Rahmanan

Raḥmānān (Musnad: 𐩧𐩢𐩣𐩬𐩬 rḥmnn, "the Merciful") was an epithet and theonym predominantly used to refer to a singular, monotheistic God from the fourth to sixth centuries in South Arabia (though the term originates much earlier in Syria), beginning when the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom converted to Judaism and replacing invocations to polytheistic religions. The term may have also been monolatrous until the arrival of Christianity in the mid-sixth century.

During the reign of the Christian Himyarite king Sumyafa Ashwa, Jesus was referred to as the son of Raḥmānān. A few decades later, during the reign of Abraha, Jesus was also described as the Messiah of Raḥmānān.

Etymology

The root r-ḥ-m and its derivative words, originally referring not to a deity but just the notion of mercy, appears in Akkadian (sometimes an epithet for the god Ninurta), Hebrew (occurring in the Hebrew Bible), Old Aramaic (especially as an epithet for the Mesopotamian god Hadad), in addition to many other dialects of post-biblical Aramaic including Samaritan Aramaic, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Palmyrene Aramaic, the Aramaic dialects of the Babylonian Talmud and the Palestinian Talmud (as the term appears in these texts too), and Syriac. It can be shown that Syriac was not the dialect of Aramaic through which the root reached South Arabia.^[1]

The South Arabian root is currently considered a loan from Jewish Aramaic. The form Rahmanan, as it appears in the South Arabian language known of Sabaic, is also widely agreed to be the source of the Arabic form al-Raḥmān, especially as both forms use the definite article (al- in Arabic, -an in Sabaic). Both therefore translate to "The Merciful".^[2]^[3]^[4]

History

Ancient Syria and Mesopotamia

The earliest known usage of the term is found in a polytheistic bilingual inscription from northeastern Syria written in Akkadian and Aramaic dedicated to the Aramean god Hadad. In Aramaic, it reads: ‘lh. rḥmn zy. tṣlwth. ṭbh; "merciful god to whom prayer is sweet." The Akkadian version uses the form rēmēnȗ in the place of rḥmn, a title that was also used as an epithet for Marduk. Worship of the "Merciful One" (rḥmnn), under Mesopotamian cultural influence, became widespread in Syria in the first centuries AD.^[5]

Himyarite Kingdom

In the fourth century, the conversion of the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom to Judaism involved the replacement of all polytheistic invocations in inscriptions to references to the one God. In the mid-5th century onwards, the epithet Raḥmānān begins to be used to refer to this singular deity.^[4] Two inscriptions to this effect are Ry 515 and Ry 520, which read as follows^[5]:

Ry 515
Transliteration: 5. rbhwd | brḥmnn
Translation: 5. “By the Merciful, Lord of the Jews
Ry 520
Transliteration:
4. ... lmr’hm
5. w | rḥmnn | b’l | smyn | lhmrhw | w’ḥškt
6. hw | wwldhw | rḥmnn | ḥyy | ḥyw | sdqm | w
7. mwt | mwt | sdqm | wlhmrhw | rḥmnn | wld
8. m | slḥm | sb’m | lsmrḥmnn
Translation:
4. “... For their Lord
5. the Merciful, Master of Heaven, so that he grant to him and his spouses
6. and to his children, the Merciful, to live a life of justice, and to
7. die a death of justice. And that the Merciful grant to him children
8. who are healthy who will fight for the name of the Merciful...”

Jewish influence on these inscriptions is evident from these and other inscriptions in their combination with biblical names, and additional epithets like "Lord of the Jews", "Lord of Heaven", "Master of Heaven and Earth". Raḥmānān was believed to give a just life, grant children, and answer prayers. After the Himyarite Kingdom fell to the Christian Kingdom of Aksum, the term Raḥmānān begins to appear in Christian and sometimes Trinitarian contexts, as in inscriptions Ry 506, the Marib Dam inscription (CIS 541), and the Jabal Dabub inscription.^[5] The Jabal Dabub inscription, in particular, uses the term Raḥmān in a pre-Islamic variant of the Basmala.^[6]

