Three Polemical Qurʾanic Citations of the Mishnah and Their Historical Significance

f Cain and Abel (Q 5:32; m. Sanhedrin 4:12). Earlier in the same surah (5:18), the Qurʾan alludes to a different Mishnah (Avot 3:14), and a third allusion is found in Q 9:30-31 (drawing on Avot 4:12). These three examples, in two of the latest Medinan sections of the Qurʾan, provide important evidence for the Jewish traditions encountered in seventh-century Arabia. The Qurʾanic data therefore provides a useful reference point for investigation the form and distribution of the Mishnah in this crucial period of »rabbinization« throughout the Middle East.