40 - Xmas Anthology - Lux - Xmas and The Eucharist - p.411-467

Christmas and the Eucharist in the Qurʾān
Christoph Luxenberg
In the following article, several shorter texts by Christoph Luxenberg have been
merged and revised by the author himself. The last part had previously been
published in three different versions, the first two of which are in German: (1)
the German periodical published in Trier, Imprimatur 1 (2003): 13–17; (2)
Christoph Burgmer, ed., Streit um den Qurʾān: Die Luxenberg Debatte—
Standpunkte und Hintergründe [Controversy about the Qurʾān: The Luxen-
berg Debate—Viewpoints and Background], 2nd ed. (Berlin, 2007), pp. 62–68.
The third version was an enlarged French translation: “Noël dans le Coran,” in
A. M. Delcambre and J. Bosshard, eds., Enquêtes sur l’islam (Paris, 2004), pp.
117–38.
1. Language of the Koran

In an earlier study entitled, A Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran. A Contri-
bution to the Deciphering of the Language of the Koran, the author put before
the public some results of his research on the language of the Qurʾān. Taking
for his point of departure the linguistic situation that prevailed historically at
the time the time the Qurʾān was edited (according to Islamic tradition 7th
Century CE), the lingua franca and the literary language of the whole of the
Near East was not Arabic, but Syriac, a variant of Aramaic. On this basis he
succeeded in elucidating great many passages considered obscure and recog-
nized as such not only by Western orientalists but also by Arab commenta-
tors themselves. This fact led him to show that the language of the Qurʾān,
which constitues the essential foundations of written Arabic, is so intimately
linked to Syriac that one can speak of a mixed Arabo-Syriac language.
From this finding it logically follows that without taking into considera-
tion Syriac the intended meaning of the Qurʾān and Qurʾānic Arabic cannot
be understood. Thus, ignoring Syriac, the Arab exegetes have interpreted
Qurʾānic expressions as being, for example, Houris or Virgins of Paradise
(ḥūr ʿīn) whereas in their Syriac sense they designate white raisin or vine,
eschatological components of the Christian Paradise, an allusion to the wine
of the Last Supper. The same goes for the young boys or ephebes of Paradise
(wildān) which the Arab commentators have imagined, when in reality the
term is just another Syriac loan words designating the same raisins. By using
411
412 PART 5: CHRISTOPH LUXENBERG
these expressions, the Qurʾān compars the whiteness of these heavenly raisins
to the limpidness of crystal and immaculate pearls.
2. St. Peter: Persevere in Your Prayers: Surah 108 (al-Kawṯar –

(the) Abundance)
The author moreover has shown that it is not just on the level of simple
isolated words but also at the level of syntax that the Arab commentators
have misunderstood the Qurʾānic text, to the extent of misinterpreting entire
surahs. Thus the Arab exegetes saw in the title of Surah 108 (al-Kawṯar –
Abundance), among others, the name of a river in Paradise reserved exclu-
sively for the Prophet or—according to another interpretation—for faithful
Muslims, and in the following verse the reprobation of an opponent of the
Prophet who must have despised the latter for having been deprived of
children. However, the Syriac reading of this Surah recalls to mind the First
Epistle of St Peter, Chapter 5 verses 8–95, according to which—and in accor-
dance with the introduction to the compline of the Roman service—the faith-
ful are exhorted to persevere in their prayers by which their adversary, Satan,
is routed. Let us now examine this sura in philological detail.
The following summary of the views of traditional Qurʾān exegesis
concerning this short Surah stems from Josef Horovitz’s article from the
Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st ed. (vol. 2, Leiden, Leipzig, 1927) and may serve as
an introduction:
KAWṮAR, a word used in Sūra 108:1 after which this Sura is called Surat al-
Kawṯar. Kawṯar is a fawʿal form from kathara, of which other examples occur
in Arabic (e.g. nawfal; further examples in Brockelmann, Grundriss der ver-
gleichenden Grammatik, I 344 [An Outline of a Comparative Grammar]). The
word, which also occurs in the old poetry (e.g. the examples in Ibn Hishām,
ed. Wüstenfeld, p. 261, and Nöldeke-Schwally, Geschichte des Qorāns, I 92),
means “abundance” and a whole series of Muslim authorities therefore explain
al-Kawṯar in Sūra 108:1 as al-Khair al-kathīr (see Ibn Hishām, op. cit..; al-
Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, XXX 180 f.). But this quite correct explanation has not been
able to prevail in the Tafsīr. It has been thrust into the background by tra-
ditions according to which the Prophet himself explained Kawṯar to be a river
in Paradise (see already Ibn Hishām, p. 261 below, and notably al-Ṭabarī,
Tafsīr, XXX 179), or Muḥammad says that it was a pool intended for him
personally and shown to him on his ascension to Paradise (see al-Ṭabarī, Taf-
sīr, XXX 180), which latter view al-Ṭabarī considers the most authentic. Even
the earliest Sūras (77:41; 88:12 etc.) know of rivers that flow through Paradise,
but it is not till the Medīna period that they are more minutely described,
notably in, Sūra 47:15: “there are rivers of water which does not smell foul:
rivers of milk the taste whereof does not change; and rivers of wine, a pleasure
Luxenberg: Christmas and the Eucharist 413
for those that drink, and rivers of clarified honey.” These rivers correspond to
the rivers of oil, milk, wine and honey, which had already been placed in
Paradise by Jewish and Christian eschatology; the only difference is that
Muḥammad replaced oil by water; in Arabia pure water was not to be taken
for granted and besides it was necessary to mix with the wine of Paradise (see
Horovitz, Das Qurʾānische Paradies, p. 9). When, after the Prophet’s death,
eschatological explanations of the “abundance” of Sūra 108:1 began to be
made, al-Kawṯar was identified as one of the rivers of Paradise and when we
find in one of the versions quoted in al-Ṭabarī’s Tafsīr that “its water is whiter
than snow and sweeter than honey” or “and its water is wine,” etc. we have
obviously an echo of Sūra 47:15. But they did not stop at simply transferring
these Qurʾānic descriptions to the Kawṯar but the imagination of later writers
gave the river of Paradise a bed of pearls and rubies and golden banks and all
sorts of similar embellishments. According to a later view (see Aḥwāl al-
Qiyāma, ed. Wolff, p. 107) all the rivers of Paradise flow into the Ḥawḍ al-
Kawṯar which is also called Nahr Muḥammed, because, as we have seen above,
it is the Prophet’s own.
Before going into the philological analysis of this Surah, which has been made
into a legend in the Islamic tradition, it would be good first of all to give the
Qurʾānic text and its understanding on the basis of the Arabic exegesis with
the traditional reading.
‫ ان شانئك ھو االبتر‬/ ‫ فصل لربك وانحر‬/ ‫انا اعطينك الكوثر‬
innā aʿṭaynāka l-kawṯar / fa-ṣalli li-rabbika wa-nḥar /
inna šāniʾaka huwa l-abtar
These three verses are rendered according to the Arabic understanding as

follows:
Bell II 6811 1. Verily, We have given thee the abundance;2 2. So pray to thy
Lord, and sacrifice. 3. Verily, it is he who hateth thee who is the docked
one.3
Paret 519: 1: Wir haben dir die Fūlle gegeben. 2: Bete darum (fa-ṣalli) zu
deinem Herrn und opfere! 3: (Ja) dein Hasser ist es, der gestutzt [Note: D.h.
ohne Anhang (? abtar). Oder: schwanzlos, d.h. ohne Nachkommen (?)] ist.
[Note: Oder (als Verwünschung): Wer dich haßt, soll gestutzt (oder:
schwanzlos) sein!]. [1 : We have given you the abundance. 2 : Therefore pray
to your Lord and sacrifice ! 3: (Yes) it is your hater who will be pruned (i.e.,
without attachment [ ?abtar]), or : will be without a tail, [i.e., without
offspring ( ?) ; or : (as a curse) Whoever hates you, shall be pruned (or : be
without a tail) !].
Blachère 668: 1 En vérité, Nous t’avons donné l’Abondance.4 2 Prie donc en

l’honneur de ton Seigneur et sacrifie ! 3 En vérité, celui qui te hait se trouve
être le Déshérité! [Verily, We have given you the abundance. So pray to
honour your Lord, and sacrifice. Verily, he hates who hates you finds
himself disinherited]
The explanation of this short Surah has caused Qurʾān scholars in the East
and the West a great deal of trouble. Even a summary of the nearly eleven
pages of attempted interpretations in Ṭabarī (XXX 320–330) would be taking
things too far. In any case, this would only serve as an example of how falsely
the Qurʾān text has been in part interpreted by the Arab exegetes. Never-
theless Paret devotes just under two pages to it in his Kommentar
[Commentary] pp. 525–527). As an introduction (525) he remarks on the
subject:
Harris Birkeland has published an extensive interpretation of this short, but
difficult Surah (Harris Birkeland. The Lord Guideth: Studies on Primitive
Islam, Oslo 1956, pp. 56–99).
The following explanation of the individual words will show that all of the
previous efforts were love’s labor’s lost.
1. The expression selected as the title of the Surah ‫( الكوثر‬al-kawṯar) is the
transliteration of the Syro-Aramaic artwk / kuttāra, which is the nomi-
nal form of the second stem rtk / kattar (to persevere). This verbal root
(*kṯar ) is found in both languages, the Arabic root ‫ كثر‬/ kaṯura (to be
much, many) referring to quantity, while the Syro-Aramaic counterpart
rtk / kṯar (to remain, to last) merely refers to quantity of time, i.e., dura-
tion. In the Qurʾān this Syro-Aramaic meaning occurs only occasionally,
e.g., in Surah 20:33, 34: ‫ ونذكرك كثيرا‬/ ‫ كي نسبحك كثيرا‬/ kay nusabbiḥaka
kaṯīrā / wa-naḏkuraka kaṯīrā “that we may constantly glorify Thee and
make constantly remembrance of Thee.”5 The medial ‫ و‬/ waw in ‫كوثر‬
(kawṯar) is mater lectionis for short u, as is normal according to Syro-Ara-
maic spelling. The word should therefore be interpreted as kuttār as in
Classical Syriac artwk / kuttārā or Western Syriac kūṯārā 6 (constancy,
persistence, steadfastness). The fricative ṯ (pronounced as th in English
“thing”) of the canonical Qurʾānic reading (kawṯar) reflects the Western
Syriac pronunciation after the gemination of consonants was generally
dropped. Since such a mater lectionis is uncommon in the Qurʾān, the
Arabic philologists interpreted this mater lectionis as the non-syllabic part
of the diphthong aw, thus reading the form as kawṯar (= fawʿal ). The
corresponding Arabic form of the Syro-Aramaic kuttārā would be‫تكثير‬
(takṯīr).7
This uncommon form kawṯar ought to have aroused the scepticism of
the commentators. It is also no accident that the word has never made its
way into Arabic in the meaning of abundance. This is also, as it is often

the case, why it is regarded as the name of a river in Paradise and, among
other things, is still used today as a woman’s name (with the actually Syro-
Aramaic meaning of Constantia).
2. The same meaning is expressed by the borrowing from Syro-Aramaic ‫صل‬
/ ṣalli (pray). On the other hand, the word that has been understood in
Arabic as “slaughter,” ‫ وانحر‬/ wa-nḥar, has been misread. What is meant
here in connection with “to pray” is the Syro-Aramaic root rgn / nḡar (to
wait, to hold out, to persist).8 The only meaning from this root that has
entered into the Arabic borrowed form ‫ نجر‬/ najara is the meaning “to
plane.” In the Qurʾān, however, it is the first meaning that is meant.
Therefore, Arabic ‫ وانجر‬/ wa-nǧar (and persist – in prayer) should be read
here. The Qurʾān employs in this connection among other things the sy-
nonymous root ‫ صبر‬/ ṣabara (< rbys / saybar). Parallels are offered here
by Surah 19:65: ‫( فاعبده واصطبر لعبادته‬so worship him and wait in his
worship) and Surah 20:132: ‫( وامر اھلك بالصلوة واصطبر عليھا‬command your
family to pray and persist therein). Furthermore, with the lexically
equivalent Arabic verb ‫ دام على‬/ dāma ʿalā (in modern Arabic ‫ داوم على‬/
dāwama ʿalā) (to persist in something, to do something constantly), it is
said in Surah 70:23 of those who pray: ‫( الذين ھم على صالتھم دائمون‬who say
their prayers constantly).
3. As a further adapted transcription of Syro-Aramaic Kans / (sānāḵ)9
(your hater = enemy, adversary) in Arabic, the Qurʾānic ‫( شانئك‬šāniʾaka)
has been understood correctly as “your hater.” In the Christian Syriac
terminology, Satan is referred to, among other things, as a “misanthrope”
—hence an “adversary”—in contrast to God, who is referred to as (raḥmā-
nā > Arabic ‫ رحمن‬/ raḥmān) “one who loves mankind” (philanthropist).
4. Finally, the root ‫( بتر‬batara) (to break off, to amputate), based on the
Arabic elative ‫( االبتر‬al-abtar), is a metathesis of the Syro-Aramaic rbt
(tḇar), for which Mannā (829a) gives us the following Arabic meanings:
(2) ‫ انسحق‬.‫( انكسر‬to be broken, defeated, destroyed), (3) ‫ انھزم‬.ّ‫( فر‬to make a
dash for freedom, to be put to flight).
3. Excursus: On the Etymology of the Arabic Root ‫ أعطى‬/ aʿṭā

The result of the philological analysis of the individual expressions is that, ex-
cept for the form, scarcely one word in this Surah is of Arabic origin. In the
end, the only verb considered to be genuinely Arabic, ‫ أعطى‬/ aʿṭā (to give), will
prove to be, etymologically (by the shifting of the hamza toʿayn and the resul-
tant emphasizing of the t/t), a secondary dialectal formation of Syro-Ara-
maic Ytya / aytī (to summon, to bring). This is already clear from the Qur-
ʾānic use of these two roots. In other words, while the Arabic root ‫ عطى‬/ ʿaṭā
occurs a total of 13 times in the Qurʾān, the instances of the root borrowed
from the Syro-Aramaic ata /eṯā > Arabic ‫ اتى‬/atā (to come), with all its deri-
vatives, are countless. The Arabic form ‫ أعطى‬/aʿṭā(to give) corresponds to the
Syro-Aramaic Af‘el Ytya / aytī (to summon, to bring). The equivalent Arabic
form of ‫ أتى‬/ ʾatā would be > *‫’> أأتى‬a’tā, a form which would violate the pho-
notactical rule in Arabic, which does not allow two consecutive hamza, espe-
cially when the second one is vowelless.10 To circumvent this rule, the second
hamza was replaced by the acoustically most similar phoneme ‘ayn. As the
place of articulation of the ‘ayn is pharyngeal, the following consonant was
consequently pharyngealized, i.e., it became emphatic “ṭ.” These phonetic
replacements thus resulted in the secondary Arabic verb ‫ أعطى‬/aʿṭā(to give),
the radicals of which, however, have no counterparts in any other Semitic
language. C. Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum, gives the etymological correla-
tives of the Syro-Aramaic verbal af[ / ʿṭā (520a) (1. delevit, evertit / to
efface, to cancel, to exterminate) as follows: Hebrew ‫( עטה‬ʿaṭā) velavit (to veil),
Arabic ‫( غطا‬ġaṭā) texit (to cover), Accadean e,ū obscurum esse (to be obscure).
These etymological correlations make clear that the Arabic verb ‫ أعطى‬/aʿṭā, in
the sense of “to give,” is not genuine Arabic, but a secondary derivation from
the Syro-Aramaic verbal root ata (eṯā) > Arabic ‫( أتى‬atā) > IVth stem *‫أأتى‬
(’a’tā) > ‫( أعطى‬ʾaʿṭā).
The last sceptics may be convinced by the following evidence quoted in A.
Jeffery, Materials for the History of the Text of the Qur’ān, 146 (codex of Ubai
b. Ka‘b), Surah 20:36, where the canonical reading ‫’( أوتيت‬ūtīta) (in the
context—literally: “you are given” your request = your request is granted) is
transmitted in this old codex as ‫( أعطيت‬ʾuʿṭīta). Hence: ‫’( أوتيت‬ūtīta < *’u’tīta)
= ‫( أعطيت‬ʾuʿṭīta).11
From the preceding discussion the following reading and understanding
has now resulted for Surah 108 according to the Syro-Aramaic reading:
‫ ان سانيك ھو االبتر‬/ ‫ فصل لربك وانجر‬/ ‫انا اعطينك الكوثر‬
(inna aʿṭaynāka l-kawṯar or al-kuttār /fa-ṣalli li-rabbik wa-nǧar /
in sānīka huwa l-abtar)
1. We have given you the (virtue of) constancy ;
2. so pray to your Lord and persevere (in prayer);
3. your adversary (the devil) is (then) the loser.
4. Christian Epistolary Literature in the Qurʾān (Surah 108)

