''What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text and Commentary'' (2002) is a book edited by

Ibn Warraq Ibn Warraq is the pen name of an anonymous author critical of Islam. He is the founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society and used to be a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry, focusing on Quranic criticis ...

and published by Prometheus Books. The book is a collection of classical essays, some translated for the first time, that provide commentary on the traditions and language of the

Koran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...

, discussing its grammatical and logical discontinuities, its

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

foreign vocabulary, and its possible

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

and Qumranic sources. The title is taken from German author Manfred Barthel's 1980 book ''Was wirklich in der Bibel steht'' ("What the Bible Really Says"). Within the book is an article written by

Gerd R. Puin Gerd Rüdiger Puin (born 1940) is a German scholar of Oriental studies, specializing in Quranic palaeography, Arabic calligraphy and orthography. He was a lecturer of Arabic language and literature at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, German ...

titled "Observations on Early Qu'ran Manuscripts in Sana'a". Professor Puin is a German scholar and an authority on Qur'anic historical

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...

, the study and scholarly interpretation of ancient manuscripts, and a specialist in

Arabic calligraphy Arabic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy based on the Arabic alphabet. It is known in Arabic as ''khatt'' ( ar, خط), derived from the word 'line', 'design', or 'construction'. Kufic is the oldest form of th ...

. Professor Puin was the head of a restoration project, commissioned by the Yemeni government, which spent a significant amount of time examining the ancient Qur'anic manuscripts discovered in Sana'a,

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

, in 1972. In an article in the 1999 ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', Puin is quoted as saying that:

Included papers

Introduction

, ''Introduction'' *

Toby Lester Toby Lester (born November 2, 1964) is an American journalist, scholar and author. He received attention after writing two nonfiction works on the role of maps in the discovery of America and on Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of the ''Vitruvian Man ...

(1999), ''What is the Koran?''

Background

* Yehuda D. Nevo (1994), ''Towards a Prehistory of Islam''

A Question of Language

Alphonse Mingana Alphonse Mingana (born as Hurmiz Mingana; syr, ܗܪܡܙ ܡܢܓܢܐ, in 1878 at Sharanesh, a village near Zakho (present day Iraq) - died 5 December 1937 Birmingham, England) was an Assyrian theologian, historian, Syriacist, orientalist and a ...

(1927), ''Syriac Influence on the Style of the Koran'' *

D. S. Margoliouth David Samuel Margoliouth, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (; 17 October 1858, in London – 22 March 1940, in London) was an English oriental studies, orientalist. He was briefly active as a priest in the Church of England. He was Laudian P ...

(1939), ''Some Additions to Professor Jeffery's "Foreign Vocabulary in the Qur'an"'' * Paul E. Kahle (1949), ''The Arabic Readers of the Koran'' * C. Rabin (1955), ''The Beginnings of Classical Arabic'' *

Joshua Blau Yehoshua Blau, also spelled Joshua ( he, יהושע בלאו, vertical-align=sup; 22 September 1919 – 20 October 2020) was an Israeli scholar of Arabic language and literature, previously Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusa ...

(1963), ''The Role of the Bedouins as Arbiters in Linguistic Questions and the "Mas'ala Az-Zunburiyya"'' * A. Ben-Shemesh (1969), ''Some Suggestions to Qur'an Translators''

Sources of the Koran: Essenian, Christian, Coptic

*Ibn Warraq, ''Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls'' *Eric R. Bishop (1958), ''The Qumran Scrolls and the Qur'an'' *Marc Philonenko (1966), ''An Essenian Tradition in the Koran'' (translated from French by Ibn Warraq) *Marc Philonenko (1967), ''A Qumranian Expression in the Koran'' (translated by Warraq) *Wilson B. Bishai (1971), ''A Possible Coptic Source for a Qur'anic Text'' *Ibn Warraq, ''Introduction to Raimund Kobert'' *Raimund Kobert (1959), ''The Shahadat az-zur: The False Witness'' (translated from German by

G. A. Wells George Albert Wells (22 May 1926 – 23 January 2017) was an English scholar who served as Professor of German at Birkbeck, University of London. After writing books about famous European intellectuals, such as Johann Gottfried Herder and ...

) *Raimund Kobert (1966), ''On the Meaning of the Three Final Words of Sura XXII. 30-31'' (translated by Wells) *Raimund Kobert (1986), ''Early and Later Exegesis of the Koran: a Supplement to Or 35'' (translated by Wells)

Suras, Suras, Suras

*Ibn Warraq, ''Introduction to Sura IX.29'' *

Franz Rosenthal Franz Rosenthal (August 31, 1914 – April 8, 2003) was the Louis M. Rabinowitz professor of Semitic languages at Yale from 1956 to 1967 and Sterling Professor Emeritus of Arabic, scholar of Arabic literature and Islam at Yale from 1967 to 1985 ...

