# The Syrian Prophet(s)

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

---

> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Enoch Tanyi, The Syrian Prophet(s), bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> 60        THE J O U R N A L OF B A H À ’Î S T U D I E S              4.3.1991
> 
> THE SYRIAN PROPHET(S)
> Enoch N. Tanyi
> 
> The Qur’àn declares that before Muhammad there were Messengers of God
> whose names have not been mentioned (40:78). But can an idea of where some
> of them came from and where they fit into the chronology of the known
> Messengers be had? The aim of this research note is to answer these two
> questions, namely: (i) to locate the place of each Messenger in the overall
> chronology of the known Messengers, and (ii) to determine the nationalities of
> some unnamed Messengers.
> 
> Discussion
> The Messengers before Muhammad are listed chronologically as Adam, Noah,
> Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (The Báb, Selections 126). The Qur’àn inserts Hud
> and Salih between Noah and Abraham, and Lot and Shu’aib between Abraham
> and Moses (7:65-103). The Messenger Krishna is placed between Abraham and
> Moses (The Bahai Faith 1), but whether Krishna comes before Lot and Shu’aib
> or after Shu’aib is not relevant to this essay. Zoroaster and Buddha are placed
> between Moses and Christ (The Bahai Faith 1).
> Thus, a more comprehensive, yet incomplete, chronology of the Messengers
> becomes: Adam, Noah, Hud, Salih, Abraham, Lot, Krishna, Shu’aib, Moses,
> Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, the Báb, and Bahà’uTlàh. This
> list does not include Messengers that came before Adam. Having prepared the
> chronological order of the Messengers, the next step is to ask: What clue is
> there to any unnamed Messenger?
> B aháV lláh writes of the different languages that have been known to
> humankind since Adam’s language. The land of Babel is mentioned as the place
> where diversities of language arose. Out of the resulting languages, Syriac
> became prominent and the language of revelation or of the sacred scriptures.
> Syriac maintained this important role until Hebrew became the language of
> revelation for Abraham (BaháVlláh, Gleanings 173).
> The Qur’àn asserts that “We sent not an apostle Except [to teach] in the
> language of his [own] people” (14:4). This quotation means that any Apostle or
> Messenger sent from God teaches in his mother-tongue, a fact proven by
> religious history.
> It can therefore be inferred that since the sacred scriptures at some time were
> revealed in Syriac, then Syriac was the mother-tongue of this Messenger. But
> Syriac is the language of ancient Syria (Oxford Illustrated Dictionary). Therefore,
> this Messenger was Syrian. (There could have been more than one Messenger.)
> In the Qur’àn, God states that Messengers had been sent to the nations
> before Muhammad (16:63). This statement would have made it less necessary
> to try to show that a Messenger or Messengers appeared in Syria or any other
> Research Notes!Articles de Recherche!Apuntes Investigativo              61
> 
> nation, but for the fact that the Arabic word translated as “nation” can also mean
> something else that seems like a better translation. The Arabic word is Ummat
> and can also be translated as “religious community.” This is a better translation
> since nations in the geographical sense have had their boundaries shifted back
> and forth with time. Some nations have completely lost their identities and been
> absorbed into larger ones, and some new ones have been created.
> A study of history would suffice to demonstrate these points, but reference
> to BaháT literature would present one example. Some letters from ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá published in Star of the West are addressed as “Haifa, Syria.” Today,
> Haifa is in Israel.
> The next step is to try to locate the position of this Messenger in the
> prepared chronology. Since the Babel episode took place between the times of
> Noah and Abraham (Genesis 9:29-12:1), it can be stated that this Syrian
> Messenger arose between the times of Noah and Abraham. It has already been
> shown that Hud and Salih also came between Noah and Abraham. So, the
> questions that naturally arise are: Was either of these two Messengers a Syrian,
> or were both Syrians? Let us examine these two questions one after the other,
> starting with Hud.
> Hud was sent to the people of ‘Ad who were also his people (7:65). “The
> story of the ‘Ad people,” according to a commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali,
> “belongs to Arabian tradition. . . . They occupied a large tract of country in
> southern Arabia, extending from ‘Umman at the mouth of the southern end of
> the Red Sea” (Yusuf Ali, Koran 358). This extract shows that Hud was an Arab,
> not a Syrian.
> Next comes the turn of Salih. “Salih was sent to his own people, the people
> of Thamud” (7:73). “The Thamud people were the successors to the culture and
> civilization of the ‘Ad people. . . . Their seat was in the north-western comer of
> Arabia (Arabian Petraea), between Medina and Syria” (Yusuf Ali, Koran 360).
> This excerpt shows that Salih was an Arab, not a Syrian, because Salih was
> from the Thamud people who “were the successors to the culture and
> civilization of the ‘Ad people.” The ‘Ad people belonged to the Arabian
> tradition, and so the Thamud people also belonged to the Arabian tradition and
> were Arabs.
> 
> Conclusion
> A Syrian Messenger or Syrian Messengers did appear in this world between the
> times of Noah and Abraham. The name of this Syrian Messenger is (or their
> names are) unknown. The order in which the Syrian Messenger(s) appeared in
> relation to Hud and Salih cannot be shown.
> 62         THE J O U R N A L OF B A H Á ’ 1 S T U D I E S              4.3.1991
> 
> Works Cited
> 
> Báb, The. Selections from the Writings of the Báb. Comp. Research Department. Trans.
> H. Taherzadeh et al. Haifa: Bahà’i World Centre, 1976.
> B a h a i Faith, The. HidáyaUťlláh Ahmadiyyih. Thornhill, Ontario: BaháT Canada
> Publications, n.d.
> BaháVlláh. Gleanings from the Writings o f Baha u’lláh. Trans. Shoghi Effendi. 2d ed.
> Wilmette, IL: Bahà’i Publishing Trust, 1976.
> Bible, The Holy. Authorized King James version. Red Letter edition. Miami, Florida:
> P.S.I. and Associates, 1986.
> Koran, The Holy. Trans. Abdullah Yusuf Ali. 3d ed. Beirut, Lebanon: Dar A1 Arabia,
> 1938.
> Oxford Illustrated Dictionary. Ed. J. Coulson et al. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
> 1962.
>
> — *The Syrian Prophet(s) (Used by permission of the curator)*