It is well known that the Qur’an draws from the Mishnah in its discussion of value of human life and the severity of killing a person, based on the story of Cain and Abel (Q 5:32; m. Sanhedrin 4:12). Earlier in the same surah (5:18), the Qur’an 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 Qur’an, provide important evidence for the Jewish traditions encountered in seventh-century Arabia. The Qur’anic 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.
