The Koran inverts the biblical portrait of Ishmael as rejected son
Evidence
Ishmael, far from being the rejected illegitimate son portrayed in Genesis, is, for the Koran, the first and favored son of Abraham, and the Ka’ba is the oldest and most holy shrine to the One God, predating Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 228 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
The Rabbi Samuel letters, which were put into Latin only in the middle of the fourteenth century, were asserted by their translator to have long circulated in Arabic among Christians. Their originality was to interconnect the mutual verification of the Three Laws: that is to say, both Rabbinic teaching and the Qur’an confirm the truth of the Gospel, while each of them destroys the claim of the other. Islam taught the Rabbis that Jesus Christ is the Messias, while the Jews made the Muslims understand that Muhammad was neither Messias nor Paraclete. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 311 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Rabbinic midrash reinterpreted Ishmael’s play as concealed murderous intent; Islam repositions Ishmael, Abraham’s rejected son, as his favored heir — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 228; Asturian chroniclers identified contemporary Muslims with biblical Ishmael as divine enemies — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 557 (+14 more)
Broader Connections
- Islam repositions Ishmael, Abraham’s rejected son, as his favored heir
#corroborates(1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 228 - Asturian chroniclers identified contemporary Muslims with biblical Ishmael as divine enemies
#complicates(0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 557 - Medieval Christian anti-Islamic polemic relied on the Koran’s own text to refute it
#complicates(0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1263 - Medieval Christian polemic framed the Koran as Jewish and heretical pastiche.
#complicates(0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 842 - Medieval Christian polemic dismissed the Koran as satanic, not divine
#complicates(0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 396 - Medieval polemicists cited an accurate Koran while inverting its emphasis
#complicates(0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1082 - Castilian translations of the Koran and Mi’raj served anti-Muslim polemic
#complicates(0.70) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 996 - A covert Muslim could embrace Christian-mystical inwardness while rejecting its outer forms
#complicates(0.70) - Mediaeval Christian polemic relied on Scripture to refute Islam
#complicates(0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1401 - Christian polemicists knowingly distorted Muhammad’s biography to fit Antichrist archetypes
#complicates(0.70) - A polemical work made Jews and Muslims mutually undermine each other’s scriptures
#complicates(0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 311 - Unconstrained interpretation strips the Muslim creator of authority over his work
#complicates(0.70) - The Abrahamic reading rejects the linear progression from Judaism to Christianity to Islam
#complicates(0.70) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 335 - Scholastics read Muhammad’s Sonship denial as crude anthropomorphism
#complicates(0.70) - Medieval scholars identified the Saracens as Ishmael’s literal descendants
#complicates(0.70) — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 87