This brief Surah is based on the Christian Syriac liturgy. From it arises a clear
reminiscence of the well-known passage, also used in the compline of the
Roman Catholic canonical hours of prayer, from the First Epistle General of
Peter, Chapter 5, Verses 8–9 (according to the Pšiṭṭā):
8 Wake up (Brothers) and be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a

roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9 Whom resist steadfast in the faith.”
From this first evidence of Christian epistolary literature in the Qurʾān it now
becomes clear that it has previously been a mistake to connect the text of
Surah 108 with any of the enemies of the Prophet Muḥammad, not to men-
tion with the expressions the Qurʾān has been accused of using in this regard,
expressions which are unworthy of it. This text is without a doubt pre-Qur-
ʾānic. As such it is a part of that matrix out of which the Qurʾān was originally
constituted as a Christian liturgical book (Qəryānā), and which as a whole has
been designated in Western Qurʾān studies as the first Meccan period.12 The
address in the second person in this as in other Surahs is moreover not
necessarily directed at the Prophet himself. Rather, as is customary in litur-
gical books, each believer is addressed in the second person.
As in the Roman Catholic compline, one can easily imagine these three
verses as an introduction to an earlier Syro-Aramaic hour of prayer. Bell’s
suspicion that it is a fragment from Surah 74 cannot be ruled out, since this
Surah as well as Surah 73 with their call to bedtime prayer, i.e., to the vigils,
read in part like a monastic rule.13 Whence there too the hitherto unrecog-
nized Syro-Aramaisms, the explanation of which is being reserved for a
future work.
5. The Eucharist: Surah 96: al-ʿAlaq – “the Clot”
In the same way the Arab exegetes had seen in Surah 96 (al-‘Alaq – “the
Clot”) the start of the revelation announced to the prophet by the angel
Gabriel. However the lexicological and syntactical analysis of this Surah, exa-
mined under its Syriac connection, has revealed—contrary to the confusion
which has reigned in its Arabic reading up to now—a clear and coherent
composition in which the faithful is entreated to pray and participate in the
liturgical service that the Qurʾān designates as The Eucharist (corresponding
to iqtarib taken from the Syriac liturgical term ‫ ܐܬ ܒ‬eṯqarraḇ, Arabic term
ta-qarrab which signifies “take part in a liturgical service” as well as “to
receive the Eucharist.”
Islamic tradition sees in this Surah [Surah 96] the beginning of the Reve-
lation, because the initial word iqraʾ (iqrā) (“read”) has been interpreted as
being the first word the angel Gabriel addressed to the Prophet inviting him
to read the Qurʾān. However, the Arabic verb qara’a, derived from the Syriac
qrā, has only retained the meaning “to read,” whereas in Syriac it has at least
twelve meanings and further nuances, the most appropriate in this context is
“to invoke, to call.” Verse 1 : “Iqra’ bi-smi rabbi-ka. . .” corresponds to the
Syriac locution qra b-šem maryā meaning “Invoke the name of the Lord,” a
formula which introduces a prayer or a liturgical office. It concerns just such
an office in this case, it is the last term used in verse 19 which we will now
define. The verb iqtarib (Arabic meaning “draw closer”) is in fact Arabic only
in form and corresponds in reality to the liturgical Syriac term “‫ܐܬ ܒ‬
eṯqarraḇ” meaning “to take part in the Offering (Eucharistic)” as well as “to
receive the Eucharist.”
With this term the Qurʾān reveals a detail hitherto unsuspected making an
allusion to a Pre-Islamic Christian liturgy and we discover at the same time
another term also not well-known until now.
Let us now look more closely at Surah 96, “al-‘Alaq.” In the Islamic tradi-
tion this is held to be the beginning of the prophetic revelation. Serving as the
title is a keyword selected from the text, ‫( العلق‬al-ʿalaq), which until now has
been falsely translated by “clotted blood” (Bell), “der Embryo” (Paret), and
“l’Adhérence” (Blachère). For purposes of comparison the following very
literal rendering of Paret’s translation14 (513 f.) ought to be sufficient.
Surah 96:1-19: ‫ العلق‬/ “al-ʿAlaq”
1: Recite in the name of your Lord who has created,
2: has created man out of an embryo!
3: Recite! Your Lord is noble like nobody in the world [Note: literally, the
noblest (one) (al-akramu)],
4: (He) who [Note: (Or) Your Lord, noble like nobody in the world, is the
one who] taught the use of the calamus-pen [Or who taught by means of
the calamus-pen],
5: taught man what (beforehand) he did not know.
6: No! Man is truly rebellious (yaṭġā),
7: (for) that he considers himself his own master (an raʾāhu staġnā).
8: (Yet) to your Lord all things return (some day) [literally: To your Lord is
the return].
9: What do you think, indeed, of him who
10: forbids a slave [Or: a servant (of God)] when he is saying his prayers
(ṣallā)?
11: What do you think if he (i.e., the one?) is rightly guided 12: or commands
one to be God-fearing? 13: What do you think if he (i.e., the other?)
declares (the truth of the divine message) to be a lie and turns away (from
it)? (That the latter is in the wrong should be clear.) 14: (For) Does he not
know that God sees (what he does?) 15: No! If he does not stop (doing
what he is doing) we will surely seize (him on Judgment Day) by the
forelock, 16:a lying, sinful forelock. 17: May he then call his clique (nādī)!
18: We shall (for our part) call the henchmen (of Hell) (? az-zabāniya). 19:
No! Prostrate yourself (rather in worship) and approach (your Lord in
humility)!
The discussion of the underlined expressions will first of all be carried out
verse by verse:
5.1 Verse 1:
Borrowed from the Syro-Aramaic arq (qrā), the Arabic verb ‫( قرأ‬qaraʾa, al-
though originally probably qarā like banā and ramā), has for the most part
taken over the meaning “to read” from Syro-Aramaic. Elsewhere, the Qurʾān
furnishes evidence of the meaning “to teach” once in Surah 87:6, ‫سنقرئك فال‬
‫( تنسى‬sa-nuqriʾuka fa-lā tansā, which should actually be read sa-nuqrīka),
which is rendered as follows by Paret (507): “We will cause you to recite
(revelatory texts). You will now forget nothing (thereof).” Under Yrqa (aqrī)
Mannā (698b) gives the meaning “to teach” in Arabic with ‫( علّم‬ʿallama).
Accordingly, what is meant by this verse is: “We will teach you (in a way) that
you will not forget.”15
The correct interpretation of the expression ‫( اقرا باسم ربك‬iqraʾ [actually
iqrā] bi-smi rabbika) is of crucial importance for the historical appraisal of
this Surah, which Islamic tradition has declared to be the beginning of the
prophetic revelation. In this regard, Nöldeke refers (op. cit. 81) to Hartwig
Hirschfeld, who, in pointing to the frequent occurrence in the Bible of the
Hebrew expression qrā ḇ-šem YHWH, had translated the Qurʾānic expression
correctly with “proclaim the name of thy Lord!” The explanation given by the
Arab grammarian Abū ʿUbaida—that ‫( قرأ‬qaraʾa) means as much as ‫ذكر‬
(ḏakara) “to call (upon)” here—proves to be equally correct, despite the fact
that it is rejected by Nöldeke with the comment: “But ‫ قرأ‬never has this
meaning.” For that, he refers to M. J. de Goeje in the glossary to Ṭabarī where
‫ قرأ بشئ‬is said to mean “he read in something.”
Thus, Nöldeke took as his model for the explanation of this early Qurʾānic
expression its later misunderstood use in Arabic, instead of tracing it back to
its Syro-Aramaic (or Hebrew) origin. The fact is that the equivalent Syro-Ara-
maic expression taken from Biblical usage ayrm Mcb arq (qrā ḇ-šem māryā;
with and without B / b) has in general become a technical term for “to pray,
to hold divine service.”16 But as for how the preposition b / b- is to be ex-
plained, it is simply to be understood here as follows: “Call: In the name of
the Lord!” One does this particularly at the beginning of a prayer or a divine
service, and indeed it was this that was also replaced later on in the recitation
of the Qurʾān by the parallel formula ‫( بسم ﷲ الرحمن الرحيم‬bi-smi l-lāhi r-
raḥmāni r-raḥīm) (In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful).
Nöldeke has also not noticed that this expression, though not with the
borrowed verb ‫ <( قرا‬arq / qrā), but with the lexically equivalent Arabic verb
‫( دعا‬daʿā) (to call, to invoke), is documented in connection with the pre-
position ‫ بـ‬/ bi- in this meaning in a verse17 attributed to Waraqa ibn Nawfal
(‫ ; ورقة بن نوفل‬cousin of Ḫadīǧa, the first wife of the Prophet),18 which runs as
follows:
‫أقول إذا صليت في كل بيعة تباركت قد أكثرت باسمك داعيا‬
I say whenever I pray in a church.19 “Be you praised, full oft I call [with] your
name!”
There can accordingly be no doubt that the introductory formula ‫اقرا باسم ربك‬
(iqraʾ bi-smi rabbika) has the equivalent Syro-Aramaic sense and is to be un-
derstood as a call to prayer. Indeed, the subsequent context of the entire Su-
rah argues for this as well. To understand from this a call to read in a book is
simply without any objective foundation. The previous interpretation rests
solely on the later Arabic exegesis’s misunderstanding of the use of this
Syriacism.
The logical conclusion is that the view held by the Arabic tradition, accor-
ding to which the angel Gabriel had with this formula called upon the Pro-
phet to read, even though the Prophet could not read, is a later pious legend
growing out of this very same misunderstanding. The Surah is, as a whole, a
thematically presented call to worship, as the other misunderstood expres-
sions will show.
5.2 Verse 2
About the expression ‫( علق‬ʿalaq) Blachère (657) remarks correctly that it
seems originally to have been a noun derived from the verb ʿalaqa, “to stick,
to cling.” To that extent, he is doubting the interpretation “clots of blood” of
the Arab exegetes, which Paret, in turn, interprets as “embryo.” With the cor-
responding translation, “adhérence” (adhesion), however, he is nonetheless
not able to explain the actual meaning of this metaphorical expression. This is
because here, too, the tertium comparationis can only be determined by way
of the Syro-Aramaic. Add to this that the Thes. (II 2902) cites for us un-
der aqwl[ (ʿālōqā) (for which it gives the loan word in Arabic ‫ علقة‬/ ʿalaqa
“leech”) the following commentary from the Syrian lexicographers, who, be-
sides the leech named after this property, also explain the following with this
nomen agentis “clinger:”
wgycttml ˆyqs[w adyab ˆyqbAdd acylw anyf wAa
aw ṭīnā w-layšā d-dāḇqīn b-īḏā w-ʿasqīn l-mettšīḡū
The expression “clinger” designates either a “leech” “or the clay or dough that
sticks to one’s hand and is difficult to wash off.”20
With that, the expression ‫( علق‬ʿalaq) would be explained, since the pro-
perty “sticky” is indeed used by the Qurʾān in connection with “clay,” in one
instance, in Surah 37:11: ‫“ انا خلقنھم من طين الزب‬we have created you out of
sticky21 clay.” Adapted to the rhyme, the Qurʾān is here using the synonymous
Syro-Aramaic expression familiar to it. With ‫( من علق‬min ʿalaq) what is meant

in Arabic is ‫( من طين عالق = الزب‬out of something sticky = sticky clay).
5.3 Verse 3
For the Arabic elative (absolute superlative) referring to God, ‫( االكرم‬al-
akram), the meaning also common in modern Arabic, “honorable, admi-
rable,” is actually adequate, especially since it is here precisely a question of
the worship of God in the church service.
5.4 Verse 4
Because God has taught man ‫( بالقلم‬bi-l-qalam) “with the calamus reed-pen,”
surely the most plausible explanation is the knowledge revealed through the
scripture.
5.5 Verse 6
There begins at this point in the Surah, with ‫( كال‬kallā),22 which has been mis-
read in Arabic and misunderstood abruptly in the context as “No!”, a series of
three adverbs, all of which mean the Syro-Aramaic alk (kullā) and which
are, depending on the context, to be understood positively in the sense of
“everything,” but negatively in the meaning of “not at all.” In this verse the ‫كال‬
(Syro-Aramaic kullā in the sense of Arabic ‫ كليّا‬kullīyan) belongs with the pre-
ceding ‫( ما لم يعلم‬mā lam yaʿlam), because in the Qurʾān the sentence does not
necessarily end with the rhyme. Hence this ‫ كال‬is to be drawn into Verse 5, so
that this verse will then be: “he taught man what he did not know at all.”23
Secondly, Paret translates the verb ‫( طغى‬ṭaġā) with “aufsässig sein [to be
rebellious];” (Blachère: “L’homme … est rebelle;” Bell: “man acts presumptu-
ously.”) Except for the secondary ‫ غ‬/ ġ there is, in itself, nothing Arabic about
this verbal root.
6. Excursus: On the Etymology of the Verbal Root ‫( طغى‬ṭaġā)

