Buraq

TheBuraq(Arabic:الْبُرَاق/ælˈbʊrɑːk/"lightning" ) is a supernaturalequine-esque creature in Islamic tradition that served as the mount of theIslamic prophet Muhammadduring hisIsra and Mi'rajjourney fromMeccatoJerusalemand up through theheavensand back by night.^[2]Although never stated to have wings, it is almost always depicted as apegasus-like being. The Buraq is also said to have transported certainprophetssuch asAbrahamover long distances within a moment's duration.

Etymology

1539-43 illustration of the Mi'raj from the Khamsa, probably created by the court painter Sultan Muhammad, showing Chinese-influenced clouds and angels. This version was created for the Persian Shah Tahmasp I.

TheEncyclopaedia of Islam,referring to the writings ofAl-Damiri(d.1405), considersal-burāqto be a derivative and adjective ofArabic:برقbarq"lightning/emitted lightning" or various general meanings stemming from the verb: "to beam, flash, gleam, glimmer, glisten, glitter, radiate, shimmer, shine, sparkle, twinkle".^[3]The name is thought to refer to the creature's lightning-like speed.^[4]According toEncyclopædia Iranica,"Boraq" is the Arabized form of "Middle Persian*barāgor *bārag,'a riding beast, mount' (New Pers.bāra) ".^[5]According toEmran El-Badawi,the word can be etymologically associated both with a "riding animal" and the "morning star".^[6]

Journey to the Seventh Heaven

According toIslamic tradition,theNight Journeytook place in 621 CE - ten years after Muhammad announced his prophethood. Muhammad had been in Mecca at the home of his cousin,Fakhitah bint Abi Talib,when he went to theMasjid al-Haram.While he was resting at theKaaba,the Archangel Jibrīl (Gabriel) appeared to him bringing the Buraq, which carried Muhammad, in the archangel's company, toal-masjid al-aqṣá( "the furthest mosque" )^[Quran17:1]- traditionally held to be at theTemple MountinJerusalemand identified with theal-Aqsa Mosque.^{[note 1]}

After reaching Jerusalem, Muhammad descended from the Buraq and prayed on the site of the Temple. He mounted the Buraq again as the creature ascended to theseven heavens,where he successively metAdam,Jesusand his cousinJohn,Enoch,Aaron,Moses,andAbrahamone by one until he reached the throne ofGod.God communicated with him, giving him words and instructions, and most importantly the commandment toMuslimsto offer prayers, initially fifty times a day. At the urging of Moses, Muhammad returned to God several times before eventually reducing the number of prayer-sessions to five.^[8]

Abraham

According toIbn Ishaq,the Buraq transported Abraham when he visitedHagarandIshmael.Tradition states that Abraham lived withSarahinCanaanbut the Buraq would transport him in the morning toMeccato see his family there and take him back in the evening.^[9]

Hadith

Al Buraq(1770–75), aDeccan paintingincorporatingPersianelements.

Although the Hadith do not explicitly refer to the Buraq as having a human face,Near EastandPersian artalmost always portrays it so - a portrayal that found its way intoIndian,Deccanart. This may have originated from an interpretation of the creature being described with a "beautiful face" as the face being human instead of bestial.

An excerpt from a translation ofSahih al-Bukharidescribes Buraq:

Then a white animal which was smaller than amuleand bigger than adonkeywas brought to me... The animal's step (was so wide that it) reached the farthest point within the reach of the animal's sight.
— Muhammad al-Bukhari,Sahih al-Bukhari^[10]

Another excerpt describes the Buraq in greater detail:

Then he [Gabriel] brought the Buraq, handsome-faced and bridled, a tall, white beast, bigger than the donkey but smaller than the mule. He could place his hooves at the farthest boundary of his gaze. He had long ears. Whenever he faced a mountain his hind legs would extend, and whenever he went downhill his front legs would extend. He had two wings on his thighs which lent strength to his legs. He bucked when Muhammad came to mount him. Theangel Gabrielput his hand on his mane and said: "Are you not ashamed, O Buraq? ByAllah,no-one has ridden you in all creation more dear to Allah than he is. "Hearing this he was so ashamed that he sweated until he became soaked, and he stood still so that the Prophet mounted him.
— Muhammad 'Alawi al-Maliki,The Prophet's Night Journey and Heavenly Ascent^[11]

In the earlier descriptions there is no agreement as to the sex of the Buraq. It is typically male, yetIbn Sa'dhas Gabriel address the creature as a female, and it was often rendered by painters and sculptors with a woman's head.^[12]The idea that "al-Buraq" is simply a divine mare is also noted in the bookThe Dome of the Rock,^[13]in the chapter "The Open Court", and in the title-page vignette ofGeorg Ebers'sPalestine in Picture and Word.

