| Abstract: | The present study examines the treatment of the Prophet's mount in Shī‘ite tradition. We discuss the different opinions concerning the ass's name, ‘Ufayr or Ya‘fūr and present various traditions concerning utterances spoken by it, including utterances addressed to the Prophet, and other cases of human-like behaviour on its part, such as an ability to distinguish Muslims from Jews. We then go on to compare the Prophet's ass to those of other prophets, and find a number of similarities between them, in particular their ability to speak a human language. We also discuss the ass's death, which according to Shī‘ite tradition was by suicide, occasioned by the ass's fear following his master's death that someone else, not a prophet, would use it as a mount. We compare the Prophet's ass to those of Noah, and Solomon's Hoopoe, and show how Shī‘ite tradition has focused on similarities among them and utilized those to support the idea of the Imāmate as the Prophet's legacy in Shī‘ite doctrine. We further discuss the preference which Shī‘ite Imāms had for asses as against other mounts, a preference based on their wish to follow in the Prophet's footsteps. |
