Rahmanism
Raḥmānān (Musnad: 𐩧𐩢𐩣𐩬𐩬 rḥmnn, "the Merciful") was an epithet and theonym predominantly used to refer to a singular, monotheistic God from the fourth to sixth centuries in South Arabia (though the term originates much earlier in Syria), beginning when the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom converted to Judaism and replacing invocations to polytheistic religions. The term may have also been monolatrous until the arrival of Christianity in the mid-sixth century.
During the reign of the Christian Himyarite king Sumyafa Ashwa, Jesus was referred to as the son of Raḥmānān. A few decades later, during the reign of Abraha, Jesus was also described as the Messiah of Raḥmānān.
The root r-ḥ-m can be found in use for a divinity in inscriptions from Palmyra, both the Babylonian Talmud and the Palestinian Talmud, and in the Syriac and Hebrew Bible it appears in the form raḥum. The root itself may be traced to the Akkadian form rêmum. The Arabic form al-Raḥmān is widely agreed to derive from the Sabaic form Raḥmānān is that the use of the Arabic definite article appears to follow the Sabaic use of the definite article, hence, both have the meaning "The Merciful".[1][2]
Ancient Syria and Mesopotamia
The earliest known usage of the term is found in a polytheistic bilingual inscription from northeastern Syria written in Akkadian and Aramaic dedicated to the Aramean god Hadad. In Aramaic, it reads: ‘lh. rḥmn zy. tṣlwth. ṭbh; "merciful god to whom prayer is sweet." The Akkadian version uses the form rēmēnȗ in the place of rḥmn, a title that was also used as an epithet for Marduk. Worship of the "Merciful One" (rḥmnn), under Mesopotamian cultural influence, became widespread in Syria in the first centuries AD.[3]
Himyarite Kingdom
In the fourth century, the conversion of the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom to Judaism involved the replacement of all polytheistic invocations in inscriptions to references to the one God, who was described using the epithet Raḥmānān. Two inscriptions to this effect are Ry 515 and Ry 520, which read as follows[3]:
Ry 515
Transliteration: 5. rbhwd | brḥmnn
Translation: 5. “By the Merciful, Lord of the Jews
Ry 520
Transliteration:
4. ... lmr’hm
5. w | rḥmnn | b’l | smyn | lhmrhw | w’ḥškt
6. hw | wwldhw | rḥmnn | ḥyy | ḥyw | sdqm | w
7. mwt | mwt | sdqm | wlhmrhw | rḥmnn | wld
8. m | slḥm | sb’m | lsmrḥmnn
Translation:
4. “... For their Lord
5. the Merciful, Master of Heaven, so that he grant to him and his spouses
6. and to his children, the Merciful, to live a life of justice, and to
7. die a death of justice. And that the Merciful grant to him children
8. who are healthy who will fight for the name of the Merciful...”
Jewish influence on these inscriptions is evident from these and other inscriptions in their combination with biblical names, and additional epithets like "Lord of the Jews", "Lord of Heaven", "Master of Heaven and Earth". Raḥmānān was believed to give a just life, grant children, and answer prayers. After the Himyarite Kingdom fell to the Christian Kingdom of Aksum, the term Raḥmānān begins to appear in Christian and sometimes Trinitarian contexts, as in inscriptions Ry 506, the Marib Dam inscription (CIS 541), and the Jabal Dabub inscription.[3] The Jabal Dabub inscription, in particular, uses the term Raḥmān in a pre-Islamic variant of the Basmala.[4]
Two names of God are used in the inscriptions Ja 1028 and Ry 515: Rb-hwd b-Rḥmnn, 'Lord of the Jews by/with Rahmanan', and Rb-hd b-Mḥmd: 'Lord of Jews by / with the Praised'. They are connected by the preposition b-, implying that the two gods are one entity. The two deities may have been distinguished, or syncretized.[5] Evidence from another inscription, CIH 543, may suggest that the two are separate entities.[6]
In total, extant Late Sabaic inscriptions use the term Raḥmānān 58 times, none of which can be labelled as pagan or polytheistic. However, the theonym is sometimes used in a monolatrous manner, placing Rahmanan alongside the God of the Jews. One hypothesis holds that local Jews would have equated Rahmanan with the biblical God, whereas immigrant Jews would have seen Rahmanan as a local god to be invoked alongside the God of Israel. After the conquest of Himyar by the Kingdom of Aksum, the term was solely used to refer to the one biblical God.[1] Himyaritic epigraphy also sometimes uses the term synonymously with ʾl and ʾlh.[7]
The phrase al-Raḥmān appears in putative pre-Islamic poetry as a synonym with Allāh, but it is unclear if these appearances represent a later Islamicization.[8]
Quran
The Quran frequently uses the term al-Raḥmān to refer to "the Merciful One". The entry of the term al-Raḥmān into Old Arabic likely predates the Quran, as there is at least some pre-Islamic poetry using the phrase that appears to be authentic.[9]
Islamic era
Tradition holds that during negotiations for the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya between Muhammad (representing the state of Medina) and the Quraysh (representing Mecca), the Qurayshi emissary Suhayl ibn Amr demanded that Muhammad remove the oath "in the name of Allāh, al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm" from the written agreement, as for him, it would have represented an acquiescence to monotheistic practice. In its place, Suhayl said that the phrase "In thy Name O God" should be used, representing a generic oath for the highest god that was still compatible with notions of practice that were not strictly monotheistic. Though his followers objected, Muhammad agreed to the compromise.[1]
- Kjær, Sigrid K. (2022). "'Rahman' before Muhammad: A pre-history of the First Peace (Sulh) in Islam". Modern Asian Studies. 56 (3): 776–795. doi:10.1017/S0026749X21000305. ISSN 0026-749X.
- Sinai, Nicolai (2020). Rain-giver, bone-breaker, score-settler: allāh in Pre-Quranic poetry. The American Oriental Society. p. 3.
- Kościelniak, Krzysztof (2011-11-07). "Jewish and Christian religious influences on pre-Islamic Arabia on the example of the term RḤMNN ("the Merciful")". Orientalia Christiana Cracoviensia. 3: 67–74. doi:10.15633/ochc.1024. ISSN 2450-2936.
- Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2022). "A pre-Islamic basmala: reflections on its first epigraphic attestation and its original significance". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 52: 1–28.
- Gajda, iwona (2017). "Remarks on Monotheism in Ancient South Arabia". In Bakhos, Carol; Cook, Michael (eds.). Islam and its past: Jahiliyya, Late Antiquity, and the Qur'an. Oxford studies in the abrahamic religions. Oxford: Oxford university press. pp. 253–254. ISBN 978-0-19-874849-6.
- Grasso, Valentina A. (2023). Pre-islamic Arabia: societies, politics, cults and identities during late antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-1-009-25296-6.
- Robin, Christian Julien; Rijziger, Sarah (2018-10-22). ""The Owner of the Sky, God of Israel" in a new Jewish Ḥimyaritic Inscription Dating from the Fifth Century CE". Der Islam (in German). 95 (2): 278–280. doi:10.1515/islam-2018-0050. ISSN 1613-0928.
- Sinai, Nicolai (2020). Rain-giver, bone-breaker, score-settler: allāh in Pre-Quranic poetry. The American Oriental Society. p. 69.
- Sinai, Nicolai (2023). Key terms of the Qur'an: a critical dictionary. Princeton (N.J.): Princeton university press. pp. 342–343. ISBN 978-0-691-24131-9.