(1953), ''Some Minor Problems in the Qur'an'' *

Claude Cahen Claude Cahen (26 February 1909 – 18 November 1991) was a 20th-century French Marxist orientalist and historian. He specialized in the studies of the Islamic Middle Ages, Muslim sources about the Crusades, and social history of the medieval Isla ...

(1962), '' Koran IX.29'' (translated by Warraq) *Meir M. Bravmann and Claude Cahen (1963), ''A propos de Qur'an IX.29: Hatta Yu'tu L-Gizyata wa-hum Sagiruna'' *Meir M. Bravmann (1967), ''The Ancient Background of the Koranic Concept al-Gizatu 'an Yadin'' * M. J. Kister (1964), ''"An Yadin" ( Qur'an IX.29): An Attempt at Interpretation'' *

Uri Rubin Uri Rubin ( he, אורי רובין; 1944 – 26 October 2021) was an Israeli academic who was a professor in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University. His areas of research were early Islam (with special emphasis on t ...

(1993), ''Koran and Tafsir: The Case of " 'an Yadin"'' *C. Heger, '' Koran XXV.1: Al-Furqan and the "Warner"'' *Michael Schub (1995), ''The Buddha Comes to China'' *Michael Schub, ''The Secret Identity of Dhu L-Kifl''

Emendations, Interpolations

*J. Barth (1916), ''Studies Contributing to Criticism and Exegesis of the Koran'' (translated by Wells) * A. Fischer (1906), ''A Qur'anic Interpolation'' (translated by Herbert Berg) * A. Fischer (1906), ''Regarding Qur'an CI.6'' (translated by Berg) * C.C. Torrey (1922), ''Three difficult passages in the Koran'' * C.C. Torrey (1948), ''A Strange Reading in the Qur'an'' *

James A. Bellamy James A. Bellamy (1925 – July 21, 2015) was Professor Emeritus of Arabic Literature at the University of Michigan. Research Bellamy has been an important scholar in the textual criticism of the Quran, even being described as the "doyen" of i ...

(1993), ''Some Proposed Emendations to the Text of the Koran''

Richard Bell: Introduction and Commentary

*Ibn Warraq, ''Introduction to Richard Bell'' *Richard Bell (1958), From ''Introduction to the Qur'an'' *Richard Bell (1991), From ''A Commentary on the Qur'an''

Poetry and the Koran

*Rudolf Geyer (1908), ''The Strophic Structure of the Koran'' (translated by Wells) *

Julius Wellhausen Julius Wellhausen (17 May 1844 – 7 January 1918) was a German biblical scholar and orientalist. In the course of his career, he moved from Old Testament research through Islamic studies to New Testament scholarship. Wellhausen contributed to t ...

(1913), ''On the Koran'' (translated by Wells) *Ibn Rawandi, ''On Pre-Islamic Christian Strophic Poetical Texts in the Koran: a Critical Look at the Work of Günter Lüling''

Manuscripts

*Adolf Grohmann (1958), ''The Problem of Dating the Early Qur'ans'' *

(1996), ''Observations on Early Qur'an Manuscripts in San'a' ''

Reviews

In his review of the book, political scientist, anarchist, and "angry Arab"

As'ad AbuKhalil As'ad AbuKhalil ( ar, أسعد أبو خليل) (born 16 March 1960) is a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. AbuKhalil is the author of ''Historical Dictionary of Lebanon'' (1998), ''Bin ...

states that Ibn Warraq collected old writings by

Orientalists In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...

who have been long discredited and added that "the more rigid and biased the Orientalists, the better for Warraq".

Black Hills State University Black Hills State University (BHSU) is a public university in Spearfish, South Dakota. Close to 4,000 students attend classes at its campus in Spearfish, at sites in Rapid City and Pierre, and through distance offerings. Enrollment comes from ...

professor Ahrar Ahmad (2004) appreciated that this book and ''

The Quest for the Historical Muhammad ''The Quest for the Historical Muhammad'' (2000), edited by Ibn Warraq, is an anthology of 15 studies examining the origins of Islam and the Quran. The contributors argue that traditional Islamic accounts of its history and the origins of the Q ...

'' were 'less abrasive nd Warraq'stone less mocking' than in his earliest work, which Ahmad deemed less scholarly. He noted that "''What the Koran Really Says'' has the ambitious objective to “desacralize” (...) the Arabic language, script, and scripture. He seems to think that simply placing Islam in the Middle Eastern milieu in terms of language, social influences, intellectual origins, or theological affinities with other religions and rituals is enough to question its authenticity." Ahmad wondered further how the etymology of the Quran's language could possibly "destroy its legitimacy and authority", believing that Warraq criticised positions nobody held.

References

{{Reflist Non-Islamic Islam studies literature 2002 books Works about the Quran