This verb is unusual in any Arabic dialect. Its use in modern Arabic is due ex-
clusively to this misread Qurʾānic word. The etymological Arabic equivalent
is in fact the verbal root ‫ ضاع‬/ ḍāʿa (generated by sonorization of the Syro-
Aramaic emphatic F / ṭ > ‫ ض‬/ḍ with simultaneous sound-shifting). The Ara-
bic ‫ ع‬/ ‘ayn in ‫ ضاع‬/ ḍāʿa makes clear that the diacritical point in ‫ طغى‬/ ṭaġā
has not any justification and that the original spelling ‫ طعى‬/ ṭaʿā renders truly
the Syro-Aramaic verbal root a[f /ṭʿā.
The etymology is covered by the original meaning of both verbal roots (cf.
C. Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum 282a, a[f / ṭʿā 1. erravit [to go astray]) =
Arabic ‫ ضاع‬/ḍāʿa (to get lost). According to the classical correspondence table
of the Semitic sounds in C. Brockelmann’s Syrische Grammatik24 (p.15), the
Arabic ‫ ض‬/ḍ can only correspond with a Syriac { /ʿayn. A classical example is
Syriac a[ra /arʿā = Arabic ‫ ارض‬/arḍ (earth). This is the classical rule. But
that in the multiplicity of the Arabic (or common Aramaic) dialects a Syro-
Aramaic emphatic ṭ can become occasionally an Arabic ḍ by sonorization,
this phenomenon has hitherto not been considered in the Semitic philology.
A first example we had with Syro-Aramaic Prf (Eastern Aramaic ṭrap̄ ) >
Arabic ‫( ضرب‬ḍaraba [to strike, to hit]), from which there are three variants
that illustrate the transition from Syro-Aramaic f /ṭ into the Arabic ‫ ض‬/ ḍ:
a) ‫( طرف‬ṭarafa < Western Syro-Aramaic Prf / ṭrap̄ = ṭraf) (to hit, to touch
the eye with something) (Lisān IX 213b, 11f.); b) ‫( طرب‬ṭariba < Eastern Syro-
Aramaic Prf / ṭrap̄ – with sonorization of the p > b) (to be touched
emotionally = to be moved, to be delighted); c) finally with sonorization of the
emphatic ‫ ط‬/ṭ > ‫ ض‬/ḍ = ‫( ضرب‬ḍaraba – “to strike”).
The Qurʾān offers a further example of a sonorized Syro-Aramaic em-
phatic f /ṭ with the secondary Arabic verbal root ‫( ض ّر‬ḍarra) (to harm,
damage) < Syro-Aramaic arf (ṭrā) (to strike, to push—7 further variants in
C. Brockelmann), that C. Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum 287a, compares
with the actually from Syro-Aramaic truly borrowed Arabic Verb ‫( طرأ‬ṭaraʾa),
the tertiae hamza of which is nothing but a fictitious pronunciation imagined
by the Arab philologists. Not only the apparent restriction of this verb to the
first stem and its semantics field to one general meaning (to break in, over-
take, befall) shows that it is borrowed, but also the fact that the Arab lexico-
graphers did not observe that its VIIIth stem ‫( إضط ّر‬iṭṭarra /uṭturra) (to be
forced, compelled), according to its original meaning, does not fall under the
root ‫( ض ّر‬ḍarra) (to damage), but under ‫( طرأ‬ṭaraʾa = ṭarā), according to the
meaning of Syro-Aramaic arf (ṭrā) (to push away, to repel) and its reflexive
stem Yrfta (eṭṭrī). That the secondary Arabic form ‫( ض ّر‬ḍarra) is derived
from the Syro-Aramaic arf (ṭrā), shows C. Brockelmann (op. cit.) by the
same specific meaning quoted under 6.: offendit (to harm).
The second element that shows the perplexity of the Arab Qurʾān readers
is the variable reading of the alternative writing of the nominal form of the
verbal root ‫( ض ّر‬ḍarra), depending on its spelling with or without the Syro-
Aramaic emphatic ending ā of the status emphaticus. Apart from the reading
ḍarr (harm, damage) as antonym of ‫( نفع‬nafaʿa) (use, benefit), the Qurʾānic
spelling ‫( ض ّر‬without the emphatic end-ā) is read ḍurr(u/i/a) (derived from
the IInd Syro-Aramaic intensive stem Yrf / ṭarrī, verbal noun ayrwf /
ṭurrāyā; 19 times in the Qurʾān in the sense of distress, adversity). When, on
the other hand, the same word is written with the Syro-Aramaic emphatic
end-ā ‫( ضرا‬properly: ḍurrā—with dropping of the unaccented y of the Syro-
Aramaic word before the end-ā—as in ‫ < قران‬Syro-Aramaic anyrq /
qəryān(ā) > Arabic qurān / qur’ān) or with the Arabic article ‫( الضرا‬etymo-
logically: aḍ-ḍurrā < ayrwf / ṭurrāyā; both spellings 9 times), this spelling is
read with an added hamza after the end-ā as ‫( الضراء‬aḍ-ḍarrāʾu), as though
this spelling were etymologically different.
7. On the Origin of the Arabic Final Hamza

In his Grundriß der vergleichenden Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen
[Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages] (I 593,
C.a.), Carl Brockelmann supposes a verbal class tertiae hamza, according to
the classical Arabic grammar, when he says: (add Kienast)
Als 3. Radikal war ’ schon im altarab. Dialekt des Ḥijāz nach i und u zu ǐ und ǔ
geworden…[As 3rd radical, the ’ (= hamza) had become already in the old
Arabic dialect of Ḥijāz ǐ and ǔ after i and u. . . ].
But in fact, what C. Brockelmann says about the Hebrew (op. cit. 594 b.), Syri-
ac and Assyrian (594 c.) as to the “dropping” of the III ’ (tertiae hamza), is
likewise to apply on the so-called (post-Qurʾānic) Old Arabic. For the Qurʾān-
ic orthography has no graphical sign for a final hamza. Spellings as ‫اتوكوا‬
(atawakkaw [I lean]—same spelling in both codices of Samarqand and British
Library Or. 2165—traditional reading: atawakka’u; Surah 20:18) [makes one]
suspect a hypercorrect late emendation according to the classical Arabic
grammar. As to the supposed III ’ (tertiae hamza), the end-alif in the Qurʾān-
ic spelling has been erroneously regarded as a hamza-bearer. From Syro-
Aramaic borrowed verbs, as e.g., ‫( قرا‬to read) and ‫( برا‬to create), are not to be
read qara’a and bara’a, but—according to the Syro-Aramaic pronunciation:
qarā and barā. Except some onomatopoetic verbs in Arabic, as ‫ تأتأ‬/ ta’ta’a (to
stammer), ‫ طأطأ‬/ṭaʾṭaʾa (to bow one’s head) and the glottal stop in spoken Ara-
bic in ‫ أل‬/ la’, la’a = lā (no), perhaps also in the case of a softened ‫ ع‬/ʿayn as in
‫ بدأ‬/ bada’a < ‫ بدع‬/ badaʿa < methatesis of Syro-Aramaic db[ /ʿḇaḏ (to
create),25 it can be said that with regard to the Qurʾānic orthography the
Qurʾān does not know a III ’ (tertiae hamza).
Much graver is however the addition of the by no means justified hamza
after an end-alif, as far as such an alif in Syro-Aramaic can designate at least
three different categories:
a) The ending of a status emphaticus masculine (be it a noun or an adjec-
tive), as e.g., ‫( شفاء‬traditional reading: šifāʾun—Surahs 10:57; 16:69; 17:82;
41:44) < Syro-Aramaic aypc / šep̄ yā or šp̄ āyā (clearness, purity); the same
Syro-Aramaic form aydh / heḏyā or hḏāyā = Arabic ‫ ھدى‬/ hudan or ‫ ھداية‬/
hidāya (leading, guidance) shows how arbitrary the traditional different
reading of the alternative spelling of these both words in Surah 41:44 ( ‫ھدى‬
‫ )وشفاء‬as hudan wa-šifā’an is, since both words, according to the same
Syro-Aramaic origin, are to read likewise as hudā wa-šifā (after dropping

of the unaccented Syro-Aramaic y before the emphatic end-ā).
The superfluous end-hamza can also distort a genuine Arabic adverb,
as in Surah 12:16, where it is said of Joseph’s brothers: ‫وجاو اباھم عشاء يبكون‬
(Bell I 219: They came to their father [wa-ǧāʾū abā-hum] in the evening
[ʿīšāʾan], weeping [yabkūn]), whereas the adverb “in the evening” occur-
ring four times in the Qurʾān (Surahs 19:11,62; 30:18; 40:46) as ‫عشيا‬
(ʿašīyan) and not ‫( عشاء‬ʿišāʾan), should have called] the attention of the
Arab readers to the fact, that the latter original spelling, without the end-
hamza, [was to be read as] ‫( غشا يبكون‬ġiššan yabkūn) “false tears.”
b) All cases of the Arabic feminine elative with an end-alif reflect truly the
ending of the Syro-Aramaic status absolutus feminine with an end-ā and
are consequently to read without the superfluous end-hamza, as, e.g., ‫صفرا‬
(yellow) in Surah 2:69, that is to read adequately ṣafrā (as in spoken Ara-
bic) and not ‫( صفراء‬traditional reading: ṣafrāʾu). The early Arab gramma-
rians were obviously aware of this morphology, in so far as they declared
such an ending as ‫ ممنوع من الصرف‬/ mamnūʿ min aṣ-ṣarf (banned as to the
inflection = indeclinable). Later grammarians may have interpreted this
rule as partially declinable (rendered in the Western Arabic grammars by
the term diptotic) and added to this purpose the fictitious end-hamza.
This concerns as well the following plural endings.
c) The end-hamza in the the Arabic plurals of the types: ‫ فعالء‬/ fuʿalāʾ and
‫ افعالء‬/ afʿilāʾ, are likewise superfluous. All these unjustified additions are
an invention of the Arab philologists subsequent to the creation of the
classical Arabic grammar in the second half of the eighth century and
later. As far as such forms occur in Arabic poetry, this linguistic-historical
criterion would provide a terminus post quem (= a quo) as to the origin of
the corresponding poetical works. Further morphological formations of
the classical Arabic grammar, borrowed from Syro-Aramaic, will be
demonstrated with some examples from the early Arabic poetry in a
forthcoming study.
8. Continuation of Surah 96:6

Since it became now clear that ‫( طغى‬ṭaġā = ṭaʿā; with all other Qurʾānic deri-
vations) is a borrowing from the Syro-Aramaic a[f (ṭʿā), its meaning can
consequently be found among the equivalent semantic field appropriate to
this context. It follows from the context that the meaning to be retained is the
one cited in Mannā (289b f.) under (6) ‫( نسى‬nasiya – “to forget”). According-
ly, this verse does not say “man is rebellious,” but “man forgets.”
8.1 Verse 6
First of all, the result of the above misunderstood ‫( ليطغى‬la-yaṭġā) was that the
particle following it, ‫ان‬, was misread as ʾan (that) instead of ʾin (when). The
personal suffix for the verb ‫( رءاه‬raʾ-hu—properly: rā-hu) has been correctly
understood reflexively from the context. This usage happens by chance, of
course, not to be Arabic, but Syro-Aramaic.26
Secondly, however, in the case of the next verb ‫( استغنى‬istaġnā), it is not
“considers himself his own master” that is correct, but rather the alternative
that Bell proposes (II 667) in note 4: “he has become rich.”
The verses 6–7 are accordingly:
In truth, man forgets when he sees that he has become rich.
8.2 Verse 7
In the first place, it should now be clear that this understanding yields a con-
ّ (anna – “that”) introducing a dependent clause. The hitherto mis-
junction ‫أن‬
understood context, however, has caused the syntactical unity of this sentence
construction to be so torn apart that one made this dependent clause into an
independent main clause introduced by the intensifying particle ‫إن‬ ّ (inna).
Secondly, from this misunderstanding the need arose to interpret the Ara-
bic verbal noun ‫( الرجعى‬ar-ruǧʿā—rather ar-raǧʿā ) in no other way than the
general sense of “return to your Lord.” If one considers the new understan-
ding, however, then this “return,” referring to the “man who has become
rich,” is to be understood as the “return” or “repatriation” of this circum-
stance unto God, which man “forgets” to the extent that he, in accordance
with a familiar human experience, no longer thinks about praying. Verses 6–8
are thus directly concerned with the subject of this Surah and should be
understood as follows:
6. In truth, man forgets, 7. when he sees that he has become rich, 8. that (this)
is to be returned unto your Lord.
Whereas until now it was a question of a man become wanton who fails to
pray out of personal conviction, in the sequence which now follows the
Qurʾān addresses the external influence of an unbeliever who wants to stop a
devout man (a servant of God) from praying. In the process, the verses 9–14
consist syntactically of two previously completely overlooked conditional
clauses, the first formulated as a question and the second as a counter-ques-
tion. From Paret’s translation, the previous confused understanding is evi-
dent. Nevertheless, first of all, as an introduction to the syntactic structure,
the individual elements will be analyzed.
8.3 Verse 9
From the perspective of the Arabic understanding, the particle ‫ أ‬ʾa prefixed to
the verb ‫( ارءيت‬a-raʾayta—properly: a-rayta ) in Verses 9 and 11 cannot be
understood otherwise than as an interrogative particle. This understanding
excludes a subsequent conditional clause, but exposes at the same time the
disharmony of the syntactic period.
8.4 Excursus: (a) On the Meaning of the Particle ‫ أ‬/ʾa

This problem cannot be overcome without the help of Syro-Aramaic. For
only the Syro-Aramaic can give us information about the genesis of the
Arabic interrogative particle ‫ أ‬/ ʾa, which until now has been considered
classical. In his study on the subject Bergstrāsser27 naturally starts from the
classical assumption and contents himself with a descriptive reproduction of
the opinions of the Arabic grammarians. Nobody seems to have realized till
now, however, that, on the basis of the Qurʾānic usage, the Arabic interroga-
tive particle ‫ أ‬/ ʾa has only grown secondarily out of the Syro-Aramaic particle
wa (aw) through the omission of the w w. Evidence for this is provided by
the Qurʾānic usage itself. For example, it can be determined that the original
particle ‫ او‬/ aw occurs as an interrogative particle in conjunction with the
negative particle ‫ اوال( ال‬awa-lā) three times and with ‫ اولم( لم‬awa-lam) 33
times, whereas, with 78 occurrences, the usage with the monophthongized
particle ‫ أ‬/ ʾa, for instance, ‫( ألم‬a-lam), clearly predominates.
The Lisān (XIV 55b) cites al-Farrāʾ, who explains the ‫ و‬/ w of the
Qurʾānic interrogative particle ‫( أولم‬awa-lam) as an “isolated wāw” to which
the interrogative particle ‫ أ‬/ ʾa was added (‫)إنھا واو مفردة دخلت عليھا ألف االستفھام‬.
Hence the awareness that this interrogative particle is not of Arabic origin is
lacking among all of the Arabic philologists. The other uses of the particle ‫ او‬/
aw in the Qurʾān also coincide to a large extent with that of the homonymous
Syro-Aramaic wa / aw.28
Thus, for example, the Qurʾānic use of the monophthongized particle ‫ أ‬/ ʾa
has found its place in Arabic as a conjunction introducing an apodosis ex-
pressing uncertainty or doubt, especially after corresponding negative verbs,
as in ‫( ال أدرى أ‬lā adrī ʾa) or ‫( ال أعلم أ‬lā aʿlamu ʾa – “I do not know whether. . .”)
(cf., e.g., Surah 72:10,25). As a rule this is felt to be an indirect interrogative
particle. Anyone with a feeling for the language, however, would not be able
to recognize this function as soon as he encountered the Syro-Aramaic
particle wa / aw instead of the Arabically naturalized particle ‫ أ‬/ ʾa. An
example of this is provided by Surah 3:128:
‫ليس لك من االمر شئ او يتوب عليھم او يعذبھم فانھم ظلمون‬
Paret (55) renders this verse as follows:
3:128 —it is not for you (to decide) the matter—or to turn again to them
(mercifully) or (else) to punish them. They are (indeed) wrongdoers.
The Lisān (XIV 55a) explains the particle ‫ أو‬/ aw here in the sense of “until he
takes pity on them” or “unless God takes pity on them” (‫حتى يتوب عليھم و إلى أن‬
‫)يتوب عليھم‬. However, according to the Syro-Aramaic understanding of the
conjunction wa / aw the verse says:
3:128 It should be a matter of indifference to you whether (God) takes pity on
them or dooms them to death (by fire): they are (in any case) wrongdoers.
8.5 (b) On the Usage of the Particle ‫ أ‬/ca in the Sense of ‫ إن‬/in (if)
The list that the Thes. (I 48) supplies, by way of the East Syrian lexicogra-
phers, on the usage of the Syro-Aramaic conjunction wa (aw) is interesting
in this regard. Under the eight occasionally occurring functions Bar Bahlūl
gives the meaning â (ʾēn) (if). This in turn coincides with the explanation
provided by Kisāʾī (953–1002), cited in the Lisān (XIV 55a), that‫( أو‬aw) also
occurs conditionally (‫ وتكون شرطا‬: ‫“ – قال الكسائي وحده‬only Kisāʾī said: it also
occurs conditionally”).
8.6 The Solution of Verses 9 to 14

On the basis of this excursus, the following new interpretation emerges for
these verses:
9–10. The first ‫ ارءيت‬is to be understood in the sense of ‫( إن رأيت‬in
raʾayta – “if you see”). Accordingly, the double verse runs:
If you see one who (wants) to stop a worshipper (of God) (from
praying) when he is praying. . . .
11–12. The second ‫ ارءيت‬is to be understood as a question in the sense

of “to think”: “do you (then) think that….” Accordingly, the
falsely read ‫( إن‬in) must be read as ‫( أن‬an). As a result, this double
verse reads as an apodosis:
do you (then) think that he is on the right path or is thinking
pious thoughts?
13–14. Parallel to Verse 9, the repeated ‫ ارءيت‬is in turn to be read ‫إن‬

