Towards a New Reading of the Qur'an?
An International Conference at the University of Notre Dame
Conference Abstracts (listed alphabetically)
Amar, Joseph, "Dionysius bar Salibi's Apologetic Treatise: A Response
to the Arabs"
Dionysius bar Sal�b�'s apologetic treatise, A Response to the Arabs,
is the longest and most comprehensive dispute text with Muslims that
exists in Syriac. Its purpose is to acquaint the reader with the
essential facts pertaining to Islam and to provide apologetic
arguments intended to refute the challenges of Islam to the Christian
faith. However, quite apart from its monumental scope, the treatise
is unique among Syriac dispute texts, first, for the amount of
information it contains concerning the origins, history, and doctrinal
development of Islam; and second, for the extensive collection of
quotations from the Qur'an translated into Syriac that occupy
chapters 25-30.
I propose to give an overview of the contents of this work and to
offer some initial comments on A. Mingana's controversial hypothesis
concerning the quotations from the Qur'an. These will be based on
my forthcoming edition of the treatise, Corpus Scriptorum
Christianorum Orientalium, vol. 615, summer 2005.
Anderson, Gary, "The Fall of Satan in Early Christian Exegesis and the
Qur'an"
The story of Iblis' refusal to bow down before Adam is richly
attested in early Christian tradition and probably known (though not
directly referred to) in Rabbinic sources. The question I would like
to raise is what the relationship of this antecedent material is to
the Qur'anic narrative.
B�wering, Gerhard, "Some Implications of Recent Research on
Reconstructing the Qur'an"
In the last two years two major reconstructive studies on the
Qur'an, written by scholars active in Germany, have appeared, one
under the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg and the other by G�nter
L�ling. Both studies, written by scholars on the fringe of academia,
are revisions of research previously published but now purified,
stream-lined and improved. Adding new material and unifying major
theses advocated in his earlier studies, �ber den Ur-Qur'an
(Erlangen 1974) and Die Wiederentdeckung des Propheten Muhammad
(Erlangen 1981), L�ling's A Challenge to Islam for Reformation,
appeared in Delhi, India, in 2003. Luxenberg's Die Syro-Aram�ische
Lesart des Koran, representing the second edition of the same title
(Berlin 2000) with the addition of some changes and corrections was
printed in Berlin in 2004. Though aware of each other's research,
neither acknowledge one another nor engage in scholarly interaction,
barring one meager footnote on page 459 by L�ling and a paragraph on
page 20 by Luxenberg. Both studies, however, possess the common
feature of bypassing a dozen centuries of Islamic scholarship on the
Qur'an and deviating categorically from the multifaceted paradigm
of Qur'anic origins which two centuries of Orientalist
scholarship have established with meticulous research from N�ldeke and
Schwally through Horovitz, Bell and Jeffery to Blach�re and Paret.
Rich in detail and overwhelming in the minutiae of their assertions,
neither study establishes a firm historical basis for highly
idiosyncratic theories about the origins of the Qur'anic idiom
within the context of seventh century Arabia. This independent,
ingenious, provocative and controversial approach has exposed both
authors to the harsh criticism of contemporary Western scholarship on
the Qur'an (cf. C. Burgmer, Streit um den Koran, Berlin 2005) and
made them the target of severe militant reproaches from Muslims on the
internet. The present paper will unravel some of the implications of
this reconstructive research on the Qur'an.
Donner, Fred, "A Review and Commentary of Some Recent Theories about
the Koran, with Particular Reference to the Work of C. Luxenberg"
The paper will briefly attempt to situate the work of C. Luxenberg in
the context of earlier Western scholarship on the Qur'an, and
will then move on to consider the implications for future work of some
of Luxenberg's observations and methods. It will examine the
relationship between written Qur'an text and the tradition of
oral recitation. It will then consider the idea of an Aramaic- Arabic
"mixed language" in pre-Islamic Arabia, and the question of writing
systems and the text's relation to Arabic orthography.
Gilliot, Claude, "Is the Qur'an Partly the Fruit of a Collective
Work?"
