Christoph Luxenberg

Christoph Luxenberg is the Pseudonyme of a philologist German specialist in Coran inspired of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. He is the author of Die Syro-Aramäische Lesart of the Koran: : Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Koransprache (in French: Reading syro-araméenne of Coran: a contribution to decode the language of Coran ), published in 2004 in German. It is about a philological study in which a certain number of assumptions are studied, of which he arises that the sources of Coran would come from the adoption of Lectionnaire S Syriaque S intended for évangéliser Arabia.

Using its methodology, which consists in checking rigorously if the Arab terms do not have a syriaque equivalent, Luxenberg indicates that certain Koranic passages are badly interpreted: the word houri would mean not white grapes , and virgin with the large eyes . The expression seal of the prophets would mean “pilot”, meaning that Mahomet is pilot prophets come before him.

Because of the innovative character of his theses, the author had to adopt a pseudonym to avoid the confrontations with the integrist Islamic factions, openly in dissension with the fact that one can try this kind of academic study on the Coran.

The thesis of Luxenberg

The original version found in the manuscripts of Uthman of Coran, called the Rasm (i.e canonical orthography), does not contain any sign Diacritique, these points used in Classical Arabic in order to distinguish the various vowels from the other letters of the alphabet. The diacritic points started to appear in Arabic with the turning of the 8th century on the order of Al-Hajjaj Ben Yousef, governor of Iraq (694 - 714).

Luxenberg notices that Coran often presents a very ambiguous language and even sometimes unexplainable. He affirms that even Moslem scientists find that certain passages are difficult to seize and wrote many comments with an aim of explaining these difficult passages. Nevertheless, presupposed was always to maintain the idea that each difficult passage was at the same time true and full with direction and that they could be deciphered with the traditional instruments of Islamic science.

Luxenberg reproaches the Western academic world working on Coran, to have an approach timid and servile text, approaches too often leant with work of Moslems more exégètes that objectives and so often skewed.

Luxenberg affirms that the scientists should start again their studies with new expenses, by being unaware of the old Islamic comments and by using only linguistic and historical methods recent. Its argument is that Mahomet preached concepts which were new for its listeners arabes ; these concepts, Mahomet itself would have found them during conversations with Jewish and Christian Arabs, or via the Christians of Syria (if it is admitted that he travelled). Thus, if a word (or a sentence) of Coran seems inintelligible in Arabic, or could have direction only after conjectures drawn by the hair, this word (or this sentence) could make direction - known as Luxenberg - by looking at side of the Araméen and Syriaque.

The traditional Islamic comment is generally limited to a Lexicologie ; Luxenberg proposes to extend this research to other languages, which can be consulted.

He also affirms that Coran is founded on former texts, in particular on Lectionnaire S used in the Christian churches of Syria and that it was the work of several generations to have adapted these texts, to give Coran which we know today. Some quotations:

According to the Moslem tradition, Coran would date from VIIe century, whereas the first examples of Arabic literature in the full direction of the term are only two centuries later, at the time of the “Biographie of the Prophet”, i.e. of the life of Mahomet such as she was written by Ibn Hichâm, deceased in 828. One can thus establish that the post-Koranic literature was developed per degrees during the time which followed the work of Al-Khalil Ben Ahmad, died in 786, founder of the Arab Lexicographie (“kitab Al-ayn”) and of Shibawayh, died in 796, with which one owes the grammar of the classical Arabic. Now, if we consider that the composition of Coran was completed with died of Mahomet, in 632, we have in front of us a 150 years interval, during whom we do not find trace of literature arabe.

At that time, there is not did not have Arab schools - except probably, in the Christian centres urban of Al-Anbar and Al-Hira, in the south of the Mésopotamie, in what constitutes the Iraq today. The Arabs of this area had been christianized and informed by Christians of Syria. Their liturgical language was syro-araméenne. This language was the vehicle of their culture and more generally the language of the communication écrite.

At the beginning of IIIe century, the Christians of Syria were not satisfied to carry to them evangelic Mission to the countries bordering, like the Arménie or the Perse. They went until in regions moved away, to the borders of the China and the west coast of the India, in addition to the totality of the Arabic Péninsule, until the Yemen and the Ethiopia. It is thus more probable than, in order to carry the Christian message to the Arab people, they used, enter other languages, the language of the Bedouin , i.e. Arabic. In order to spread the Gospels, it was necessary for them to use a mixture of languages. But at one time when Arabic was a whole of dialects which did not have a written form, the missionaries did not have an other choice to only resort to their literary own language and their own culture, i.e. with the syro-araméen. The result was that the language of Coran was born in a written Arab language, which however was a language derived from the arabo-araméen.

