Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Solo · 09-21-2006, 03:16 PM

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Originally Posted by Toto

Wikipedia on The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran (also see Christopher Luxemberg)

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The Syro-Aramaic Reading Of The Koran: a contribution to the decoding of the language of the Qur'an (Die syro-aramäische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Koransprache) is a book by German philologist Christoph Luxenberg. It is considered a major work in the field of Qur'anic philology.

Using exhaustive and rigorous philological methodology the book's thesis is that the Qur'an was not originally written in Arabic but in Syriac, the dominant spoken and written language in the Arabian peninsula through the 8th century. A notable trait of Syriac which would later form into Arabic was that the script lacked vowel signs or diacritic points which would later distinguish b, t, n, y, etc and thus was prone to misinterpretation of meaning, particularly on the part of semi-illiterate Arabian interpreters. Thus the Arabs tribes of the 8th century were not able to correctly decipher the original script of the Qur'an, from the written manuscripts, and gave philologically erroneous meaning to ambiguously difficult passages of the manuscripts.

In fairness it should be pointed out that the argument for the "lateness" of the Kufic script is not new and was used in previous attempts at "deconstructing" Islam as an incremental offshoot of Syriac Christianity.

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This is the famous "white grapes" argument for mistranslation of virgins. The author published under a pseudonym.

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One passage that he has emended has attracted a great deal of attention. He argues that the word huri, usually interpreted by Islamic commentators as wide-eyed virgins (who will serve the faithful in Paradise; Qur'an 44:54, 52:20 ,55:72, 56:22) actually means white grapes. He says that many Christian descriptions of Paradise describe it as abounding in pure white grapes. This sparked much joking in the Western press......

I encourage the reader to look up the passages referenced above and note their context. Especially interesting is the mention of the 'houris' in 'The Merciful'.
(55:54): 'Therein are bashful virgins whom neither man nor jinnee will have touched before. Which of your Lord's blessings would you deny ?'
and
(55:72): 'Dark-eyed virgins, sheltered in their tents (Which of your Lord's blessings would you deny ?) whom neither man nor jinnee will have touched before. Which of your Lord's blessings would you deny ?'

So, there are two mentions, not one in s.55, and they violently disagree with that kind of reading. But that is not really the end of story. There is couple of highly suggestive verses (33-34) that precede the double mention of the immaculata: 'mankind and jinn, if you have power to penetrate the confines of heaven and earth, then penetrate them ! But this you shall not do except with Our own authority. Which of your Lord's blessings would you deny ?'

So it appears quite a bit of the sura would have had to have been rebuilt later around the misspelings to support Luxenberg's theory. But then again, one may simply prefer to think of the hypothesis as a late, academic, version of the terrors the Puritans were seized with contemplating the bacchanalic excesses of the "Mahomet heaven".

Jiri

Blui · 09-21-2006, 05:47 PM

I might have lost the plot, but the current issue was is there variant Qurans, was Muhammads words all transferred perfectly in every stage to our current Quran?

Not sure how the previous posts deal with that, or do they not deal with that?

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09-21-2006, 05:47 PM	#72
Blui Banned Join Date: May 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 3,381	I might have lost the plot, but the current issue was is there variant Qurans, was Muhammads words all transferred perfectly in every stage to our current Quran? Not sure how the previous posts deal with that, or do they not deal with that?

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