses to ignore the Qur'anic

(104) The Jewish and Christian traditions certainly are not strangers to such reinterpreta- tions of scripture. Two examples should be sufficient to make the point - some rabbis have emphasized the importance of Talmud study by portraying Abraham as a yeshiva bucher who studied in his tents; while some Christians, since the earliest days of the Church Fathers, have sought to vindicate their Christology by locating Jesus on nearly every page of the Hebrew scriptures.

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account completely. Second, and even more intriguing, Ibn 'Asakir nearly skirts the issue altogether, only briefly and cryptically alluding to it in passing. Ibn 'Asakir's account (attributed to Wahb ibn Munabbih) reads as follows:

According to God's will, David began to rule the people of Israel as a wise prophet and diligent servant. He was the most diligent of prophets and most given to tears until he fell into the temptation of that woman. David had a tower [mibrab] (105) in which he would go to be alone in order to recite the Psalms and perform his prayers. Below it was a garden which belonged to an Israelite man named Uriya b. $uri. His wife was Sabi' bint Hanana from whom David (Peace be upon him) took what he took (106).

As stated above, the Qur'an provides very little narrative material about David at all. However, in stark contrast to its rather bald treatment of David's miraculous slaying of Goliath, we do find a fairly long narrative (by Qur'anic standards) of this episode in his life. Therefore, let us begin with Qur'an 38:22-25, which reads as follows:

Have you heard the story of the two litigants who entered his chamber by climbing over the wall? When they went in to David and saw that he was alarmed, they said: Have you no fear. We are two litigants, one of whom has wronged the other. Judge rightly between us and do not be unjust; guide us to the right path. My brother here has ninety-nine ewes, but I have only one ewe. He demanded that I should entrust it to him, and got the better of me in the dispute'

David replied: "He has certainly wronged you in seeking to add your ewe to his flock. Many partners are unjust to one another; but not so those that have faith and do good works, and they are few indeed ' David realized that this was a testfor him. He soughtforgiveness of his Lord andfell down penitently on his knees. We forgave him his sin, and in the world to come he shall be honoured and well received (07).

Even in this brief passage, it is clear that the Qur'an not only takes David's behavior very seriously; it refers to it as a grave sin. Yet, the Qur'anic account, too, is rather frustrating in that (as in the case of David's slaying of Goliath) it relies on its audience's prior knowledge of the particulars of David's testing. Our frustration is only increased when we

(105) The tower of David, located near Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. (106) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:715. This is a truncated and elliptical version of the David and Baths-

heba story found in the Biblical and Qur'anic accounts (II Samuel 12:1-23; Qur'an 38:22). See al-Tabari, Ta'rtkh, 1:564-70; History, 3:144-49; al-Kisa'i,,Qas al-Anbiya' 261-64; Tales of the Prophets, 281-84; al-Tha'labi, 326-32; Wahb ibn Munabbih, 2:72-76; and al-Fasawi, 105-108.

(107) Ibn 'Asakir does cite Qur'an 38 earlier in his account (" And remember Our servant David, possessor of might. A man given strength, assistance and discernment by the will of God "), but not in reference to David's affair with Bathsheba. Ibn 'Asakir, 5:712. Qur'an 38:17.

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compare the Qur'anic account and that of Samuel; we see that even the few particulars in Qur'an 38 are significantly different from the many which Samuel records. However, it is in the role played by the two litigants here and the anecdote they employ to convict David in his heart, that we find clear echoes of the prophet Nathan's blistering chastisement of David in 2 Samuel 12:1-23.

In Qur'an 38, David is put to the best by means of a story about a brother who had ninety-nine ewes of his own and connived to take his brother's lone ewe. Ibn 'Asakir simply states that Uriya b. $Srl's wife was Sabi' bint Hanana " from whom David (Peace be upon him) took what he took ". Neither the Qur'an nor Ibn 'Asakir is much help in fleshing out the details of David's testing, whereas Samuel provides more details than David might have hoped for. According to Samuel, when David spied the beautiful Bathsheba bathing one day he was overcome with desire for her. So he sent for her, had sexual relations with her, and she conceived his child. Realizing his embarrassing predicament, David called Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, home from the front in the hopes that he might lay with his wife and believe that the child was his. Much to David's chagrin, Uriah refused to enjoy Bathsheba's wifely pleasures as long as his men were at war and, hence, deprived of such pleasures of their own. In the end, David saw that his only recourse was to orchestrate Uriah's death in battle. It is only after the child has been conceived, Uriah's death accomplished, and the child delivered that Nathan comes to David with the word of the LORD.

