The Need for Qur'anic Criticism, Part 2

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ISLAM WATCH

Berlin, 2000). Available only in German, this book was published just over five The Need for years ago but has already had an enthusi- astic reception, particularly among scholars knowledgeable in Semitic languages at Princeton, Yale, Berlin, Pots- Qur’anic Criticism, dam, Erlangen, Aix-en-Provence, and the Oriental Institute in Beirut. Luxenberg tries to show that many of Part 2 the obscurities of the Qur’an disappear if we read certain words as being Syriac and not Arabic. Syriac is an Aramaic In Part 1, which appeared in the April/May issue of FREE INQUIRY, Ibn Warraq dialect and the language of Eastern assessed the current state of Qur’anic criticism and found it lacking. Below, he Christianity, a Semitic language closely presents his plan for reform, with the goal of bringing about an Islamic related to Hebrew and Arabic. Luxen- Enlightenment.—EDS. berg’s research has underlined the importance of research into Eastern Christianity. There are hundreds of man- Ibn Warraq uscripts scattered round the world written in Syriac and Karshuni (an Arabic language that uses Syriac script) which have never even been catalogued. There NSTITUTE OF UR ANIC taries or books of Hadith (collections of I Q ’ is an urgent need to examine the sectar- RESEARCH Traditions); there is no critical cata- logue of all the extant Qur’anic manu- ian milieu of the Near East out of which he European Union and the scripts in Western libraries, museums, Islam emerged, and this means research United States urgently need to and private collections; many important into Syriac history and literature. Testablish an independent Insti- early Qur’anic manuscripts remain TRANSLATION FUNDS tute of Qur’anic Research, devoted to unpublished; there is no reliable history unhampered scientific inquiry and arm- of Qur’anic orthography. Any researcher, writer, or publisher in ed with all the necessary tools and tech- the field of Islamic studies immediately niques of modern research, philological, comes up against the language barrier. philosophical, and hermeneutical. Such Over the last ten years, I have been an institute could be financed with just a “We should, in plain words, involved in bringing scholarly but diffi- fraction of the total Pentagon budget in cult-to-locate articles to the attention of persecuting the war in Iraq, or more encourage Qur’anic criticism. a larger public. (This effort has been generally the War on Terror. The Only Qur’anic criticism can much appreciated by specialists as Institute of Qur’anic Research would be well.) Many of these articles are in expected to publish an academic jour- help Muslims to look at their German and have never been translated. nal, to house an orientalist library, and holy scripture in a more But publishers are reluctant to pay for to make available to the general public their translation, given the extraordinar- the results of its research. Already, a rational and objective way ily high costs of such ventures. I have group of scholars represented in the col- and prevent young Muslims nonetheless put together many antholo- lection, Die dunklen Anfänge, edited by gies of such articles in English that Karl-Heinz Ohlig and Gerd-R. Puin, has from being fanaticized by the examine the sources of Islam and the expressed an interest in the establish- Qur’an’s less tolerant verses.” Qur’an in a critical manner. But they ment of such an institute. need to be made available in all the In the twenty-first century, Qur’anic major European languages, and of research is falling behind biblical re- course, they should be translated in- search: there is still no critical edition of INSTITUTE FOR SYRIAC STUDIES to Arabic, Persian (Farsi), and Urdu, at the Qur’an that takes into account all This naturally leads to the most fascinat- least. My latest collection, What the Kor- the thousands of variants found in man- ing book ever written on the language of an Really Says, is a heavy tome of 782 uscripts or classical Qur’anic commen- the Qur’an—and, if proved to be correct in pages. You cannot imagine the cost of its main thesis, probably the most impor- translating such a book into Dutch or Ibn Warraq is the author of Why I Am tant book ever written on the Holy Book of French. But I assure you that, in the long Not a Muslim and the editor of The the Muslims—Christoph Luxenberg’s Die run, it is only this kind of research— Origins of the Koran, The Quest for the Syro-Aramäische Lesart des Koran made available to as wide an audience Historical Muhammad, and What the (The Syriac [Aramaic Version] of the as possible—that will bring about an Koran Really Says. Qur’an published by Das Arabische Buch, Enlightenment in the Islamic world.

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A major task of the Institute of Qur’anic such a translation would be a major task young Muslims from being radicalized Studies would be the translation of works that only a properly funded and properly by the Qur’an’s less tolerant verses. like Luxenberg’s Die Syro-Aramäische staffed institute could carry out. The only solution is to bring the ques- Lesart des Koran, which remains untrans- tions of human rights out of the religious lated five years after its publication, REASON NOT REVELATION sphere and into the sphere of the civil despite its importance to the progress of We who live in the free West and enjoy state, in other words, to separate reli- Qur’anic research. And many of the works freedom of expression and scientific gion from the state and promote a secu- of the Dutch orientalist Snouck Hurgronje inquiry should encourage a rational lar state where Islam is relegated to the remain untranslated, such as his account look at Islam. We should, in plain words, personal. Here, Islam would continue to of his pilgrimage to Mecca disguised as a encourage Qur’anic criticism. Only provide consolation, comfort, and mean- Muslim. Even the classic study of the Qur’anic criticism can help Muslims to ing, as it has to millions of individuals for Qur’an, Theodor Noldeke’s Geschichte des look at their holy scripture in a more centuries, yet it would not decree the Qorans, has never been translated. But rational and objective way and prevent mundane affairs of state.

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