372 ZABUR ZABUR (A.), a term found in pre-Islamic poetry referring to a written text, and in the Iur’ãn referring to divine scripture, in some contexts specifically to a scripture of David [see DAWUD], prob ably the Psalms, The Arabic root z-b-r is associated with “stone” (hidjara), and verbal forms from it convey such mean ings as stoning, lining a well with stones or setting stones in walls according to an overlapping pattern a11 unrelated word is ubra, said to designate a piece of iron). A further range of meanings associated with the root conveys the sense of reciting or writing a text. Here perhaps a dialect variation renders either abartu ‘I-kitãb or Lhabarfa ‘l-kuab as kara’tmthu “I recitedf read it”. Western scholarship has tended to view the first range of meaning as the root’s original sense anti the second range a result of Biblical traditions. However. with the recent disuosery of South Arabian cursive writing on palm ribs and wooden sticks it has become evident that obata and zabür refer to this particular way of writing; see \V.V. Muller, L’êcnture zahur di lénsat pré-rslwnique dam la tradition a,abe, in .1 Ryckrnans, ‘lbller and Yusui’ ‘.1. Abdallah. 7ext’, du lenten antique Insthts sum boi,i, Louvain-la-Neuvc 1994, 35—9. ibis is reflected iii lmru’ al—lays referring in the remains of an abandoned camp ka-af(’ zahür” ft ‘a_iibmjit” ia,mni ‘‘like the lines of a text svntO’n on \enirni pain) branches’’ am 1(1. in anothem context. ka aW abUs ft masaf n,hbãn, “like the lines of a text in the books of monks”. esmern scholars have tended to understand ahür as related to Hebrew mizmr, with support from Arab grammarians who say that fa’ul may have a passive meaning, the equivalent of maf’ul. i’lw root meaning of Hebrew z—m—r is “to make music, with the noun form mj,tmör found in the Hebrew Bible 6w a poetic hymn or psalm in praise of God, and with cognates in Syriac maniörã and Ethiopic rnaz,nir. One may also note the sirnilarit3 between ahür and Biblical Hebrew 4ãmtr “song”. ‘[lie exchange of’ b with ma may. how ever, be considered problematical. It is also possihie that the Hehrew/Aramaic/Syrtac dtbhti, dthhtra/d’rfrti, meaning “speech’ or “utterance” and often referring to revelation, represents a Semitic parallel. It may have influenced the meaning of the Arabic zabara/ habara as referring to a written text in pre-lslaniie Arabia, thereby conveying the meaning of sacred or revealed text, although this becomes less likely now that we know (fiat z-b-r refers to South Arabia (see above;. Prc-Kur’ãnic rabhitnic Hebrew dibbür does refer to revelation Gen. Rob. 44:6, Iv. Rabh. 1:4. Song Rabb. 1:2:2, Yeb. Sb, San. 991,;, and even revelation to gentile prophets (Gen. Rab. 74:7;. The poetic and linguistic evidence therefore suggest that tbür referred to text and perhaps even sacred text amt.ing some pre_Islamic Arabian communities, whether Jewish, Christian. or practitioners of indigenous Arabian reli gious traditions. By the time of the Kur’ãnic revela tions, the tern) was already known to refer to, among other things, a written text of scripture. The root -h-r occurs in the Kur’ãn thirteen times. In some contexts it occurs as a plural, zuhur, in par allel with byvinat ;“proofs” III, 184, XVI, 43, XXXV, 25’, al-kitãb al-munfr (“enlightening scripture” [II, 184, XXXV, 25. dhikr (“the reminder” XVI. 43), and tani1 (“revelation” or “bringing down” XXVI, 192-6), thereby referring in general to revealed books. The reference to ,tmthur in XXI1I, 53 seems to denote different scrip tures over which certain groups are divided and which contrasts with the undivided community of Islani (umma wãhida( religiously obedient to God. In sQra LW, al Iamar, the plural ubur