Now, if all we knew about this episode in David's life was based on the Qur'an and Ibn 'Asakir's cryptic comments we would be at quite a loss as to what all the fuss was about. But we do have Samuel's account, diverse Jewish and Christian treatments of it, as well as the larger qisas al-anbiya' tradition. It is the qisas al-anbiya' tradition which concerns us here, and we find that the qussas reject parts of Samuel's account and much (although not all) of the subsequent Jewish and Christian commentary based on it, as is evidenced most clearly by the qisas al-anbiya' tradition's rejection of David's adultery. In fact, it appears that Bathsheba is not even brought into David's presence until after it would be " per- missible " to do so. Then and only then does he takes her to be his wife.

Before we turn our attention to Ibn 'Asakir's peculiar elusiveness we need to address the purpose of David's testing as portrayed in the Qur'an and the subsequent qisas al-anbiya' tradition. As we have seen in our discussion above, David is portrayed as the pious exemplar of supererogatory prayer and fasting. I would argue that among the qussas, David's exemplary piety is enhanced significantly by his response to this testing. David's realization "that this was a testfor him, [his seeking]forgiveness of his Lord and [falling] down penitently on his knees " is described at length by the various qussas. For example, al-Tabari states:

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Then [David] understood what had happened, and how he was being tested, and he fell down prostrating himself and wept. He remained prostrate and weeping for forty days, not raising his head except for some absolute need, after which he would again fall down prostrate and weeping. He prayed until grass began to sprout from his tears (108).

But if one of the purposes of relating this episode is to hold up David's exemplary piety as a penitent (if not exemplary sinner), why is Ibn 'Asakir so elliptical about it ? and why do the qus$a$ insist on presenting a " sanitized " version of Samuel's account ? After all, one might think that if David had more to repent from, his repentance would only be enhanced further. The answer lies somewhere between the Qur'an's lack of detail because of its assumption of knowledge about David's life on the part of its hearers and the subsequent scholars' and qusas' uneasiness with the rather pitiful behavior of the Biblical heroes across the board. In fact, we find Muslim scholars and qu$$sa involved in what amounts to moral rehabilitation projects in order to clean up the reprehensible behavior of the patriarchs and prophets of ancient Israel as portrayed in what Muslim scholars held to be the incredible and scandalous Hebrew scriptures. To name only a few examples: there is the account of Lot sleeping with his daughters who conceived two sons by him (Genesis 19:30ff.); Jacob's repeated lying to and cheating of his brother, father, and father-in-law (Genesis 27-28) Jacob's mistakenly sleeping with Leah, Rachel's sister (Genesis 29:15); Reuben sleeping with his father's concubine, Bilha (Gen- esis 35:22); and of course David's adulterous relationship with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12) (109).

In the case of David, a difficult rehabilitation project is made easier by the rather cryptic Qur'anic account. David does sin gravely, but in the qi$a$ al-anbiya' tradition his sin is portrayed as arranging for the death of Uriah in order to take Bathsheba as his wife, not in taking her in an adulterous relationship. But even a simple matter-of-fact reading of the Qur'anic account does not require this particular interpretation. It easily could be read along the lines of Samuel's account. In fact, one could argue that it makes more sense when read this way. In the Qur'an we have two litigants - two brothers - one who has ninety-nine ewes and one who has only one. The brother with ninety-nine ewes takes his brother's lone ewe as his own. This is done without anyone losing his life. In Sam- uel's account Nathan convicts David in his heart with a similar tale of a wealthy man who takes another's lone ewe for his own feast. In both

(108) al-Tabari, Ta'rikh, 1:566; History, 3:146. (109) For a treatment of Muslim attitudes toward the Bible (in particular those of the

fifth/eleventh-century Andalusian scholar, Ibn Hazm) see chapter two "Muslim Arguments Against the Bible" in Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, Intertwined Worlds: Medieval Islam and Bible Criticism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), especially pp. 32-34.

