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Christoph Luxenberg - Wikipédia Christoph Luxenberg - Wikipédia http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Luxenberg Christoph Luxenberg Christoph Luxenberg est le pseudonyme d'un philologue allemand analyste du Coran peut-être inspiré de Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Il est l'auteur de Die Syro-Aramäische Lesart des Koran: : Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Koransprache (en français : Lecture syro-araméenne du Coran : une contribution pour décoder la langue du Coran ), publiée en 2000 en allemand. Il s'agit d'une étude philologique dans laquelle un certain nombre d'hypothèses sont étudiées, dont il ressort que les sources du Coran proviendraient de l'adoption de lectionnaires syriaques destinés à évangéliser l'Arabie. À l'aide de sa méthode, qui consiste à vérifier si les termes arabes n'ont pas un équivalent syriaque, Luxenberg indique que certains passages coraniques seraient mal interprétés : le mot houri signifierait raisins blancs , et non pas vierges aux grands yeux . L'expression sceau des prophètes signifierait « témoin », voulant dire que Mahomet est témoin des prophètes venus avant lui. En raison du caractère novateur de ses thèses, l'auteur a dû adopter un pseudonyme pour éviter les affrontements avec les factions islamiques intégristes, ouvertement en désaccord avec le fait que l'on puisse tenter ce genre d'étude académique sur le Coran. Sommaire 1 La thèse de Luxenberg 1.1 La méthode philologique de Luxenberg 1.2 Les conclusions de Luxenberg 2 Le contexte de la thèse de Luxenberg 3 État de la question 4 Bibliographie 5 Notes 6 Voir aussi 6.1 Articles connexes 6.2 Liens externes 6.2.1 Presse 6.2.2 Textes académiques 7 Sources La thèse de Luxenberg La version originale trouvée dans les manuscrits de Uthman du Coran, appelée le rasm (i.e. l'orthographe canonique), ne contient aucun signe diacritique, ces points utilisés en arabe classique afin de distinguer les différentes voyelles des autres lettres de l'alphabet. Les points diacritiques ont commencé à apparaître en e arabe au tournant du VIII siècle sur l'ordre de Al-Hajjaj ben Yousef, gouverneur de l'Irak (694-714). Luxenberg remarque que le Coran présente souvent une langue très ambiguë et même parfois inexplicable. Il affirme que même des savants musulmans trouvent que certains passages sont difficiles à saisir et ont rédigé de nombreux commentaires dans le but d'expliquer ces passages difficiles. Néanmoins, le présupposé était de toujours maintenir l'idée que chaque passage difficile était à la fois vrai et plein de sens et qu'il pouvait être 1 sur 6 15/01/2012 16:26 Christoph Luxenberg - Wikipédia http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Luxenberg déchiffré avec les instruments traditionnels de la science islamique. Luxenberg reproche au monde académique occidental travaillant sur le Coran, d'avoir une approche timide et servile du texte, trop souvent adossée à des travaux de musulmans plus exégètes qu'objectifs et de ce fait, souvent biaisée. Luxenberg affirme que les savants devraient recommencer leurs études à nouveaux frais, en ignorant les vieux commentaires islamiques et en utilisant seulement des méthodes linguistiques et historiques récentes. Son argument est que Mahomet prêchait des concepts qui étaient nouveaux pour ses auditeurs arabes ; ces concepts, Mahomet les aurait lui-même trouvés au cours de conversations avec des Arabes juifs et chrétiens, ou via les chrétiens de Syrie (si l'on admet qu'il a voyagé). Ainsi, si un mot (ou une phrase) du Coran semble inintelligible en arabe, ou ne saurait avoir de sens qu'après des conjectures tirées par les cheveux, ce mot (ou cette phrase) pourrait faire sens – dit Luxenberg – en regardant du côté de l’araméen et du syriaque. Le commentaire islamique traditionnel se limite généralement à une lexicologie ; Luxenberg propose d'étendre cette recherche à d'autres langues, qui peuvent être consultées. Il affirme aussi que le Coran est fondé sur des textes antérieurs, en particulier sur des lectionnaires utilisés dans les Églises chrétiennes de Syrie, et qu'adapter ces textes fut le travail de plusieurs générations pour donner le Coran que nous connaissons aujourd'hui. Quelques citations : « Selon la tradition musulmane, le Coran daterait du VII e siècle, alors que les premiers exemples de littérature en arabe dans le plein sens du terme ne se trouvent que deux siècles plus tard, au temps de la « Biographie du Prophète », c'est-à-dire de la vie de Mahomet telle qu'elle a été écrite par Ibn Hichâm, décédé en 828. On peut ainsi établir que la littérature post-coranique a été développée par degrés dans la période qui a suivi le travail de Khalil ibn Ahmad, mort en 786, fondateur de la lexicographie arabe (« kitab al-ayn ») et de Sibawayh, mort en 796, à qui l'on doit la grammaire de l'arabe classique. Maintenant, si nous considérons que la