https://www.academia.edu/36831359/_An_Arabian_Qurān_Dissertation_Defense_Draft_2016_ This 2021 paper in JIQSA by Saqib Hussain shows that that Arabian Safaitic inscriptions represent the background of “the star” from Q 53:1. https://lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jiqsa/article/view/553 For scathing reviews see those of F. De Blois (Journal of Qur’anic Studies 5 [2003]: 92-97: “His book is not a work of scholarship but of dilettantism”); S. Hopkins (JSAI…

The problem with many of Luxenberg’s supposed Syriacisms is that many are well within the normal range of attested grammatical possibilities within Arabic itself. Luxenberg identifies as the basis for the theories he proposes the idea that the language in which the Qur’an was recorded was a mixed language, an Arabic/Aramaic creole of sorts, spoken…

Article This article proposes to interpret Surah 97 based on research undertaken in the framework of the Corpus Coranicum project. The first part scrutinizes Christopn Luxenberg’s seriously flawed argument that Surah 97 can be understood as a Qur’anic hymn on the Nativity of Jesus if some of its key expressions are read against the semantic…

Article

Article Objections to Luxenberg: My first and main objection to this approach is not that it does not yield results. My main objection is that it yields far too many results. My second objection is that, for Luxenberg, everything happens in the realm of orthography and reading. This disregards the important role that recitation played…

His reviewThe title of this book announces a new ‘reading’ of the Qur’an and the subtitle promises ‘a contribution to the decoding of the language of the Qur’an.’ The author’s theses are summarised succinctly in his ‘resumé’ (pp. 299-307): the Qur’an is not written in Arabic but in an ‘Aramaic-Arabic mixed language’ which was spoken…

Article Dye, Shoemaker, Tesei believe the Qur’an is composed outside of the Hijaz because of no Christian tradition within Hijaz. (this is wrong, obviously). Mollifying the Elephant First, it can be objected that Dye, Tesei, and Shoemaker are being a tad too categorical. To be sure, the Islamic tradition does indeed portray Mecca as an…

Some scholars attempt to relocate, so-to-speak, the Qur᾿ān from its traditional Hijazi environment to north, based on the assumption that the tradition has projected the origins of Islam into the Hijaz while constructing a salvation history. This view has not found favor in the academic community and most scholars (including Tomasso Tsei) prefer to identify…

Article In its vision of the past, which is at the same time a rewriting of a major part of the biblical story, the Qur’an often associates David and Solomon. It does so in a particularly close way when relating the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem. This tendency is already indicated in the following…

Article The Qur’ān contains numerous passages urging forgiveness of enemies and returning their evil deeds with good works, although they have not been studied analytically as a coherent ensemble (Juan Cole, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires (New York: The Nation Books, 2018), chapters 2, 3). These scattered counterparts of the Sermon…