Arab and Islamic Tradition
Sahyun (Arabic: صهيون, Ṣahyūn or Ṣihyūn) is the word for Zion in Arabic and Syriac. Drawing on biblical tradition, it is one of the names accorded to Jerusalem in Arabic and Islamic tradition. A valley called Wâdi Sahyûn (wadi being the Arabic for "valley") seemingly preserves the name and is located approximately one and three-quarter miles from the Old City of Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate.
The Kaaba in Mecca was also called Sahyun or Zion by Muhammed, the prophet of Islam. Islamic scholarship sees many passages of the Bible that refer to the desert or eschatological Zion as references to the holy site of Mecca. For example, the reference to the "precious cornerstone" of the new Jerusalem in the Book of Isaiah 28:16 is identified in Islamic scholarship as the cornerstone of the Kaaba. This interpretation is said by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyah (1292–1350) to have come from the People of the Book, though earlier Christian scholarship identifies the cornerstone with Jesus.
Read more about this topic: Zion
Famous quotes containing the words arab and/or tradition:
“As the Arab proverb says, “The dog barks and the caravan passes”. After having dropped this quotation, Mr. Norpois stopped to judge the effect it had on us. It was great; the proverb was known to us: it had been replaced that year among men of high worth by this other: “Whoever sows the wind reaps the storm”, which had needed some rest since it was not as indefatigable and hardy as, “Working for the King of Prussia”.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes—our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking around.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)