In this contribution the author will sum up a contribution presented
at Louvain-la-Neuve/Leuven and now edited, and he will add to it some
considerations on what he as called elsewhere: "the reconstruction of
the Qur'an uphill" and its "reconstruction downhill." It is well
known that for the history of the Qur'an we still are mainly in
the world of "Alice in Wonderland" or to be more in the local colour,
in the world of the "Marvels of Alaaddin's lamp," when we compare it
with the researches in the field of Biblical studies for instance. The
Qur'an itself and Islamic tradition contain several (for the
first) or many (for the second) indications or information which are
an invitation to scholars to reconstruct partly another view of the
history of this text. Another means here in some way different from,
sometimes opposed to the Islamic official theological representation
of the genesis and development of this "recitation" and/or
"lectionary" (Qur'an):
1. The topos "Holy! Holy!" (quddūs, quddūs) or the
"auxiliaries" of Muhammad (Khadija, Waraqa b. Nawfal, etc.) "creating
him a Prophet."
2. The theme of the "informants," to which the Qur'an alludes and
which is treated at length by Islamic tradition.
3. Zayd b. Thabit who probably knew Aramaic, Syriac or Hebrew, or
elements of these languages before the arrival of Muhammad to Yathrib.
4. The missing (or supposed so) verses or sūras, and those that
God (or Muhammad) suppresses or abrogates. 5. The ambiguities in the
vocabulary of memorization (jam` and verb jama`a), collection (again
jam` and verb jama`a), composition (ta'līf) of the Qur'an.
6. Problems concerning the language and style of the Qur'an, on
one hand, and the Arabic writing, on the other hand.
7. Technical terms in the Qur'an as a book not of Arabic origin:
Qur'an, aya, sūra, mushaf, etc.
8. The embarrassment of ancient Muslim exegetes facing words or
passages of the Qur'an with foreign vocabulary.
9. The recent publication of the book of Christoph Luxenberg has been
for me a new impulse to reexamine many materials I had collected
during the years and to find new indications showing that these alls
are hints in the direction of another history of the Qur'an
uphill, that is before the Islamic Qur'an. 10. As for the
reconstruction of the Qur'an downhill, we will present some
reflections on the project of Bergstr�sser/Pretzl (and Jeffery) and on
its importance.
Griffith, Sidney, "Christian Lore and the Arabic Qur'an:
The `Companions of the Cave' in Sūrat al-Kahf and in Syriac
Christian Tradition"
The first section of this essay is a brief exposition of
the interpretive principles which the present writer thinks reasonable
to use in the study of the themes and expressions familiar from Syraic
Christian texts which one then finds reflected in the Arabic
Qur'an. The second section considers in this light the allusions
to the legend of the `Companions of the Cave' in XVIII al- Kahf 9-26.
The earliest, still extant, pre-Qur'anic texts which tell the
story of the `Sleepers of the Cave' are in Syriac. They date from the
sixth Christian century and they emanate from the `Syrian Orthodox'
church, the Christian community which their adversaries, with
polemical intent, have persistently described as `Jacobite',
`Monophysite' or `Severan', an obfuscating usage regrettably still
employed by most modern western scholars.
The essay presents a reading of the pertinent passage from
the Qur'an against the background of the previously current
Syriac accounts of the legend of the `Companions of the Cave'. The
attempt is to gain from this exercise a deeper appreciation of the
Arabic Qur'an's handling of Christian lore presumably already
familiar to the Islamic scripture's own Arabic-speaking audience. The
essay proposes a hopefully plausible, hypothetical scenario according
to which pre-Qur'anic, Arabic-speaking Christians in Arabia may
have become familiar with the legend of the `Sleepers of the Cave' in
the form in which one finds it presented in its Syriac recensions.
Narrative, linguistic and philological details of both the Syriac and
the Qur'anic texts are compared in an effort to discern how they
might enhance a more fully informed reading of the Qur'an's
allusions to material it manifestly shares with the Syriac Christian
tradition. Finally, from the perspective of these reflections, some
assessment is offered regarding the plausibility of recent and earlier
scholarly suggestions for emendations of the received text of the
Qur'an in the passage under study.
Heck, Paul "The Qur'an and Concepts of Civilization"
For the conference, I plan to talk about the Qur'an
and
Concepts of Civilization. I will look at Muslim concepts of
civilization in which Aur'anic verses/visions are at play: a few
examples from the classical period, a few examples from the
contemporary one. I will then explore ways in which the Qur'an
has served as a reference point in "Muslim" literature (of various
genres). I will then conclude by suggesting a reading of the
Qur'an/scholarly approach to Qur'anic studies in which the
Qur'an is understood as a formative agent of civilization, not
unlike the Bible.
