Did Muhammad Exist?: An Inquiry into Islam's Obscure Origins (38 page)

1
Pickthall,
The Meaning of the Glorious Koran
, iii.

2
Ali,
The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an.
Language modernized.

3
Ibid.

4
Ibid.

5
Ibid.

6
Quoted in Arthur Jeffery,
The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an
(Vadodara, India: Oriental Institute Baroda, 1938),
http://www.answering-islam.org/Books/Jeffery/Vocabulary/intro.htm
.

7
Ibn Kathir,
Tafsir Ibn Kathir
, 5:134–35.

8
John Henry Cardinal Newman,
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
, sixth edition (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1989), 151.

9
Ali,
The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an.

10
Ibn Ishaq,
The Life of Muhammad
, 180; cf. Gilliot, “Reconsidering the Authorship of the Qur'an,” 90.

11
Muqatil b. Sulayman,
Tafsir al-Qur'an
, 2:487 (quoted in Gilliot, “Reconsidering the Authorship of the Qur'an,” 90).

12
Ibid.

13
Ibid.

14
Bukhari,
Sahih al-Bukhari
, vol. 1, book 1, no. 3.

15
Tabari (i.e., Bal‘ami),
Muhammad, sceau des prophètes
, trans. H. Zotenberg (Paris: Sindbad, 1980), 67 (quoted in Gilliot, “Reconsidering the Authorship of the Qur'an,” 91).

16
Louis Ginzberg, “Book of Adam,”
The Jewish Encyclopedia
,
http://www.jewish-encyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=759&letter=A
.

17
Quoted in William St. Clair Tisdall,
Sources of the Quran
,
chapter 3
,
http://www.truthnet.org/islam/src-chp3.htm
. For another perspective on the Cain and Abel story, see Michael Pregill, “Isra'iliyat, Myth, and Pseudepigraphy: Wahb b. Munabbih and the Early Islamic Versions of the Fall of Adam and Eve,”
Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam
34 (2008): 215–83.

18
Tisdall,
Sources of the Quran
, chapter 3. See also Jacob Lassner,
Demonizing the Queen of Sheba
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).

19
“Gospel of Thomas Greek Text A,” from
The Apocryphal New Testament
, trans. M. R. James (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924),
http://wesley.nnu.edu/sermons-essays-books/noncanonical-literature/noncanonical-literature-gospels/gospel-of-thomas-greek-text-a/
.

20
Quoted in Toby Lester, “What Is the Koran?,”
Atlantic Monthly
, January 1999.

21
Theodor Nöldeke, “The Qur'an,”
Sketches from Eastern History
, trans. J. S. Black (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1892).

22
Ibn Warraq, “Introduction,” in Ibn Warraq,
What the Koran Really Says
, 48.

23
See David S. Powers,
Studies in Qur'an and Hadith: The Formation of the Islamic Law of Inheritance
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), ch. 1; cf. Ibn Warraq, “Introduction,” 47–48.

24
Judah Benzion Segal, “The Sabian Mysteries: The Planet Cult of Ancient Harran,” in Edward Bacon, ed.,
Vanished Civilizations of the Ancient World
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1963).

25
Ibn Warraq, “Introduction,” 43.

26
Ibid., 46–47.

27
Ibid., 47.

28
Jeffery,
Foreign Vocabulary.

29
Ibn Kathir,
Tafsir Ibn Kathir
, vol. 6, 506–7.

30
Jeffery,
Foreign Vocabulary.

31
Franz Rosenthal, “Some Minor Problems in the Qur'an,” in Ibn Warraq,
What the Koran Really Says
, 332–34.

32
Rosenthal, “Some Minor Problems,” 337.

33
Al-Mahalli and as-Suyuti,
Tafsir al-Jalalayn
, 1357.

34
Gilliot, “Reconsidering the Authorship of the Qur'an,” 98.

35
Ali,
The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an.
Language modernized.

36
“The Contradictions of the Qur'an,”
Behind the Veil
, ch. 11,
http://www.answering-islam.org/BehindVeil/btv11.html
.

37
Christoph Luxenberg,
The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran
(Berlin: Verlag Hans Schiler, 2000), 9.

