SEA

Arabic baḥr ( بحر‎ ). “The sea,” al-baḥr , is a term applied in the Qurʾān to the Red Sea, known amongst Muḥammadans as the Baḥru ʾl-Qulzum . [ RED SEA .] Sūrahs ii. 47 ; vii. 134 . “The ships that sail like mountains in the sea,” are amongst the “signs” of God. (See Sūrah xlii. 31 .) In Sūrah lii. 6 , Muḥammad swears by “the swelling sea.” In Sūrah xvii. 68 : “It is the Lord who drives the ships for you in the sea, that ye may seek after plenty from Him.” In Sūrah xviii. 109 , it occurs as an illustration of the boundle character of the Word of God. “Were the sea ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would surely fail before the words of my Lord fail; aye, though we brought as much ink again.” In Muḥammadan works, in the Traditions and commentaries, the Arabic baḥr is used for large rivers, as the Euphrates and the Nile, in the same sense as the Hebrew ‏יָם‎ yām (but the word nahr , Hebrew ‏ נָהָר ‎ nāhar , occurs in the Qurʾān for “rivers”). It is related that Muḥammad said, “Let none but three cla es of people cro the sea (for it has fire under it which causes its troubled motion), namely, (1) those who perform the Ḥajj , or ‘Pilgrimage’; (2) those who make the ʿumrah , or ‘visitation’; (3) those who go forth to war.” ( Majmaʿu ʾl-Biḥār , vol. i. p. 76.) The following are the names of the seas as current in Muḥammadan literature:— Al-Baḥru ʾl-Ak͟hẓar , the Green or Indian Ocean. Al-Baḥru ʾl-Abyaẓ , the White or Mediterranean Sea. Al-Baḥru ʾl-Aswad , the Black, or Euxine Sea. Al-Baḥru ʾl-Azraq , the Blue or Persian Sea. Al-Baḥru ʾl-Qulzum , or al-Baḥru ʾl-Aḥmar , the Red Sea. Al-Baḥru ʾl-Lūt̤ , the Sea of Lot or Dead Sea. Al-Baḥru ʾl-K͟hiẓr , the sea of Khizr, the Caspian Sea.