reynolds-the-quran-in-its-historical-context-2

248 Manfred KroppQur'anic corpus where the canonical version hides the original structureobfuscates the [Aramaic!] keyword barf) in one long but theoretically andtically awkward verse.The conclusion proposed in this chapter is that these short and highlypolemical formulas form part of a pre-Qur'ii.nic heritage. They are Lctll!L'u-u,uuulslogans - to be shouted in the streets of Mecca against religious ~rhrPr,,~,.,""opponents- deriving from extra- and possibly pre-Qur'anic materials. Theyreceived and incorporated- but not without deep changes obfuscating theirinal structure and meaning - in the later authoritative version of the text.The following article does not intend to trace back the whole scientificsion of al-Ikhlii$, either in Western or in Muslim scholarship. For this I refer toarticle of A.A. Arnbros, "Die Analyse von Sure 112," which gives the ·of scholarly work on this text accompanied by thoughtful analysis, especiaUythe syntax and the three (!) hapax legomena in this short text of fifteenConsequently I will reduce the citations, the footnotes and the bil:1liogra1phiiclreferences - easily to be found in the aforesaid article and in the mosttranslations and commentaries of the Qur'ii.n -to the minimum necessarypresenting the new proposed interpretation - in order to reduce to aalso the number of"words about words." 1The text, its variants and problemsThe canonical reading of the rasm and the translation of Marmaduke Pi"kth,,lJ':,are as follows:Qul: huwa Lliihu al:zad2 Alliihu l-samad3 lam yalid wa-lam yiilad4 wa-lam yalam la-hii lalfit 'an al:zad.Say: He is Allah, the One!Allah, the eternally Besought ofHe begetteth not nor was m:~~uu.en;And there is none comparable toThe syntax ofthe English translation masks radically the complicated andstructure ofthe Arabic original, which causes so many discussions amongcommentators. But, on the other hand, and as we will see, it catches im;tinlctivelv;·the style of the religio-political and polemical formula that the text finallyreveal itself to be."Wollte man versuchen, das bestimmten Texten bekundete Interesse zu quantifizieren, indemeine numerische Relation zwischen der Uinge des Textes und dem Umfang der diesenmeten ,Worte Uber Worte' herstellt, dann wllrde unter den Texten arabischer Sprache der Suremit ihren knapp 15 Wortem wohl der erste Rang zufallen." A. Am bros, "Die Analyse von Sure I ·Arabica 63, 1986,219. One may add that this could well be true for the prayer of"OurChristian literature.2 This translation is chosen at random; the discussion in the article will show where the problemstexts are. M. Pickthall's translation is traditionally the most widely accepted by Muslimstongue. A lot of Qur' iinic text corpora, including translations in different languages and ofauthors, are to be found on the internet.Tripartite formulas in the Qur'iinic corpus 249variant readings are given in a simplified conspectus. 3 But the most imporaboutthis text is that the oldest extant material testimonies are not part ofMuslim tradition. The mosaic inscription in the (outer) octagonalof the Dome of the Rock 4 and the legends on dinars and dirhams of the'Abd-al-Malik (starting from 77 /696-7Y, as well as a protocol in a bilingualpapyrus, dating from 88/707-08 (the caliph al-Wal'id is mentionedactual ruler) 6 antedate for a century or so the oldest parchment fragments ofand furthermore exhibit important variants to the canonical reading.Alliihu l-samad"Allah, the eternally Besoughtall!"lam yalid wa-lam yl7lad"He begetteth not nor was begotten"· wa-lam yakun "and is not""for him"· · .kufu 'an "comparable". kifo 'an; kifo(n); kafi'an(and some more forms).Variantsdeest1deesfal-wiibid "the only one, the unique"deestal-$amad "the eternally Besought ·of all!"·lam yiilad wa-lqm yalid"He was not begotten nor begetteth"(inversion of elements).deestal:zad"none"lalfit ' 9 ; kuf'an; kaf'an; laifa 'an; kafivan;"equal, sufficient?"add.: la-hzl "for him"lalfit 'an "comparable"traditional authorities for the different readings are omitted and the interdependence of the variants,; .liromung a continuous reading in the end) must be reconstructed from the details. In fact, a deeper studyoverall structure of the readings would require a complete and space-consuming synapticalFor further details I refer to: MQ 'Abd-al-La!if a!-Khatib: Mu 'jam al-qira 'at, Damascus: Dar2002; MQQ Mu'jam al-qirii'iii al-Qur'iiniyya. Ed. 'Abd-al-'Al Makram. and Al)rnad'Umar, Kuwait: Dhiit al-Saliisil, 140211982-1405/1985; A. Jeffery, Materials for the HistoryText of the Qur'iin: The Old Codices, ed. A. Jeffery, Leiden: Brill, 1937.'The Arabic lslan:iic inscriptions on the Dome of The Rock in Jerusalem, 72 AH I 692Islamic Awareness website, available at