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Samuel's and the Qur'anic account David's sin seems to be the taking of what does not belong to him, not his killing the owner of the lone ewe.

However, it should be noted that it was not just the qu$$as who were put off by Samuel's adulterous David. There exists a midrash which simply contradicts Samuel's account. According to this midrash, David is free of the sin of adultery because Uriah, as was customary at the time, had given Bathsheba a bill of divorce before he set off for the front (10). Hence, even in the qu$$as' rehabilitation of David's reputation we might discern some sort of rabbinical influence. Now, that certain rabbis and qussas might feel uncomfortable with the paradigmatic exemplar of piety being an adulterer is understandable. Nor is it uncommon to find midrash which flatly contradict Biblical accounts. Nevertheless, even a strong aversion to speaking of such things does not explain Ibn 'Asakir's glossing over this issue.

It is crystal clear from the amount of attention which Ibn 'Asakir gives to the pre-Islamic prophets that he was intimately familiar with the qisas al-anbiya' tradition as a whole. Also, his use of Wahb ibn Munabbih as one of his principle sources, certainly indicates that Ibn 'Asakir was well aware of his and other qu$a$s' treatment of David. It is safe to assume that by the sixth/twelfth century, so too would be his contemporaries. We are left then with the intriguing question as to why Ibn 'Asakir essentially chooses to ignore this pivotal issue in David's life. Certainly this is contrary to his muhaddith's meticulous tenacity in other areas. Nor does it appear to mesh with his diligent quest for religious knowledge throughout Syria, the Hijaz and the East - especially religious knowledge which might be remotely connected to Syria.

Yet I would argue that it may very well be because of his great pride in the place of his birth that Ibn 'Asakir chooses to downplay this episode in David's life. After all, his Ta'rikh is intended, in part, to extol the virtues of Damascus (fa.da'il dimashq) and Syria. I have argued above that this is one of Ibn 'Asakir's principle reasons for including so many prophetic biographies which include a great deal of hagiographic and folkloric material as actual " history ". Ibn 'Asakir neither questions the miraculous defeat of Goliath; nor that " David had a voice which would soothe the frantic and console the grieving mother; [nor that] the wild beats would so listen to him that he could pet their necks without their being aware " (11). Nor does he question the extent of his piety, his encounters with frogs, parrots, or worms, nor the chain of justice with which he

(110) Angelo S. Rappoport, Myth and Legend of Ancient Israel, 3 vols. (New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1966), 3:19, 27-29. I do not know how the rabbis determined that giving a bill of divorce under such circumstances was customary at that time. Nor do I know whether such a practice was, in fact, customary at that time.

(111) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:715.

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judged the Children of Israel (112). Each of these stories and many others is included in his account as factual reality either on the authority of the Messenger of God himself, one of his companions, or a reliable qas$.

So why do we find Ibn 'Asakir skirting this issue ? At the risk of sound- ing prudish, it simply may be related to the sexual nature of David's sin. For, as stated above, because of the doctrine of 'isma (immunity from error and sin) as applied to the lives of the prophets, we find a very real uneasiness among Muslim scholars with the rather robust and well-documented humanity of many of the Biblical heroes as portrayed in the Hebrew scriptures. Although David is rehabilitated in the qis$a al-anbiya' tradition, one can assume that there was a general awareness among scholars that the qussas' interpretation of Qur'an 38's cryptic words was not the only possible interpretation. Nor would they be unaware of at least the gist of Samuel's account, even if only through arguments against it. Hence, Ibn 'Asakir's skittishness about this issue is not unusual.

But I suspect that Ibn 'Asakir's reasons for downplaying this unseemly episode exceed mere prudishness. I would argue that since Ibn 'Asakir's underlying agenda is to portray the enduring virtues of Damascus and Syria by recording the lives of those Syrians through whom God has worked in ages past, he chooses to devote his attention to David's virtues as a warrior and exemplary man of prayer and exceptional piety. Never- theless, Ibn 'Asakir cannot completely ignore this episode in David's life. He certainly would not want to be guilty of overlooking something clearly not overlooked in the Book of God. Hence, not only is his peculiarly cryptic language - that Uriya b. SOri's wife was " Sabi' bint Hanana, from whom David (Peace be upon him) took what he took" - more than sufficient to convey the well-known and established tradition, it allows Ibn 'Asakir to focus his attention on the glorious and pious things for which David is equally well known - and possibly from Ibn 'Asakir's point of view should be primarily known.

