Proper Nouns in The old Testament and the Holy Quran A linguistic Historic Comparative study

Abstract

In this paper we studied a number of the proper nouns that are mentioned in the Old Testament - Genesis - which stand for a number of names of prophets who were mentioned in the Old Testament in that chapter known as the pioneer fathers as a tribute to their role in manifesting faith in the unity of the Creator and discarding polytheism that were prevalent among their people.These prophets have been affirmed by the Quran in terms of doctrinal and historic presence as prophet assigned to deliver the divine message to the pagan people. Quran has praised them to the extent of titling the suras with their names. It is impossible to tackle those prophets in the Old Testament and the Holy Quran apart from tackling those figures who endure with them the hardships and migration as a manner to show the harsh reality in which the prophets lived. Those proper nouns includes their fathers, mothers, spouses and children whom the Old Testament referred to explicitly, whereas the Holy Quran does not refer to them with the explicit names but with their agnomen.The paper is divided into two sections: Section One: includes the names of Prophet Abraham as a proper noun and those accompanied him.Section Two: includes the study of the proper nouns of the prophets Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob as well as other names.The paper is concluded with the number of findings according to the comparative approach and a list of references in Arabic, Hebrew and foreign languages.