In Search of the Original Koran: The True History of the Revealed Text (20 page)

25. Geschichte des Qorans 1/47.

26. Suyuti, Itgan,1/101, §401.

27. Ibid., §402.

28. Ibid., §403.

29. Ibid., 1/102, §405.

30. Ibid., §406.

31. Ibid., §407.

32. Ibid., §408.

33. Ibid., 1/102-103, §411.

34. Ibid., §411-15.

35. Geschichte des Qorans 1/48.

36. Blachere, Introduction an Coran, p. 13.

37. Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, V/266.

38. Bokhari, Les Traditions, 111/520.

39. Suyuti, Itgan,1I1/66, §4117.

40. Suyuti, Itgan, 111/66, §4116.

41. Ibid., §4118.

42. Blachere, Introduction an Coran, p. 185.

43. Abi Muhammad al-Qaysi, Kitab al-Kashf an wujah al-gira'dt alsab, ed. crit. Par. M. Ramadhan, 2 vol. (Damascus: 1974), p. 21.

44. De Premare, Prophetisme, p. 108.

45. Ibid., pp. 107-108.

46. Suyuti, Itgan, 111/68, §4126.

47. Ibid., §4127.

48. Ibid., §4130.

49. Ibid., 111/67, §4122.

50. Ibid., pp. 67-68, §4125.

51. Blachere, Introduction au Coran, p. 189.

52. Ibid., p. 190.

53. R6gis Blachere, Le Coran (Paris: PUF, 1980), 464n13.

54. Ibid., 534n 14.

55. Ibid., 500n37.

56. Ibid., 162n91.

CHAPTER 2

1. Regis Blachere, Introduction an Coran (Paris: 1959), p. 100.

2. Ibid., p. 173.

3. Ibid., 173n244.

4. Suyuti, Itgdn, 1/182, §870.

5. Ibid., pp. 181-82, §868.

6. Blachere, Introduction an Coran, p. 175.

7. Ibid., p. 176.

8. Suyuti, Itgdn, 1/167, §779.

9. Ibid., §781.

10. Ibid., p. 168, §78.

11. Ibid., §801.

12. Suyuti, Itgdn, 1/169, §796.

13. Ibid., §797.

14. Geschichte des Qorans, I/31.

15. A. T. Welch, Al-Kur'an, in E.I.2 (vol. V), p. 416.

16. Georges Ifrah, Histoire universelle des chiffres. Lorsque les hombres racontent les hommes (Paris: Seghers/CNRS, 1981), p. 215.

17. Blachere, Introduction au Coran, p. 31.

18. La Bible. Ecrits intertestamentaires (Paris: Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, 1987), p. 53

19. Ibid., p. 636.

20. Ibid., p. 471.

21. Brigitte Mondrain, "Les Signatures des cahiers dans les manuscrits grecs," in Recherches de codicologie comparee. La composition du Codex au Moyen Age en Orient et en Occident, ed. Philippe Hoffmann (Paris: ENS, 1998), p. 25.

22. Welch, Al-Kur'an, p. 416.

23. Suyuti, Itgan,1/167, §781.

24. Regis Blachere, Le Coran (Paris: 1980), p. 212.

25. Suyuti, Itgan,1/179, §852.

26. Blachere, Le Coran, p. 666.

27. Suyuti, Itgan,1/179, §854.

28. Welch, Al-Kur'an, p. 413a.

29. Georges Tartar (Pasteur), " Epitre de Abd al-Masih al-Kindi" in Dialogue Islamo-Chretien sous le Calife al-Ma'man (813-834). Les epitres d'al- Hashimi et d'al-Kindi (Paris: 1985), p. 196.

30. Abi Muhammad al-Qaysi, Kitab al-Kashf,an wujah al-gira'dt al- sabl, ed. crit. Par. M. Ramadhan, 2 vol. (Damascus: 1974), p. 16.

31. Carra de Vaux, art. "Basmala," Encyclopedia de l'Islam, p. 1,117.

32. Al-Qaysi, Kitab kashf, p. 16.

33. Ibid.

34. Suyuti, Itgan, 1/148, §650-736.

35. Ibid., §646-47.

36. Ibid., 1/148, §648.

37. Hans-Caspar Graf von Bothmer and Karl-Heinz Ohlig; GerdRuediger Puin: "Neue Wege der Koranforschung," Magazin Forschung (Universitaet des Saarlandes, Saarbruecken) 1/1999, Neue Wege: 43-44.

CHAPTER 3

1. Bukhari, Fadhd'il al qur'dn, bab 3.

2. Blachere, Introduction an Coran, p. 25.

3. Ibid., pp. 22-25.

4. Ibid., pp. 33-34.

5. Ibid., pp. 35-45.

6. Ibid., pp. 46-47.

7. Ibid., p. 54.

8. Ibid., pp. 80-82, 90.

9. Adolf Grohmann, "The Problem of Dating Early Qur'an in Islam," Der Islam 32 (1958): 216.

10. Hans-Caspar Graf von Bothmer and Karl-Heinz Ohlig; GerdRuediger Puin: "Neue Wege der Koranforschung," Magazin Forschung (Universitaet des Saarlandes, Saarbruecken) 1/1999, Neue Wege: 41c.