Two names of God are used in the inscriptions Ja 1028 and Ry 515: Rb-hwd b-Rḥmnn, 'Lord of the Jews by/with Rahmanan', and Rb-hd b-Mḥmd: 'Lord of Jews by / with the Praised'. They are connected by the preposition b-, implying that the two gods are one entity. The two deities may have been distinguished, or syncretized.^[7] Evidence from another inscription, CIH 543, may suggest that the two are separate entities.^[8]

In total, extant Late Sabaic inscriptions use the term Raḥmānān 58 times, none of which can be labelled as pagan or polytheistic. However, the theonym is sometimes used in a monolatrous manner, placing Rahmanan alongside the God of the Jews. One hypothesis holds that local Jews would have equated Rahmanan with the biblical God, whereas immigrant Jews would have seen Rahmanan as a local god to be invoked alongside the God of Israel. After the conquest of Himyar by the Kingdom of Aksum, the term was solely used to refer to the one biblical God.^[2] Himyaritic epigraphy also sometimes uses the term synonymously with ʾl and ʾlh.^[9]

The phrase al-Raḥmān appears in putative pre-Islamic poetry as a synonym with Allāh, but it is unclear if these appearances represent a later Islamicization.^[10]

Aksumite kingdom

Around 530 AD, South Arabia fell under the rule of the Christian Aksumite Kingdom. During this period, the name Raḥmānān begins to be used in Christian inscriptions, especially as a component of Trinitarian formulas.^[4]

Quran

The Quran frequently uses the term al-Raḥmān to refer to "the Merciful One". The entry of the term al-Raḥmān into Old Arabic likely predates the Quran, as there is at least some pre-Islamic poetry using the phrase that appears to be authentic.^[11] Although Rahmanan was once its own name for the deity in South Arabia, and is sometimes used as such in the Quran, by its final redaction it had become an adjective modifying the word "God" as "the merciful".^[12]

The lengthier Quranic phrase al-rahman al-rahim ("The Merciful, the Compassionate") is likely related to Himyaritic inscriptions referring to rahmanan metrahim (with the same meaning). One example may be found in the Jabal Dabub inscription, which opens with reads "in the name of Allah, al-Rahman, al-Rahim, Lord of the heavens".^[13]

Islamic era

Tradition holds that during negotiations for the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya between Muhammad (representing the state of Medina) and the Quraysh (representing Mecca), the Qurayshi emissary Suhayl ibn Amr demanded that Muhammad remove the oath "in the name of Allāh, al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm" from the written agreement, as for him, it would have represented an acquiescence to monotheistic practice. In its place, Suhayl said that the phrase "In thy Name O God" should be used, representing a generic oath for the highest god that was still compatible with notions of practice that were not strictly monotheistic. Though his followers objected, Muhammad agreed to the compromise.^[2]

