The Kathisma Church and Quranic Composition

By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam 25 February 2023 A Church near Jerusalem Sheds New Light on the Quranic Sura Related to Jesus’ Birth Main Points: 1. The Quranic story of the birth of Jesus differs in some detail from the Bible. 2. The Quranic narrative is closer to some Christian apocryphal texts rather than to the New Testament. 3. The excavation of a church near Jerusalem now sheds light on how these stories might have become part of the Islamic tradition. 4. The Kathisma church was the prototype on which the Dome of Rock was constructed. ------ The ruins of the Kathisma today: The stone in the center of the octagon marks where Mary sat down to rest on her journey to Bethlehem (Photo credit: GIL ZOHAR) ----- In 1997, there was a significant archaeological discovery on the outskirts of Jerusalem. What was unearthed was a large octagonal church. Historians would later identify this structure as the ‘Church of Kathisma of the Theokotos’ or the ‘Seat of the God-Bearer’. Long believed to be lost to the vagaries of time, the church was constructed at the very same spot where Mary, the mother of Jesus, rested while being heavily pregnant. But why must we discuss it here? It is because this important find has an important bearing on certain verses of the Quran. In Sura Maryam, the Quran tells the following story of Jesus’ birth: So she conceived him and withdrew with him to a remote place. Then the pains of labour drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She cried, “Alas I wish I had died before this, and this was a thing long forgotten!” So a voice reassured her from below her, ‘Do not grieve! Your Lord has provided a stream at your feet. And shake the trunk of this palm tree towards you, it will drop fresh, ripe dates upon you. So eat and drink, and put your heart at ease. But if you see any of the people, say, ‘I have vowed silence to the Most Compassionate, so I am not talking to anyone today’. Then she returned to her people, carrying him. They said in shock, ‘O Mary, you have done a horrible thing! (Quran 19:22-27). Now there are two details in the Quranic story of Jesus’ birth that are not found in any of the canonical Christian texts. The first difference is that while in the Bible Jesus is born in Bethlehem, the Quranic verse cited above mentions his birth at a ‘remote place’ which historians have generally identified to be between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The second difference is that the stream and the palm tree which God provides for Mary are missing from the Christian Bible. Arguably, the Bible predates the Quran and, hence, it is logical to ask where does the latter derive the information about such details from when they are absent from the Bible itself. Now one can certainly argue that since Quran is the word of God, it can provide any detail that it wants. But while this answer may satisfy the believer, it does not satisfy those who are looking for a historical explanation. If we think that the Quran is a text which was produced in history, then it is logical to ask where it got this information from, if not from the Bible? Such an enquiry can also tell us something about the nature, time and circumstances under which the Quran was composed. The different details mentioned in Quran in fact can be found in what are called the apocryphal or the non-canonical Christian texts. The birth of Jesus ‘at a remote place’ (and not in Bethlehem) is mentioned in the Protevangelium of James, a Christian yet non-canonical text, written somewhere in the second century. It is in this text that we find Mary telling Joseph, “Take me down from the ass, for the child within me presses me, to come forth.” Joseph helps Mary get off and takes her to a nearby cave, where she gives birth to Jesus. There is no mention of a stream underneath or of the fruit-laden palm tree, which we find in the Quran. This detail occurs in another non-canonical Christian text called the Gospel of Pseudo-Mathew, which many scholars believe to be written in the 6th or the 7th century. It appears that both these texts might have been known to the compilers of the Quran. One can alternatively argue that the latter text of Pseudo Mathew may have been a reworked version of the story in the Quran. However, the possibility is remote since this text was composed in Latin in the Western Christendom and was unknown in the Christian east. So, while we might argue that the information of Christ’s birth at a remote place might have been taken from the Protevangelium of James, there is no way one can say that the Gospel of Pseudo-Mathew had a similar influence on the Quran. Is it possible then that the information about the stream and the palm tree in the Quran came from some other source? Stephen Shoemaker, who studies the correspondence between early Christianity and early Islamic period, has argued that the legend of Mary and the date palm tree started circulating in the area from around the 3rd century and is found in the tradition of Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption, which is basically a collection of narratives that describe Mary’s death. Shoemaker says that the legend of the date palm was memorialized in the form of a pilgrimage to these sites associated with Mary. And it is in the Kathisma Church that these legends come together. For it is at this location, that we see the amalgamation of both the apocryphal traditions: Jesus’ birth at a remote location as well as the presence of a stream near the church and the image of a palm tree inside it. Even after the canonization of the Bible, this church continued to be revered as the site where Mary rested and gave birth to Jesus. There exists a pilgrimage guide, written between 560 and 570, which talks about this Church and the stream of water nearby. The church was known as the seat of Mary because it was the place where Mary sat to rest before giving birth nearby. The early Christians honored the place by building a church over the rock on which she rested and it was part of the early Christian pilgrim circuit. During the excavation of the church, one of its mosaics was found to have the image of a fruit-laden date palm, very similar to what is mentioned in the Quran. Thus, this church has all the elements of the Jesus’ nativity story found in the Quran. However, the importance of this church for Quranic history does not stop here. This church was the prototype on which Muslims would later build the Dome of the Rock. Both the structures are similar not just in terms of design and dimension, but both have a rock at the centre of their structures. It should be recalled that the Dome of the Rock is the first known site on which verses of the Quran were written. In fact, the Dome is the very first evidence of the existence of the Quran outside the Islamic narrative. How then should we understand the similarities with the Church of Kathisma? In some ways, it appears highly probable that the church had deep influences in the construction of the Dome. As already mentioned, the Kathisma church had a mosaic with an image of a huge palm tree flanked by two small palm trees laden with fruits. But it is also a fact that during the Arab conquest of Jerusalem, this church was converted into a mosque. And the mosaic with palm relief was not originally a part of the church but was put there by Muslims when they converted this church into a mosque. All this again underlines that this church must have been important to the early Muslims. Thus, it appears that by the time of the conversion of this church into a mosque, the Islamic narrative had already merged the two apocryphal traditions related to the birth of the Jesus, which is present in the Quran. Does this mean that the composition of the Quran was staggered? That its standardization as a fixed text took some time and that it was still an open template during the time of the Arab conquest of Jerusalem? Of course, I am assuming here that Muslims who ventured to these lands must have heard about these apocryphal stories, which they then put into their own holy text. But it is also entirely possible that the Arabs in the Hejaz could have independently fused these stories together much before reaching the holy land. However, considering the importance of the Dome of Rock and the significant role that the Kathisma Church played into its construction, it appears that it was Jerusalem and its apocryphal stories that might have influenced the composition of the Quran. We should also not forget that the Caliph who constructed the Dome of the Rock, Abd al Malik, is also credited with making changes in the Quran. ------ A regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is a writer and researcher on Islam and Muslims in South Asia. URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/kathisma-church-quranic-composition/d/129195 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism