Isa (name)

the Arabic given name

Isa (عِيسَى) is a classical Arabic name and a translation of Jesus. The name Isa is the name used for Jesus in the Quran. However, it is not the only translation; it is most commonly associated with Jesus as depicted in Islam, and thus, commonly used by Muslims. Arab Christians commonly refer to him by the name Yeshua (يَسُوع), an alternate form of the name Joshua.

The English form of the name "Jesus" is derived from the Latin Iēsus and the Classical Latin INRI (written on the Titulus/placard on the Cross according to John 19:19), which in turn comes from The Greek is a Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Yeshua (ישוע), which is in turn a shortened form of יהושע, English Joshua. East Syriac literature renders the pronunciation of the same letters as ܝܫܘܥ ishoʿ (išoʿ) /iʃoʕ/. The Peshitta (c. 200) preserves this same spelling. The Encyclopedia of the Qur'an by Brill Publishers quotes scholarship that notes that the Greek name Iesous, Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs), also is known to have represented many different Biblical Hebrew names (which causes issues when seeking to find what Jesus' original Hebrew name would have been from the Greek) "Josephus used the Greek name lesous to denote three people mentioned in the Bible whose Hebrew names were not Yeshua', Y'hoshua' or Y'hoshua'. They were Saul's son Yishwi (Anglicized as 'Ishvi' in the RSV of 1 Samuel 14:49), the Levite Abishua' (mentioned in I Chronicles 6:4, etc.) and Yishwah the son of Asher (Anglicized as 'Ishva' in the RSV of Genesis 46:17). Josephus furnishes important evidence for the wide variety of Hebrew names represented in Greek by Iesous." Also, the classical theologians Clement of Alexandria and Cyril of Jerusalem both stated that the Greek name Iesous was allegedly Jesus' original name. itself derived from the Syriac form Yəšūʿ and ultimately Hebrew Yēšūaʿ by a phonetic change. The Encyclopedia of the Qur'an by Brill Publishers states this has also come about because many Western scholars have held a "conviction that Jesus' authentic Hebrew name is Yeshua'" For example, compare Ismā‘īl and Ibrāhīm (Anglicised Ishmael and Abraham) or Jālūt and Tālūt (Goliath and Saul). It is thus possible that the Arabs referred to him as Yasaʿ, but the Quran reversed the letters to parallel Mūsā. Another explanation given is that in ancient Mesopotamia divine names were written in one way and pronounced in another. Thus borrowed words can have their consonants reversed. Another explanation is that Muhammad adopted Isa from the polemical Jewish form Esau. However, there is no evidence that the Jews have ever used Esau to refer to Jesus, and if Muhammad had unwittingly adopted a pejorative form his many Christian acquaintances would have corrected him. A fourth explanation is that prior to the rise of Islam, Christian Arabs had already adopted this form from Syriac. According to the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān, "Arabic often employs an initial 'ayn in words borrowed from Aramaic or Syriac and the dropping of the final Hebrew 'ayin is evidenced in the form Yisho of the 'koktiirkish' Manichaean fragments from Turfan." This is supported by Macúch with an example in classical Mandaic, a variety of Eastern Aramaic (hence closely related to Syriac) used as liturgical language by the Mandaean community of southern Mesopotamia, where the name for Jesus is rendered ʿ š u (ࡏࡔࡅ), though the pharyngeal ('ayin) is pronounced like a regular long i ("Īshu"). Also the name Yeshu (ישו in Hebrew and Aramaic) lacking the final 'ayin is also used to refer to Jesus in the Jewish work the Toledot Yeshu, and scholar David Flusser presents evidence Yeshu was also a name itself rather than claims it was meant to supposedly be an acronym to insult Jesus. The Brill Encyclopedia of the Qur'an notes scholar Anis al Assiouty as noting the fact that "In the Talmud, however, he (Jesus) is called Yeshu." Christoph Luxenberg's The Syro Aramaic Reading of the Koran equates the quranic name with Hebrew Jesse. However, neither Yeshu nor Jesse begins with a pharyngeal consonant in their original Hebrew forms. The earliest archaeological evidence of an Arabic name for Jesus is a Jordanian inscription. Enno Littman (1950) states: "Mr. G. Lankaster Harding, Chief Curator of Antiquities Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan, kindly sent me copies of a little more than five hundred Thamudic inscriptions. [ ] It is the inscription [Harding No. 476] that interests us here. [ ] Below the circle there are four letters: a y, a sh, a ʿ, and again a y." He also states: "These letters are so placed that they can be read from right to left or from left to right y sh ʿ, probably pronounced Yashaʿ, and this name is the same as Yashuaʿ, the Hebrew form of the name of Christ." An archaic Arabic root for 'Salvation' exists in Yatha, which may have later formed this name: y sh ʿ. The lack of a Waw is still unexplained. Also, the closer correspondence with another name ישעיה [y'sha'yá, "Isaiah" in English] needs explanation or discussion before this inscription can be entertained as an Arabic "Jesus".

ʿĪsā is used as well by several Christian groups in Muslim countries. A 14th century Persian translation of Matthew, one of the earliest surviving Persian manuscripts of the scripture, uses ʿĪsā. Ahmad Al Jallad has argued that a precedent of the quranic name ʿsy was already used in a Christian Safaitic inscription from the fourth century. Later translations in other languages also follow suit. Some modern Evangelical translations also use Isa, such as David Owen's Life of Christ (Arabic 1987).

Umm Isa bint Musa al Hadi, was the Abbasid princess, daughter of caliph al Hadi (r. 785–786) and wife of caliph al Ma'mun (r. 813–833).