Sources of Islamic Theories of Reproduction: Difference between revisions

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The Prophet [[Muhammad]], who had been a well-traveled merchant, had extensive interactions with Jews in Arabia, and almost certainly with Nestorian Christians, who had large communities in Najran in the south and Hira to the north of the Arabian Peninsula.<ref>J. Stewart, "Nestorian Missionary Enterprise", p.70-74, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1928</ref><ref>Cyril Glasse, “The New Encyclopedia of Islam”, p.342-343, CA, USA: Altamira, 2001.</ref> Guillaume says of the Nestorians, “Such men were a familiar sight on all the caravan routes of Arabia”.<ref>Alfred Guillaume, “Islam”, p.15, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1990 (Reprinted)</ref> The Nestorians were based in Syria, where they already possessed and studied the works of Galen, the hugely influential 2^nd century Greek physician.<ref>Allen O. Whipple, “[{{Reference archive|1=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1965836/pdf/bullnyacadmed00860-0027.pdf|2=2012-07-23}} Role of the Nestorians as the connecting link between Greek and Arab medicine]”, Annals of Medical History 8 (1936) 313-323</ref> While this does not necessitate that the creators of the Qur’an and hadith directly copied from these works, it seems likely that they were, at the very least, indirectly influenced by these widespread ideas.

|"let us divide the creation of the foetus overall into four periods of time.<BR>''The first'' is that in which. as is seen both in abortions and in dissection, the form of the semen prevails [compare with the Islamic nutfah/semen stage]. At this time, Hippocrates too, the all-marvelous, does not yet call the conformation of the animal a foetus; as we heard just now in the case of semen voided in the sixth day, he still calls it semen. But when it has been filled with blood [compare with the alaqa/bloodclot stage], and heart, brain and liver are still unarticulated and unshaped yet have by now a certain solidarity and considerable size,<BR>this is ''the second period''; the substance of the foetus has the form of flesh and no longer the form of semen. Accordingly you would find that Hippocrates too no longer calls such a form semen but, as was said, foetus.<BR>''The third period'' follows on this, when, as was said, it is possible to see the three ruling parts clearly and a kind of outline, a silhouette, as it were, of all the other parts [compare with the mudghah/morsel, formed and unformed stage]. You will see the conformation of the three ruling parts more clearly, that of the parts of the stomach more dimly, and much more still, that of the limbs. Later on they form "twigs", as Hippocrates expressed it, indicating by the term their similarity to branches.<BR>''The fourth and final period'' is at the stage when all the parts in the limbs have been differentiated; and at this part Hippocrates the marvelous no longer calls the foetus an embryo only, but already a child, too when he says that it jerks and moves as an animal now fully formed."<ref>Corpus Medicorum Graecorum: Galeni de Semine (Galen: On Semen) (Greek text with English trans. Phillip de Lacy, Akademic Verlag, 1992) section I:9:1-10 pp. 92-95, 101</ref>

"... The time has come for nature to articulate the organs precisely and to bring all the parts to completion. Thus it caused flesh to grow on and around all the bones [compare with the kasawna al-'ithama lahman/clothed the bones with flesh stage], and at the same time ... it made at the ends of the bones ligaments that bind them to each other, and along their entire length it placed around them on all sides thin membranes, called periosteal, on which it caused flesh to grow."<ref>Corpus Medicorum Graecorum: Galeni de Semine (Galen: On Semen) (Greek text with English trans. Phillip de Lacy, Akademic Verlag, 1992) section I:9:1-10 pp. 92-95, 101</ref>

{{Quote||Sperma of a man (S, Msb, K) and of a woman. (Msb)<ref>[{{Reference archive|1=http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000288.pdf|2=2012-07-23}} Lane’s Lexicon Vol. 8 p.3034]</ref>}}

Galen said that the embryo is initially formed out of the male semen mixed (μίγνυται) with what he called the female semen, which also forms an additional membrane entwined (ἐπιπλεκονταί) with that of the male semen. He believed that blood from the woman is subsequently drawn in via the uterus and membrane, and this combined material literally goes on to form the fetus.<ref>Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, pp.85-89, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992</ref> This will be explained a little more later. Unlike Galen (and before him, Hippocrates) with the two-semens theory, Aristotle believed that there was only a male semen, which does not itself provide material for the embryo, but triggers its formation from menstral blood.<ref>Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, p.65, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992</ref> The quoted comments from Muhammad’s companions are good evidence for Galenic influence in 7^th century Arabia.