Western Wall

Various scholars and writers, such asibn al-Faqih,ibn Abd Rabbih,andAbd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi,have suggested places where Buraq was supposedly tethered in stories, mostly locations near the southwest corner of the Haram.^[14]However, for several centuries the preferred location has been theal-Buraq Mosque,just inside the wall at the south end of theWestern Wall Plaza.^[14]The mosque sits above an ancient passageway that once came out through the long-sealedBarclay's Gatewhose huge lintel remains visible below theMaghrebi gate.^[14]Because of the proximity to the Western Wall, the area next to the wall has been associated with Buraq at least since the 19th century.^[15]

When a British Jew asked the Egyptian authorities in 1840 for permission to re-pave the ground in front of the Western Wall, the governor of Syria wrote:

It is evident from the copy of the record of the deliberations of the Consultative Council in Jerusalem that the place the Jews asked for permission to pave adjoins the wall of the Haram al-Sharif and also the spot where the Buraq was tethered, and is included in the endowment charter ofAbu Madyan,may God bless his memory; that the Jews never carried out any repairs in that place in the past.... Therefore the Jews must not be enabled to pave the place.^[15]

The Buraq Wall (circled in orange) facing the Al-Buraq Mosque

Carl Sandreczki,charged with compiling a list of place names forCharles William Wilson'sOrdnance Survey of Jerusalemin 1865, reported that the street leading to the Western Wall, including the part alongside the wall, belonged to theHosh(court/enclosure) ofal Burâk,"notObrâk,norObrat".^[16]In 1866, the Prussian Consul andOrientalist Georg Rosenwrote: "The Arabs call Obrâk the entire length of the wall at the wailing place of the Jews, southwards down to the house of Abu Su'ud and northwards up to the substructure of the Mechkemeh [Shariah court]. Obrâk is not, as was formerly claimed, a corruption of the word Ibri (Hebrews), but simply the neo-Arabic pronunciation of Bōrâk,... which, whilst (Muhammad) was at prayer at the holy rock, is said to have been tethered by him inside the wall location mentioned above."^[17]

The name Hosh al Buraq appeared on the maps of Wilson's 1865 survey, its revised editions in 1876 and 1900, and other maps in the early 20th century.^[18]In 1922, the officialPro-Jerusalem Councilspecified it as a street name.^[19]

The association of the Western Wall area with Buraq has played an important role in disputes over the holy places since the British mandate.^[20]

For Muslims, theWailing Wall(or Western Wall) is known as "Ḥā’iṭu ’l-Burāq"(Arabic:حَائِطُ ٱلْبُرَاق) - "the Buraq Wall", for on the other side (the Muslim side of the Wailing Wall on the Temple Mount) is where it is believedMuhammadtied the Buraq, the riding animal upon which he rode during the Night of Ascension (Arabic:مِعْرَاجMi‘rāj). The wall links to the structure of the Al-Buraq Mosque.

Cultural impact

19th century toy fromKondapalli,Andhra Pradesh,a buraq

InTurkey,Pakistanand otherMuslim countries,Burakis a common male name.
Al-Boraq(Arabic: البُراق) is a 323-kilometre-long (201 mi) high-speed rail service between Casablanca and Tangier operated by ONCF inMorocco.The first of its kind on the African continent, and the fastest.
Two airlines have been named after Buraq:Buraq AirofLibyaand the defunctBouraq Indonesia AirlinesofIndonesia,which ceased operations in 2006.
El-Borakis a pirate inRafael Sabatini's novelThe Sea Hawk;El Borakis a character in short stories byRobert E. Howard.Both are named for their speed and reflexes.
TheIranian Boragh armoured personnel carrieris named after it.
Pakistan'sNESCOM Burraqwas named after the Buraq.
ABangladeshiTransport company is named Boraq Paribahan (বোরাক পরিবহন).
AMalaysianpetrol company is named Buraq Oil.^[21]
Aceh,Indonesia has adopted the image of a Buraq on therampantin the proposed Aceh official seal.^[22]

Notes

^According to historian Oleg Grabar, "It is only at a relatively late date that the Muslim holy space in Jerusalem came to be referred to as al-haram al-sharif (literally, the Noble Sacred Precinct or Restricted Enclosure, often translated as the Noble Sanctuary and usually simply referred to as the Haram). While the exact early history of this term is unclear, we know that it only became common in Ottoman times, when administrative order was established over all matters pertaining to the organization of the Muslim faith and the supervision of the holy places, for which the Ottomans took financial and architectural responsibility. Before the Ottomans, the space was usually called al-masjid al-aqsa (the Farthest Mosque), a term now reserved to the covered congregational space on the Haram, or masjid bayt al-maqdis (Mosque of the Holy City) or, even, like Mecca's sanctuary,al-masjid al-ḥarâm."^[7]

