Did Irish Christianity stem from Islam ie st Patrick's holy trinity symbolism of the shamrock originates from the north African Arabic word for a three leaved plant?

Answer 1

Answer 1

St Patrick could not have been influenced by Islam, since he lived 200 years before Islam was founded.

Answer 2

It is true to say that Irish Christianity (indeed Christianity in general) did not stem from Islam, although Jesus is recognized in the Qur'an as a central prophet. Saint Patrick did use the shamrock to illustrate the corner stones of Christianity ie. The Cross and The Trinity. The number 3 is of mystical significance to Christians as it was in ancient times to the Druids and other Celtic religions. Before the birth of Islam, number 3 was also of some significance to ancient Persians and it is possible that Saint Patrick was aware of this. The people inhabiting the countries that would eventually come under the sway of Islam did refer to a three leaved plant (possibly a form of shamrock) as "shamrakh".

Answer 3

No. The English word "shamrock" is a phonetic spelling of the Gaelic word "seamrog" (nearly same pronunciation), which is a diminutive of the word "seamar." It lterally means "little clover" and is not related to Arabic.

Answer 4

Whilst it is true that there are a number of words in the English language we use everyday that originate from Arabic, this seems unlikely to be.

Furthermore, it is very unlikely that Islam was the influence for any symbolism for trinitarianism as it rejects the notion that God can literally have a son or any direct partner. It is a known fact that the concept of trinity was adopted by Christianity after around 400 years following Jesus, which is a culmination of pagan tradition.

Answer 5

The discussion section mentions five commonalities between Arab and Irish culture/history to use as reasons why there is a likely connection. They are each superficial (like a bat's wing to a bird's wing) and have little deeper connection. Each will be analyzed in turn:

1. The Arabic & Gaelic name for "Jesus" are similar: This is linguistically incidental. The "J" in English derives from the Latin "I" in "Iesu". In the Middle Ages, the Latin consonantal "I" became a "J" and the Latin vowelled "V" became a "U". Some languages (like Irish Gaelic) never converted the "I" to a "J" when Latin-based languages made these changes, while English did. The Arabic name for Jesus "3isa" comes from the original Aramaic form of Jesus' name: Isa, which had become Iesu in the Latin. The languages have nothing in common.

2. The Arabic word for a three leaved plant is phonetically similar to the word "shamrock". -- The name shamrock is derived from Irish seamróg, which is the diminutive version of the Irish word for clover (seamair). The Arabic word Shamrakh refers to a plant, raceme, but has no connection to the popular shape of the shamrock.

3. Galway folk song style known as "Sean Og" has identical pentatonic rhythm to that used by the Muezzin in calling the Islamic faithful to prayer from the minaret, -- It has been found that music in different parts of the world still accord to general principles in Music Theory. In the same way that certain food combinations will always work and some will never work, so it is with music. The fact that two civilizations hit on similar musical patterns says nothing other than that they did. This also says nothing about the rhythms of typical Muslim and Catholic prayers.

4. Boats used in Ireland known as "Galway Hookers" are identical to those on the Nile, indicating trade connections between the two regions,-- They also look like Chinese Junks. Ireland must have been trading with China too...

5. Local Conemarra (Galway) people are naturally dark haired and dark skinned and do look foreign in comparison to the typical Irish person. -- This is far more naturally explained by the different arrival of Celtic tribes from more southern and more northern regions of Europe. There is no record of people from outside of Europe arriving in Ireland prior to the Renaissance and it seems unlikely that Arabs would have made such a trek since Ireland had no valuable resources, nor was popularly known.