Comparative Linguistic Research

Comparative Linguistic Research

From Raqīʿā to Araboth: An etymological and linguistic survey on the names of the seven heavens in some Islamic and Jewish cosmological narratives

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Kiamehr Namvar 1
Arya Tabibzadeh 2
1 Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Literature, university of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.22084/rjhll.2025.31273.2388
Abstract
This paper deals with hadiths in medieval Islamic sources enumerating the names of the seven heavens. We argue these hadiths consist of two main types of narrations: 1. the narration of the creation of the heavens attributed to Salmān al-Fārsī (the original type), and 2. A part of Ibn ʿAbbās’s narration of the prophet’s ascension which is indeed a variation of the Salmān’s narration, with considerable variations in the sources. By investigating over than 20 Islamic medieval sources in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, we present over than 270 forms of the heavens' names in various narrations of the hadith. Then, we analyse these names and compare them with the cosmological narration of Chagigah in Talmud, basically with an etymological and linguistic approch. Finally, based on the considerable resemblance between the Islamic and the narrations we conclude that the under discussion Hadith may be an Isrāʾīliyya.
Keywords
Etymology
Semitic Languages
Persian Texts
Islamic Narratives
Jewish Narratives
Subjects