Обсуждение:Фир‘аун

Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition / Firʿawn

(pl. Farāʿina ), Pharaoh. The Arabic form of the name may derive from the Syriac or the Ethiopie. Commentators on the Ḳurʾān (II, 46-49) explain the word as the permanent title ( laḳab ) of the Amalekite kings [see ʿamālīk ], on the analogy of Kisrā, title of the sovereigns of Persia, and Ḳayṣar of the emperors of Byzantium. As the designation of the typical haughty and insolent tyrant, the name Firʿawn gave rise to a verb tafarʿana “to behave like a hardened tyrant”.—If one disregards certain verses of Umayya which are probably not authentic, it was in fact the Ḳurʾān which, at the time of the first Meccan period, introduced the figure of Pharaoh (only that of Exodus) into Arabic literature. Broadly speaking, the narrative in the Ḳurʾān, so far as one can synthesize it artificially by the help of texts extending almost from the beginning of the revelation to the third year of the Medina period, covers the first fourteen chapters of the book of Exodus: the oppression of the children of Israel, the birth of Moses [see mūsā ], the mission of Moses and Aaron [see hārūn ], the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, Moses’ miracles, the plagues, the Exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh; like all narrative elements of this sort in the Ḳurʾān, the history of Pharaoh is seen in relation to Muḥammad’s own mission—the determined rejection of the divine message by the unbelievers who in the end are severely punished, while the believers among them are saved. In the fragmentary accounts given in the Ḳurʾān, certain non-biblical elements may be detected, the chief ones being the following. Firʿawn is given the name (LXXXIX, 9/10 and XXXVIII, 11/12) d̲h̲u ’l-awtād “master of ¶ the stakes (posts)” perhaps on account of his buildings (cf. XXVIII, 38), but this interpretation (J. Horovitz) is scarcely less uncertain than those which have been put forward by Muslim commentators. The place of Pharaoh’s daughter is taken by his wife, to whom commentators give the name of Āsiya [q.v.]. As Pharaoh’s counsellor there appears a certain Hāmān who is responsible in particular for building a tower which will enable Pharaoh to reach the God of Moses (XXVIII, 38 and XL, 38/36): the narrative in Exodus is thus modified in two respects, by misplaced recollections of both the book of Esther and the story of the tower of Babel (Genesis, xi) to which no other reference occurs in the Ḳurʾān. The unnamed believer in Pharaoh’s entourage who pleaded for Mūsā (XL, 29/28 ff.) cannot be connected with any known Jewish or Christian legend, unless it be related to a vague recollection of the Aggada which makes Jethro one of Pharaoh’s advisers.—The conversion of the magicians who were in consequence threatened with cruel punishments by their master is an innovation of the Ḳurʾān (cf. however Exodus, viii, 15 and x, 7), whilst Firʿawn’s aspiration to divinity (XXVIII, 38) is Aggadic, as is also his conversion in extremis, which God rejects (X, 90-2).

Muslim tradition (both exegesis and historiography) does not confine itself to commenting on and amplifying the Ḳurʾānic version, particularly with the aid of Aggada elements. Its field of interest extends beyond that of the inspired book, and it deals with the kings of Egypt both before and after the Firʿawn of Mūsā, connecting them with the “Amalekites” and also, later, drawing on the stock of local legends. Thus the Firʿawn of Ibrāhīm [q.v.] and Yūsuf [q.v.] is discussed; he is given the name al-Rayyān b. al-Walīd (or al-Walīd or even Dārim b. al-Rayyān) and his successor Ḳābūs b. Muṣʿab (al-Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ , i, 92, but written al-Walīd b. Musʿab). Isolated traditions, regarded with utter disdain by the author of al-Badʾ wa ’l-taʾrīk̲h̲ , attribute an Iranian origin to Firʿawn and Hāmān (al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr , xx, 28: Firʿawn was a native of Iṣṭak̲h̲r: Badʾ , iii, 81 ff./84: Firʿawn a native of Balk̲h̲ and Hāmān of Sarak̲h̲s).

The New Testament theme of the massacre of the innocents is introduced into the account of the birth of Moses, and the Midrashic legend of the proving of Moses by the crown and burning coals came into the account of the education of the future liberator of Israel who was brought up at Pharaoh’s court.

Similarly, it was with the Jewish Aggada ( Abōt̲h̲ of Rabbi Nathan , recension A, ch. XXVII and Pirkey Rabbi Eliʿezer , ch. XLII) and through it possibly to an ancient Egyptian related form that is connected the legend of the mare ridden by Gabriel which led Firʿawn’s army into the abyss, the vanguard of the army being commanded by Hāmān. After the drowning of Firʿawn, whom Gabriel prevented from making his profession of faith until the very end by cramming his mouth with sea slime, Mūsā sent to Egypt a military expedition commanded by Joshua and Caleb. The Badʾ wa ’l-taʾrīk̲h̲ (iv, 37/36) is aware that the Jews celebrate the feast of unleavened bread in memory of their delivery from the hands of Firʿawn (cf. also al-Bīrūnī, Āt̲h̲ār , ed. Sachau, 281, Chronology , 275), but certain traditions also exist which give the same motive for the celebration of the fast of ʿAs̲h̲ūrā by the Jews (texts quoted from G. Vajda, Hebrew Union College Annual , xii-xiii (1937-8), 374, but ¶ whose authenticity is rejected by al-Bīrūnī, ibid., 330 ff./327 ff.).

A later Firʿawn bears the name Aʿrad̲j̲ “the lame”; this, no doubt, is Necho (Nekō, II Chron. xxxv and xxxvi), whose name is thus interpreted by the Jewish Aggada (Targum, also Peshiṭṭa, Leviticus-Rabba xx/1, ed. M. Margulies, 442); al-Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ , ii, 410, however, calls him Bilūnah. —The theological problem of the “hardening of heart” of Firʿawn did not fail to occupy the attention of the Muʿtazila (see Badʾ , i, 106/97 ff.). The Mystics and in particular al-Ḥallād̲j̲ meditated in their fashion on the revolt and the conversion in extremis of Firʿawn (see L. Massignon, La Passion d’al-Hallāj , 357, 416, n. 1, 615, 935-9 and H. Ritter, Das Meet der Seele , 74 and 272), but with them also he remains one of the prototypes of pride, concupiscence and refusal to renounce self (see, e.g., al-Muḥāsibī, Riʿāya , 236 ff. and H. Ritter, ibid., 51, 98 ff., 114, 577; a more favourable view, 320).

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Bibliography Ḳurʾān, index to R. Blachère’s translation, s.vv. Pharaon, Plaies d’Egypte, Haman

Ṭabarī, Tafsīr on these passages

idem, Annales, i, 378-9, 442-89

Yaʿḳūbī, Historiae, ed. Houtsma, i, 30 ff. (G. Smit, Bijbel en Legende, 39-44)

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ii, 368-9, 397-8, 410-4

iii, 273

al-Badʾ wa ’l-taʾrīk̲h̲, ed. C. Huart, passages quoted in the article and i, 106/97-8

ii, 209/180

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J. Horowitz, Koranische Untersuchungen, 130 ff.

A. Jeffery, The foreign vocabulary of the Qurʾan, 225

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B. Heller, Egyptian elements in the Aggada (in Hungarian), in Magyar Zsido Szemle, liv (1937), 280

G. Wiet, L’Egypte de Murtadi, Paris 1953, especially the Introduction, 16-47.

Cite this page

Wensinck, A.J. and Vajda, G., “Firʿawn”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 10 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_2375>