Al-Farooq and so on

A writer alerts me that Robert Hoyland has an interview out. Before we get to this, let's return to the Aramaisms in the Quran. Classically in the discipline, they're Syriasms. Problem: Western Aramaic wasn't dead yet, as of the first/seventh century (tenth in Syriac); to hear people talk, they're still speaking it in Maʿlūlā. I've longed for a take on which Qâric Aramaism is what. Marijn van Putten has done well with these; here we'll discuss Jan Joosten 1991 followed up elsewhere with two [more] west Aramaic elements. [UPDATE 4/22: Joosten's further followups, through to 1996, won't add to our concerns excepting additional argumentation.]

Al-Farûq is a clear one, "the saviour". The Old Testament in Syriac uses the frq root which we read in the Christian creeds. Joosten (#4; b in his 1996 book) finds the Gospels prefer hy'. He sees hy' in Peshitta NT as an intrusion from the West.

Joosten (#5/c) notes the tôra. That's a mountain, as in the tôr-Mardîn by the Resh-ʿAyna. Well it's a mountain in Syriac (and in the Qurân!). It's a field in the Gospels and in the West. I suppose marg would be the proper Arabic for a field.

As day-versus-night goes, Q. 10:67 contrasts to night, the nahâr. In Arabic yawm is the generic day as unit-of-time (sometimes an apocalyptic metaphor, or a synonym for battle). The Syriac Gospels overloads yûma for the sunlit part of day (#6/d). It wouldn't occur to a Syriac-speaker to do this, elsewhere; Joosten considers this a Westernism.

Sura 4's cross is a silâb. I'd assumed slb was just Aramaic but apparently (followup; e in the book) not. It is a Westernism, not used in the Syriac Old Testament but common to the Gospels.

Can anything be made of these usages, in our Qurân?

(#4/b) implies that ʿUmar was hailed al-Farûq first by the Jews of Babylon. Not in Palaestina; never by Christians. Only further out, starting ReshʿAyna / Mardîn and moving on east to Nineveh and Takrit, might "al-Farûq" make sense. More: it would make sense in Jewish Messianism, not to a reader of the Peshitta. Also Christian Palaestinians where not speaking Aramaic were writing Greek: Doctrina Jacobi, Sophronius, Maximus. I don't read where any of these Melkites or even local Monotheletes were praising ʿUmar. Doctrina Jacobi and Thomas the Presbyter do imply (in Greek and Syriac, note) that the local Jews faced some problems with the Arab invaders. How about the ʿIrâq?

(#5/c) implies that the Qâric pericopae concerning al-Tûr are, likewise, proper Syriac and/or taken from its Old Testament. The Arabs would not have heard Tûr(a) applied to any Palaestinian mount, from Jew or Christian. I speculate this term entered the Qurân after Arabs encountered Tûr- placenames in idafa-state, like Mardîn. Tûr-Sinai is possible from east-Syrian Dyotheletes at Anastasius' monastery, but I'd not bank on it.

As to (#6/d), I expect that Arabs didn't care to expand their yawm for just the sunlit half, on account they had a cromulent word of their own for this in nahâr. I count this as a wash. Likewise (#11, #13 / f-g) on slh for a "sending" where, of course, Islam uses rsl sometimes nzl.

For the Western Cross in (e) I'd start with what the Arabs had from the locals in Jerusalem. Anyone would have used slb there - including Syrian pilgrims, but not just them.

ADDITION 4/22/23: A common term in Qurân is the jannat 'Adni. Joosten notes this (#16) as a Jewish Palaestinian term. The Curetonian - alone - uses this Luke 23:43 [UPDATE 9/30 "F" conking out ~ v. 36]. Usual Syriac, Oriental as it is, prefers the Iranian "Paradise" as we read in the Greek.