--- In proletar@yahoogroups.com, "Jusfiq HADJAR" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dr. Christoph Heger
Mar 13 1999, 10:00 am hide options
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dr. Christoph Heger) - Find
messages by this author
Date: 1999/03/13
Subject: Gerd-R. Puin's position on the Yemeni Qur'ans
Reply to Author | Forward | Print | View Thread | Show original |
Report Abuse
Greetings to all,
In Toby Lester's article "What is the Koran?", published in the
January 1999 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, a German scholar, Dr.
Gerd-R. Puin, played a prominent role, as he is researching on
the old Yemeni Qur'an manuscripts. Since he felt that his
position concerning Qur'an scholarship could be misunderstood
from this article (and especially its various erroneous Arabic
translations) he asked me to share with this list his following
paper. He himself has no access to the Internet and its mailing
lists.
Kind regards,
Christoph Heger
_________________________________________________________
_____________
____
Dr. Gerd-R.
Puin
FR 7.2 Orientalistik
Universitaet des Saarlandes
D-66111 Saarbruecken
January, l999
My position concerning my work on Yemeni Koran fragments:
I have been lucky - and still I am - to study many of the oldest
Yemeni Koran manuscripts written in the most archaic "Hijazi"
style.
In these I found variants and peculiarities which are not
recorded in the traditional Arabic books on qira'at (variant
readings), or in the books on rasm al- masahif (orthography of
the Koran[s]) nor in those on the ti'dad al-ayat (counting
[systems] of verses).
The Hijazi Korans show more variants than those recorded as the
Seven, Ten or Fourteen Readings, they show more patterns of
"counting" - i.e. definitions of what is to be understood as a
verse - than the two dozen "schools" of counting would accept,
finally, the sequence of how the surahs were arranged in early
times, was even more variegated than Ibn Nadim's account on the
sequence of surahs in the Korans of Ubayy or Ibn Mas'ud suggests!
If I had not had access to Yamani Koran fragments preserved in
the Dar al-Makhtutat al-Yamaniyyah, San'a', I could have possibly
found similar variants and peculiarities in Hijazi fragments of
the Koran kept outside the Yemen in many libraries or museums,
e.g. in France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, or Kuwait. A most
spectacular (complete??) Hijazi Koran can be admired in the
Islamic Museum of Cairo, only a few meters from the entrance, in
a special vitrine to the right of the main route; this treasure
is in Egypt since 1300 years or so, but I know of no
investigation, of no publication on its peculiarities!
There is, on the Muslims' side, no interest in textual research
on the Koran since 900 years! Except from some western semitists
who, from time to time, detect the etymology of one Koranic
expression or another, most of the Arabists feel reluctant to
make up their minds on the genesis of the Koran. The reason for
this kind of negligence is quite clear: Both the Muslims and most
of the Arabists conceive any early deviation from the Koranic
scripture (as is represented by the Cairo print edition) for a
lapsus calami, a mere scribal error.
Yet, if "scribal errors" happen to occur with the same words,
more often than twice, in the same manuscript or even in two or
three, then it is common (philological) sense to look out for a
rationale!
This is my position: taking recurrent deviations from the
(printed) Koran for serious and not for insufficiencies of the
early scribes!
The Koran, being the biggest Arabic text corpus extant from late
antiquity, even in its actual printed edition bears witness of
all stages of orthographic reforms through which the text passed
down to us. I feel confident that an insight into the development
of Koranic orthography will at least lead to a different notion
of the text in some cases, and to a better understanding in many
many more passages.
This will not, I'm afraid, bring about the breakthrough in the
understanding of the Koran, but it might contribute to show that
the Koran has a history, not only in the sense of asbab al-nuzul
("causes for revelation"). The breakthrough might come along with
the answer upon the question: What is the language of the Koran?
Meanwhile, I stick to the manuscripts.
Dr. Gerd-R. Puin
Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo
======================================
Orang Islam tipikal kudu sadar bahwa al-Mushaf itu TIDAK berbukti
berisi wahyu Allah
dan hadits itu mustahil ada yang sahih
--- End forwarded message ---
Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