The same thing is reported in Berakoth 60a.<ref name="Berakoth 60a"></ref> Notice also a two-semens theory again. In most versions of this hadith the determining factor in resemblance is whose water (m<U>a</U>a i.e. semen) preceded (sabaqa) the other person’s water. In other versions it is whose water is on or upon (‘ala) the other’s, which is closer to various Greek theories in which resemblance or gender is caused by semens prevailing upon each other.<ref>Iain M. Lonie, “The Hippocratic Treatises ‘On generation’, ‘On the nature of the child’, ‘Diseases IV’”, pp.125-126, Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 1981</ref><ref>See Galen’s description of Strato’s theory of sex determination in “On Semen”, p.183, and De Lacy’s notes on p.242. Galen postulates a semen prevailance theory of resemblance on p.179-181.</ref> In one case (Sahih Muslim, Book 3, number 614), it is gender rather than resemblance that is determined in this way and maniyy is used rather than m<U>a</U>a.{{Quote|1=Aristotle (d. 322 BC) in ''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/De_Generatione_Animalium/WhRDAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 De Generatione Animalium]'', 764a 6 as quoted in {{citation|page=191|editor=Philip Wheelwright|publisher=Macmillan|year=1966|title=The Presocratics|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Presocratics/B9QDAQAAIAAJ?hl=en}}|2=T 22. Democritus of Abdera says that it [gender] is determined in the womb whether the offspring is to be male or female. He denies, however, the theory [of Empedocles] that heat and cold are what make the difference; it depends, he thinks, upon which of the two parents' generative fluids prevails--i.e., that part of the fluid which has come from the distinctively male or female parts [rather than the part which has come from the body as a whole]. Of the two theories that of Democritus is the better; for he is trying to discover and specify the exact way in which the sexes become differentiated; but whether he is right or not is another matter. (''De Generatione Animalium'' 764a 6)}}

{{Quote|On Semen, p.99|But (the fetus) has first of all the vegetative power, which creates not from blood but from the semen itself artery and vein and nerve, bone and membrane<ref>Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, p.99, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992</ref>}}

Based on pp.91-93 and p.101, he seems to mean here the thicker male semen, which he says provides some of the material for the fetus as well as “power” or “motion” to the material. He says that the female’s semen provides nutriment to the male semen, and also has a weaker “power”, supplemented by that of her blood, to cause any resemblance of the child to the mother.<ref>Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, pp.165-167, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992</ref> On p.87 Galen says about the female semen "for it is thinner than the male semen",<ref>Philip De Lacy (editor and translator). “Galen: On Semen (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 5.3.1.)”, p.87, Berlin: Akademie. Verlag, 1992</ref> matching the hadith.

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نطفة (nutfah) is a single entity that is part of a bigger group of its kind:

The word translated “seed” in Pickthall’s translation is nasl, which means progeny (i.e. descendants).<ref>[{{Reference archive|1=http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000286.pdf|2=2012-07-23}} Lane’s Lexicon Vol. 8 p.3032]</ref> It is a reasonable assumption that ma-in m<U>a</U>heen'''in''' (fluid despised) means male semen here (see 86:6-7, which too uses maa). Some apologists like to read sul<U>a</U>latin<ref>[{{Reference archive|1=http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume4/00000121.pdf|2=2012-07-23}} Lane’s Lexicon Vol. 4 p.1397]</ref> (“extract”) as a reference to sperm. There are a couple of problems with this. First, it ignores the role of the female ovum (this is a problem with pretty much any interpretation of the verse). Secondly, we can compare 32:8 with 77:20, which has the exact same last 3 words, and without the word extract.

[[Embryology in the Quran]]