composition du Coran s'est achevée à la mort de Mahomet, en 632, nous avons devant nous un intervalle de 150 ans, durant lequel nous ne trouvons pas trace de littérature arabe. » « À cette époque, il n'y a avait pas d'écoles arabes – excepté probablement, dans les centres urbains chrétiens de al-Anbar et al-Hira, dans le sud de la Mésopotamie, dans ce qui constitue aujourd'hui l'Irak. Les Arabes de cette région avaient été christianisés et instruits par des chrétiens de Syrie. Leur langue liturgique était syro-araméenne. Cette langue était le véhicule de leur culture et plus généralement la langue de la communication écrite. » « Au commencement du III e siècle, les chrétiens de Syrie ne se contentaient pas de porter leur mission évangélique aux pays limitrophes, comme l’Arménie ou la Perse. Ils allaient jusque dans des contrées éloignées, jusqu'aux confins de la Chine et la côte Ouest de l'Inde, en plus de la totalité de la Péninsule Arabique, jusqu'au Yémen et l'Éthiopie. Il est ainsi plus probable que, en vue de porter le message chrétien aux peuples arabes, ils aient utilisé, entre autres langues, la langue des Bédouins, c'est-à-dire l'arabe. Afin de répandre les Évangiles, il leur fut nécessaire d'utiliser un mélange de langues. Mais à une époque où l'arabe était un ensemble de dialectes qui n'avaient pas de forme écrite, les missionnaires n'avaient pas d'autre choix que de recourir à leur propre langue littéraire et à leur propre culture, c'est-à-dire au syro-araméen. Le résultat fut que la langue du Coran est née dans une langue arabe écrite, qui cependant était une langue dérivée de l'arabo-araméen. » La méthode philologique de Luxenberg Vérifier si une explication plausible peut être trouvée dans le commentaire de Tabari, l'un de ceux qui a le plus influencé les traducteurs occidentaux ; 2 sur 6 15/01/2012 16:26 Christoph Luxenberg - Wikipédia http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Luxenberg Vérifier si l'on trouve une explication plausible dans le Lisan1 le dictionnaire arabe le plus complet (ce dictionnaire n'avait pas encore été rédigé du temps de Tabari, aussi contient-il des éléments nouveaux) ; Vérifier si une expression arabe possède une racine homonyme en syriaque ou en araméen avec des sens différents qui pourraient aller avec le contexte ; Juger si oui ou non le sens en syriaque/araméen de la racine d'un mot donne un meilleur sens au passage incriminé. Vérifier s'il existe un mot syriaque qui fait sens dans le passage en question ; Expérimenter les différentes manières de placer les signes diacritiques (qui indiquent les voyelles, etc..) tardivement ajoutés au texte le plus ancien qui fixe le rasm . Peut-être existe-t-il une version du « rasm » qui donnerait un mot arabe faisant sens pour le passage ; S'il n'y a pas de mot arabe qui convienne, répéter l'expérience et regarder du côté des mots syriaques ; Traduire la phrase arabe en syriaque et vérifier dans la littérature syriaque une phrase qui aurait pu être littéralement traduite en arabe ; le sens originel en syriaque pourrait faire plus sens que la phrase résultante en arabe (ces phrases traduites sont appelées « calques morphologiques ») ; Vérifier s'il existe une phrase correspondante dans la littérature syriaque ancienne, qui pourrait être un analogue d'une phrase en arabe, aujourd'hui perdue ; Vérifier s'il existe une expression correcte en arabe, écrite sur un manuscrit arabe, mais dans une orthographe syriaque. Luxenberg prétend que toutes ces lectures sont compatibles avec le rasm, les textes coraniques les plus anciens rédigés dans un script qui n'utilise pas les signes diacritiques. Les conclusions de Luxenberg Luxenberg conclut de ce travail sur le Coran, que celui-ci est dérivé d'un lectionnaire syro-araméens, contenant des hymnes et des extraits de la Bible, utilisés dans les services rituels chrétiens. Ce lectionnaire aurait été traduit en arabe, dans une intention missionnaire. Il ne s'agissait pas d'inaugurer une nouvelle religion, mais d’en répandre une plus ancienne. Il s’appuie ici sur un travail antérieur de Günter Lüling2 . Luxenberg n'a pas « corrigé » la totalité du Coran selon ces thèses. Il fonde ses conclusions sur ce qu'il présente comme un échantillon représentatif de passages difficiles. Un passage qu'il a corrigé a attiré beaucoup l'attention des commentateurs. Il indique que le mot houri , fréquemment interprété par les commentateurs musulmans comme vierges aux grands yeux (qui serviront le croyant au Paradis ; Coran 44:54, 52:20 ,55:72, 56:22) signifie en réalité raisins blancs . Il indique que de nombreuses descriptions chrétiennes du Paradis le montrent contenant du raisin blanc en abondance. Luxenberg affirme aussi que le passage de la sourate 24 du Coran ordonnant aux femmes de se couvrir, un des textes fondant la doctrine du hijab, leur ordonne en réalité de « serrer leur ceinture autour de leur taille ».
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