Hoyland, Robert, "Christian Contribution to the Qur'an, Christian
Response to the Qur'an"
In his book Christoph Luxenberg posits a Christian Syro-Aramaic
milieu for the birth of the Qur'an, but does not examine the
historical evidence for such a milieu. The matter needs
consideration, for the Syro-Aramaic culture that Luxenberg draws upon
for his rereading of the Qur'an centres on the region of Edessa,
in modern-day Turkey, an enormous distance from Muhammad's Mecca.
This is a task that I will undertake in the first part of my paper.
In particular, I will look at the regions of northern Syria, Damascus,
and northwest Arabia in the sixth-century, since it is in these places
and in this time that pre-Islamic inscriptions in the Arabic language
and the Arabic script make their appearance. The question will then
be posed what led to this new development, i.e. the invention of the
Arabic script. The Arabic language had been spoken long before this,
and was very occasionally written down, but always in another script
(e.g. south Arabian or Nabataean Aramaic), so what had changed for
Arabic to acquire its own script? I will review the various theories
on offer - Christian missionary work, administrative needs of Arab
client kingdoms of Rome, a natural evolution from Nabataean Aramaic
(as opposed to Syro-Aramaic?), etc. - and consider their relation to
the issue of the Qur'an's composition, and also to the related
issues of the emergence of an Arab identity and the rise of Islam. In
the second part of my paper, I will turn my attention to Christian
writings about the Qur'an in the aftermath of the Muslim
conquests, and more particularly I will discuss whether they show any
awareness of the Syro-Aramaic milieu that Luxenberg proposes.
Kropp, Manfred "Ethiopic Influence on the Qur'an and Early Islam
- Reconsiderations a Hundred Years after N�ldeke's studies."
Ethiopic influence on the Koran is a special chapter in
the large book on the foreign influences on the primitive message of
Islam. Certainly, the influence of Christianity and Judaism from the
adjacent regions of Syria and Mesopotamia on the Northern Arab
communities (cities, petty states etc.) was significant under many
respects. But the enormous progress of Sabaic studies has put into
evidence the equally significant influence of the Ancient Yemenite
(South Arabian) culture on the same communities. Certainly, this
culture as well underwent Christian and Jewish influence, but
nevertheless characteristic and exclusive traits between Islam and
Ancient Yemen can be sorted out.
That is exactly where and when the question of Ethiopic
influence is situated. Ancient Yemen and Ancient Ethiopia (Aksum) have
a long history in common, starting from Sabaean colonization on the
other shore of the Red Sea and continuing through Ethiopian invasions
in Yemen. Moreover, commercial and subsequently cultural and
religious exchange existed between the empire of Aksum (Christian
since the middle of the 4th century AD) and the regions in
Northwestern Arabia. Ethiopian merchants, artisans and slaves were
common in Pre-Islamic Mecca. They certainly brought not only material
goods, merchandise, but also religious and cultural concepts and ideas
to this city. The first hijra of some two hundred of Muhammad's
followers was directed precisely to Christian Ethiopia. Many of these
muhajirūn came back to the Muslim community in Medina.
The reflexes of these relations to Ethiopia and its
Christianity are to be seen at first glance in the Ethiopic
loanwords, or words influenced by Ethiopic languages, in the
Qur'an. Th. N�ldeke in his Neue Beitr�ge zur semitischen
Sprachwissenschaft (1910) discussed the most important of them. Yet a
number of very early texts in Old Ethiopic have been edited since
N�ldeke's time. This allows us to rewrite the history of several of
the words in question (e.g. ma'ida, shaytan) on one hand. On
the other hand, this touches the matter of influence beyond the
limited field of loanwords; the existence of motifs and narrative
topics, perhaps even theological concepts on the Koran that are, if
not originally Ethiopian, at least via Ethiopian Christianity.
Modern studies on the origin and environment of the Qur'anic text
should take the "Ethiopic factor" into account very seriously, even if
it will not always be possible to distinguish Christian Ethiopian from
South Arabian/Yemenite.
Madigan, Daniel, "Is What the Text Once Said What It Actually Means?"
Leaving aside the question of the plausibility of Luxenberg's
reconstructions of the Qur'anic text, this paper will open up the
hermeneutical and theological question of the relationship between
texts that are considered sacred and the communities that find meaning
in them. The response to Luxenberg's work has tended to suppose that
once the 'real' meaning of the Qur'�n is uncovered it will change the
nature of Islam. In the final analysis the question remains what
effect does even the reliable establishment of a scriptural Urtext
have on what the text means to believers?
