BABEL

Arabic بابل‎ Bābil. Mentioned once in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 96 : “Sorcery did they teach to men, and what had been revealed to the two angels Hārūt and Mārūt at Bābil.” Babel is regarded by the Muslims as the fountain-head of the science of magic. They suppose Hārūt and Mārūt to be two angels who, in consequence of their want of compa ion for the frailties of mankind, were sent down to earth to be tempted. They both sinned, and, being permitted to choose whether they would be punished now or hereafter, chose the former, and are still suspended by the feet at Babel in a rocky pit, and are the great teachers of magic. (Lane’s You sand and One Nights , ch. iii. note 14.) Vide Tafsīr-i-ʿAzīzī in loco . BĀBU ʾL-ABWĀB ( باب الابواب‎ ). Lit . “The door of doors.” A term used by the Ṣūfīs for repentance. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dictionary of Ṣūfī Terms .) BĀBU ʾS-SALĀM ( باب السلام‎ ). “The Gate of Peace.” The gateway in the sacred mosque at Makkah through which Muḥammad entered when he was elected by the Quraish to decide the question as to which section of the tribe should lift the Black Stone into its place. It was originally called the Bāb Banī Shaibah, “the Gate of the Banū Shaibah,” the family of Shaibah ibn ʿUs̤mān, to whom Muḥammad gave the key of the Kaʿbah. Burkhardt says that there are now two gateways called by this name. Burton says, “The Bābu ʾs-Salām resembles in its isolation a triumphal arch, and is built of cut stone.” (Burton’s Pilgrimage , vol. ii. p. 174. See Muir’s Life of Mahomet , pp. 28, 29.) BĀBU ʾN-NISĀʾ ( باب النساء ‎ ). “The Women’s Gate.” In later years, as Muḥammad added to the number of his wives, he provided for each a room or house on the same side of the mosque at al-Madīnah. From these he had a private entrance into the mosque, used only by himself, and the eastern gate still bears in its name, Bābu ʾn-Nisāʾ, the memory of the arrangement. (Muir’s Life of Mahomet , iii. p. 20.)