‫( رأيت‬in raʾayta – “if you think”), followed once more by ‫( أن‬an)
(that) instead of ‫( إن‬in – “if” ), and understood as a counter-
question with a protasis and apodosis:
If (on the other hand) you think that he is denying (God) and turning
away (from Him), then does he not know that God sees everything?
15. What is meant by the second ‫ كال‬is again Syro-Aramaic alk (kullā)
(in the sense of ‫ كل شئ‬/ kulla šayʾ – “everything”); as an object it
belongs to the preceding verb.
The particle ‫( لئن‬falsely la-ʾēn, actually to be read l- n) consists of
the intensifying Arabic particle ‫ لـ‬/ la- and the Syro-Aramaic
conjunction ˆya (ʾēn).29 This form occurs 61 times in the Qurʾān.
Older Qurʾānic manuscripts should provide evidence of the full
spelling ‫ =( الين‬l-ʾn). The little peak considered as a ‫ يـ‬/ y carrier was,
contrary to the Qurʾānic (i.e., Syro-Aramaic) pronunciation,
subsequently occupied by a hamza. In the canonical version of the
Qurʾān, this orthography (‫ أفإين‬/ af-ēn < ˆya Pa / āp̄ēn) is docu-
mented twice (Surahs 3:144 and 21: 34).
The Arabic verb ‫( لنسفعا‬la-nasfaʿan) certainly does not mean “to
seize.” In the Lisān (VIII 157b f.) the meaning is given correctly as
‫( لطم‬laṭama) and ‫( ضرب‬ḍaraba) (to strike). On the other hand, the
explanation that follows, ‫ جذب وأخذ وقبض‬:‫“( وسفع بناصيته‬to seize” by
the “forelock”), is based on the false understanding of “forelock.”
What is meant by “to strike,” however, is “to punish” in a figurative
sense (in modern Arabic usage, as well). According to Mandaean
Orthography the final ‫ ا‬/-ā can also expeass the final ‫ ن‬/-n.30 The
terminations -ʾn and -yn are expressed by a simple alif without
distinction. We often find the two orthographies in the same ma-
nuscript. The Koran applies the same rule by analogy to express
the Arabic energicus, which is not to be confused with cases of
nunation. A parallel to this is provided by Surah 12:32 (‫ وليكونا‬/ wa-
l-yakūnan).31
It is astounding that, of our Qurʾān translators, not one has
objected to the expression “forelock” (Paret “Schopf,” Blachère
“toupet”). Yet, what is meant here by the spelling ‫( ناصية‬except for
the secondarily inserted ‫ ا‬/ ā) is Syro-Aramaic ayxn (naṣṣāyā). For
this, the Thes. (II 2435) first gives the meaning: contentiosus,
rixosus (contentious, quarrelsome) (said of a woman, as in Prov.
21:9,19; 25:24). From the Syrian lexicographers it then cites, in
addition to further Syro-Aramaic synonyms, the following Arabic
renderings: ‫ مخاصم‬. ‫( مقاوم‬opponent, adversary).
But more amazing than this is the discovery that, over and over
again, even the Lisān (XV 327) explains the root ‫( نصا‬naṣā), docu-
mented in earlier Arabic, as a denominative of ‫( ناصية‬nāṣiya), pre-
sumably misunderstood in Arabic as “forelock, shock of hair,”
even though the ḥadīṯ of ʿĀʾiša that it cites actually makes the Syro-
Aramaic meaning clear. Namely, therein ʿĀʾiša is recorded as

saying: ‫( لم تكن واحدة من نساء النبي تناصيني غير زينب‬none of the wives of
the Prophet quarreled with me except for Zaynab). Although the
Lisān then explains this as: ‫( أي تنازعني وتباريني‬i.e., “she quarreled
with me, she opposed me”), it traces this explanation back to the
circumstance that in doing so the two women, so to speak, “got
into each other’s hair” (‫)وھو أن يأخذ كل واحد من المتنازعين بناصية اآلخر‬,
or more exactly, “seized each other by the scruff of the neck.” It can
be seen from this how little the later Arab philologists have under-
stood the earlier Syriacisms and Aramaisms.
The following understanding therefore results for Verse 15:
If he does not stop, we will (severely) punish the adversary.
In the same way as for ‫( ناصية‬nāṣiya, but actually naṣṣāyā), the

apparent feminine ending for ‫( كذبة‬kāḏiba, actually kaddāḇā) and
‫( خاطية‬ḫāṭiʾa, actually ḥaṭṭāyā) is nothing other than the phonetic
rendering of the Syro-Aramaic emphatic ending. Therefore, Verse
16, modeled on Verse 15, is to be understood as follows:
The denying, sinful adversary.
17. The expression ‫( ناديه‬nādiyahu), which occurs here, must be rede-

fined. The “clique,” as Paret translates the expression in the mo-
dern Arabic sense of “club, association,” (Bell: “council;” Blachère:
“clan”), is out of the question. Inasmuch as the facultative medial ‫ا‬
/ alif in ‫ناديه‬, according to the Eastern Syro-Aramean orthogra-
phical tradition, can occasionally designate a short a, the spelling
yields the Syro-Aramaic hydn (naḏyeh or naddāyeh). As a nomen
agentis this form leads us to the intensive stem Ydn (naddī), whose
primary meaning the Thes. (II 2291) gives as “commovit,
concussit, terrefecit” (to agitate, to shake, to scare off). Applied to
the idols that are probably meant here, this would result in the
meaning “of the one who arouses fear” (i.e., whom one fears as a
god). The Thes., however, then refers to a further form:
“Partic. adnm (mnaddā) vide infra.” The expression that is found
further down (2292) atydnmw atrykc (šḇirtā wa-mnaddaytā –
something or someone] “disgusting and repulsive”) brings us
closer to the sense we are seeking. The Arabic meanings that are
cited by Mannā (431b) under dna (aneḏ) are informative: (2)
‫ مقت‬. ‫( ابغض‬to hate, to detest), (3) ‫ نبذ‬.‫( رذل‬to reject, to disown), (6)
ّ .‫( نجّس‬to make dirty, to besmirch), (7) ‫ افزع‬.‫( ارعب‬to scare away,
‫قذر‬
to frighten). All these meanings lead namely to the “unclean spirit”
or “idols” designated with synonymous expressions in Syro-

Aramaic (cf., e.g., Thes. I 1490, under apnf ṭanpā “impurus,
immundus;” Pκάθαρτος de daemonibus, Matt. 10:1,…; further
under atwpnf / ṭanpūṯā: pollutio, res quae polluit = idolum, Exod.
8:26, Deut. 7:26, Jer. 32:34; de idolatriis, Deut. 20:18…; in
connection with this, the following expression [1491], documented
in the Qurʾān with ‫[ انداد‬andād],32 atwdydn [nḏīḏūṯā] [impurity]
also becomes a designation for aRktp [pṯaḵrā] [idols], etc.).
Thus, with the tertium comparationis discovered via Syro-
Aramaic, Verse 17 is to be understood as follows:
May he then call upon his idols [literally: impure ones]!
18. The expression ‫( الزبانية‬until now pronounced az-zabāniya)33 is still

considered a puzzle. The misreading of the preceding verbal form
in the first person plural ‫( سندع‬sa-nadʿu) is of course responsible for
one’s seeing in this incomprehensible expression in Arabic the
“henchmen” (of hell) that God will allegedly call in. However, if we
transcribe the original spelling (without the secondary ‫ ا‬/ ā) into
Syro-Aramaic, the result is the reading aynbz (zaḇnāyā). As the
adjective from anbz (zaḇnā) (time), this simply gives us, according
to the Thes. (I 1079) under aynbz (zaḇnāyā), the meaning: tempo-
ralis, temporarius, haud aeternus (temporal, transitory, not eternal).
This designation is a perfect match for the (transitory) “idols” of
the (God-) denying adversary. It is to this extent only logical that
the verbal form ‫ سيدع‬is to be read in the third person (sa-yadʿu).
This results in the following understanding for Verse 18: “. . .he
will (only) call upon a34 transitory (god)!“
19. Although the third and last ‫ كال‬can be read in Arabic as kallā (no)
in connection with, and as intensifying, the negative imperative
that follows it, in Syro-Aramaic (kullā) it has the meaning of “(not)
at all.”
In addition to the actual Syro-Aramaic meaning of “to bow” (as
an external sign of respect), one should also assume for the Arabic
borrowed verb ‫( سجد‬saǧada ) (< dgs / sḡeḏ) the metaphorical mea-
ning of “to worship God” (Thes. II 2522, “metaph. adoravit
Deum”).
The Arabic borrowed verb ‫( اقترب‬iqtaraba) has in this context a
quite particular content that the general Arabic meaning “ap-
proach” (without object or reference) is not able to provide. As a
translation of Syro-Aramaic brqta (eṯqarraḇ) the Thes. (II 3724)
gives us (in particular as a reflexive or intransitive verb) the specific
meaning that fits here, as follows: “spec. celebrata est liturgia (to
celebrate the liturgy); it. Eucharistiam accepit (to receive the Eu-
charist). The latter meaning is logically to be assumed provided

that one as a believer takes part in the celebration of the Eucharist.
The term points in any case without a doubt to the participation in
the “sacrifice of the mass,” in the “celebration of the Eucharist” or
in the “communion liturgy.”
Those that this unambiguous explanation shocks are invited to
refer to the Arabic dissertation written by Salwā Bā l-Ḥāǧǧ men-
tioned in the foreword of my book The Syro-Aramaic Reading of
the Koran (Berlin, 2007), p. 11, note 6.35
In sum, the result of this philological discussion is the following reading and
understanding for Surah 96 according to the Syro-Aramaic reading:
‫العلق‬
(al-ʿalaq ) The Clay (Literally: the “sticking”)
‫اقرا باسم ربك الذى خلق‬
1. iqrā b-ismi rabbika l-laḏī ḫalaq
Call the name of your lord who has created,
‫خلق االنسن من علق‬
2. ḫalaqa l-insāna min ʿalaq
(who) has created man from sticky (clay);
‫اقرا وربك االكرم‬
3. iqrā wa-rabbaka l-akram
call (indeed)36 your most venerable Lord,
‫الذى علم بالقلم‬
4. al-laḏī ʿallama bi-l-qalam
who has taught by the reed pen (i.e., the scripture),
‫علم االنسن ما لم يعلم كال‬
5. allama l-insāna mā lam yaʿlam kullā
has taught man what he did not know at all.
‫ان االنسن ليطعى‬
6. in(na) or n : al-insānu la-yaṭʿā
Verily, man forgets,
‫إن راه استغنى‬
7. ʾin or n rā-hu staġnā (Syriac ʾen > ʾin)
when he sees that he has become rich,
‫أن الى ربك الرجعى‬
8. an(na) ilā rabbika r-raǧʿā
that (this) is to be returned to your Lord.
‫اريت الذى ينھى‬
9. a-rayta l-laḏī yanhā
If you see one who (wants) to stop37
‫عبدا اذا صلى‬
10. ʿabdan iḏā ṣallā

a worshipper (of God) (from praying) when he is praying,
‫اريت أن كان على الھدى‬
11. a-rayta an kāna ʿalā l-hudā
do you think (perhaps) that he is on the right path,
‫او امر بالتقوى‬
12. aw amara bi-t-taqwā
or is even38 thinking pious thoughts?39
‫اريت أن كذب وتولى‬
13. a-rayta an kaḏḏaba wa-tawallā
If you (on the contrary) think that he is denying (God) and turning away
(from Him),
‫الم يعلم بان ﷲ يرى كال‬
14. a-lam yaʿlam bi-an(na) llāha yarā kullā
(then) does he not know that God sees everything?
‫لين لم ينته لنسفعا بالناصيه‬
15. la-ʾin (< la-ʾēn > lēn) lam yantahi la-nasfaʿan bi-n-nāṣiya (in Syriac:
naṣṣāyā)
If he does not stop (doing that), (one day) we shall punish the adversary
(severely),
‫ناصيه كذبه خاطيه‬
16. nāṣiya kāḏiba ḫāṭiya or naṣṣāyā kaddāḇā ḥaṭṭāyā
the denying, wicked adversary!
‫فليدع ناديه‬
17. fa-l-yadʿu nādiya-hu or nadya-hu
May he call (then) on his (whoever) idol—
‫سيدع الزبانيه‬
18. sa-yadʿu z-zabāniya or zabāniy
(in doing so) he will call on transitory (god)!
‫كال ال تطعه‬
kullā lā tuṭiʿhu
‫واسجد واقترب‬
19. wa-sǧud wa-qtarib
You ought not to heed him at all,
perform (instead) (your) divine service40
and take part in the liturgy of Eucharist.
According to this understanding, Surah 96 proves to be a unified composition

having as its overall content a call to take part in the divine service. As such it
has the character of a ˆwymwrp (<προοίμιον proóimion [Greek]/ prooemium)
introducing the Christian Syriac liturgy, which was replaced in the later Isla-
mic tradition by the ‫( فاتحة‬fātiḥa) (< Syro-Aramaic ajtp / pṯāḥā) (introduc-
tory prayer). That this liturgy is Communion is indicated by the final Syro-
Aramaic term. An important task in the history of religion would be to find

out which pre-Islamic Christian Syrian (or possibly Judaeo-Christian) com-
munity this was.
The term fātiḥa is confined to the Koran. Only in later Islamic tradition it
has been used to designate the first Surah of the Koran. As its Syro-Arabic
literal meaning (“the opening one,” i.e., the one that “introduces”) seemed
perfectly clear, it comes as no surprise that it was considered superfluous to
question its origin. The importance of this question for the history of reli-
gions, however, is undeniable. The Koran mentions several religious groups
in three passages (Q 2:62, Q 5:69, Q 22:17): the Jews, the Nazarenes (or
Christians) and the Sabaeans (al-Ṣābi’ūn) or Mandaeans, which indicates that
the Koran emerged in Mesopotamia and not in the Mecca region. Among the
Mandaeans, the pṯāḥā is the term for the breadbreaking liturgy, as explained
in the Mandaean dictionary of Drower/Macuch:41
ptaha (rt. PTH): (a) opening, beginning, (b) a name given to the ritual meal,
sacred “Breaking of Bread,” communal meal (= laupa), ritual meal for the
dead. (p. 227b):
laupa (rt. LUP = LPP): uniting, union, communion, name of a ritual meal
eaten for the dead, the communion of living and dead. . . laupa ḏ-hiia
(often) the communion of life; (p. 366a): laupa ḏ-patura: the communion of
the (ritual) platter (= al-mā’ida, actually: mayda).
The information in the last two lines confirms the conclusion that Surah
96:19 (al-ʿalaq) and 5:112–115 (al-māʾida /al-mayda) both refer to the liturgy
of the Eucharist or the Breadbreaking liturgy, which was only abolished in
later Islam.
Now, if the Arabic tradition considers this to be the oldest Surah, one
must concede that it is right to the extent that this Surah is, in any case, part
of that nucleus of the Qurʾān, the Christian Syrian origins of which cannot be
ignored. Whether this is also the first that was revealed to the Prophet is
probably based on a later legend grown out of the misinterpretation of the
opening verse. Arguing in favor of its being very probably pre-Qurʾānic, i.e.,
much more pre-Islamic, is its language, hitherto perceived as mysterious and
puzzling. For it is precisely this language with its unadulterated expressions
that reveals to us its venerable origins.
One such expression is the Arabic ‫( اقترب‬iqtaraba) borrowed from the
Syro-Aramaic verb Brqta (eṯqarraḇ). As a technical term of the Christian
Syrian liturgy it gives us a valuable, hitherto unexpected insight into the ori-
gins, not only of the oldest parts of the Qurʾān in terms of the history of reli-
gion. For only this expression opens our eyes to a parallel occurring in what is
held to be the last Surah revealed, Surah 5 (The Table), a parallel whose actual
importance in terms of the history of religion has in a similar way been

ignored until now. Between this term and the “table” that Jesus, the son of
Mary, requests of God in Surah 5:114, ‫“ تكون لنا عيدا الولنا واخرنا‬that it may
become ours as liturgy,42 for the first and the last of us,” and which, in Verse
115, God sends down from heaven, threatening any “who would deny it” ( ‫فمن‬
‫ يكفر‬fa-man yakfur) with the severest of all punishments (‫فاني اعذبه عذابا ال اعذبه‬
‫( )احدا من العلمين‬him I shall punish in such a way as I shall punish no man),
there exists a connection insofar as both clearly allude to the liturgy of Com-
munion, whose importance was misjudged in later Islam and has since been
totally forgotten. This central item in the Christian components of the Qurʾān
is, in any case, of eminent importance in terms of the history of religion.
If any should doubt, however, the importance of the Christian Syriac
liturgical term ‫( اقترب‬iqtaraba < Brqta / eṯqarraḇ – “to take part in the
liturgy of Communion, to receive the Eucharist”), they may refer to the
Arabic dissertation mentioned in the Foreword (p. iii, note 4) where the
author (89), in the fourth chapter of the first part of her work Religious
Customs and Rites of Christian Arabs Before Islam” refers to the Arabic
compilation ‫( األغاني‬al-Aġānī) (vol. II 107) of Abū l-Faraǧ al-Isfahānī (d. 356
H./967 CE), who reports of ‫( عدي بن زيد‬ʿAdī ibn Zayd) (d. circa 590 CE) and
‫( ھند بنت النعمان‬Hind bint an-Nuʿmān) (d. after 602 CE) how they went on
Maundy Thursday into the church of al-Ḥira (located southwest of the
Euphrates in modern-day Iraq) “ ‫( ليتقربا‬li-yataqarrabā) – “to take part in the
celebration of the Eucharist” (or “to receive the Eucharist”).
In the corresponding passage in the ‫( كتاب األغاني‬Kitāb al-aġānī)43 (Book of
Songs) Abū l-Faraǧ al-Iṣfahānī (d. 967) cites the traditional account of the
pre-Islamic Christian Arab poet ʿAdī ibn Zayd living in al-Ḥīra according to
which he had gone on Maundy Thursday into the church of al-Ḥīra ‫( ليتقرّب‬li-
yataqarrab) “to take part in the celebration of the Eucharist” (or to receive the
Eucharist). On this occasion, he wanted to see Hind, the daughter of the last
of the Laḫmids’ kings of al-Ḥīra, ‫ النعمان‬/ an-Nuʿmān III (580-602), who had
gone to the aforementioned church ‫( تتقرّب‬tata-qarrab) “to take part in the
celebration of the Eucharist.”44 The term taqarrab is still used today by the
Arabic-speaking Christians.
Thus, this liturgical term is already historically documented in the 6th cen-
tury even from the Arab side as a Syro-Aramaic ecclesiastical term of the
Christian Arabs of Syria and Mesopotamia.
9. Surah 5: al-Māʾida – “the Table”: The Last Supper in the