Marx, Michael, "Judeao-Christian Beliefs and the Qur'an"
The hypothesis that what is called Judeao-Christian beliefs are
recognizable in the text of the Qur'an has been articulated by a
number of scholars (von Harnack 1911, Schlatter 1918, al-Haddad, de
Blois 2004, et al.). Sometimes Judaeo-Christian beliefs are seen not
only in the text of the Qur'an but also in early Islamic
tradition. In the scheduled paper the Judaeo-Christian hypothesis will
be re- read, especially concerning salvation history or rather the
reception of salvation history in the text of the Qur'an. Given
the fact that the Qur'an shows signs of a performed text or a
text situated in a communication pattern of a prophet following his
call to talk to his people (comparable perhaps to Jeremiah's call, cf.
Jeremiah 1), the idea of a succession line of biblical prophets will
be described and analyzed as given in the text. Following the type of
preceding prophets, the Prophet Muhammed stands in the line of
Ibrahim, Mūsa, Nūh and Jesus. Somehow the concept
of preceding prophets seems to be incompatible with the Jewish or
Christian (Orthodox/Catholic) understanding of salvation history. Even
if many textual elements concerning the biblical prophets in the
Qur'an show affinity to Rabbinic literature (Talmud and Midrash;
cf. Geigers pioneering study in 1833) the attitude towards Jesus
Christ seems to break with a supposed Rabbinic background. The
benevolent image of Jesus cannot easily be attributed to Jewish
beliefs. The theological argument of "Christ as a predecessor of
Muhammad" reminds one of the Judeao- Christian belief in a succession
of prophets. The portrayal of the Biblical prophets in the Qur'an
appears often to reveal a "de- mythifying" perspective. The theme of
Jesus seems to contain a "low profile Christology." From the
perspective of a "history of preceding prophets" (and less a salvation
history) the message of the Prophet Muhammad as "prophecy in progress"
or "prophecy live!" can be seen as the implicitly given argument of
the Qur'an.
Mourad, Suleiman, "The Presentation of Mary in the Qur'an"
The presentation of Mary in the Qur'an has attracted the
attention of several scholars of Islam, precisely regarding the
particular way she is identified (in one instance the Qur'an
refers to her as Aaron's sister, and in another case identifies her as
Amram's daughter). Some modern scholars have argued that these two
particular instances demonstrate that Muhammad was perplexed about the
exact identity of Mary, and confused her with Miriam, daughter of
Biblical Amram and sister of Moses and Aaron. In my paper, I will
reexamine the Quranic references to Mary, the problems of her identity
as well as the particular stories and theology about her, and the way
Muslims exegetes and biographers dealt with these references.
Rippin, Andrew "Syriac in the Qur'an: Muslim theories"
By no means was Christoph Luxenberg or even Alphonse Mingana the first
person to contemplate the presence of Syriac in the Qur'an.
Starting in the early centuries of Islam, exegetes frequently
discussed various words which they considered to be of Syriac origin.
Early Muslim writers were aware of a language still spoken in their
midst called suryanī or nabatī and they appear to have
appealed to that knowledge to solve exegetical problems in the
Qur'an. The reasons they did so were tied to a number of
considerations, including the morphological form of apparently
difficult Arabic words and the impossibility of the required meaning
of some words being traced to standard Arabic. There was, as well, the
recognition that some proper names were derived from Syriac.
This paper will examine the use of Syriac as a tool for medieval
Muslim exegetes and investigate the reasons why they felt it necessary
to look to foreign origin of certain words and why it might be that
they chose Syriac in certain Qur'anic instances as compared to
Greek, Coptic or Hebrew, other popular "foreign languages" adduced in
their commentaries. Consideration will also be given to the changing
popularity of the notion of the presence of foreign language words in
the Qur'an among exegetes of various eras.
Saadi, Abdul Masih, "Nascent Islam in the 7th Century Syriac Sources"
The Arab invasions of the seventh century marked the beginning of a
dramatic change in the heartland of Eastern Christianity. The Arabs'
style until that time had been to overrun and pillage the landscape,
and then, just as quickly, to withdraw to their desert. At this time,
however, it was not the case. They called their new invasion: Hijra,
i.e., Immigration, and the Syriac people called them: Mhaggraye, i.e.,
Immigrants. When the Mhaggraye chose to settle in this conquered
land, what was the Syriac Christian response (s)? How did they view
the "Mhaggraye" historically, religiously, and ethnically in the
seventh century?