References

^"Buraq (Mindanao, Philippines)".10 November 2013.Retrieved8 March2019.
^Vuckovic, Brooke Olson (2004).Heavenly Journeys, Earthly Concerns.Routledge. p. 48.ISBN 9781135885243.Retrieved25 October2015.
^Gruber, Christane J."al-Burāq".In Fleet, Kate;Krämer, Gudrun;Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John;Rowson, Everett(eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam(3rd ed.). Brill Online.doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_24366.ISSN 1873-9830.Retrieved14 April2018.
^Crasnow, Sascha (3 September 2021)."Al-Buraq".Khamseen.Retrieved14 October2024.
^"Hadith v. as Influenced by Iranian Ideas and Practices"atEncyclopædia Iranica
^El-Badawi, Emran (2024).Female Divinity in the Qur'an In Conversation with the Bible and the Ancient Near East.Palgrave Macmillan. p. 17.
^Grabar 2000, p. 203.
^ Sullivan, Leah."Jerusalem: The Three Religions of the Temple Mount"(PDF).stanford.edu. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 12 July 2007.Retrieved13 November2018.
^Firestone, Reuven (1990).Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis.SUNY Press. p. 117.ISBN 978-0-7914-0331-0.Retrieved25 October2015.
^Sahih al-Bukhari,5:58:227^{[dead link‍]}
^Muhammad 'Alawi al-Maliki(1999).The Prophet's Night Journey and Heavenly Ascent.,translated by Gibril Fouad Haddad, chapter 2
^T.W. Arnold(1965).Painting in Islam(PDF).p. 118.
^Grabar, Oleg (30 October 2006).The Dome of the Rock.Belknap Press. p. 214.ISBN 978-0674023130.
^^a ^b ^cElad, Amikam (1995).Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship: Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage.BRILL. pp. 101–2.ISBN 978-90-04-10010-7.
^^a ^bF. E. Peters (1985).Jerusalem.Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 541–542.ISBN 9780691073002..Arabic text inA. L. Tibawi (1978).The Islamic Pious Foundations in Jerusalem.London: The Islamic Cultural Centre. Appendix III.
^Carl Sandrecki (1865).Account of a Survey of the City of Jerusalem made in order to ascertain the names of streets etc.Day IV.reproduced inCaptain Charles W. Wilson R.E. (1865).Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem(Facsimile ed.). Ariel Publishing House (published 1980). Appendix.
^G. Rosen (1866).Das Haram von Jerusalem und der Tempelplatz des Moria(in German). Gotha. pp. 9–10.Die ganze Mauerstrecke am Klageplatz der Juden bis südlich an die Wohnung des Abu Su'ud und nördlich an die Substructionen der Mechkemeh wird von den Arabern Obrâk genannt, nicht, wie früher behauptet worden, eine Corruption des Wortes Ibri (Hebräer), sondern einfach die neu-arabische Aussprache von Bōrâk, [dem Namen des geflügelten Wunderrosses,] welches [den Muhammed vor seiner Auffahrt durch die sieben Himmel nach Jerusalem trug] und von ihm während seines Gebetes am heiligen Felsen im Innern der angegebenen Mauerstelle angebunden worden sein soll.
^Captain Charles W. Wilson R.E. (1865).Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem(Facsimile ed.). Ariel Publishing House (published 1980). maps.Wilson 1876;Wilson 1900;August Kümmel 1904;Karl Baedeker 1912;George Adam Smith 1915.
^Council of the Pro-Jerusalem Society (1924). C. R. Ashby (ed.).Jerusalem 1920-1922.London: John Murray. p. 27.
^Halkin, Hillel (12 January 2001).""Western Wall" or "Wailing Wall"? ".Jewish Virtual Library.Retrieved5 October2008.
^"About Company".Buraq Oil.Archived fromthe originalon 15 August 2018.Retrieved22 June2016.
^Singa dan Burak menghiasi lambang Aceh dalam rancangan Qanun(Lion and Buraq decorate the coat of arms of Aceh in the Draft Regulation)Atjeh Post,19 November 2012.

