The Greek Persian War Timeline and al-Tabari

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Nov 14, 2021 at 06:57

This is the timeline of the Persian/Greek war of 614/616 AD to 627 AD:

1. The initial part of the war from 614 AD to 622 AD the Persians invaded and occupied Mesopotamia, the Levant, Asia Minor, the Syrian desert including today's Israel/Palestine and Egypt. So the Persians won and the Greeks lost this part of the war

2. The Persians sustained major defeats in Upper Mesopotamia in 622 AD. So the Greeks won this part of the war

3. And it was down hill from that point on and the Persians were expelled from Egypt in 627 AD and that was the end of the war

4. The Arabs invaded the Middle East and both the Persian and Greek empires in the Middle East in 633 AD

This means the following:

1. The Persians won and the Greeks lost the first part of the war

2. The Greeks won and the Persians lost the post 622 AD part of the war

3. The invading Arabs won and the Greeks lost post 633 AD

Notice that the Qur'an does not mention anything about the Persians or the Arab invasions and their outcome.

This is clearly why al-Tabari, as you shall see later, had no clue how to read the word غلبت which can be read as: Won or Lost!

Now, a bit of Semitic grammar: The starting point, when reading the meaning of a Root and in this case the root غ-ل-ب, is the present tense, singular and masculine word and in this case يغلب. However, يغلب can be read as يُغلَب or "he loses" and يَغلِب or "he wins" and this is by slight changes in the short vowels that do not even exist in the consonantal text of the Qur'an as you shall see when we read the Quranic text.

And here is a map of the course of the war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Byzantine-persian_campaigns_611-624-mohammad_adil_rais.PNG

Last, the author of the Qur'an calls the Greeks: The Romans or al-Ruum. Notice that this a loan word from Syriac as you shall see in the next post.

Now, Here is a link to al-Tabari's Tafsir and I'm also providing you with links to the al-Qurtubi as well as Ibn Kathir and all there tafsirs are regarded as امهات التفاسير (the mothers of the Tafsirs)

https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=1&tSoraNo=30&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1

https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=5&tSoraNo=30&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1

https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=7&tSoraNo=30&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1

Reading Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi helps in understanding how Muslims viewed the meaning of Surat al-Ruum several hundred years after al-Tabari's tafsir.

Stay tuned for reading of the Quranic text.

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