Samir, Samir Khalil, "A Reconsideration of the Qur'an and Its
Relationship to Christianity"
We have two paths from which to choose in the study of
possible Christian influence on the Qur'an: the philological
study of terms borrowed from Greek, Syriac and Ethiopic, and the study
of the content of Qur'anic passages related to the Bible (Old and
New Testament) and Christianity. Philological study is built on the
work of predecessors, both medieval Arab scholars -- above all the
Muzhir and Itqan of Suyūtī -- and western scholars,
above all the work of Siegmund Fr�nkel (1886), Alphonse Mingana (1927,
etc.), Christoph Luxenberg (2000) and especially Arthur Jeffery
(1938). This work is designed to uncover what type of influence
Christianity might have exercised on the Qur'an.
The study of content, the product of more personal
research, is designed to discern, in Biblical allusions, between that
which could have come from Jews and that which could have come from
Christians, and to specify as much as possible the type of
Christianity with which the Qur'an might have been familiar.
This double approach allows one better to define the
impact that Syro-Arabic and Ethiopic Christianity could have exercised
on the seminal Islamic community.
Stewart, Devin, "Emending the Text of the Qur'an: An Evaluation
of Qur'anic Emendations Proposed in Medieval and Modern
Scholarship"
Drawing on medieval Islamic sources as well as on modern studies
written in the Western European tradition of scholarship on the
Qur'an, this paper examines and critically evaluates the merits
of over a dozen proposed emendations of the Qur'anic text. These
include emendations included in the "variant readings" of the sacred
text (qira'at) and in medieval Islamic sources such as
Jalal al-Dīn al-Suyatī's Itqan fi `ulūm
al-Qur'an, as well as emendations proposed by modern
investigators of the Qur'anic text such as Charles Cutler Torrey
and James Bellamy. In this context, the paper will also touch on some
of the more plausible sections of Luxenberg's recent book on the
`Syro-Aramaic reading' of the Qur'an. It will endeavour to
assess in detail the probability these emendations have of being
correct and why they are likely or unlikely, while making some general
comments about the tools available to us to determine that
probability--rhyme, rhythm, form criticism, etc.--and the process of
emendation itself.
Van Bladel, Kevin, "The Apocalypse of Alexander the Great in the
Qur'an (Q 18:83-102)"
Several studies in European languages since the nineteenth century
have tried to explain the episode of Dhu-l-Qarnayn in the Qur'an
(18:83-102). Theodor N�ldeke made the case that these verses of the
Qur'an must be derived from a Syriac story of Alexander the
Great, entitled in Budge's edition Neshana dileh d-Aleksandros,
roughly "The Acts of Alexander," which is an apocalyptic text in turn
inspired by the prolific tradition of the Alexander Romance of Pseudo-
Callisthenes. N�ldeke dated the text to the sixth century. Later
scholars have challenged his conclusions by finding a more exact
dating of the Syriac text (629-630 AD).
However, Brannon Wheeler has recently asserted that the Syriac text is
not a source of the Qur'an itself but rather for Qur'an
commentaries on this passage. Moreover, the recent Encyclopaedia of
the Qur'an article "Alexander" fails even to mention either the
Syriac text or give reference to the debate about its connection to
the Qur'an. N�ldeke's thesis, that the source of this passage of
the Qur'an can be specifically identified in Syriac tradition,
thus seems to be on the verge of oblivion.
This communication applies renewed critical attention to the
relationship of this Syriac text and the Qur'anic episode of
Dhu-l- Qarnayn, comparing the content of the two very closely and
showing that they contain numerous exact parallels even as specific as
individual words. It argues that N�ldeke was basically right about the
affiliation, though he was indeed incorrect about the dating of the
text. An argument is presented that either the Qur'an depends on
this Syriac text or the two texts share a common source. The Syriac
tradition may have been transmitted either directly from this Syriac
text or through a limited number of intermediaries, perhaps oral. The
implications of these findings for the Qur'anitself will be
discussed. Finally, the reasons for which this text was used by the
early followers of Muhammad are connected with the prophetic character
of Alexander in the Syriac text and with, more specifically, what I
propose to call the Apocalypse of Alexander.
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