Yunus and Nineveh Repenting

The Qur'an records the prophet Yunus ibn Matta (peace be upon him), Yunus in the Qur'anic Arabic, the prophet known as Jonah in the Christian Old Testament tradition, in five principal passages: Surat Yunus (named for him, Q 10:98), Surat al-Anbiya' (Q 21:87-88, preserving his recitation from the belly of the fish), Surat al-Saffat (Q 37:139-148, the principal narrative), Surat al-Qalam (Q 68:48-50, the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him is told not to be like Yunus's reaction in frustration), and (by tradition) Surat Nun (one of the names attributed to Surat al-Qalam). Yunus (peace be upon him) was sent to the people of Nineveh, the great Neo-Assyrian capital on the Tigris in northern Mesopotamia (opposite modern Mosul), to call them to tawhid. They rejected him; he departed his people in frustration before the divine permission, embarked on a ship, was cast overboard by lot when the ship was endangered, and was swallowed by the great fish (Q 37:142). In the belly of the fish, Yunus (peace be upon him) made the famous recitation preserved at Q 21:87: la ilaha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu min al-zalimin, 'There is no god but You; glory be to You; surely I have been among the wrongdoers.' The Qur'an records that he was delivered from the fish and cast onto an empty shore where Allah caused a gourd-vine to grow over him for shade (Q 37:145-146). After his recovery he returned to his people, who had meanwhile, having seen the approach of the announced punishment, turned in full repentance, gone out of the city in ash and mourning dress, and called upon Allah for forgiveness. The Qur'an records the result at Q 10:98: 'If only there had been a town that believed and faith profited it, except the people of Yunus; when they believed We removed from them the punishment of disgrace in this world.' This is the only Qur'anic instance of a complete city repenting in time and being spared. The Sunni qisas al-anbiya' tradition (Ibn Kathir's Qisas al-Anbiya', al-Tha'labi's 'Ara'is al-Majalis) preserves the narrative; the historical Nineveh was destroyed a generation or so later by the Median-Babylonian coalition (612 BCE), so the Sunni tradition holds the divine respite given in the time of Yunus (peace be upon him) as having been to a particular generation, not to the city in perpetuity. The dating is by anchor (the time of Yunus peace be upon him); the modern academic consensus places his ministry in the late Neo-Assyrian period, c. 8th century BCE. This scene depicts the city in mass repentance: the great walls and lamassu gate-statues intact, the population in the streets in ash and mourning dress with arms raised in supplication. No figure of Yunus (peace be upon him) is depicted; the city's response is the foreground.