Sakīnah , shekhinah , and a Dead Cat’s Head: The Evolution of an Islamic Exegesis

Abstract The concept of Sakīnah (closely related to the rabbinic concept of shekhinah ) is mentioned six times in the Qurʾān in the context of a divine victory given to the believers, or to the Israelites. The traditional interpretations of the sakīnah contains one opinion, attributed to Jewish sages, that describes it as “the head of a dead cat” that was placed inside the Ark of the Covenant. Despite being associated with the Israelites, the prevailing assumption in the research literature is that the traditions that describe the sakīnah as a feline entity are based on a pagan Arab imprint , and so they are completely unrelated to Jewish sources. In this study, however, three rabbinic sources for this physical description will be suggested, leading to a hypothesized reconstruction of how traditional Islamic exegesis on the meaning of sakīnah evolved.