A Syriac Aramaic reading of the Qur’an (book)
In addition to deciphering the secrets of the Qur'anic language, the 2007 English version (Die syro-aramäische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Koransprache (2000)) is a book by German philologist and professor of Semitic and ancient Arabic languages Christoph Luxenberg . This book takes a research method in historical and comparative philology and is critical of the texts of the Qur’an and is considered a controversial book in the field of historical jurisprudence of the language of the Qur’an. This book sparked a global debate about the history and historical philology and the correct interpretation of the Qur'an. It received extensive coverage in the mainstream media and unusually for a book on historical and comparative philology (Philology ). [1]
The book presents the theory that the contents of sensitive sections of the Qur’an have been widely and incorrectly read by successive generations of readers through a comprehensive and erroneous adoption at the same time on the belief that the classical Arabic language formed the basis of the Qur’an, while linguistic analysis of the text indicates that the predominance of the Syriac Aramaic language to the century The seventh formed a stronger basis for the origin of words to find out the meaning. [2] What is interesting in the early written Arabic remains is that it lacks vowel and diacritical marks, which would later enable us to distinguish a meaning, for example in tnī (a style of imperfect writing), which is why Arabic writing was subject to misinterpretation. The diacritics were added during the turn of the eighth century by order of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf , Emir of Iraq (694-714).
Luxenberg pointed out, as was pointed out by scholars before him, that the Qur'an contains many ambiguous and unexplainable words and expressions. He stresses that even Muslim scholars find some passages difficult in terms of expressing their meaning and that they have compiled heaps of Qur'anic commentaries in their attempt to explain these passages. Despite this, the assumption behind all their attempts was that any (Quranic) passage was authentic, meaningful and purely Arabic, and that it could be interpreted using traditional Islamic jurisprudence methods. Luxenberg accused Western academic specialists of taking a half-hearted approach (of jurists) by relying too heavily on the biased works of Muslim jurists.
The book's hypothesis is that the Qur'an was initially not written entirely in Arabic but with a mixture of Arabic and Syriac (Old Syrian), the spoken and written language prevalent in Arabia during the eighth century.
قراءة آرامية سريانية للقرآن (كتاب) What we mean by the Syrian Aramaic language (in fact Syriac) is that it is a branch of Aramaic in the Near East that was originally spoken in Edessa and the surrounding area in the north of Mesopotamia in (Syria) and predominated as a written language from the beginning of Christianization to the emergence of the Qur’an. For more than a millennium it was The Aramaic language was the language of communication in the whole of the Middle East before it was gradually replaced by the Arabic language, starting from the seventh century” [3] قراءة آرامية سريانية للقرآن (كتاب)
Luxenberg suggests that specialists should start over, neglecting Islamic commentaries, and using only the most advanced linguistic and historical methods. Therefore, if a Qur'anic word or sentence appears meaningless in Arabic, or is given meaning only through painstaking use of intuition. It is reasonable - as he suggests - to review the Aramaic and Syriac language in addition to Arabic.
Luxenberg also suggests that the Qur'an is based on older texts, namely the Kitab al-Fussal (Book of Fusul: a book containing chapters from the Bible for recitation in the liturgy) used in Christian churches in Syria , and that adapting these texts to the Qur'an we know today was a work that required several generations. Clarifying the method of using historical and comparative philology (philology)
Find out if it is possible to find a specific and reasonable explanation in the interpretation of al-Tabari .
Find out if there is a reasonable explanation in the dictionary of the tongue, the most comprehensive dictionary in the Arabic language (the history of the dictionary is prior to al-Tabari, and therefore it may contain new materials)
Find out if the Arabic expression contains a homonym in Syriac and Aramaic with a different meaning and is appropriate to the content.
Estimate if the meaning of the Aramaic/Syriac root could give a more reasonable meaning to the paragraph
Show if there is a Syriac word that can give a reasonable meaning to the paragraph
Experiment with different diacritics (which show vowels, etc.) from the early text, the drawing. Perhaps there is some kind of drawing that will lead to finding an Arabic word that has a reasonable meaning in the text.
If there is no Arabic word that can help us to understand the text, repeat the experiment using Syriac words.
Translate the Arabic phrase into Syriac and refer to the Syriac literature to find a sentence that may have been literally translated into Arabic .
Find out to see if there is a corresponding phrase in the ancient Syriac literature, which could be a correspondence to an Arabic phrase that is currently missing.
