Malhamat Daniel

Yıl 2019, Sayı: 5, 57 - 97, 31.12.2019

İbrahim Al-khaffaf

Öz

: ''Malhamat Daniel" is the oldest malhama book in Islamic history, and it concerns knowing the future events based on studying natural phenomena. It was attributed to the Biblical Daniel, even though the book was written hundreds of years after the time of Daniel. However, the reason for such an attribution stems from the importance of this character in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic religions, and also it stems from the connection of his name with Babylon, astrology and prophecy. In this thesis, the printed copy which I called ''Najaf edition''-whose manuscript is not available- is compared with three manuscripts. The comparison shows that the ''Najaf edition'' is the closest to the original lost text, although the other three manuscripts sometimes allow us to correct it. The original could have been translated from the Syriac or Aramaic language. And the clear difference between the Najaf edition and the three manuscripts explains the flexibility and the ability of this text for changing and adapting in accordance with the age and the environment to which it arrived. And it seems that there is a relationship of this text with the ancient Babylonian Literature, for example the phenomenon of starting the year with the month of Nisan. Because the region of Babylon played a great role in traditions about Daniel, in the process of tracing Daniel in Mesopotamia, we examine the shrines which were associated with him, most of them in the Southern Iraq. Comparing this with what the old travelers mentioned regarding his tomb, we reach a rough conjecture about the place in which the original text of the malhama could have been written. And after this examination and comparison it seems likely that the text behind the Najaf edition took its final shape in some place between Basra and Ahwaz, at the hand of a Shi'ite man who lived in the eleventh century. This study also tries to present every piece of information about Daniel in the ancient Islamic sources, thus this thesis can be taken as an introduction for any student who wants to study Daniel in Islamic History

Anahtar Kelimeler

Islamic History, Malhama, Daniel, Astrology, Prophecy, Babylon, Mesopotamia

Kaynakça

• Al-Khaffaf, Ibrahim. “Malhamat Daniel.” İsrailiyat: İsrail ve Yahudi Çalışmaları Dergisi, no. 5 (Kış 2019): 50-63.