The philological methodology of Luxenberg

To check if a plausible explanation can be found in the comment of Tabari, one of those which influenced the translators occidentaux the most; ;
Vérifier if one finds an explanation plausible in the Lisan the Arab dictionary most complete (this dictionary had not been written yet time of Tabari, also contains it new elements) ;
To check if an Arab expression has a root Homonyme in Syriaque or in Araméen with different directions which could go with the contexte ;
Juger so yes or not the direction in syriaque/araméen of the root of a word gives a better direction in the accused passing.
Vérifier if there exists a syriaque word which makes direction in the passage in question ;
To try out the various manners of placing the Signe S Diacritique S (which indicate the vowels, etc.) tardily added to the oldest text which fixes the Rasm. Perhaps there exists T a version of the “rasm” which would give an Arab word making direction for the passage ;
If there is no Arab word which is appropriate, to repeat the experiment and to look at side of the words syriaques ;
To translate the Arab sentence into syriaque and to check in the syriaque literature a sentence which could have been literally translated into arabe ; the original direction into syriaque could make direction more that the resulting Arabic sentence (these translated sentences are called “morphological copies”) ;
To check if there exists a corresponding sentence in the old syriaque literature, which could be an analog of an Arabic sentence, today perdue ;
Vérifier if there exists a correct Arabic expression, written on an Arab manuscript, but in a syriaque orthography.

Luxenberg claims that all these readings are compatible with the Rasm, the Koranic texts oldest written in a script which does not use the diacritics.

Conclusions of Luxenberg

Luxenberg concluded from this work on Coran, that this one is derived from a Lectionnaire syro-araméens, containing Hymne S and extracts of the Bible, used in the Christian ritual services. This lectionnaire would have been translated into Arabic, in an intention missionary. It was not a question of inaugurating a new religion, but of spreading some older. It is based here on a former work of Günter Lüling.

Luxenberg “did not correct” the totality of Coran according to these theses. It bases its conclusions on what it believes being a representative sample of difficult passages.

A passage which it corrected drew the attention of the commentators much. It indicates that the word houri , frequently interpreted by the Moslem commentators as virgin with the large eyes (which will be used the believer for Paradis ; Coran 44:54, 52:20, 55: 72, 56:22) means actually white grapes . It indicates that many Christian descriptions of the Paradise show it containing white grape in abundance. This passage and this translation were the starting point of jokes on behalf of the Western press: the candidates with violent death who precipitate in crowd with belts of explosives, would think of finding the Paradise populated of “virgins to the large eyes”, whereas they would find only grape there.

Luxenberg also affirms that the passage of the Sourate 24 of Coran ordering to the women to cover itself, one of the texts melting the doctrines of the Hijab, actually orders “ to them to tighten their belt around their size ”. He says that the passage of the sourate 33, which is usually translated by “seal of the prophet” actually means “ pilot ”. By this reading, Mahomet is not any more largest of the Prophète S, that which closes the line of it, but only one witness of these prophets who came before him.

Context of the thesis of Luxenberg

The dating of the constitution of Coran is a factor of polemic and large dispute since the years 1960, date of the publication of the work of John Wansbrough, the English scientist. Wansbrough adopted an approach resolutely skeptic, congédiant the Moslem creed concerning with the collection of Coran and focusing its research only on textual evidence coming from the manuscripts. It came from there to believe that far from to be collected in the years 650 - 656 by the Caliph Uthman, Coran was the result of slow and organic growth during the first centuries of Islam. Work of Wansbrough is written in a dense and hermetic way and had little direct influence. Its coed, Patricia Crone and Michael Cook had a larger impact with the publication in 1977 of their Hagarism: The Making off the Islamic World (work now exhausted), which argues in favor of a late date in the constitution of Coran.

Nevertheless, the later academic opinion lined up on an older date for the birth of Coran. One will find here the arguments of Fred Mr. Donner in his article Narratives off Islamic Origins and in the article of Gerd R. Puin, which describes its work on the manuscript of Coran of VIIIe late century, found in a Mosquée to the Yemen.

Progress achieved

Several scientists accommodated with enthusiasm the thesis of Luxenberg. Nevertheless researchers seem to have the intuition that the method of Luxenberg is a receipt which meets best the needs for its argumentation.

In 2004, the German Wissenschaftskolleg (Research institute advanced) of Berlin organized a conference around the thesis of Luxenberg and an international work group was formed to continue the discussion. Many criticisms towards Luxenberg were emitted during this conference. Nevertheless, certain participants indicated that the work of Luxenberg was valid, in the sense that it made pay the attention on many insufficiencies in contemporary research on Coran. One of these insufficiencies is the lack of a critical edition of Coran, which would give the references of the manuscripts which still exist and student the evolution of the text such as it is received today.

Another insufficiency is the absence of an etymological dictionary of the languages Semite S which would present the high standards of contemporary lexicology. Such an instrument would make it possible to contribute to the discussions on the loans of Arabic syriaque, to the Latin and thePersan one.

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