, a figure mentioned enigmatically in Ḳurʾān, IX, 30, as being called by the Jews “the son of Allāh” and usually identified by Muslim commentators with Ezra, or sometimes with the man who slept for a hundred years (II, 259). Modern scholars have suggested identifications also with the Biblical Enoch (Newby), Azazel (Casanova) and, fantastically, Osiris (Mad̲j̲di Bey).

Later Muslim authors who heard from Jews or Christians (see e.g. al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, al-Radd ʿalā ’l-Naṣārā , ed. J. Finkel, 27, 33) that this accusation of sonship had no basis, explained that only one Jew (…