Koranic scholarship

One of Nicholas Kristoff's more fascinating New York Times columns was reprinted in The Hamilton Spectator yesterday: "Martyrs, Virgins and Grapes." Much as scholars in recent centuries have been active in exploring the literary and philological side of the extant biblical manuscripts, thereby furtherng our understanding of the Bible, they are now doing the same with the Koran, the holy book of Islam. Among other things they are discovering that there are Syriac/Aramaic origins to some of the more obscure words previously thought to be Arabic. For example, it seems that martyrs to the muslim cause cannot after all hope for 72 virgins to await their arrival; instead they can look forward to a bunch of white grapes! The rest of us can look forward to the publication of the English translation of Die syro-aramäische Lesart des Koran, authored by the pseudonymous Christoph Luxenberg. Will Luxenberg's findings revolutionize Islam, as the author of this review obviously hopes? It's hard to say. The use of the pseudonym would seem evidence of an expected backlash.

On the other hand, some scholars of the Bible, especially those hostile to revealed religion, have long thought -- even hoped -- that their efforts would eventually destroy the faith of the faithful, showing the principal written vessel of divine revelation to be nothing of the sort, and merely a cultural artefact. Yet the Nag Hammadi library, the Dead Sea scrolls and even Dan Brown's ill-researched Da Vinci Code, have done nothing of the sort. Some traditional interpretations might have to be altered, but I wouldn't expect a massive abandonment of Islam any time soon.