The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran
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| Author | Christoph Luxenberg |
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| Original title | Die Syro-Aramäische Lesart des Koran |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Qur'anic studies |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Hans Schiler Publishers |
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Publication date
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1 May 2007 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 352 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 124038162 |
| 297.1/22 22 | |
| LC Class | PJ6696 .L8913 2007 |
The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran is an English-language edition (2007) of Die syro-aramäische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Koransprache (2000) by Christoph Luxenberg.
The thesis of the book is that the text of the Quran was substantially derived from Syriac Christian liturgy, arguing that many "obscure" portions become clear when they are back-translated and interpreted as Syriacisms. While noticeable Syro-Aramaic influence on the language of the Quran is undisputed in scholarship, Luxenberg's thesis goes beyond mainstream scholarly consensus and was widely received with skepticism in reviews.
The work advances the thesis that critical sections of the Quran have been misread by generations of readers and Muslim and Western scholars, who consider Classical Arabic the language of the Quran. Luxenberg's analysis suggests that the prevalent Syro-Aramaic language up to the seventh century formed a stronger etymological basis for its meaning.
A notable trait of early written Arabic was that it lacked vowel signs and diacritics which would later distinguish e.g. B, T, N, Y ب ت ن ي , and thus was prone to mispronunciation. The diacritical points were added around the turn of the eighth century on orders of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, governor of Iraq (694–714).
Luxenberg claimed that the Quran "contains much ambiguous and even inexplicable language." He asserts that even Muslim scholars find some passages difficult to parse and have written reams of Quranic commentary attempting to explain these passages. However, the assumption behind their endeavours has always been, according to him, that any difficult passage is true, meaningful, and pure Arabic, and that it can be deciphered with the tools of traditional Muslim scholarship. Luxenberg accuses Western academic scholars of the Qur'an of taking a timid and imitative approach, relying too heavily on the work of Muslim scholars.
The book's thesis is that the Quran was not originally written exclusively in Arabic but in a mixture with Syriac, the dominant spoken and written language in the Arabian peninsula through the eighth century.
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