Qurʾān
In Surah 5 (al-Mā’ida, “the Table”), considered by Islamic Tradition to be the
last one revealed, Jesus, in response to the Apostles’ demand (verse 112),
prays to God in these terms (verse 114 , R. Blachère 15, p.150):
Q 5:114 My God ! My Lord ! . . . send a table down from the sky which will be
a celebration for the first and last among us.
Paret’s commentary and concordance:

Q 5:112–115: obviously allusion to the Last Supper; but could as well be
influenced by St. Peters vision as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles 10,10
ff.; see Rudolph, W.: Die Abhāngigkeit des Qorans von Judentum und
Christentum, Stuttgart 1922, p. 81f. [The Dependence of the Qurʾān on
Judaism and Christianity]
Q 5:114: “li-awwalina wa-akhirina” should be related to the succession of
generations, see Q 56:48–50.
Bell translates as follows:

Q5:114: O Allah our Lord, send down to us a table from the heaven, to be us a
festival, to the first and to the last of us.
Bell’s footnote to the whole scene (Q 5:112–115):

This section, which is continuous with the preceding, is apparently based, not
on any knowledge of the New Testament, but on some hearsay information
about the Christian sacrament.
Paret’s German translation is quite similar to Bell’s:

Du unser Gott und Herr (allahumma rabbana)! Sende uns vom Himmel einen
Tisch herab, der (mit seinem Mahl) [ =with the meal on it] fūr uns von jetzt an
bis in alle Zukunft (?) eine Feier (id.) und ein Zeichen von dir sein wird!
Paret’s footnote to “bis in alle Zukunft” [not important ]: “W. (= literally): für
den ersten und den letzten von uns—for the first and the last of us.”
R.Blachère, who translates “table” (Q 5:112) by “table laid out ”(with
food), comments on this point:
[Carl Friedrich] Gerock [Versuch einer Darstellung der Christologie des Qurʾān
(1839)] followed by W Rudolph [Die Abhangigkeit des Qurʾāns von Judentum
und Christentum, 1922], thought that it concerned a reminiscence of the Last
Supper, being St.Peter’s vision as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles, X.10-
13.
Blachère excludes, in the same footnote, the idea of the Last Supper, the death
of Jesus not being admitted by the Qurʾān (see Surah 4:156). However the
latter verse in Surah 4 according to which someone else would have been
crucified in place of Jesus, is one of the erroneous historical interpretations of
Islamic exegesis that Western scholars themselves have taken up totally un-
critically. In fact, the intrinsic paradox that three Qurʾānic verses raise (19:33;
3:55; 5:117), where the Qurʾān clearly speaks of the death of Jesus before his
Resurrection or his Ascension, should have been enough to cast doubt on
such an interpretation. But as for the Houris or Virgins of Paradise, a forth-
coming well-founded philological analysis will put an end to this obvious
exegetical contradiction and give back to the Qurʾān its original harmony on
this point. For the moment, this remark should be enough to allow the idea of
the Last Supper suggested by Gerock and Rudolph.
It is in fact only by putting the words Last Supper in place of the para-
phrase “laid out table” that this term will recover all its theological dimension
in connection with the word which follows. The Arabic word ‘īd, borrowed
from the Syriac, has been, in conformity with its Arabic meaning, correctly
translated by “celebration.” The table being laid out, one could have thought,
in fact, that it was talking about “having a celebration.” However, the same
writing or script transcribed in Syriac as ʿydʾ, pronounced ‘yāḏā, gives the
meaning “ liturgy.” Thus one must understand this verse as follows :
Lord our God, send us down from the sky a Last Supper which would be a
liturgy for the first and last of us.
In his reply, God says (according to R. Blachère, op.cit., verse 115)

I am going to send it down to you. Whoever is then impious among you will
receive from me a torment the like of which I will not inflict on anyone else in
the world.
Nothing to verse Q 5:115 in Paret’s Kommentar und Konkordanz. Bell’s

translation is as follows:
Q 5:115: Verily I am going to send it down to you; so if any of you afterwards
disbelieve, I shall assuredly punish them as I punish no one else of (all) the
worlds.
Paret’s version of Q 5:114 is very similar to Bell’s:

Ich will ihn euch (nunmehr) hinabsenden. Und wenn einer von euch nach-
träglich nicht glaubt, werde ich ihn (dereinst) auf eine Weise bestrafen, wie
(sonst) niemand in der Welt (al-ʿālamūn)—[I want it sent down to you (now).
And if any of you do not believe afterwards, I will punish him (one day) in
such a manner as no one else in the world has been].
Here we are concerned with the word translated as “impious.” It is true that
the Arabic verb kafara, borrowed from Syriac, has this meaning. But more
than the latter meaning, the Syriac verb kp̄ r also means “to deny, to re-
nounce.” By this verb, according to Syriac syntax, referring back to the
“liturgy,” is clearly meant the latter sense here, to deny this liturgy. Thus the
previous verse (Q 5:115) should be understood as:
I will send it down to you. Whoever among you henceforth dismisses it, I will
punish him as I would never punish any other humans.
Islam was not impressed by this divine injunction with its threats of the most
severe punishments, not having grasped its significance. If the Muslim exe-
getes had understood these passages as the Qurʾān intended it, there would
have been a liturgy of the Last Supper in Islam.
This linguistic aspect of the Qurʾān being confirmed historically as of Sy-
riac origin leads the author henceforth to conclude that not only the form but
the substance of the Qurʾān is of Syro-Christian origin, or at least the latter
constitutes the foundation. The latter more so because the word “Qurʾān”
itself is nothing other than a phonetic Arabic distortion of the Syriac term
Qəryān, designating a Syriac liturgical book corresponding to the Lectionary
(Lectionarium) of the Roman liturgy, from which the Readings, constituting
extracts of the Old and New Testament, are read in the Christian liturgical
service. It is thus not surprising that Jesus (ʿĪsā) is cited twenty five times in
the Qurʾān and that he is there referred to as the Messiah (al-Masīḥ) eleven
times. Thus it is only logical to see other Syro-Christian passages being a part
of this foundation which constitutes the origin of the Qurʾān and that the
author intends to elucidate in a forthcoming work.
10. Surah 19: Mary

In his first work the author tackled briefly Surah 19, Mary, verse 24, of which
he gave a detailed philological analysis. The reproach of an illegitimate con-
ception made indirectly to Mary, according to verses 24 and 28, pushes Mary
to wish for her own death before giving birth. Her son, newly born, addresses
her in verse 24 his first words to comfort her. The Arabic reading of this verse
had led the commentators to the following understanding (passages in need
of revision are underlined):
“Don’t be sad!,” he cries from underneath her, “your Lord has placed below
you a stream!”
Régis Blachère tries to soften this rather unlikely interpretation by translating

Q 19:24 as follows:
[But] the child who was at her feet spoke to her: “Don’t be sad! Your Lord has
placed at your feet a stream.”
Paret’s commentary and concordance:

To Q 19:24: the subject of the verb “(fa-)nadaha” is Jesus, either still in his
mother’s womb or newly born. Muhammad seems to be influenced by a scene
in the so-called “Pseudo-Matthāus,” chapter 20, where the story of the flight of
the Holy Family to Egypt is told: tunc infantulus Jesus laeto vultu in sinu
matris suae residens ait ad palmam: flectere, arbor, et de fructibus tuis refice
matrem meam. . . aperi autem ex radicibus tuis venam, quae absconsa est in
terra, et fluant ex ea aquae ad satietatem nostram. (Paret cites this text as
commentary to verses 23–26); Translation of the Latin text: “Thereupon spoke
the Infant Jesus, of joyful countenance sitting in his mother’s lap, to the palm
tree: Bend over, tree, and refresh my mother from your fruits. . . further open
out of your roots a vein that lies hidden in the earth, and let waters stream out
upon us to quench our thirst,” p. 137.
Bell’s version of Q 19:24:

Then he called her from beneath her: “Grieve not; thy Lord hath placed
beneath thee a streamlet;”
Bell’s footnote to “he:” “Probably ‘the child.’”

Paret [quite similar to Bell] renders it in German as follows:
Da rief er ihr von unten her zu: “Sei nicht traurig! Dein Herr hat unter dir ein
Rinnsal (sari) (voll Wasser) gemacht.”
Paret’s footnote to “er [he]:” [similar to Bell’s interpretation]: “D. h. der Jesus-
knabe. [i.e., the boy Jesus]”. His to “unter dir”: “D. h. zu deinen Fūßen (?).
[i.e., at your feet].”
However it is not by tinkering with the style that we are going to succeed
in elucidating such an enigma, but only by an Arabo-Syriac reading, which
leads the author to this meaning of Q 19:24:
“Don’t be sad!,” he says to her as soon as he was born, “Your Lord has
rendered your childbirth legitimate!” (op. cit., pp. 102–121).
There is no agreement among the Arab commentators on the Qurʾān about

the real meaning of the expression occurring in two variants ‫( تحت‬taḥta) as
well as of ‫( سريا‬sarīyā) in the following verse of the Mary Surah:
Surah 19:24
‫فناداھا من تحتھا اال تحزني قد جعل ربك تحتك سريا‬
In keeping with the majority of the Arab commentators, the Western Qurʾān
translators render this verse as follows:
Bell I 286:24. Then he (probably ‘the child’) called to her from beneath her:
‘Grieve not; thy Lord hath placed beneath thee a streamlet’;
Paret 249:24: Da rief er (d.h. der Jesusknabe) ihr von unten her zu: “Sei nicht
traurig! Dein Herr hat unter dir (d.h. zu deinen Füßen?) ein Rinnsal (sarī)
(voll Wasser) gemacht.”
Blachère 331:24 [Mais] l’enfant qui était à ses pieds lui parla: “Ne t’attriste pas!
Ton Seigneur a mis à tes pieds un ruisseau.”
For Arabic ‫( تحت‬taḥta), which is understood as the preposition under by all of

the commentators cited in Ṭabarī, Jeffery in The Foreign Vocabulary (32 f.)
makes a reference to as-Suyūṭī (1445-1505), who reports that Abū l-Qāsim in
his work Luġāt al-Qurʾān [(Foreign) Expressions in the Qurʾān] and al-
Kirmānī in his al-ʿAǧāʾib [The Miracles] had both thought that this was a
Nabatean (i.e., an Aramaic) word and meant as much as ‫( بطن‬baṭn), (which
Jeffery renders in English, on the basis of the Arabic understanding, as womb,
although here, based on the Syro-Aramaic anfb (baṭnā), foetus45 is more
likely what should be understood), a view that is not held by anyone in
Ṭabarī. But Jeffery rejects the notion, saying that there is nothing in Naba-
taean that would confirm this assumption since, even in Aramaic, Hebrew,
Syriac and Ethiopic, the homophonic expressions have exactly the same mea-
ning as the Arabic expression ‫( تحت‬taḥta) (namely under).
Yet had Jeffery considered that in the Semitic languages precisely the tri-
literal prepositions and adverbs were originally nouns and could at times
even appear as subjects and objects,46 he would have perhaps come to another
conclusion. The above-mentioned tradition, according to which ‫( تحت‬taḥta)
was in this case to be understood as a noun, confirms the supposition that the
Arabic tradition has occasionally preserved a memory of the original Aramaic
form. Namely, the lack of a verbal root in Arabic suggests a borrowing from
Syro-Aramaic tjn (nḥeṯ ), of which the preposition tjt (taḥt) (> Arabic ‫تحت‬
/taḥta) / tyjt (tḥēṯ) is only a secondary form. Let’s first of all examine this
clue in a little more detail.
Although the corresponding Syro-Aramaic nominal form atjn (nḥāṯā)
(as well as atjqn nuḥḥāṯā, atwtjn naḥtūṯā, attjm maḥattā and further
derivatives) does not exactly mean foetus, it does have something to do with it
insofar as, among other meanings, by way of the meaning descent, origin,
what is meant here is delivery.47 Therefore, the meaning of ‫( تحتھا‬min) taḥtihā
would not be “under her,” but “her delivery.”
This Syro-Aramaic reading, however, first has the coherence of the context in
its favor to the extent that we have interpreted the preposition ‫( من‬min)
before ‫( تحتھا‬taḥtihā ) not locally (from beneath her), but temporally in the
Syro-Aramaic sense of “from (that point in time), i.e.: instantly, immediately
after her delivery.”48 This temporal use of ‫( من‬min), though not attested in
Classical Arabic,49 is nonetheless quite common in modern Arabic dialects of
the Near East as a Syro-Aramaic substratum, for example, in: ‫حال وصولي قلت له‬
= ‫( من وصولي قلت له‬instantly, immediately after my arrival I said to him).
The memory of an earlier nominal use of ‫( تحت‬taḥt) has, moreover, been

retained by the Lisān (II 17b f.): ‫ ومرة اسما‬، ‫ تكون مرة ظرفا‬:‫( تحت‬taḥt sometimes
occurs as an adverb, sometimes as a noun). Even the adjectival use : ‫قوم تحوت‬
‫( أرذال سفلة‬qawmun tuḥūtun: lowly people) (Lisān, op. cit.) can be traced back
to Syro-Aramaic y|tjt (taḥtāy—Thes. II 4425: infimi hominum).
Now that the Lisān has confirmed the nominal usage of ‫( تحت‬taḥtu), there
would be nothing to criticize about the traditional Qurʾānic reading were it
not that the reading ‫( من نحتھا‬min naḥtihā or nuḥātihā) based on Syro-
Aramaic atjn / nḥāṯā or atjwn/ nuḥḥāṯā is better. Namely, under the root
‫ نحت‬/ naḥata the Lisān gives a series of phases indicating the Syro-Aramaic
origin of this root. For example, among others, it gives the following verse by
the poet ‫ الخرنق‬/ al-Ḫirniq, the sister of the Old Arabic poet ‫ طرفة‬/ Ṭarafa (c.
538-564 CE):
‫الخالطين نحيتھم بنضارھم‬
who brought the lowly among them together with their nobles
‫وذوي الغنى منھم بذي الفقر‬
and the wealthy among them with the needy.
As a conjecture the Lisān explains the expression ‫( نحيت‬naḥīt) as ‫( دخيل‬daḫīl)

