The blinding emerald: Ibn al-Rawandi's 'Kitab al-Zumurrud.' From: The Journal of the American Oriental Society | Date: April 1, 1994| Author: | COPYRIGHT 1994 American Oriental Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Muslim heresiographers present Ibn al-Rawandi (3rd/9th cent.) as a heretic who denied the phenomenon of prophecy. In modern scholarship some doubts have been raised concerning the validity of this negative image of Ibn al-Rawandi. The present study is an attempt to reexamine the sources on Ibn al-Rawandi and his Kitab al-Zumurrud. In particular, it offers an analysis of the fragments relating to the discussion of the mubahala verse in the K. al-Zumurrud. This analysis shows that the K. al-Zumurrud was written as a dialogue with the Manichaean Abu Isa al-Warraq, a dialogue in which Ibn ...