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, the biblical Ishmael, is already mentioned in four places in the Ḳurʾān which date from before the Hid̲j̲ra, in a list of holy men of antiquity: in Sūra XIX, 54 f. it is said of him: “He was one who spoke the promise truly, and he was a messenger and a prophet. He enjoined upon his people the prayer and the almsgiving, and was in his Lord’s eyes approved”; in Sūra XXXVIII, 48 he is mentioned together with Elisha (al-Yasaʿ) and D̲h̲u ’l-Kifl as “one of the good”; in Sūra XXI, 85 f. together wit…

al-Aʿrāf (pl. of ʿurf, “elevated place”, “crest”), appears in an eschatological judgement scene in Qurʾān 7:46, where a dividing wall is spoken of, which separates the dwellers of Paradise from the dwellers of Hell, and men “who are on the al-aʿrāf and recognise each by his marks” (Q 7:48, “those of the al-aʿrāf”). The interpretation of this passage is disputed. Richard Bell makes a doubtful conjecture that the word is al-iʿrāf and translates: “(Presiding) over the recognition are men, who recognise… .” According to Tor Andrae the “men on the elevated places” are …