Editing Tower of Babel (section)

=== Islamic tradition ===
[[File:Turris Babel by Athanasius Kircher.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.9|''[[Turris Babel]]'' from [[Athanasius Kircher]]]]

Although not mentioned by name, the [[Quran]] has a story with similarities to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, although set in the Egypt of Moses: [[Pharaoh]] asks [[Haman (Islam)|Haman]] to build him a stone (or clay) tower so that he can mount up to heaven and confront the [[God]] of Moses.<ref>Pickthal, M. "Quran" (in English), Suras 28:36 and 40:36–37. Amana Publishers, UK 1996</ref>

Another story in [[Sura 2]]:102 mentions the name of [[Babil]], but tells of when the two angels [[Harut and Marut]] taught magic to some people in Babylon and warned them that magic is a sin and that their teaching them magic is a test of faith.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://quran.com/2/102 |title=Surat Al-Baqarah [2:102&#93; – The Noble Qur'an – القرآن الكريم |publisher=Quran.com |access-date=7 November 2013}}</ref>
A tale about Babil appears more fully in the writings of [[Yaqut al-Hamawi|Yaqut]] (i, 448 f.) and the ''{{Interlanguage link|Lisān al-ʿArab|ar|3=لسان العرب}}'' (xiii. 72), but without the tower: mankind were swept together by winds into the plain that was afterward called "Babil", where they were assigned their separate languages by God, and were then scattered again in the same way. In the ''[[History of the Prophets and Kings (book)|History of the Prophets and Kings]]'' by the 9th-century Muslim theologian [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|al-Tabari]], a fuller version is given: Nimrod has the tower built in Babil, God destroys it, and the language of mankind, formerly [[Syriac language|Syriac]], is then confused into 72 languages. Another Muslim historian of the 13th century, [[Abu al-Fida]] relates the same story, adding that the patriarch [[Eber]] (an ancestor of Abraham) was allowed to keep the original tongue, [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] in this case, because he would not partake in the building.<ref name="JE">{{cite encyclopedia |first1=Morris |last1=Jastrow |author-link1=Morris Jastrow |first2=Ira Maurice |last2=Price |first3=Marcus |last3=Jastrow |author-link3=Marcus Jastrow |first4=Louis |last4=Ginzberg |author-link4=Louis Ginzberg |author-link5=Duncan Black MacDonald|first5=Duncan B. |last5=MacDonald |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2279-babel-tower-of |title=Babel, Tower of |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |publisher=Funk & Wagnalls |location=New York |date=1906|pages=395–398}}</ref>

Although variations similar to the biblical narrative of the Tower of Babel exist within Islamic tradition, the central theme of God separating humankind on the basis of language is alien to Islam according to the author [[Yahiya Emerick]]. In Islamic belief, he argues, God created nations to know each other and not to be separated.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Emerick|first1=Yahiya|title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam|date=2002|publisher=Alpha|location=Indianapolis|isbn=9780028642338|page=108|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T9OkFB--ScEC&pg=PA108}}</ref>