References

^ Gorea, Maria (2023-01-01). "From the Aramaic raḥmānāʾ to raḥmānān and al-raḥmān". Millennium. 20 (1): 91–106. doi:10.1515/mill-2023-0006. ISSN 1867-0318.
^ ^a ^b ^c Kjær, Sigrid K. (2022). "'Rahman' before Muhammad: A pre-history of the First Peace (Sulh) in Islam". Modern Asian Studies. 56 (3): 776–795. doi:10.1017/S0026749X21000305. ISSN 0026-749X.
^ Sinai, Nicolai (2020). Rain-giver, bone-breaker, score-settler: allāh in Pre-Quranic poetry. The American Oriental Society. p. 3.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gajda, Iwona (2023). "Rahmanan". Ancient Arabia.
^ ^a ^b ^c Kościelniak, Krzysztof (2011-11-07). "Jewish and Christian religious influences on pre-Islamic Arabia on the example of the term RḤMNN ("the Merciful")". Orientalia Christiana Cracoviensia. 3: 67–74. doi:10.15633/ochc.1024. ISSN 2450-2936.
^ Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2022). "A pre-Islamic basmala: reflections on its first epigraphic attestation and its original significance". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 52: 1–28.
^ Gajda, iwona (2017). "Remarks on Monotheism in Ancient South Arabia". In Bakhos, Carol; Cook, Michael (eds.). Islam and its past: Jahiliyya, Late Antiquity, and the Qur'an. Oxford studies in the abrahamic religions. Oxford: Oxford university press. pp. 253–254. ISBN 978-0-19-874849-6.
^ Grasso, Valentina A. (2023). Pre-islamic Arabia: societies, politics, cults and identities during late antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-1-009-25296-6.
^ Robin, Christian Julien; Rijziger, Sarah (2018-10-22). ""The Owner of the Sky, God of Israel" in a new Jewish Ḥimyaritic Inscription Dating from the Fifth Century CE". Der Islam (in German). 95 (2): 278–280. doi:10.1515/islam-2018-0050. ISSN 1613-0928.
^ Sinai, Nicolai (2020). Rain-giver, bone-breaker, score-settler: allāh in Pre-Quranic poetry. The American Oriental Society. p. 69.
^ Sinai, Nicolai (2023). Key terms of the Qur'an: a critical dictionary. Princeton (N.J.): Princeton university press. pp. 342–343. ISBN 978-0-691-24131-9.
^ Bowering, Gerhard (2002). "God and his attributes". Encyclopedia of the Quran: Vol. II: E-I. Brill. p. 317.
^ El-Badawi, Emran (2024). Female Divinity in the Qur’an In Conversation with the Bible and the Ancient Near East. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 158–159.

[1] Gorea, Maria (2023-01-01). "From the Aramaic raḥmānāʾ to raḥmānān and al-raḥmān". Millennium. 20 (1): 91–106. doi:10.1515/mill-2023-0006. ISSN 1867-0318.

[:0-2] Kjær, Sigrid K. (2022). "'Rahman' before Muhammad: A pre-history of the First Peace (Sulh) in Islam". Modern Asian Studies. 56 (3): 776–795. doi:10.1017/S0026749X21000305. ISSN 0026-749X.

[3] Sinai, Nicolai (2020). Rain-giver, bone-breaker, score-settler: allāh in Pre-Quranic poetry. The American Oriental Society. p. 3.

[:2-4] Gajda, Iwona (2023). "Rahmanan". Ancient Arabia.

[:1-5] Kościelniak, Krzysztof (2011-11-07). "Jewish and Christian religious influences on pre-Islamic Arabia on the example of the term RḤMNN ("the Merciful")". Orientalia Christiana Cracoviensia. 3: 67–74. doi:10.15633/ochc.1024. ISSN 2450-2936.

[:02-6] Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2022). "A pre-Islamic basmala: reflections on its first epigraphic attestation and its original significance". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 52: 1–28.

[7] Gajda, iwona (2017). "Remarks on Monotheism in Ancient South Arabia". In Bakhos, Carol; Cook, Michael (eds.). Islam and its past: Jahiliyya, Late Antiquity, and the Qur'an. Oxford studies in the abrahamic religions. Oxford: Oxford university press. pp. 253–254. ISBN 978-0-19-874849-6.

[8] Grasso, Valentina A. (2023). Pre-islamic Arabia: societies, politics, cults and identities during late antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-1-009-25296-6.

[9] Robin, Christian Julien; Rijziger, Sarah (2018-10-22). ""The Owner of the Sky, God of Israel" in a new Jewish Ḥimyaritic Inscription Dating from the Fifth Century CE". Der Islam (in German). 95 (2): 278–280. doi:10.1515/islam-2018-0050. ISSN 1613-0928.

[10] Sinai, Nicolai (2020). Rain-giver, bone-breaker, score-settler: allāh in Pre-Quranic poetry. The American Oriental Society. p. 69.

[11] Sinai, Nicolai (2023). Key terms of the Qur'an: a critical dictionary. Princeton (N.J.): Princeton university press. pp. 342–343. ISBN 978-0-691-24131-9.

[12] Bowering, Gerhard (2002). "God and his attributes". Encyclopedia of the Quran: Vol. II: E-I. Brill. p. 317.

[13] El-Badawi, Emran (2024). Female Divinity in the Qur’an In Conversation with the Bible and the Ancient Near East. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 158–159.

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