38
Alphonse Mingana, “Syriac Influence on the Style of the Koran,” in Ibn Warraq,
What the Koran Really Says
, 175.

39
Ibid., 176, 180.

40
Ibid., 178.

41
Ibid., 178–79.

42
Ibid., 188.

43
Ibid., 181–82.

44
Ibid., 184–86.

45
Pickthall,
The Meaning of the Glorious Koran.

46
Mingana, “Syriac Influence,” 187.

47
Jeffery,
Foreign Vocabulary.

48
Ibid.

49
Ali,
The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an.

50
Al-Misri,
Reliance of the Traveller
, 011.3, 5.

51
Jeffery,
Foreign Vocabulary.

52
Ibn Warraq, “Introduction to Sura IX.29,” in Ibn Warraq,
What the Koran Really Says
, 319.

53
Rosenthal, “Some Minor Problems,” 324.

54
Uri Rubin, “Koran and Tafsir: The Case of ‘an Yadin,’” in Ibn Warraq,
What the Koran Really Says
, 372–80.

Chapter 8: What the Qur'an May Have Been

1
Pickthall,
The Meaning of the Glorious Koran.
Language modernized.

2
Tafsir al-Jalalayn
, 770.

3
For more on
furqan
, see Fred M. Donner, “On Qur'anic Furqan,”
Journal of Semitic Studies
52 (2007): 279–300.

4
C. Heger, “Koran XXV.1: Al-Furqan and the ‘Warner,’” in Ibn Warraq,
What the Koran Really Says
, 387–89.

5
M. Abul Quasem, trans. and ed.,
The Recitation and Interpretation of the Qur'an: Al-Ghazali's Theory
(Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1979), 40–41
(quoted in Abdullah David and M. S. M. Saifullah, “Concise List of Arabic Manuscripts of the Qur'an Attributable to the First Century Hijra,” Islamic Awareness, June 14, 2008,
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Mss/hijazi.html
).

6
Keith E. Small,
Textual Criticism and Qur'an Manuscripts
(Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011), 69–72.

7
David Margoliouth, “Textual Variations of the Koran,” in Ibn Warraq,
The Origins of the Koran
, 158.

8
Mingana, “Syriac Influence,” 181–82.

9
Ibn Warraq.
Virgins?
, 50.

10
Quoted in Gabriel Said Reynolds, “Introduction: Qur'anic Studies and Its Controversies,” in Reynolds,
Historical Context
, 17.

11
Luxenberg,
Syro-Aramaic
, 71.

12
Günter Lüling,
A Challenge to Islam for Reformation
(Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2003), 1.

13
Christoph Luxenberg, “Christmas in the Koran,” trans. Ibn Warraq. An abridged version of this article was first published in German in
Imprimatur
1 (March 2003): 13–17.

14
Luxenberg,
Syro-Aramaic
, 104.

15
Ibid., 105–6.

16
Luxenberg, “Christmas in the Koran.”

17
Luxenberg,
Syro-Aramaic
, 142.

18
Ibid., 256.

19
Ibid., 254.

20
Ibid., 259.

21
Ibid., 288.

22
Ibid., 291.

23
Johannes J. G. Jansen, “Rawwahnahum,”
www.arabistjansen.nl/rawwahnaahum.pdf
, June 16, 2008.

24
Ibn Rawandi, “On Pre-Islamic Christian Strophic Poetical Texts in the Koran: A Critical Look at the Work of Günther Lüling,” in Ibn Warraq,
What the Koran Really Says
, 671.

25
Ibid., 673.

26
Ibid., 670.

27
Lüling,
A Challenge to Islam
, 31.

28
Ibn Rawandi, “Pre-Islamic Christian Strophic Poetical Texts,” 672–73.

29
Ibid., 671–72.

30
Luxenberg, “Christmas in the Koran.”

31
Ibid.

32
Ibid.

33
Samir Khalil Samir, “The Theological Christian Influence on the Qur'an,” in Reynolds,
Historical Context
, 149.

34
Samir, “Theological Christian Influence,” 149.

35
Luxenberg, “Christmas in the Koran.”

36
Samir, “Theological Christian Influence,” 149–50.

37
Luxenberg, “Christmas in the Koran.”

38
Lüling,
A Challenge to Islam
, 476.

39
Ibn Kathir,
Tafsir Ibn Kathir
, 10:251.

40
Lüling, A
Challenge to Islam
, 440–50.

41
For more on the Christological controversies, see J. N. D. Kelly,
Early Christian Doctrines
, rev. ed. (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1978).

42
See Adolph Harnack,
History of Dogma
, trans. Neil Buchanan, vol. 1 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1901), 291n407.

43
Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, 16.15,
http://www.compassionatespirit.com/Homilies/Book-16.htm
.

44
Lüling,
A Challenge to Islam
, 476ff.; see also Ibn Rawandi, “Pre-Islamic Christian Strophic Poetical Texts,” 680ff.

45
Lüling,
A Challenge to Islam
, 476n66.

46
Ibid., 476.

47
Ibid.

48
Ibn Rawandi, “Pre-Islamic Christian Strophic Poetical Texts,” 680–81.

49
Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 214.

50
Luxenberg, “Christmas in the Koran.”

51
Ibid.

52
Ibid.

53
Ibid.

54
Reynolds, “Introduction,” 17.

55
Luxenberg, “Christmas in the Koran.”

56
Ibid.

57
Ibid.

Chapter 9: Who Collected the Qur'an?

1
Bukhari,
Sahih al-Bukhari
, vol. 6, book 66, no. 4987.