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" From 'Paganism' to 'Monotheism': A Theory on the Semantic Reversal of the Semitic Root ḤNP "
Osmat, Ghassan
Ibrahim, Ahmed
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1055963
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| Doc. No
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TL55080
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| Main Entry
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Osmat, Ghassan
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| Title & Author
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From 'Paganism' to 'Monotheism': A Theory on the Semantic Reversal of the Semitic Root ḤNP\ Osmat, GhassanIbrahim, Ahmed
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| College
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McGill University (Canada)
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| Date
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2019
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| Degree
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M.A.
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2019
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| Note
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101 p.
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| Abstract
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Ḥanpūtā (Syriac) and Ḥanīfiyya (Arabic) share the same Semitic root ḤNP and would, therefore, be expected to carry similar significations. Nonetheless, they have totally opposite meanings. In pre-Islamic Syriac-Christian sources, things or individuals associated with the root ḤNP are reprehensible for their paganism. However, in early Arabic-Islamic historiography, Ḥanīfiyya is the monotheistic religion of the prophet Muhammad. How could such a drastic semantic reversal have taken place? The central question dealt with in this thesis is that which other researchers who are interested in Semitic philology and the origins of Islam have already asked themselves. However, while past academic studies, which are presented in Chapter I, are limited to philological or literary assessments, by challenging the disciplinary barriers of the academy, this thesis seeks a genuinely historical explanation of the semantic reversal. Instead of classical philology and literary criticism, while relying on Jewish and Christian Aramaic as well as on Arabic-Islamic sources, the question is tackled under the perspective of a conceptual history of paganism. In order to explain the semantic reversal, gradual change in the meanings associated with ḤNP are traced and analyzed in light of two phenomena which occurred simultaneously in the late antique Near-East: the formation of rabbinic and ecclesiastical orthodoxies, and the proliferation of heterodox monotheisms of Biblical inspiration.
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Religion
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Ibrahim, Ahmed
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McGill University (Canada)
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