Re: Ja:hili:ya


Yusuf B Gursey wrote:
Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim wrote:
Alan a écrit :

"Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim" wrote
The term ?al-Ja:hili:ya is referred to the pre-Islamic paganism or a
state of of ignorance. The three core consonants JHL refer to the state
of not knowing. Arabs claim it was called ?al-Ja:hili:ya because they
were ignorant of Islam and not because the of their ignorance in
general. This explanation doesn't seem convincing to me. Any ideas.
Regards
Jamshid

Well, I've always been convinced that's the case. What is there about that
explanation, Jamshid, that "doesn't seem convincing"?
And what evidence do you have (convincing or otherwise) that it referred to
a condition of ignorance in general??

Let me Alan ask the other way round: what makes you then so convinced
that Ja:lili:yya really refers to ignorance of Islam? Today's Arabs are
very proud of the pre-Islamic literary heritage. But my problem is with
Arab (often exaggerated) explanations in order to show something in a
different light. Such explanations are often misleading. For example I
have often heard Arabs make the black and white statement: the Prophet
descended from a rich and powerful family apart from other existing
legends but now we know his family was not that important. Your

I didn't hear that bit of new interpretation, unless it refers to the
downsizing of Meccan trade in general.

evidence is Quran itself or the ideas provided by Paret, Watt or other
Orientalists if you like (I am sure you know them). I am afraid don't
know much about the term Ja:hili:yya. For example: when was it first
used? What did it originally imply? But I feel it hasn't been
suffiently dealt with. Perhaps the radicals JHL here don't refer to


I subscribe to "usage over 'roots' "

ignorance but disregard as in the extended verb form. Of course people
in Ja:hili:yya couldn't have been ignorant in any sense.The term must


Enc. of Islam II "Djahiliyya" (the CD-ROM (1st ver.) misspells the
entry <Djahilliya>)


no typo in the printed edition

have been applied later and probably implied more than "ignorance of
Islam". Another word which just came to my mind is ?ummi: (illiterate
or motherly) which is said to be derived from ?umma (ordinary people)
and ?umm (mother).

one modern interpreation is that it originally meant "Gentile" (from a
hebrew expression "of the nations of the world") and then became
"uneducated in scripture",
and only later "illiterate". Noldeke and others, see Enc. of Islam I
(first edition), "Ummi"


the second eddition some modern advocates of more traditional
explanations.


Regards
Jamshid

.

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