(stranger). Yet the opposites of lowly50 and noble, poor and rich in both parts
of the verse clearly refer to members of one and the same community. The
ignorance of Aramaic prompts the Arab lexicographers to guess the meaning
of borrowed expressions from the context. That the error rate in the process
is relatively high is evidenced by the countless unrecognized Aramaic roots in
the Lisān, the encyclopedic dictionary of the Classical Arabic language. In our
case, ‫( نحيت‬naḥīt) is a clear borrowing from Syro-Aramaic tyjn (naḥīṯ or
naḥḥīṯ), documented by the Thesaurus with asng tyjn (naḥīṯ /naḥḥīṯ
gensā) vir infimus, e plebe oriundus: (a man) of lowly origin, and, citing the
Syrian lexicographers, with the corresponding Arabic translation: ‫لئيم الحسب‬
‫ والنسب والجنس‬, ignobilis, humilis genere et conditione, ‫ قليل‬. ‫ وط ّي االصل‬. ‫وضيع‬
‫ الحسب والنسب‬as well as further tyjn (naḥīṯ): descendens, ‫( نازل ھابط‬Thes. II
2345). As in opposition to ‫( نحيت‬naḥīt) is also how the Lisān explains ‫النضار‬
(an-nuḍār—actually ‫ النصار‬/ an-nuṣār): ‫الخالص النسب‬51 (al-ḫāliṣu n-nasab) (a
man) of noble descent, which clearly confirms the antonymous Syro-Aramaic
meaning of ‫( نحيت‬naḥīt ).
The situation is similar for the other expressions connected with this root,
all of which the Lisān tries to explain through popular etymology, but whose
real meaning is to be determined through Syro-Aramaic. Rich pickings are
guaranteed to anyone willing to devote himself or herself to the deserving
task of studying the Aramaisms in the Lisān. Such would reveal the extent of
the Aramaic influence on the Arabic language52 and smooth the way for a yet
non-existent etymological dictionary of Classical Arabic.
Still, the above-mentioned evidence merely confirms the Syro-Aramaic

meaning “to be low(ly).” For the meaning “to be hereditary, innate,” the
Lisān cites ‫ الطبيعة التي نحت عليھا االنسان أي قطع‬: ‫( والنحيتة‬wa-n-naḥīta: aṭ-ṭabīʿatu
l-latī nuḥita ʿalayhā l-insānu, ay quṭiʿa—“an-naḥīta is the nature that is
hereditary to a person = that is innate to him”). In the definition of the loan
term from Syro-Aramaic naḥīta (possibly in Syro-Aramaic nḥāṯā), the Lisān
uses the loan verb from Syro-Aramaic nuḥita (in the passive voice – “to be
descended from, to come away from, to be delivered of” in the sense of “to be
born”), which it takes to be the possibly homonymous root ‫( نحت‬naḥata), but
which was probably first borrowed from Syro-Aramaic and only understood
in later Arabic in the sense of to chisel (actually to knock off, to chop off, to
knock down), and correspondingly explains it as (the nature according to
which one) “was hewn, cut, cut to fit,” i.e., in its sense as “shaped.” There is
then a citation from al-Liḥyānī, which somewhat correctly explains the
expression in question: ‫( ھي الطبيعة واألصل‬hiya ṭ-ṭabīʿatu wa-l-aṣl – “it is
nature and origin, i.e., the innate”).
The other examples in the Lisān, ‫( الكرم من نحته‬noble-mindedness is innate to
him), ‫( إنه لكريم الطبيعة والنحيتة‬he is of a noble-minded nature and birth), ‫وقد نحت‬
‫( على الكرم وطبع عليه‬noble-mindedness is his by birth and nature),53 furnish
evidence of the earlier use of the root ‫( نحت‬naḥata) (or naḥita) in Arabic as a
borrowing from Syro-Aramaic tjn (nḥeṯ ) in the meaning “to come down
from, to give birth to, to be descended from.”
Now, whether one were to read ‫( من تحتھا‬min taḥtihā), ‫( من نحتھا‬naḥtihā),
or (on the basis of the customary defective spelling in the Qurʾān) nuḥātihā,54
would, to be sure, change nothing in terms of the sense, in any event what
does speak for the last reading is the fact that both in Syro-Aramaic and in the
Lisān this root corresponds more closely to the meaning “delivery,” which the
Lisān also documents with further derivatives. Since the Qurʾān elsewhere
uses the root ‫( ولـد‬walada) for the general sense of to give birth and to
procreate, but specifically uses the root ‫( وضع‬waḍaʿa – “to lay, to lay down;”
cf. Surahs 3:36; 22:2; 35:11; 41:47; 46:15; and 65:4,6) for “to be delivered of, to
give birth to,” the latter appears to correspond lexically to the Syro-Arama-
ic tjn55 (naḥḥeṯ). Accordingly, ‫( من نحتھا‬min nuḥḥātihā), expressed otherwise
in Qurʾānic Arabic, would be ‫( من وضعھا‬min waḍʿihā ) in the sense of ‫حال‬
‫( وضعھا‬ḥāla waḍʿihā ), which in turn could be rendered in modern Arabic as
‫( حال توليدھا‬ḥāla tawlīdihā) or ‫( حال والدتھا‬ḥāla wilādatihā – “immediately upon
her giving birth”).
The fact that the Qurʾān here uses as a hapax legomenon borrowed from
Syro-Aramaic this verbal root ‫( نحت‬naḥḥata) (in the sense of ‫ نزل‬/nazzala,
‫ أنزل‬/anzala: to make descend, to bring down = to give birth), instead of the
otherwise customary Arabic root ‫( وضع‬waḍaʿa – “to lay, to lay down, to give
birth to”), raises the question, relevant both theologically and in terms of the
history of religions, as to whether the Qurʾān does not want deliberately, by
this unusual expression, to connect and emphasize in a special way the extra-
ordinary delivery of Mary with the supernatural descent of her son. This ques-
tion imposes itself all the more since the basic stem tjn (nḥeṯ) “to come
down” (said, for example, of Christ, who came down from heaven) and the
causative stems tjn (naḥḥeṯ) / tja (aḥḥeṯ) “to cause to descend, to send
down” (said, for example, of God, who sent down his son) have in fact been
documented in this sense in Syro-Aramaic, though not in the specific mea-
ning of “to give birth, to be born” in the sense of a natural birth.
The search for an equivalent usage in Aramaic finds its confirmation in a
synonymous expression that Gesenius56 gives under the Aramaic root ‫ נפל‬n-
p-l “to fall” in the meaning of “to be born” and explains as “actually an extra
term for a birth standing in opposition to regular natural processes.” This
usage, attested nowhere else in Arabic, of ‫( نحت‬naḥata) or (naḥḥata) < Syro-
Aramaic tjn (nḥeṯ or naḥḥeṯ) in the meaning of “to give birth, to be born”
(actually “to cause to descend [from above]”)57 would imply, at least in the case
of this segment of the Mary Surah, an earlier period in the editing of the
Qurʾān than the second Meccan period estimated by Nöldeke-Schwally.58 In it
one can recognize with certainty a central element of the Christian com-
ponents of the Qurʾān.
According to the Syro-Aramaic reading, the first verse segment of Surah
19:24 should therefore be understood as follows:
Then he called to her immediately after her giving birth: Be not sad!
Based on this understanding, the concerns expressed by Paret in his Qurʾān

commentary to this passage (324) as to whether the caller is the new-born
infant Jesus or the infant Jesus still located in the womb, as well as the refe-
rence to the text from Pseudo-Matthew cited below, are unnecessary.
It follows from the preceding remarks that in the second part of the verse
‫( قد جعل ربك تحتك سريا‬according to the previous understanding) “Your lord has
made a rivulet beneath you,” the repeatedly occurring ‫( تحتك‬taḥtaki) does
not mean “beneath you,” but “your giving birth.” Still to be explained, how-
ever, is the expression ‫( سريا‬sarīya), misinterpreted as “rivulet,” with which
we would have an example of case (c) (see page 24).
Ṭabarī (XVI 69 ff.) prefaces the explanation of the word ‫( سري‬sarī ) with the
stereotypical remark that the commentators are of different opinions about
its meaning. The majority (over nineteen traditionary chains) favor the mea-
ning river, little river, a river named Sarī, designation of the ʿĪsā river (= Jesus
river), stream, rivulet. In particular, Muǧāhid and aḍḌaḥḥāk believe it is river
or stream in Syriac, whereas Saʿīd b. Ǧubayr is of the opinion that it is a
stream, rivulet in Nabatean. On the other hand, two traditionists object and
advocate the view that Jesus himself is meant by the designation sarī. Pro-
bably on the basis of the conjectured Persian meaning noble, honorable,59 Ibn
Zayd asks:
But who, after all, could be ‫( أسرى منه‬asrā minhu) nobler than Jesus!” Con-
cerning the erroneous opinions of those who see a river in this term, he makes
use of his good common sense and argues: “If this is a river, then it ought to be
beside her and not, of all places, beneath her!60
But Ṭabarī does not follow him. Like an arbitrator, on democratic principles
he agrees with the majority that sees in it a stream, from which—in his opi-
nion—God has, according to Surah 19:26, expressly ordered Mary to drink:
‫“ فكلي واشربي‬So eat and drink.”
Among our selected Western translators of the Qurʾān, only Paret (by pla-
cing sarī in parentheses) suggests that the meaning of this expression is un-
clear. Blachère and Bell seem for the most part to approve of the explanation
Ṭabarī gives. Blachère only observes concerning ‫( من تحتھا‬min taḥtihā) that in
accordance with Qurʾānic usage this expression means “at her feet,” and not,
as so often translated, “from beneath her.”61 Bell, on the other hand, refers to
Ṭabarī (XVI 67 f.) and the controversial issue among the Arab commentators
as to whether it was the Angel Gabriel or the Infant Jesus that called to Mary
“from beneath her,” concerning which he rightly supposes: “probably ‘the
child.’” 62 As to the word sarī, in his commentary (I 504 f., v. 24) he considers
“stream” to be the most likely meaning, but points to the opinion held by
several commentators that it could also mean “chief, head” (referring to
Jesus) in accordance with the (probably Persian) meaning “to be manly,
noble,” which is listed in the Lisān (XIV 377b) under ‫( سرا‬srw) and with a
reference to ‫ سيبويه‬/ Sībawayh and ‫ اللحياني‬/ al-Liḥyānī.
In examining the corresponding passage more closely, Paret refers in his
Qurʾān commentary (323, on Surah 19:23-26) to W. Rudolph,63 who says
about the attendant circumstances of the birth of Jesus described therein:
The most likely explanation is that Muhammed is here influenced by a scene
the so-called Pseudo-Matthew reports of the flight to Egypt in chapter 20 and
transfers this to the birth:
“tunc infantulus Jesus laeto vultu in sinu matris suae residens ait ad palmam:
flectere, arbor, et de fructibus tuis refice matrem meam … aperi autem ex
radicibus tuis venam, quae absconsa est in terra, et fluant ex ea aquae ad
satietatem nostram.” [Translation of the Latin text]:
“Thereupon spoke the Infant Jesus, of joyful countenance sitting in his
mother’s lap, to the palm tree: Bend over, tree, and refresh my mother from
your fruits. . . further open out of your roots a vein that lies hidden in the
earth, and let waters stream out upon us to quench our thirst.”
Blachère, too, sees a parallel to our Qurʾānic verse and an explanation for the
stream at Mary’s feet in this description from Pseudo-Matthew.64 Bell argues
along similar lines in his commentary (loc. cit.). By citing the quoted passage
from Pseudo-Matthew the Western Qurʾān scholars had their proof that in
the case of the expression ‫( سري‬sarī) it must indeed be a question of a
watercourse, a stream, just as the Arab exegetes had also finally assumed after
all.
The commentators in the East and the West will be shown, however, that
in the interpretation of this Qurʾān passage they have succumbed in the first
case to a linguistic error and in the second to fallacious reasoning.
Careful attention to the Qurʾānic context is the fundamental prerequisite
for a linguistically coherent understanding. That the Qurʾān transferred the
scene depicted by Pseudo-Matthew of the flight to Egypt to the birth of Christ
is in no way proven by the passage cited above. The sole parallel is the palm
that is spoken of in both passages. The other circumstances, however, are
completely different.
Namely, when according to Pseudo-Matthew the infant Jesus directs the
palm to cause water to flow forth, the logical reason may lie in the fact that
for mother and son there was otherwise no water in the surrounding desert.
Hence the command that water bubble forth to slake their thirst.
Not so in the Qurʾān. Namely, when Mary according to Surah 19:23 calls
out in despair, ‫“ يليتني مت قبل ھذا وكنت نسيا منسيا‬If only I had died beforehand
(i.e., before the birth) and been totally forgotten!” it is clearly not because she
was dying of thirst! What depressed her so much was much more the out-
rageous insinuations of her family that she was illegitimately pregnant, some-
thing which is clearly implied by the scolding she receives in Verse 28: ‫يأخت‬
‫“ ھرون ما كان ابوك امرأ سوء وما كانت أمك بغيا‬Sister of Aaron, your father was after
all no miscreant and your mother no strumpet!” (Paret: “Sister of Aaron!
Your father was after all not a bad guy [note: man] and your mother not a
prostitute!”). Most likely for the same reason it is also said, after she became
pregnant, in Verse 22, ‫“ فانتبذت به مكانا قصيا‬whereupon she was cast out with
him to a remote place” (Paret: “And she withdrew with him to a distant
place”).
What is crucial here is the Arabic verb ‫( فانتبذت‬fa-ntabaḏat), which our
Qurʾān translators have incorrectly rendered with “she withdrew” (Bell), “sie
zog sich zurūck” (Paret), and “elle se retira” (Blachère). Despite the original
meaning of Arabic ‫( نبذ‬nabaḏa), namely, “to send back, to reject, to cast out,”
this expression is actually explained in Ṭabarī with ‫( فاعتزلت‬fa-ʿtazalat ) and
‫( وتنحت‬wa-tanaḥḥat – “she withdrew”).65 The reflexive eighth Arabic verbal
stem may have also led the Qurʾān translators to make this grammatically
equivalent, but nonetheless nonsensical assumption. When one considers,
namely, that the Qurʾān, following Syro-Aramaic usage, also uses reflexive
stems with a passive meaning,66 the result is the better fitting sense for this
verse, “she was cast out,” which indeed also represents a continuation of the
introductory statement of Verse 16:
‫واذكر في الكتب مريم اذ انتبذت من اھلھا مكانا شرقيا‬
Make mention further in the scripture of Mary when she was cast out by her
family to an empty (= a waste)67 place.” (Paret: “Und gedenke in der Schrift der
Maria (Maryam)! (Damals) als sie sich vor ihren Angehörigen an einen
östlichen Ort zurūckzog! [“And make mention in the scripture of Mary
(Maryam)! (that time) when she withdrew from her family to a place in the
East”]).
The passive usage is additionally confirmed here by the preposition ‫( من‬min)