refers to heavenly books in which are recorded human deeds (vv, 43, 52-3), prob ably referring to a divine ledger in which human behaviour is recorded (mustatar) as a basis for final I judgment (cf. vv. 48, 54). In contrast, XVIII, 96, refers to pieces of iron zubar al-jiadid) by which ii]tI ‘i-I.anIayii separates a people from the terror of (log and Magog. ‘I’he singular zabür occurs three times in the lur’ãn. ‘I’wire it refers specifically to a certain revelation given to l)avid that is mentioned either within the eoulfl’xt of prophethotd in general (XVII, 54) or in a cost- text referring to revelations given to Mubammad and other prophets (IV, 163). In both places David is sin gled out as the recipient of a divinely given aahur (mva-titayaã Dawad’ abür’t. In XXI. lOS, God is referred to as citimig from what the context suggests is a recognised wnrk: “We have written in the ahüt after the retsiind’r (mitt ba’d al—dbiksi that My right eous servants shall inherit the earth (anna ‘1-ned parzuha ‘tbadi al-sälthun’”. This veise reprcseitts a (‘lose and rare linguistic parallel with the Hbrcw Bible amid, more pointedly, with Ps. xxxvii ascribed speeificahl) to I)avid (see vv. 9, 11, 29 which refer in the meek, the righteous or “those who wait upon the Lord” as they who shall inherit the earth virit ‘Ure,c); ci K. Ahrens, (,‘hmiiththc im ()vrut, in ZDi1IC lxxxiv 1930). 29). It should be noted also in relation to Kur’tiui, IV, 163, amid XVII, 34, that the entire Biblical cnl— leetion of Psalms is ascribed to David according to Jewish and Christian tradition. Al-’j’ahart collects the comments of early Kur’atiii exegetes in his 7sir, including definitions of terms such as zahiir, which vary depending ott the verse. On XXI, 105, he records the meaning of tthur as “all the hooks of the prophets that God brought down to them’’ (So’ td h. Uttbayr, I his Zayd 1 , ‘‘the hooks revealed to the prophets after Moses” lbn ‘Abhgs, al:I)ah(tgk), and “a specific book revealed to David ç’Amir, al-Sha’l,i. A]-1’abari also defines the term in relation to its context. In his commentary on III, 181, it is a generic term I’m a book based on pre—Islaniic poetic evidence, On IV, 163, he writes, “It IS the name of the book that was revealed to David. just as He named the book that was revealed to Moses as the Torah and that which was revealed to ,Jestts as the Gospel and tlsat which was revealed to Mttljammarh as the Furan, because that is the name by which what was revealed to David was known. ‘I’he Arabs say abr Dau’üd. and because of that the rest of the peoples know his hook.” Apart from the question of the term zabtr, many passages in the Iur’An that remind us of the Bible arc reminiscent of the Psalms. It is likely that some form or fornts of a Psalter circulated in pee-Islamic. Arabia immediately prior In the rise of Islam. A frag ment of a translatiomi of the Psalms, dated on palaeo graphical grounds to the 2nd/8th century, the oldest kisown specimen of Christian-Arabic literature, was identified in Damascus by B. Violct. It contains ati Arabic translatioti of Ps. lxxviii. 20-31, 51-61, in Greek majuscule writing. Al-Kmndi, in his Risala (composed ra. 204/819), atd Ibn Iutayba, as cited in Ibtt al D.jawzr’s I1’ift’, quote verses from the Psalms in lit eral translation. ‘Alt’ b. Rabbati al-Tabarr {q.i’.j devotes a chapter of his “Book of Religion and Empire” (Ca. 240/854) to the Psalms, and al-Mas’udt (lanbih, I l2 mentions Arabic translations of the Bible which in clude the Psalms. Recensiomts of thc Arabic translation commentary by Sa’d b. Yflsuf’al-FayySmt, i.e. Sa’adyã Gã’tin (d. 330/942 Isee SA’ADYA aax vt3sFr) of the Hebrew Bible, inclmtdittg the Psalms, exists to this day.