Yeah, what I found relevant and interesting wasn't his specific thesis but rather the background information on Greek-Arabic language contact (p. 584-589).
I for one can’t see anything intrinsically wrong with Cole’s thesis. But I think it requires some explanation to fully understand it.
It should be obvious that Cole isn’t claiming that Arabs didn’t know how to dye textiles or that they didn’t have a word for it. The argument he is making is that the Quranic phrases “the dye of God” and “God as a dye” at ٱلْبَقَرَة
al-Bakarah 2:138, which suggest the action or state of the righteous or right-believers’ ”being dyed with the dye of God/God as a dye” is a reflection of Platonic traditions according to which universal Forms/Ideas (Εἴδη
Eide) such as the Logos, “dye” or “colour” particular beings. These traditions in which the Logos was equated with God (see John 1:14), had become part of Hellenistic Christianity in the centuries prior to Islam.
Additionally, Plato’s ideal society was essentially a theocracy, hierocracy, or “Kingdom of God on earth”, i.e., a City-State ruled by philosopher-kings, organised under a council of philosopher-prophets and -priests, and governed according to sacred laws established by the divine Nous (or Logos).
The guardians of this Ideal City-State were to be inculcated with the divine laws and right belief (ὀρθὴ δόξα
orthé dóxa) as with a dye that cannot fade or be washed out under any circumstances:
“Dyers when they wish to dye wool so as to hold the purple hue begin by selecting from the many colours there be the one naturally white and then give it a careful preparatory treatment so that it will take the hue in the best way, and after the treatment, then and then only, dip it in the dye” (
Republic 429c-430a).
Dyeing (βάπτειν
baptein > MG βάφω
vafo), whether used in the literal sense (of wool) or metaphorically (of a human), involves a preparatory process. In the literal sense, this consists of washing, scouring and treating with a fixative (mordanting) that ensures colourfastness. In the metaphorical sense this started with a process of purification (κάθαρσις,
kátharsis) and progressed to illumination (ἔλλαμψις
éllampsis) and complete unity with or immersion in the divine (ἕνωσις
hénosis).
The Platonic “dyeing” metaphor was employed by Christian writers such as Basil of Caesarea and Pseudo Chrysostom (4th and 5th centuries) who were familiar with Platonic texts and it was clearly part of the wider Hellenistic heritage of Late Antiquity from where it was adopted by Islam.
Among Christians, where the end goal was known as
θέωσις théosis, “deification”, the process involved certain practices such as ablutions, fasting, ethical conduct, prayer and contemplation, that were particularly observed by the monks, hermits and ascetics of Syria, such as
St Simeon Stylite, who were visited by many pilgrims from Persia, Arabia and Armenia. Pilgrims came not only to receive the saints’ blessings but also for spiritual instruction and the natural medium of communication in addition to Aramaic was Greek.
Nor is there any good reason to think that Arabic مِلَّة
milla, “religion” can’t be a loan from Syriac ܡܠܬܐ
mellṯā, “utterance, word” (< Aramaic מִלָּה
mellā), and the latter a loanshift from Greek λόγος
logos; that the word “Islam” itself can’t be traced to the Greek παράδοσις
paradosis, “tradition” through the Aramaic
mashlamānūtā; or that the mysterious Luqmān (who according to the Quran is bestowed by God with حِكْمَة
hikma, “wisdom, philosophy” = Greek σοφία, φιλοσοφία
sophia,
philosophia, “wisdom, philosophy”) can’t be the famous 5th-century BC philosopher-scientist
Alcmaeon of Croton who is often cited by Christian writers, etc., all of which, if correct, is rather indicative of Greek influence.
It may be noted in this connection that, in addition to narratives with Jewish and Christian characters and themes, the Quran also seems to contain materials of Greek origin, such as the story of
ذُو ٱلْقَرْنَيْن Dhu al-Qarnayn, “He of the Two Horns”, whom scholars have identified with Alexander the Great (who is represented on Greek coins as a horned Zeus-Ammon and whose story was translated from Greek into Syriac in the 4th century and also entered the oral traditions of Persia and elsewhere).
See also:
Juan Cole, “Muhammad and Justinian: Roman Legal Traditions and the Qur’an,”
JNES 79 (2020) 183–196, and “Paradosis and Monotheism: A Late Antique Approach to the Meaning of
islām in the Quran,”
BSOAS 82 (2019) 405–425.
I feel that on this forum there is a default position that pre-Islamic Arabic can only 'interface' with the rest of the world through Aramaic (presumably because Arabic is too foreign and exotic to be in direct contact with 'civilized' Greece and Rome or something) ...
That is my impression, too. Obviously, there may be many reasons behind an Anti-Greek (and potentially anti-Christian) stance, not excluding political and ideological prejudice.
This has a long and well-documented history going back to the perceived conflict between Greek philosophy and Judaeo-Christian revelation formulated as “Jerusalem versus Athens” by Christian polemicists like Tertullian (
Against Heretics 7.3, 9-11) and has led to attempts to “de-Hellenise” Christianity and history itself.
Aramaism, especially in its more radical forms, is clearly a manifestation of this trend and in my experience it tends to be prevalent among older generations unfamiliar with (or reluctant to acknowledge) more recent scientific findings. As Cole points out,
“The studies of the Nabataean and Safaitic inscriptions since Bellamy’s time, the discovery of seventh-century Qur’an MSS. and palaeographical studies, and the newly discovered wealth of early Islamic rock inscriptions around Mecca and Medina have changed the way scholars look at the (Quranic) text” (584).
The reality is that Christianity took a largely sympathetic view of the achievements of Classical thinkers, as evident from the statements of numerous Church Fathers like St Augustine (see above, #79). On their part, Hellenistic philosophers like Numenius of Apamea (second-century Syria) tended to agree with aspects of Judaeo-Christian teachings, some of which were themselves influenced by Hellenised Jewish thinkers such as Philo:
“What is Plato other than Moses speaking Attic Greek?”/“Tί γάρ ἐστι Πλάτων ἢ Μωυσῆς ἀττικίζων;” (Numenius quoted in Clement of Alexandria,
Stromata 1.22.150.4).
Essentially, Greek culture, thought and language remained highly influential in the region for many centuries into the Islamic era. As Cole puts it, “The Hejaz was a cultural appendage of the Transjordan, sharing a Greco-Roman-Nabataean heritage (587).
As Jeffery has shown, there were at least three Greek-speaking Christians among Mohammad’s acquaintances, or four if we include Bahira <
bhira, Syriac equivalent of Latin-Greek Sergius/Σέργιος (al-Masudi,
Murūj aḏ-Ḏahab wa-Maʿādin al-Jawhar 1, 146 in Jeffery: 106), who as a Syrian monk would have known Greek (Syria being part of the Byzantine Empire).
As for those who insist on the “Semitic roots” of Arabic terms, they seem to forget that a Semitic root doesn’t mean an Arabic word/phrase can’t be a calque from Greek or used in ways that are influenced by Greek and, at any rate, no such roots are attested in the case of
firdaws.