(by), which again corresponds to Syro-Aramaic practice,68 but is totally im-
possible according to Arabic grammar. There is namely no reason for the
Qurʾān to submit, as classical Arabic grammar would have it, to the prohi-
bition imposed by later Arabic (or Persian) grammarians against naming the
active subject in a passive sentence by means of the preposition ‫ من‬min (by).69
Therefore, seen in this light, the classical Arabic grammar proves rather to be
a hindrance in determining the proper understanding of particular passages
in the Qurʾān, while attention to Syro-Aramaic grammar assists in opening
up insights into heretofore unimagined aspects of the Qurʾānic language. This
basic Syro-Aramaic structure of the Qurʾānic language must be gone into in
more detail.
Thus Verse 22—correctly understood—indicates that Mary is cast out by
her family because she is suspected of illegitimate conception, especially
considering that the Qurʾān does not place any fiancé or sham husband at her
side to protect her from malicious tongues. As a result it is understandable
that Mary in Verse 23, immediately before giving birth, longs desperately for
her own death. The initial words of consolation from her newborn child
would naturally need to be directed first of all to removing the reason for her
desperation. But this could surely not occur by attempting to console her with
the simple reference to a stream allegedly located beneath her. The idea
assumed by Ṭabarī that God according to Verse 26 had commanded Mary to
drink from it (‫ واشربي فكلي‬/ so eat and drink), therefore misses the mark. For it
is not, say, the lack of food and drink that keeps Mary from eating and
drinking, but much more her depressive mental state. That is why the conso-
ling words of her child had to have such a content, so that she would no
longer have any reason to be depressed and would therefore regain her desire
to eat and drink.
The Western Qurʾān scholars’ reference to the above-mentioned passage
from Pseudo-Matthew is also wrong because the expression ‫ سريا‬falsely read
sarīyā—in today’s Qurʾān, and was traditionally interpreted as a watercourse.
But this unphilological and conjectural reading and interpretation, unfor-

tunately, was taken to be definitive, and thereby sealed off further research.
Namely, in the case of this spelling ‫ سـريا‬it is not a question of an Arabic,
but of a Syro-Aramaic root. The problem is also already solved if it is pre-
sented in its original Syro-Aramaic form as ayrc (šaryā ). For what one ex-
pects in the Qurʾānic context is a countering expression to the reproach of her
illegitimate pregnancy that would suffice to free her of this stigma. Now if one
understands unmarried in the sense of unlawful, illegitimate, then its coun-
tering expression married would accordingly be lawful, legitimate. And so it is
in modern Arabic usage that an illegitimate son (especially as a swearword) is
‫( إبن حرام‬ibn ḥarām), which is countered by its opposite ‫( إبن حالل‬ibn ḥalāl – “a
legitimate, legally born = an upright, honest person”).
In this context the Syro-Aramaic expression ayrc (šaryā) has exactly this
meaning, however, here it is not to be understood as a substantive (stream,
rivulet), but as a verbal adjective in the sense of “legitimate.”70
The twenty-fourth verse of the Mary Surah, which has previously been mis-
understood as follows by all of the Qurʾān commentators we know of,
Then he (probably “the child”) called to her from beneath her: “Grieve not;
thy Lord hath placed beneath thee a streamlet.” (Bell)
is now, after this elucidation of its original meaning, to be understood as

summarized in the following way:
Then he called to her immediately after her delivery: “Do not be sad, your Lord
has made your delivery legitimate.”
Only after the infant Jesus has consoled this hitherto despairing mother with
the acknowledgment of his legitimacy does he direct to her the encouraging
words (from Verse 26) that she is therefore (and not because she is dying of
thirst) “to eat and drink and be happy.”71 Just as logically does Mary (accor-
ding to Verse 27) then take heart and return with her newborn child to her
family. Confronted with the family’s initial indignation (Verse 28), she
follows the instructions of her newborn and allows her child to respond
(Verses 30–33) and in so doing to reveal his miraculous birth.
Thus, in contrast to the hitherto distortedly rendered Arabic reading of this
passage, the Qurʾānic presentation of the birth of Christ now for the first time
acquires its original meaning through the bringing in of Syro-Aramaic.
11. Christmas in the Qurʾān—Surah 97: al-Qadr – “the Destiny”

11.1 Problems of the Traditional Understanding
If then the birth of Christ is mentioned it is only logical to pose the question
as to other possible passages in the Qurʾān which could have been originally
connected to a liturgy of Christmas. The author believes he has recognized

just such a connection in the text, considered engimatic up to now, of Surah
97, entitled al-Qadr / Destiny. Here is how Régis Blachère translates this
Surah agreeing with Arab commentators :
Surah 97. The Destiny (Al-Qadar).
1. We made it come down during the Night of Destiny
2. Who will teach you what the Night of Destiny is ?
3. The night of Destiny is worth more than a thousand months .
4. The Angels and the Spirit descend with your Lord’s permission, with all
orders
5. Peace . It is until the break of dawn.
Bell:
Surat al-Qadr – “Chapter of Power” [different to Blachère!]
1. Lo, We have sent it down on the Night of Power.
2. What has let thee know what is the Night of Power?
3. The Night of Power is better than a thousand months;
4. In it the angels and the spirit let themselves down, by the permission of
their Lord, with regard to every affair.
5. It is peace until the rising of the dawn.
Paret’s commentary und concordance:

To the whole Surah see K. Wagtendonk: Fasting in the Qurʾān. Leiden 1968, p.
82–122. Wagtendonk examines the question whether or not and how close the
fasting of the Ramadan and the revelation of the Qurʾān are related to each
other, and what the Laylat al-Qadr is. He comes to the following conclusion
(Paret cites him as follows:) “The date on which Surah 97 was revealed can now
be determined. Mohammed must have indicated the night of the 27th Radjab
as the night of his (first) revelation, after he abolished the ‘Ashura’ and before
the battle of Badr took place (p.113).”
To v. 1 “inna ansalnahu fi laylati l-qadri”: see 44:2f; 2:185
To v.2 “wa-ma adraka…”: see 82: 14–18; 77:13f.; 101:1–3; 69:1–3; 74:26f.;
104:4f.; 101:9f.; 83:7f. and 18f.; 86:1f.; 90:11f.; 97:1f.; (33:63; 42:17; 80:3).
To v.4: see 16:2; 40:15; 42:52; 17:85; 97:4; 26:192–194; 16:102;
“amr”: see 10:3; 13:2; 32:5; 10:31; (65:12; 7:54; 41:12); “amr” in these passages
seems to mean a being of cosmological kind, in (as Paret says in his com-
mentary to 2:109 to where he refers) the sense of the Greek ‘logos’ or the Syro-
Aramaic memra ‘min kulli amrin’: various interpretations are possible; e.g.,
Wagtendonk (Fasting in the Qurʾān, p. 83f., annotation 5 and p. 86, anno-
tation 3) gives several interpretations and translates it (as follows, cited by

Paret): “by virtue of every decree.”
But Paret prefers his own interpretation and. 44:4 has a similar wording: kullu
amrin ḥakīmin but probably another meaning. He proceeds:
To v. 5: see H. Ringgren: Islam, aslama and muslim. Uppsala 1949, p. 10
In his introduction to the Surah, Bell writes:

The origin of the idea of the Night of Power is unexplained. The only other
passage in the Quran which has any bearing on it is 44:2a, 3. In some ways
what is here said of it suggests that some account of the Eve of the Nativity
may have given rise to it.
Bell’s footnote to “it” in verse 1:

“It” must refer to something in the original context now lost, usually assumed
to be the Qur’an.
Bell’s footnote to “Night of Power” in verse 1:

The common translation of the prase has been retained; ‘Night of Decree’
would perhaps correspond better to the sense.
Bell’s footnote to the whole verse 4:

The exact construction and sense of this phrase are uncertain. It is usually
taken with the verb “let themselves down,” not with “permission.”
Paret’s German version:

Die Bestimmung [This word is a very clever choice: In German, it can mean
“destiny” as well as “power” as well as “decree”!]
1. Wir haben ihn in der Nacht der Bestimmung herabgesandt.
2. Aber wie kannst du wissen, was die Nacht der Bestimmung ist?
3. Die Nacht der Bestimmung ist besser als tausend Monate.
4. Die Engel und der Geist kommen in ihr mit der Erlaubnis ihres Herrn
herab, lauter Logos(wesen) (min kulli amrin).
[Paret interprets the last part of the phrase in a totally different way: He thinks
that min kulli amrin refers to “die Engel und der Geist” = “the angels and the
spirit” and means “beings of logos”]
5. Sie ist (voller) Heil (und Segen), bis die Morgenröte sichtbar wird. [Heil =
the “salut” of Blachère].
Paret’s footnote to „ihn:“

[ =it, see Bell’s footnote ] in verse 1: “D. h. den Qurʾān. [i.e., the Qurʾān]”
Paret’s footnote to “sichtbar wird” [“becomes visible”] in verse 5:

[not important ]: „W. (=literally): aufgeht. [“rises”]
Henning’s prestigious German translation from the 19th century:

Die Macht [ =power, like Bell ]
1. Siehe, wir haben ihn in der Nacht El-Qadr geoffenbart.
[El-Qadr: Another clever solution: He translates the Arabic term ‘al-qadr’ in
the title, but in the text itself he leaves it in Arabic, as a proper name!]
[author’s note: geoffenbart means “revealed,” so the term is more specific
than Paret’s “herabgesandt” which only means “sent down.”]
2. Und was lehrt dich wissen, was die Nacht El-Qadr ist?
3. Die Nacht El-Qadr ist besser als tausend Monate.
4. Hinab steigen die Engel und der Geist in ihr mit ihres Herrn Erlaubnis zu
jeglichem Geheiß. [this is again like Bell’s and Blachères interpretation ].
5. Frieden [=peace, like Bell ] ist sie bis zum Aufgang der Morgenröte.
Rudolph’s footnote to „ihn“ [=it] in verse 1:

Der Qurʾān (so die Muslime) oder der Engel bzw. Geist der Offenbarung.“
[=“It“ refers either to the Quran, like the Muslims think, or to the angel or
spirit of revelation]
Rudolph’s footnote to “Nacht El-Qadr” in verse 1:

D. h. die “Nacht der (göttlichen) Bestimmung” [this is exactly the word Paret
choose ] oder “Zumessung” [=allotment, apportion] (lailat al-qadr). In ihr soll
Gabriel den Qurʾān aus dem siebenten Himmel zu Mohammed hernieder
gebracht haben. Vgl. 2:181! Die Herkunft und ursprūngliche Bedeutung des
Ausdruckes ist noch ungeklärt (Name der altarabischen Neujahrsnacht?). Ver-
mutlich hat ihn Mohammed rückblickend auf sein Berufungserlebnis, das in
einer Nacht stattfand. . ., geprägt. [ =It is said that in this night the angel
Gabriel brought the Qurʾān from the seventh heaven down to Muḥammad,
see Surah 2, verse 181. The origin and exact meaning of the word are not yet
clear, might be the name of the New Year’s night of the ancient Arabs, for
example. Muhammad seems to have chosen it, looking back, for the night
when he received his first revelation. ]
Rudolph’s footnote to “zu jeglichem Geheiß” [to whatever behest] in verse 4:

Unsicher. Eher: “wegen jeder Ordnung (amr),” oder “aus jedem Logos.“ Vgl.
10,3; 16,2; 32,4; 42,52. [Rudolph doesn’t agree with Henning and proposes
“because of every order”—which doesn’t make sense, does it? —or “from/of
every logos” which is more like Paret’s interpretation.]
Islamic tradition sees in this brief Surah, entitled the Night of Destiny, an
allusion to the revelation of the Qurʾān on this very night. It is for this reason
that towards the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting, that vigils take place.
However with regard to the history of religions this fact is all the more
remarkable since Islam does not have a nocturnal liturgy (apart from the
tarāwīḥ, prayers offered during the nights of Ramadan). There is thus every
reason to think that these vigils corresponded originally to a Christian litur-
gical practice connected to the birth of Jesus Christ, and which was later
adopted by Islam, but re-interpreted by Islamic theology to mean the descent
of the Qurʾān. Islamic tradition meanwhile finds it difficult to explain to itself
this new interpretation. It is enough to consult the great commentary on the
Qurʾān of al-Ṭabarī (828–923) to confirm the confusion that Arab commen-
tators manifest in their attempts to justify such an interpretation. The contra-
dictory contents of the Islamic tradition, recorded by Ṭabarī, could be
summed in the following way:
a) The Qurʾān descended in one go during the Night of Qadr, in the
month of Ramadan, into the lower sky, at the site of the stars;
b) According to his decision, God made parts of it come down succes-
sively on earth until the Qurʾān was complete;
c) Between the beginning and the end of the revelation there was an
interval of twenty years ;
d) Only the beginning of the Qurʾān came down during this night.
This perplexity of the Arab commentators could nevertheless find a simple
solution in the deciphering of this Surah with the aid of Syriac. Three terms
well-understood upto the present undoubtedly incited Richard Bell, in his
introduction to this Surah, to suspect there an allusion to the liturgy of
Christmas Eve, namely : i) night ii) angels iii) peace. But the key Arabic word
al-qadar, which serves as an introduction to this Surah has remained unex-
plained upto now. The only laconic explanation that Ṭabarī reports of the
Arab commentators is that God decided this night the events that were [des-
tined] to take place during the year. However, the third comparison to which
in reality this destiny relates can only be discovered by translating this word
into Syriac, which gives us the Syriac word ḥelqa that the Thesaurus (I,1294)
explains first of all by “fatum, sors” —destiny, and fate, qadar which uses here
the qdr and qda in citing the corresponding Arabic words in the Qurʾān. But
it then combines the word with its synonym “ḥelqa w-bēṯ yalda – ‘fate and
horoscope.’” The latter is, in Syriac, a composite word (bēṯ yalda) and has
three meanings, designating i) the birth (meaning the moment of birth), ii)
the star under which one is born and which determines the fate of the newly
born, iii) The Nativity or Christmas. Thus defined, the term al-qadar, “desti-
ny” is related to the star of birth, that the Qurʾānic al qadr implies, and in the
context of this Surah, to the Star of Christmas. As a result, a connection is
found to be established with Matthew 2:2:
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in
the East and are come to worship him.
These words are attributed to the Wise Men of whom it is said that they were
astrologers come from the East, that is to say Babylon, considered the cradle
of astrology, and whose cultural impact remains alive and well in our daily
horoscope. It is with this very tradition that the Qurʾān joins hands with this
term al-qadar, destiny, which, in this case, it substitutes in place of star of
birth, that of the Nativity. This enigmatic word thus elucidated henceforth
leads us to philologically analyze Surah 97, in its Arabo-Syriac reading, in this
way:
11.2 Towards a New Interpretation of the Surah
The Destiny (of the Star of the Nativity)
Verse 1:
“We made it come down in the night of destiny”; that is to say the star of
birth or horoscope which determines the destiny of the new-born—here to be
taken in the sense of the Star of Nativity or Christmas. The Arabic verb
anzala, “to send dow” corresponds perfectly with the Syriac noun nuḥḥāṯ,
cited twice in verse 24 of Surah 19 (Mary), and means literally “send down,”
speaking of the childbirth of Mary, a term exclusively used in this passage and
by which the Qurʾān wishes to point to the supernatural character of the birth
of Jesus, whom, besides, they make speak right from the moment of his birth
(op. cit. p.102–112).
Verse 2
In posing the question which follows verse 2,
What do you know of what the night of destiny is?,
the Qurʾān wants to underline the special significance of this night considered
as the night or the eve of Christmas. In fact, the Syriac word ayll lelyā, night,
is at the same time a liturgical term, a shortened form of ayll‫ ܕ‬atwlx ṣlōṯā
ḏ-lelyā (“office of the night”), corresponding to the nocturns of the Catholic
office. By night the Qurʾān thus does not mean here simply the natural phe-
nomenon but more precisely this Syriac liturgical term.
The Qurʾānic word ‫ شھر‬šahr—normally understood as “month” —is in
fact a transliteration of the Syriac arhc šahrā which signifies first, “evening”
but which is, like lēlyā, also a liturgical term in Syriac corresponding to
“vigils” of the office, and which should be read in Arabic as sahar (s in Arabic
usually corresponds to š in Syriac), i.e., without the three diacritical dots on

the first letter.
These two terms thus being confirmed as synonyms of the Syriac liturgy,
the Qurʾānic comparison becomes more logical. On the other hand, it is
astonishing that no commentator, in the East or the West, has raised the
slightest doubt as to the incoherence of the comparison between “night” and
“month.”
Verse 3
This leads us then to the Arabo-Syriac reading of verse 3:
The night [taken here in the sense of nocturnal office] of Destiny [linked to
the star of birth, i.e., of the Nativity] is more beneficial than a thousand vigils.
Verse 4
In place of the actual Qurʾānic reading (“tanazzalu l-malāʾikatu wa-r-rūḥu
fīhā”) of the verb tanazallu (intransitive) one must read tunazzilu (transitive)
which gives us the following reading:
The Angels, accompanied by the Spirit, send down
literally,
The Angels, the Spirit (being) in them, among them
The Arabic particle does not here have the function of the conjunction “and”
expressing the binding together, but introduces a so-called ḥāl-sentence, i.e.,
a sentence describing an accompanying circumstance. When translating such
a sentence into English, the conjunctions “while,” “whereas,” “although”
should be used, but rarely ever “and,” the wa indicating simultaneity (cf.
Surah 16:2, where the particle wa was replaced by bi, which has the same
meaning as “accompanied with”). To understand, “the Angels and [particle]
the Spirit” would be theologically untenable, “with the permission of their
Lord ” excluding the fact that the Lord is also that of the Spirit. To come back
then to the verse:
the Angels (accompanied by) the Spirit, send down with the permission (amr)
of their Lord, all sorts of hymns.
The Arabic noun borrowed from the Syriac, could not have the meaning of
the Arabic of order such as rendered by Régis Blachère agreeing with the
Arab commentators. Moreover it is for this reason the latter have understood
that God decided (ordered), this night, what was going to happen during the
year. Amr is rather to be taken here in the sense of the Syriac noun
armam memrā which means, among other things, speech in verse, “hymn.”
Ephrem the Syrian (306-373 C.E.) is known moreover for his Memre verses,
some of which are still used in the Syriac liturgical office. Besides the
following verse is going to show us that it really does concern the hymn
chanted by the Angels.
Verse 5
With the word “salām – ‫ – سالم‬peace,” this verse gives us the leitmotiv of these
hymns and sends us back to the hymn of the Angels cited by Luke 2:14:
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.
This chant of the Angels has always constituted the principal theme of the
Syriac vigils of the Nativity which lasts into Christmas night, with all sorts of
hymns, more than all the other vigils. According to the Qurʾān, the vigils
went on ḥattā maṭlaʿ al-faǧr–“until daybreak,” confirming thus, once more,
the tradition of the Syrian Church, according to which the Mass of the
Nativity is celebrated not at midnight but at dawn. Whence the theme of
these vigils of Christmas that the Qurʾān specifies for us:
Peace (on earth) until daybreak.
Conclusions about the Surah

