Christoph Luxenberg is the pseudonym of the author of the 2000 book Die Syro-Aramäische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Koransprache (in English: The Syro-Aramaic reading of the Qur'an: a contribution to the decipherment of the Quranic language). A pseudonym (Greek: false name) is a fictitious name used by an individual as an alternative to his or her legal name. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... Syriac is an Eastern Aramaic language that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. ... The Quran (Arabic , literally the recitation; also called or The Noble Quran; also transliterated Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ...

This book takes a philological and text-critical approach to the study of the Qur'an. Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ... Textual criticism is a branch of philology that examines the extant manuscript copies of an ancient or medieval literary work to produce a text that is as close as possible to the original. ... The Quran (Arabic , literally the recitation; also called or The Noble Quran; also transliterated Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ...

The book's thesis is controversial and the author has chosen to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation by angry Muslim traditionalists. (See The Satanic Verses (novel) and Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) (sometimes also spelled Moslem) is an adherent of Islam. ... The Satanic Verses cover The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdies fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. ... The Face of Muhammed - The controversial cartoons of Muhammad, first published in Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. ...

Luxenberg's thesis

Die Syro-Aramäische Lesart des Koran argues that the Qur'an, far from being composed or uttered by Muhammad, the Islamic prophet, developed gradually after the establishment of the Islamic empire, and that its original language was Aramaic. Luxenberg says that the Arabic of Muhammad's time was an unwritten language; that the Arabic script was borrowed from Aramaic, and that many poorly understood words found in the Qur'an are best understood as borrowings from the Syriac. Indeed, the Qur'an is to be understood as an Arabized version of texts that were originally Christian liturgical readings in Aramaic, the Syriac lectionaries. The Quran (Arabic , literally the recitation; also called or The Noble Quran; also transliterated Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ... Muhammad (c. ... Islam (Arabic: ; ( (help· info)), submission (to the will of God)) is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second-largest religion. ... ... Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. ... Arabic (; , less formally, ) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Syriac is an Eastern Aramaic language that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. ... An ornately decorated Lectionary A Lectionary is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings for Christian worship. ...

According to Islamic tradition, the Koran dates back to the 7th century, while the first examples of Arabic literature in the full sense of the phrase are found only two centuries later, at the time of the ‘Biography of the Prophet’; that is, of the life of Mohammed as written by Ibn Hisham, who died in 828. We may thus establish that post-Koranic Arabic literature developed by degrees, in the period following the work of al-Khalil bin Ahmad, who died in 786, the founder of Arabic lexicography (kitab al-ayn), and of Sibawwayh, who died in 796, to whom the grammar of classical Arabic is due. Now, if we assume that the composition of the Koran was brought to an end in the year of the Prophet Mohammed’s death, in 632, we find before us an interval of 150 years, during which there is no trace of Arabic literature worthy of note. — Christoph Luxenberg

Context of Luxenberg's thesis

The date of the collection of the Qur'an has been a contentious issue ever since the 1960s publications of John Wansbrough, the English scholar. Wansbrough adopted a resolutely skeptical approach, dismissing Muslim beliefs regarding the collection of the Qur'an and focusing only on textual and manuscript evidence. He came to believe that far from being collected in 650-656 CE by the caliph Uthman ibn Affan, the Qur'an was the result of a slow, organic growth during the first few centuries of Islam. Wansbrough's works are written in a dense, hermetic fashion and he has had little direct influence. His students Patricia Crone and Michael Cook had a much greater impact with their 1977 publication of Hagarism (now out of print), which argued for a late date for the collection of the Qur'an. Crone has since returned to a more traditional approach (at least to Quranic composition), but the questions raised by Hagarism persist. John Edward Wansbrough (19 February 1928, Peoria Illinois - 10 June 2002, Montaigu-de-Quercy France) was a historian of Islam who taught at SOAS in London. ... Caliph is the term or title for the Islamic leader of the Ummah, or community of Islam. ... Leave this page if youre under 18!! - Page contains huge lies and hardly has any facts > it will surely misguide you! Uthman ibn Affan (Arabic: عثمان بن عفان) (c. ... Patricia Crone (born 1945, Denmark) is a scholar of Islam working at the Institute for Advanced Study. ... Michael Cook (13 February 1933 -- 1 July 1994) was a playwright. ...

Response to Luxenberg's work

Luxenberg's work received wide notice in the popular media. His speculation that the virgins of Paradise mentioned in the Qur'an, 44:54, were in fact "white raisins" took the public fancy.

Academic response was mixed. A few reviews of the work hailed it as a great advance; many dismissed it as useful in parts but wrong in its general thesis. In 2004 that the German Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study) in Berlin held an academic conferences focusing on Luxenberg's thesis [1] and an international working group was formed to continue the discussion.

The academic consensus is still for an early date for the collection of the Qur'an, as supported by recent researches in Quranic manuscripts found in the Great Mosque of Sanaa, Yemen (see Gerd R. Puin). Fred Donner has also made textual arguments for an early collection date, saying that if the Qur'an had been assembled over the tumultuous first few centuries of Islam, the text would have reflected some of that history. He argued that the Qur'an is consonant with what we know of the earliest Muslim community, in Mecca and Medina (Donner , pp. ). Gerd Rüdiger Puin is a European scholar and the world foremost authority on Quranic paleography, the study and scholarly interpretation of ancient texts. ... Islam (Arabic: ; ( (help· info)), submission (to the will of God)) is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second-largest religion. ...

However, Luxenberg's work has focused attention on various deficiencies in contemporary Quranic studies. One is the lack of a critical edition of the Qur'an, referencing the manuscripts that still exist and studying the evolution of the received text as it is known today. Another is the lack of an etymological dictionary of the Semitic languages that meets the strictest contemporary standards. This would surely contribute to discussions of borrowings from Syro-Aramaic into Arabic.

References

• Crone, Patricia & Michael Cook -- Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World, Cambridge University Press, 1977
• Donner, Fred -- Narratives of Islamic Origins, Darwin Press, 1998
• Luxenberg, Christoph (2004) -- Die Syro-Aramäische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Koransprache. Berlin: Verlag Hans Schiler. 20054 ISBN 3-89930-028-9.
• Luxenberg, Christoph (2004) -- Weihnachten im Koran. in Streit um den Koran, Die Luxenberg Debatte: Standpunkte und Hintergründe Berlin: Verlag Hans Schiler. 2004. ISBN 3-89930-067-X.
• Luxenberg, Christoph (2005) --Neudeutung der arabischen Inschrift im Felsendom zu Jerusalem. in Die dunklen Anfänge, neue Forschungen zur Entstehung und frühen Geschichte des Islam Berlin: Verlag Hans Schiler. 2005. ISBN 3-89930-128-5.

See also

• Gerd R. Puin
• Patricia Crone
• John Wansbrough

Gerd Rüdiger Puin is a European scholar and the world foremost authority on Quranic paleography, the study and scholarly interpretation of ancient texts. ... Patricia Crone (born 1945, Denmark) is a scholar of Islam working at the Institute for Advanced Study. ... John Edward Wansbrough (19 February 1928, Peoria Illinois - 10 June 2002, Montaigu-de-Quercy France) was a historian of Islam who taught at SOAS in London. ...

External links

• BOOK REVIEW: Long review (in English) by Robert R. Phenix Jr. and Cornelia B. Horn in the peer-reviewed e-journal Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. It gives a thoughtful overview and description of Luxenberg's book with many examples of his findings.
• Missionary, dilettante or visionary?
• [2]
• July 28, 2003 Newsweek Article: Challenging the Koran