Check to see if the result is a valid Arabic expression written in Arabic script, but with Syriac orthography.
"reasonable", "arbitration of reason" and "finding a reasonable meaning" for a single word includes searching for the presence of the same word in clearer Qur'anic passages, and searching in liturgical and non-canonical Syriac texts, which were transferred almost verbatim to the Qur'an.
Author's conclusion
The word Qur'an itself is derived from "Qaryana" (breaking the qaf), which is a Syriac expression from the Syriac liturgy, which means "lectionary", the book of ritual readings. The book (the Qur'an) is an Aramaic Syrian book of chapters , containing hymns and quotes from the Bible, created for use in Christian rituals.
This book of chapters was translated into Arabic as a missionary effort. It was not intended to start a new religion, but to spread another, old one. [4]
The word Hoor, which has always been interpreted as meaning a wide-eyed virgin (who will serve the believers in Paradise), the Qur’an (Surat Al-Dukhan 54) (Surat At-Tur 20) (Surat Al-Rahman 72) (Surat Al- Waqi’ah 22) actually means white grapes . He says that many Christian descriptions of Heaven describe it as a place full of pure white grapes. This (conclusion) sparked a lot of ridicule in the Western press, as suicide bombers are waiting for beautiful women and get white grapes.
The Qur’anic paragraph in Surat Al-Nur 31, which orders women to cover themselves (and to draw their headscarves on their pockets), which is one of the texts upon which the hijab legislation is based , this paragraph in fact commands women to “tie their belts on their waists.”
The Qur'anic passage in Surah Al-Ahzab 40, which is usually translated as "the seal of prophets," actually means "witness." With this reading, Muhammad is not the greatest of the prophets, but he is only a witness to those who came before him.
The Qur'an was written in a hybrid Arabic-Syriac language, which is the language of the merchants of Mecca
Interpretive errors made by the early commentators necessarily suggest the existence of a loophole in the oral reading of the Qur'an.
Feedback on Luxenberg
Some academics enthusiastically accepted Luxenberg's theory, while others felt that his method had a flaw in selecting the interpretation that served his argument.
The German Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Studies) held in Berlin in 2004 a conference focusing on Luxenberg's theory and formed a global working cell to continue discussing the topic. Much of the discussion at the conference was critical of Elksenberg. Although some scholars have asserted that Luxenberg's work is valuable only in the sense that it focused attention on the shortcomings of contemporary Qur'anic studies. One of the sources of this deficiency is the lack of a dictionary of Semitic languages that shows the linguistic origin of words and matches the most stringent modern standards.
Another conference held in 2005 at the University of Notre Dame entitled (Towards a New Reading of the Qur'an) brought together a number of those who expressed acceptance of Luxenberg's method.
On the other hand, Luxenberg's hypotheses and theses were subjected to harsh criticism by scholars and specialists. Richard Kroes described Luxenberg as indicating his ignorance of the literature on the subject and that what Luxenberg does is motivated by Christian justification, and François de Blois pointed out the large number of grammatical errors in Luxenberg's work and his limited knowledge of the Syriac language and described his work as a work An amateur, not a scientific work. It is also how Luxenberg's work was described by Professor Patricia Crone. Dr. Walid Saleh from the University of Toronto made many points that refute Luxenberg's hypotheses. [5] [6]
Sources
^ 'The Qur'an as a Philological Case of Research, Dialogue with Christoph Luxenberg.' Archived February 14, 2017 on the Wayback Machine website .
^ The New York Times, New Radical Views on Islam and the Sources of Islam. Archived June 17, 2018 on the Wayback Machine website .
^ The Syriac Aramaic Reading of the Qur'an, 2007, English Edition.
^ Jim Quilty (July 13, 2003), "Giving the Qur'an a History" , Daily Star , lebanonwire.com, Archived from the original on May 20, 2007 , accessed July 18, 2008 .
^ (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20180827100910/http://www.safarmer.com/Indo-Eurasian/Walid_Saleh.pdf , archived from the original (PDF) on 27 August 2018. {{استشهاد ويب}}: The moderator |title=does not exist or is empty ( help )
^ From Alphonse Mingana To Christoph Luxenberg: Arabic Script & The Alleged Syrianc Origins Of The Qur'an Archived December 28, 2017 at the Wayback Machine .
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