11. Arthur Jeffery, Materials for the History of the Qur'an, The Old Codices (including the Arabic text of Ibn Abi Dawud, Kitab al-masahif) (Leiden: 1937), p. 10.

12. Here I am using the pages of the manuscript that have been reproduced on the Web site http://www.callnetuk.com/home/aperfectquran/Al.htm.

13. Mondher Sfar, Le Coran, la Bible, et l'Orient ancient, 2nd ed. (Paris: 1998), p. 274.

14. J. Wansbrough, Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (Oxford: 1977), pp. 1-12.

15. Ibid., pp. 21-26.

16. Sfar, Le Coran, la Bible, pp. 136-46.

17. Andre Paul, La Bible (Paris: 1998), p. 142.

18. Wansbrough, Quranic Studies, p. 21.

CHAPTER 4

1. It would be more correct to translate Fatiha by Incipit, which is the exact meaning of the word in the minds of the "collectors" of the Koran.

2. I refer the interested reader to the excellent article kindly sent to me by Bord, listed in the bibliography.

3. After the magisterial and rich study by Michael Huber on the legend of the Seven Sleepers, published in 1910, which includes indications on the Arabic literature touching on this theme.

4. In surah 18, The Cave, verses 9-26.

5. Isidor Levy, "Le Chien des sept Dormants," Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales, Melanges Bidez, t. 2/1934, Bruxelles, 581.

6. Jean Lambert, Le Dieu distribue: une anthropologic comparee des monotheismes, "Le chien de la caverne endormie et quelques autres recits, aux fondations de la sourate 18," chap. 14 (Paris: 1995), pp. 257-97.

7. Arthur Jeffery, "The Qur'an as Scripture," Muslim World: 189-201.

8. Mondher Sfar, Le Coran, la Bible, et l'Orient ancient, 2nd ed. (Paris: 1998), p. 51.

9. See J. Wansbrough, "Revelation and Canon" in Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (Oxford: 1977), pp. 1-32.

10. Tabari, Annales 1/2952, in Wansbrough, Quranic Studies, p. 51.

11. See the excellent examination of this question in an article by Claude Gilliot, "Les `informateurs' juifs et chretiens de Muhammad. Reprise d'un probleme traite par Aloys Sprenger et Theodor Noldeke," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 22 (1998): 84-126.

12. Ibid., p. 88, §9.

13. Ibid., p. 119, §66.

CONCLUSION

1. Ibn Hazm, Al-Fisal fi al-milal wa al-ahwa' wa al-nihal, ed. Abd alRahman Khalifa (Cairo: 1347 H), IV/25.

2. Ibid., IV/26.

APPENDIX

1. AN Dawud, Sunan, vol. I, < Kitab salat al-istisga' >>, hadith no. 1184.

2. Malik, Muwatta, vol. I, book 12, hadith no. 3.

3. Muslim, Sahih, vol. II, book 10 on the eclipse, hadith nos. 10 and 23.

4. As A. T. Welch seems to do in his article "Muhammad" in the Ency- clopedie de l'Islam, where he gives the date of June 27, 632, as the day Ibrahim died, without mentioning the solar eclipse.

5. Bukhari, Sahib, "XVI: Des eclipses," hadith no. 17.

6. Muslim, Sahih, hadith no. 9.

7. Ibid., hadith no. 21.

8. F. Richard Stephenson, Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 125.

9. Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 1/459.

10. Ibid., IV/267.

11. Malik, Muwatta, "Kitab salat al-kusuf," hadith no. 2.

12. Ibn al-Athir, Asad al-Ghaba, I/38.

13. Ibid., 1/39.

14. Malik, Muwatta, "Kitab salat al-kusuf," hadith no. 1.

15. Muslim, Sahih, hadith no. 14.

16. Ibid., hadith no. 24.

17. Ibid., hadith no. 8.

18. It is clear that the Arabs of Hijaz in the time of Muhammad continued to believe in astral signs, although the study of astronomy had made its appearance in neighboring Mesopotamia twenty-two centuries earlier. During the eclipse, Muhammad as a nabi (prophet) acted as a veritable diviner, notably in the course of his "prayer," conjuring away the evil fate that was heralded on the face of the sun. The apocalyptic visions that he had were produced while he was in an ecstatic state, when "he started to gasp on the ground and to weep while he was in a posture of prosternation" (Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 2/159). It was at this moment that the Prophet revealed his visions: "Paradise was presented to me, and if I had wanted to, I could have taken some branches from its trees. Then Hell was presented to me, and I blew so as to extinguish it for fear that it would reach you" (ibid.). Other stories specify that during this conjuring prayer, Muhammad "moved backward and the people who were in rows behind him withdrew right to the back of the room. Then he advanced, and the people did likewise" (Muslim, Sahih, Kitab al-kusuf, bab 3, hadith no. 10). It is clear that what is described here is nothing other than a divinatory ceremony that Tradition has tried to tone down into a ritual prayer. These gestures of advancing and retreating belong to a sun cult known in Carrhae in the north of Syria. This cult "was provided with divinatory rites where the statue of a bearded Appolo rendered oracles by advancing forward to say `yes' to questions, and withdrawing backward to say `no"' (Bouche-Leclercq, Histoire, 111/403-404).

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