When times turn out to be challenging, true believers stand out in perseverance and forbearance against those who become instead stressed and depressed. And while people of other cultures and faiths take medicine and tranquilizers, the true Christian and Muslim is probably rummaging in their pockets and pulling out a beaded necklace instead.
The history of an object
We don’t know if this object was born earlier in India, in the Middle Eastern countries, or within the Church Fathers, the only thing we know with certainty is that it has remained an integral part of many traditions, and delving into them is an interesting topic that binds peoples and cultures only apparently different and distant.
The misbaha, the Muslim rosary to be clear, has served both a religious and a social function for the Arabs at least since the ninth century, when we have the first written records of it. Originally it had the sacred purpose of helping devotees to remember the number of times a particular prayer or praise to GOD had been recited, and also helping to keep a man’s thoughts away from the sometimes running disorderly. Some traditions report that it came to the Middle East through India, and this “necklace” called a misbaha at first was probably nothing more than a handful of date seeds or pebbles moved from one pile to another in the course of devotions. Eventually counters were strung for convenience, more precious materials were substituted for the simple originals, and in this way the Muslim rosary was born.
In early Christianity, on the other hand, some knotted cords were used to keep count of the number of times they said the Jesus prayer. The first to bear witness to this were the Desert Fathers, but the concept of the Rosary was attributed to Dominic of Osma in an apparition of the Virgin Mary during the year 1214 in the Church of Prouille. Yet even in Christianity it was known since the 9th century in various forms. In any case, it was because of this Marian apparition that it received the title of Our Lady of the Rosary. In the 15th century it was promoted by Alanus de Rupe (aka Alain de la Roche or Alan of the Rock), a Dominican priest and theologian, who established the “fifteen promises of the rosary” and started many rosary confraternities. Yet according to 20th century editions of the Catholic Encyclopedia, the story of Dominic’s devotion to the Rosary and the alleged appearance of Our Lady of the Rosary does not appear in any documents of the Catholic Church or the Dominican Order until at least some of de Rupe’s other writings, some 250 years after Dominic.
The Christian Rosary
The Rosary (rosarium, in the sense of “crown of roses” or “garland of roses”), also known as the Dominican Rosary, for Christianity refers to a set of prayers used in the Catholic Church and thus to the string of knots or beads used to count them.
The prayers that make up the rosary are arranged in series of ten Hail Marys, called decades. Each decade is preceded by an Our Father and traditionally followed by a Gloria Be. Many Catholics also choose to recite the prayer “O my Jesus” after the Gloria Be, which is the best known of the seven Fatima prayers. During the recitation of each series, one of the Mysteries of the Rosary, which recall events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, is thought of. For each rosary, five decades are recited. The rosary beads are an aid to reciting these prayers in the proper sequence.
Over the course of more than four centuries, several popes have promoted the rosary as part of the Catholic Church’s veneration of Mary, and consisting essentially of meditation on the life of Christ. The rosary also represents the Catholic emphasis on “participation in the life of Mary, the center of which was Christ,” and the Mariological theme of “to Christ through Mary.”
The Tasbih: The Muslim Rosary
The Muslim rosary (مِسْبَحَة) actually has several names depending on the various dialects of Arabic or the various languages of the countries where it is used: Tasbeeh or Misbaha, but also Tespih, Sebha or Subha. And anyone who has traveled at least once to Arab countries will have noticed the many people who seem to fiddle with this object.
The origin of Tasbeeh as said is not certain, however because of the contacts with the neighboring India where Japamala was already used it is possible a connection. The use of Tasbeeh is linked to that form of prayer present in the spiritual tradition of Islam which is the dhikr, or the incessant remembrance of GOD, the repetition of His Name. This practice is well described by a text of al-Ghazali: “After sitting in solitude, the Sufi will not cease to say with his mouth: ALLAH, ALLAH, continuously, with presence in his heart”.
The structure provides 99 grains are divided into 3 sections, and the last of these, the hundredth is of longitudinal shape and closes the chain. Each grain represents one of the “99 Names of GOD”, names by which the Muslim meditates on the divine mystery, but it is also used for the recitation of verses of the Quran or prayers to be repeated many times. In a particular way there are three prayers to be repeated:
Sub’hanALLAH: Gloria a DIO (33 volte)
AlhamdulillAH: Lode A DIO (33 volte)
ALLAH Akbar: DIO è grande (34 volte)
Wahhabis, one of the currents of Islam, do not allow its use, while the theologian Ibn al-Giawzî stated instead that “it is a recommendable practice,” referring to a hadîth of Sâfiyya that “glorified GOD” by using date stones or pebbles.
Shape and Curiosity
One thesis claims that Christians in the past would have used the Tasbeeh because the 33 grains would represent the years of Jesus and the repetition of the 3 times 33, represented the triple manifestation of the Trinity: FATHER, Son and Holy Spirit. Regarding this theory there would be evidence showing the direct descent of the Catholic rosary from the Arab misbaha, introduced in Western Europe during the 13th century, after more than two centuries of exchanges between the Franks and the Arabs during the Crusades.
The misbaha can be of 33 or 99 pearls, and this similarly for Christians and Muslims. At one time some traditions attributed its use to one or the other religion, but this conception has long since been abandoned. The rosary of both religions has a carved piece in the shape of a handle through which the two ends of the rope are threaded and knotted, often for Muslims with a kind of ornamental tuft of flaps, and in the 99-bead version the beads are separated into divisions of 33. In the past there was a third type of misbaha, composed even of 1. 000 beads the size of an egg arranged on a large rope, this object was used in the funeral ceremonies of Egypt, where at funerals formed a large circle holding this large misbaha and circulating its beads thus recalling the 3,000 repetitions of the Muslim profession of faith: La ilaha ilia ALLAH (“There is no God except GOD.”).
Bibliography:
- Kasten, Patricia Ann (2011). Linking Your Beads: The Rosary’s History, Mysteries, Prayers. Our Sunday Visitor. ISBN 978-1612785424.
- Beebe, Catherine, St. Dominic and the Rosary ISBN 0-89870-518-5
- ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasbeeh
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misbaha
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhikr