Balʿam Bāʿūr (or Bāʿūrāʾ), a biblical figure that appears in the Islamic written tradition. The foundational narrative for Balʿam’s story in the Islamic tradition—which, in the main, agrees with the Old Testament one—is Q 7:175–176, which tells of an unnamed person who is given God’s signs but turns away from them and follows the Devil’s path. While this passage is generally accepted to refer to Balʿam, the story has also been interpreted as referring to one or more of the Prophet Muḥammad’s cont…