Kathismecca Hypothesis
OP - May 16, 2015, 10:30 PM
Weird name, I know. So I've been thinking about a number of problems in Qur'anic interpretation, both in the context of the articles/arguments I've made and some recent scholarly articles that have come out (particularly Dye's latest). I have come up with a fascinating new idea, and I'm curious what people think. Here's the problem first: Why is the Qur'an so interested in Mary, with her Annunciation, and with the incarnation of Jesus? Why is the Qur'an so uninterested in the nativity of Jesus, or his baptism? Why, if I'm right, is Q 97 a retelling of St. Ephraim's Hymn No. 21, except that it strangely privileges the incarnation portion of the hymn (which is what Qadr means, in my view, a name for incarnation), rather than the the physical birth of Jesus in Bethlehem (normal Christmas)? Who would make such a surah, and why?
Answer: These early Qur'anic texts were written by a Christian monk, as Dye contends about Q 19 in his latest article. But not just any Christian monk. They were specifically written in the context of the Kathisma and its attached monastery, in the context of the pilgrimage trade. Southern Palestine had become rich in the sixth century, with an exploding population, based almost entirely on the pilgrimage trade that had exploded following Constantine's conversion and Christianization of Jerusalem. The Church of the Kathisma, however (built around 450 AD), had a peculiar position in that trade. It was not part of Jerusalem proper, and it had no direct relation to the life of Jesus (it commemorated the 'seat' where Mary rested on her way to give birth in Bethlehem, halfway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem). It was an enormous building, same size as the Holy Sepulchre/Dome of the Rock in fact, but its significance is very hard to explain to prospective pilgrims (what did it commemorate? what is its reason for being? that Mary rested? who cares?). It was stuck sort of in no-man's land, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. This lack of reason-for-being became particularly problematic when a huge separate church commemorating Mary's death/assumption/dormition was built up in Gethsemane, to the east of the Temple Mount.
So what I theorize is that the monks at the Kathisma were in a position where they had to engage with and support the pilgrimage, and part of what they did was cater aggressively to *Arabophone* pilgrims, who were steadily increasing as the population exploded. Liturgical compositions would have been made to cater to Arabophone pilgrims, and they would characteristically extol the Kathisma over and above competing churches (those in Jerusalem proper, and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem).
This is why the Qur'an is so big on the incarnation and annunciation, relative to other events in the life of Jesus and Mary. Other local churches didn't have a competitive advantage in those areas.
Now, if this is right, then the Dome of the Rock represents a 'corrected' version of the Kathisma Arab theology, in which the older Marian-Christianity (which according to Dye's reading of Q 19:1-63* implied that Jesus was divine) was fixed by fervently denying the divinity of Jesus. The same way that Q 19:33-40 'fixed' the older Q 19:1-63* in Dye's article. This would be a Hijazi/Muhajirun type ideology that recognized its ties to the Kathisma, but 'fixed' them with correct later theology, now fiercely anti-shirk. That is why the Dome of the Rock is architecturally a carbon copy of the Kathisma, just this time fixed with correct theology.
Dye theorizes that Q 19:1-63* was written by a Christian monk who had converted. Perhaps it is much more interesting than that. Maybe what we have here is early Qur'anic theology that emerged from the Kathisma's (or at least some monks associated with it) efforts to cater to Arab pilgrimage, in competition with neighboring Christian Palestinian institutions. If this is the case, then we could think of at least some of the Early Qur'an as arising from *Hagiopolite Christian factions* which were competing for pilgrimage and worshipers. In essence, the Kathisma faction collaborated with rising Arab power to greatly elevate itself, not as converts, but as .... I'm not even sure what the word would be. Comrades? Collaborators in a new religious project?
If this is right, then Sinai is correct that Q 97 is an 'Arab counter-Christmas' after all. But not in the context of pagan Mecca. In the context of the Jerusalem pilgrimage trade!
Topic: Kathismecca Hypothesis