Conclusion

In this paper we have explored Ibn 'Asakir's interest in the qis$a al- anbiya'tradition through an examination of his portrayal of King David. We have argued that Ibn 'Asakir's interest in personalities and events of generations past is far deeper than pride in his place of birth, the virtues of Damascus (fada'il dimashq), or the mere availability of sources. Rather, we have seen that as a pious 'alim, muhaddith, and historian, Ibn 'Asakir's concern with history is as sacred history - that is, an account of

(112) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:717.

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God working through his human agents to accomplish his will in Syria from the beginning of human time town to his own day. Hence, we have argued that his choice to include so many pre-Islamic Biblical and extra- Biblical prophetic biographies in this Ta'rikh is rooted in the larger qisa$ al-anbiya' tradition of vindicating the message and mission of Muhammad the messenger of God by demonstrating the continuity between the lives and ministries of the ancient prophets in Syria and Muhammad's life and ministry in first/seventh-century Arabia.

We have also argued that Ibn 'Asakir employs a very different formula in his biographies of sacred figures like David than in the bulk of his biographies ('ulama') in that they contain considerably more narrative and anecdotal material. However, to repeat a point made above, all of Ibn 'Asakir's biographies that I have studied - whether scholarly, political, or prophetic - are constructed in such a way to convey a pious and moral message. Related to this, it is no great surprise that Ibn 'Asakir's biography of David is of no value for gaining an understanding of ancient Israel, for by Ibn 'Asakir's day the ancient prophets and sacred figures had been incorporated into and made relevant to certain aspects of the Islamic tradition. As we have seen, Ibn 'Asakir - through his skillful use of the qi$as material - transformed the earthy and robustly flawed David of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles into an exemplary pious Muslim. This is possible because, according to Muslim tradition, David, as a Muslim prophet, was ma'um; nor was Ibn 'Asakir dealing with what Muslim tradition held to be a subsequently distorted revelation. Hence, Ibn 'Asakir's life of King David as a Muslim prophet speaks to the immediate pious concerns of the Believer. It should be noted, however, that the qisas al-anbiya'tradition has numerous wonderful tales and lengthy narratives of David's life which Ibn 'Asakir simply chooses to ignore. It appears that Ibn 'Asakir is interested only in those which facilitate his purpose of holding David up as a prophet, who - despite his repeated moral failings - is the paradigmatic pious, moral and spiritual model to be emu- lated by the faithful.

Ibn 'Asakir illustrates this in his biography of David in several ways. He portrays David as the exemplar of supererogatory prayer and fasting. When he enters into battle he proclaims the greatness of God as a Muslim would - Allahu Akbar! In addition, David's prophethood is legitimated by his blood ties to Abraham; by the three stones of his grandfathers - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and like his predecessor Moses and his suc- cessor Muhammad, by his labors as a shepherd. Nevertheless, Ibn 'Asakir's concern with the virtues of Damascus and pride in the place of his birth does appear to color his portrayal of David, as can be seen in his cryptic treatment of the events surrounding Uriah the Hittite's death, and David taking his wife, Bathsheba, to be his own.

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Finally, we need to be mindful that in addition to vindicating Muhammad's prophethood or extolling the virtues of Damascus and Syria, the tales of the lives of the prophets in the Islamic tradition, like the tales of the lives of the prophets and saints in the Jewish and Christian traditions, also serve an important moral purpose. They are preserved, told, and re-told with the intent to instruct and guide the believer in devotion to God and to inspire him to good works. As we have seen, supererogatory prayer and fasting are the measure of David's devotion and thankfulness to God - the standard to which God's people should aspire. And as is appropriate, David's earnest devotion and thankfulness to God is captured in a beautiful narrative report attributed to al-Fudayl b. 'Ayyad.

David (Peace be upon him) said, 'How can I give thanks to You except by Your grace ?' And God Most High inspired him, 'When you know that all you have is by My grace, then you have given thanks to Me' (113).

James E. LINDSAY

(Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara)

(113) Ibn 'Asakir, 5:714.

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Ali Ibn Asakir as a Preserver of Qisas Al Anbiya the Case of David b Jesse

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