Image #1: A view from the summit of Mount Sinai (Jabal Nabi Musa)
Image #2: The last few meters of the climb up Mount Sinai (Jabal Nabi Musa)
Mount Sinai: A case of Jabal vs Tur
One of the famous Jabal in judeo-christian biblical archeology is Mount Sinai of Egypt. Let's take a look at the English wikipedia entry:
Mount Sinai (Arabic: طور سيناء Tūr Sīnāʼ or جبل موسى Jabal Mūsá ; Egyptian Arabic: Gabal Mūsa, lit. "Moses Mountain" or "Mount Moses"; Hebrew: הר סיני Har Sinai ), also known as Mount Horeb, is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is the traditional and most accepted identification of the biblical Mount Sinai. The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah, the Bible,[1] and the Quran.[2] According to Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
Mount Sinai is a Jabal but not a Tur
Mount Sinai is the real classic example of Jabal vs Tur confusion. In the above ENGLISH wikipedia entry, the ARABIC term Jabal and Tur were used interchangeably as the english wiki author wish.
The fact is, mount Sinai ONLY QUALIFY as Jabal (Mountain) but not Tur (Green Mountain) from the PROPER arabic language perspective.
According to the Quran, an ultimate reference book, which have been revealed in Lisanan Arabiyan (Eloquent Tounge), Jabal and Tur were used to define mountain in generic form vs specific form.
Quran always convey the precision message. Jabal and Tur were not used haphazardly. Both words are not EXACT synonymous. The word was carefully chosen as a sign of guidance.
Any attempt by historian or others in associating Mount Sinai as TUR, does not hold water from the Lisan Arabiy linguistic rule.
This is because Mount Sinai is a barren mountain with no vegetation able to grow on it as you can see from the image #1 and #2 above. It is purely rocky mountain with no fertile top soil or enough rain or right climate to enable plant growth especially olives tree.
وشجرةٍ تَخْرُجُ من طُورِ سَيْناءَ
and trees (Olive) that emerge from Tur Sina'... [23:20]
In the next post we shall take a look at the definition of TUR (طور) by classical Arab dictionary as well the explanation (fussilat) made by the quran.
To be continued....Part 4 >>
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