Pharaoh and his council: Great minds think Alike

In two suras of the Quran (Q 7 and Q 26) a dialogue between Pharaoh and his council members (mala') is recorded after Moses performed miracles before them The account in Q 7 is textually problematic, the version of Q 26 is smooth After a brief survey of possible pre-Islamic precedents for the dialogue, this note explores the two nearly identical yet contradictory intraquranic parallels and the relationship between them, and surveys the harmonizing approaches of the classical exe-getes as well as the critical attitudes of modern scholars to the issue Finally, the textual dynamic that caused the passage in Q 7 to change is reconstructed An appendix examines the other minute differences between the two passages.