External links

[8] According to historian Oleg Grabar, "It is only at a relatively late date that the Muslim holy space in Jerusalem came to be referred to as al-haram al-sharif (literally, the Noble Sacred Precinct or Restricted Enclosure, often translated as the Noble Sanctuary and usually simply referred to as the Haram). While the exact early history of this term is unclear, we know that it only became common in Ottoman times, when administrative order was established over all matters pertaining to the organization of the Muslim faith and the supervision of the holy places, for which the Ottomans took financial and architectural responsibility. Before the Ottomans, the space was usually called al-masjid al-aqsa (the Farthest Mosque), a term now reserved to the covered congregational space on the Haram, or masjid bayt al-maqdis (Mosque of the Holy City) or, even, like Mecca's sanctuary,al-masjid al-ḥarâm."^[7]

[1] "Buraq (Mindanao, Philippines)".10 November 2013.Retrieved8 March2019.

[2] Vuckovic, Brooke Olson (2004).Heavenly Journeys, Earthly Concerns.Routledge. p. 48.ISBN 9781135885243.Retrieved25 October2015.

[3] Gruber, Christane J."al-Burāq".In Fleet, Kate;Krämer, Gudrun;Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John;Rowson, Everett(eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam(3rd ed.). Brill Online.doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_24366.ISSN 1873-9830.Retrieved14 April2018.

[4] Crasnow, Sascha (3 September 2021)."Al-Buraq".Khamseen.Retrieved14 October2024.

[5] "Hadith v. as Influenced by Iranian Ideas and Practices"atEncyclopædia Iranica

[6] El-Badawi, Emran (2024).Female Divinity in the Qur'an In Conversation with the Bible and the Ancient Near East.Palgrave Macmillan. p. 17.

[7] Grabar 2000, p. 203.

[9] Sullivan, Leah."Jerusalem: The Three Religions of the Temple Mount"(PDF).stanford.edu. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 12 July 2007.Retrieved13 November2018.

[10] Firestone, Reuven (1990).Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis.SUNY Press. p. 117.ISBN 978-0-7914-0331-0.Retrieved25 October2015.

[11] Sahih al-Bukhari,5:58:227^{[dead link‍]}

[12] Muhammad 'Alawi al-Maliki(1999).The Prophet's Night Journey and Heavenly Ascent.,translated by Gibril Fouad Haddad, chapter 2

[13] T.W. Arnold(1965).Painting in Islam(PDF).p. 118.

[14] Grabar, Oleg (30 October 2006).The Dome of the Rock.Belknap Press. p. 214.ISBN 978-0674023130.

[Elad-15] Elad, Amikam (1995).Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship: Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage.BRILL. pp. 101–2.ISBN 978-90-04-10010-7.

[Peters-16] F. E. Peters (1985).Jerusalem.Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 541–542.ISBN 9780691073002..Arabic text inA. L. Tibawi (1978).The Islamic Pious Foundations in Jerusalem.London: The Islamic Cultural Centre. Appendix III.

[17] Carl Sandrecki (1865).Account of a Survey of the City of Jerusalem made in order to ascertain the names of streets etc.Day IV.reproduced inCaptain Charles W. Wilson R.E. (1865).Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem(Facsimile ed.). Ariel Publishing House (published 1980). Appendix.

[18] G. Rosen (1866).Das Haram von Jerusalem und der Tempelplatz des Moria(in German). Gotha. pp. 9–10.Die ganze Mauerstrecke am Klageplatz der Juden bis südlich an die Wohnung des Abu Su'ud und nördlich an die Substructionen der Mechkemeh wird von den Arabern Obrâk genannt, nicht, wie früher behauptet worden, eine Corruption des Wortes Ibri (Hebräer), sondern einfach die neu-arabische Aussprache von Bōrâk, [dem Namen des geflügelten Wunderrosses,] welches [den Muhammed vor seiner Auffahrt durch die sieben Himmel nach Jerusalem trug] und von ihm während seines Gebetes am heiligen Felsen im Innern der angegebenen Mauerstelle angebunden worden sein soll.

[19] Captain Charles W. Wilson R.E. (1865).Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem(Facsimile ed.). Ariel Publishing House (published 1980). maps.Wilson 1876;Wilson 1900;August Kümmel 1904;Karl Baedeker 1912;George Adam Smith 1915.

[20] Council of the Pro-Jerusalem Society (1924). C. R. Ashby (ed.).Jerusalem 1920-1922.London: John Murray. p. 27.

[21] Halkin, Hillel (12 January 2001).""Western Wall" or "Wailing Wall"? ".Jewish Virtual Library.Retrieved5 October2008.

[22] "About Company".Buraq Oil.Archived fromthe originalon 15 August 2018.Retrieved22 June2016.

[23] Singa dan Burak menghiasi lambang Aceh dalam rancangan Qanun(Lion and Buraq decorate the coat of arms of Aceh in the Draft Regulation)Atjeh Post,19 November 2012.

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