The fact that this Surah goes back very probably to a Syro-Christian or
Arabo-Christian tradition is attested by the encyclopedic lexicon, Lisān al-
ʿArab (Ibn Manẓūr [1233–1312 C.E.] The Language of the Arabs, completed
1290 C.E., encompassing Arabic lexicography from the 9th century onwards).
Making a reference to the celebrated Arab philologist al-Aṣmaʿī (c.740–828 )
originally from Baṣra (Southern Iraq), the Lisān al-ʿArab makes under the
word Tamām (indicating the longest night of the winter) the following
observation:
The night of at-Timām is, in winter, the longest one. This night lasts so long
that all the stars appear during it. It is also the night of the birth of Jesus—on
our Prophet and on him blessing and well-being, and the Christians honour it
and hold vigils during it.
This astonishing testimony of an Arab is of the utmost importance for the

historical understanding of the Surah in question. It should have in fact
earned its place in the Qurʾānic Commentary of al-Ṭabarī, who however
seems never to have heard of it. It also explains to a large extent the actual
Islamic Tradition according to which during the night of al-Qadar some
vigils are held. But the blurred historical memory, as to the origins of this
tradition, has resulted in the fact the Muslims of today are no longer aware
that the night that they celebrate and honour with so much fervour is in
reality the night of Christmas.
Furthermore, that that, in all probability, was really the case before the
coming of Islam, is signaled to us more precisely by another ḥadīt of Aisha,
the youngest wife of the Prophet, recorded in the Lisān al-ʿArab under the
same word at Tamām in these terms :
The Messenger of God—may the blessings of God and peace be upon him—
had the habit of spending the night of at-Timām in vigil. He recited at that
time the Surahs The Cow, the Family ‘Imran and the Women. While doing
this, he did not fail to implore God at each verse.
Regarding this ḥadīt, it is appropriate to note first of all the following:

The order of the Surahs cited is a later addition, for
a) according to Islamic tradition, the Qurʾān was not yet established in
writing during the lifetime of the Prophet;
b) the actual order of the Surahs, according to the same tradition, goes
back to the third caliph ‘Uṯmān (644–656) or earlier;
c) the names of the Surahs as well as the division of the text into verses
were introduced even later .
The only authentic kernel which remains of this ḥadīt would be then that the
Prophet kept vigil the night of at-Timām. The latter being, according to the
testimony of al-Aṣmaʿī, laylat al-qadar ‫ ليلة القدر‬identical to the night of the
Nativity, which the Qurʾān qualifies as the night of Destiny, it is legitimate to
deduce that the Prophet, followed before Islam the tradition, well-established
among the Syrians or Arab Christians, of vigils of Christmas. Thus elucidated,
Surah al-Qadr constitutes a precious document for the history of religions, in
so far as it brings to light a pre-Islamic Christian liturgy of Christmas.
The already cited ḥadīt of ʿĀʾiša finds confirmation in another detail
noted by Ibn Hišām in the Sīra, the biography of the Prophet, where it is
reported that the Prophet before his mission used to spend one month a year
in the cave of Ḥīra, near Mecca where he devoted himself to taḥannuṯ – ‫ تحنّث‬,
an enigmatic word which he explains as being a synonym of taḥannuf, which
designates the religious practice of a ḥanīf, someone who professes the pure
faith, whereas the Qurʾān, identifying Abraham as a ḥanīf, means by this
word, borrowed from the Syriac, the “pagan.” God had in effect recognized
Abraham’s faith while he was still a pagan (ḥanīf, Syriac: ḥanpā) which has
nothing in common with taḥannuṯ but neither with “idolator.” On the other
hand, the preceding word is the Arabic form of a Syriac liturgical term
njt taḥnantā which means “supplication.” In so far as Ibn Hišām
vouches for the fact this religious service was practised by the Qurayš at
Mecca before Islam, we have with this detail a further confirmation that the
Prophet before his mission, had truly lived in an Arabo-Christian or Syro-
Christian tradition. This confirmation renders so much the more plausible

the Syro-Christian understanding of Surah al-Qadr.
It is no doubt not only ignorance of the language of the Qurʾān but also
and above all the political evolution of the Arab Empire which led to the
estrangement of Islam from the origins of its founding text. The mounting
political tensions between the Muslims and the Christians were doubled in
the East, right from the beginning of the 8th century, taking the form of a
religious polemic of an ideological character. It is under such circumstances
that we have to imagine the new interpretation of this Surah and of its theo-
logical implications in the sense of Islamic theology. It is not in Christ that the
Word of God is incarnated, but in the Qurʾān. In other words, to the Chris-
tian theological concept of the Incarnation of Logos (al-Kalima) in Christ,
Islamic theology opposes the word of God incarnated in the Qurʾān. As a
consequence, it is not the Infant Jesus who is born this night, but the Qurʾān
which descends the same night.
The philological analysis of Surah 97 leads us to understand it henceforth, in
its Arabo-Syriac reading, as:
Surah 97: The Destiny (of the Star of Nativity)

1. We sent him down (Infant Jesus) during the Night of Destiny (of the
Star of Nativity).
2. What do you know what the Night of Destiny is?
3. The Night (Nocturnal Office) of Destiny (of the Star of Nativity) is
more beneficial than a thousand vigils?
4. The Angels (accompanied by) the Spirit, send down with the per-
mission of their Lord, all sorts of hymns.
5. Peace there is until the break of day.
Surah 97 could have served as an introduction to a liturgy of the Nativity of
the Christian Arabs before Islam. Its linguistic understanding in its historical
setting reveals its link to a Syro-Christian liturgical tradition. This account is
a contribution to the history of religions in so far as it shows the initial
closeness of Christianity and Islam.
12. The Difference Between the Methods of Lüling and

Luxenberg
The author has been criticised many times for not having referred to the work
of Günter Lüling, Über den Ur-Quran 34. The author however had clearly
stated in his preface that he had no intention of taking into account all that
had been written upto the present on this subject, these works hardly con-
tributing anything to the new method purely philological that he intended to

propose.
As for Günter Lüling, the precise difference between his method and that
of the author seems to have escaped the scrupulous scrutiny of the critics.
Lüling expresses first of all the thesis that a part of the Qurʾān is made up of
Pre-Islamic Christian hymns, in this he was certainly not wrong. However, it
is appropriate to note that he was not the first to discover this point. It is
enough to glance at the introduction of the Swedish theologian and Islamo-
logue Tor Andrae to realise that more than a generation of Orientalists had
already worked on the question, beginning with the Austrian Alois Sprenger.
While Lüling cites a number of others in his “Literaturverzeichnis,” he omits
nonetheless to cite the work though remarkable of Wilhelm Rudolph. The
merit of Lüling has been nonetheless to relaunch the debate on this crucial
question fallen into oblivion, but above all to state clearly that the Qurʾān
contained Pre-Islamic Christian hymns. There we have the first constituent of
his thesis and his point of departure.
In the second, Lüling intends to elucidate the Qurʾānic passages said to be
obscure by modifying the diacritical points of Arabic writing, which in the
early Qurʾānic manuscripts were lacking but which are of course essential in
distinguishing the 22 phonemes of the actual Arabic alphabet comprising 28
signs. It is precisely on this point that the criticism has some weight as to the
omission by the author of any reference to the person the critics consider to
have been his predecessor. And it is also precisely there the critics misunder-
stand the essential difference between the two methods seemingly similar.
However this method is not in itself entirely new. Ignaz Goldziher had al-
ready drawn attention to the haphazard way the diacritical points were intro-
duced rather late into the Qurʾānic text. In this work, Goldziher describes the
early efforts of Islamic exegesis in search of a Qurʾānic reading whose defec-
tive writing was far from creating a consensus. This debate generated more-
over all a literature of variants (see R.B. ...) which incited Western orientalists
to pursue research in this field. In this way the first attempt aiming to modify
the diacritical points with a view to a more plausible reading of the Qurʾān
was undertaken by Jacob Barth in Studien zur Kritik und Exegese des Qorans.
In this essay, Barth, starting with Arabic, succeeded in displacing the points
correctly in just four cases. But this first timid attempt did not have the
expected impact since the number of words thus modified was limited.
Günter Lüling, more half a century later, thus was not the first to apply
this technique, which, on its own, does not yet constitute a method. For the
essence of the method is the linguistic base on which is founded this tech-
nique, and it would be too easy to reduce it to a simple deplacement of diacri-
tical points. Anyone who has read the basics of the method of the author
which Rémi Brague has so magisterially summarized in his review, could
have judged the complexity. This method is not limited to an etymological
explanation of simple words, it extends also to linguistic phenomena such as

morphology, syntax and phraseology. It demands thus a very careful reading
of the Qurʾān in a double Arabo-Syriac perspective with all the hazards such a
reading entails. That is what critics do not seem to have clearly distinguished
between the two methods.
The point of departure of Lüling is a Christian Arabic literary language,
Pre-Islamic and Pre-Classical, a sort of koiné, but essentially Arabic. For the
author, on the other hand, it is a matter of a mixed Arabo-Syriac language,
such as must have prevailed at the time of the editing of the Qurʾān. There
you have all the difference between the two methods. Surah 96 that Lüling has
interpreted according to his method well illustrates moreover the gulf that
separates it from the Syro-Syriac reading of the author. It is true that Lüling
refers quite rightly to Gustav Weil and Hartwig Hirschfeld in rendering iqra’
(verses 1,3) by “invoke,” instead of the traditional reading “read,” and that he
interprets ‘alaq (verse 2) correctly as a metaphor for “clay,” but apart from
these two words, all the rest is far from being convincing, including and
above all the syntax. And even where Lüling occasionally suspects a Syriac
word, such as for zabaniya (verse 18) which he reads rabbaniya (that he takes
for Archangels, instead of zaḇnāyā, an adjective signifying temporary, pas-
sing, in connection with the idol, to the mortal god of the adversary), he
misses the point.
Another detail is worth noting: Lüling first presents his thesis and claims
to prove it linguistically. In reality, he bases himself on essentially theological
arguments that he projects into the text and that he tries to demonstrate in so
doing, if necessary, without respecting the principles that should be applied
when reading a lectio difficilior. His Arabic understanding of certain passages,
that one can only understand, in my view, by means of Arabo-Syriac, pushes
him to modify, even eliminate not only words but also entire verses that he
judges to be misplaced or superfluous for not having revealed the true mea-
ning. It is undoubtedly for this reason that he has not managed to be convin-
cing. Although, he is certainly correct regarding the Christian origins of the
Qurʾān, especially the strophic hymns.
The author proceeds in an inverse sense: he first submits the text to a
rigorous philological analysis, with references always in support, and then
reaches a double conclusion:
a) that the founding texts of the Qurʾān were originally in part Syro-
Christian liturgical texts;
b) that the language of the Qurʾān is a mixed Arabo-Syriac.
The latter observation is the key which gives us access to an adequate under-
standing of the language of the Qurʾān. The author was thus justified in set-
ting aside everything that was written, from a linguistic point of view, upto
now on the subject of the language of the Qurʾān, since the previous scholars
were not aware of the mixed Arabo-Aramaic character of its language.
In consequence, it is not at all for lack of intellectual probity that he, in his
first study, passed over in silence that of Günter Lüling. He remains indebted
nonetheless to criticism for having incited him to clearly discern the
difference and to articulate it with precision.
Notes:
1 Bell’s introductory remarks: “SURAH CVIII: This looks like a fragment, but it is
difficult to find a suitable context for it. The rhyme might indicate a position in
LXXIV—after v. 39 (?). That, however, necessitates a fairly early date, and the
reference to sacrifice is difficult to explain, unless we are prepared to assume that
Muhammad continued to take part in heathen rites in Mecca. Otherwise it seems
necessary to assume that the Surah is Medinan. It is, in any case, an encourage-
ment to the prophet under insult.”
2 Bell’s note 1: “Al-kauthar, from the root meaning ‘many,’ is interpreted as
meaning much wealth, or by others as referring to the number of his followers;
others again take the word as the proper name of a river or pool in Paradise.”
3 Bell’s note 2: “‘Mutilated,’ ‘having the tail cut off,’ probably in the sense of having
no son. The word has presumably been applied to Muhammad by an enemy.”
4 Blachère’s note 1: “al-Kawṯar ‘l’Abondance.’ Ce thème, d’un emploi rare, est une
épithète substantivée. Ce sens est ressenti par tous les commt., mais la tradition
(cf. Buhl) prétend que ce terme désigne un des fleuves du Paradis.” [This stem, of
rare usage, is an attributive adjective that has been nominalised. This sense is felt
by all the commentators, but the [Islamic] tradition claims that this term desig-
nates one of the rivers of Paradise.]
5 Although Bell here translates the adverb ‫( كثيرا‬kaṯīrā) according to modern Arabic
usage as “often,” the Syro-Aramaic semantics and the context suggest the meaning
“constantly.” Another example of the Syro-Aramaic meaning can be found in
Surah 56:32,33, wherein the believers are promised ‫وفكھة كثيرة ال مقطوعة وال ممنوعة‬
(wa-fākiha kaṯīra, lā maqṭūʿa wa-lā mamnū‘a) “And fruit profuse, Not cut off and
not forbidden” (Bell). The Arabic verb ‫ منع‬/ manaʿa (to forbid) is, however, only
one possible equivalent of the Syro-Aramaic verb alk / klā (see Mannā 337b), the
more common meaning being “to cease, to come to an end ” (Mannā: 5. ‫ توقف‬/
tawaqqafa, 6. ‫ انتھى‬/ intahā). Moreover, ‫ قطع‬/ qataʿa here does not mean (as in
modern Arabic) “to cut off," but according to the wider Syro-Aramaic semantics
“to cease, to come to an end, to be used up.” A preferable translation of the whole
verse would therefore be: “and constant(ly available) fruit, never ending nor
running out.” The latter meaning is furthermore attested in Sura 38:54: ‫ان ھذا‬
‫( لرزقنا ما له من نفاد‬inna hāḏā la-rizqunā mā lahu min nafād) “this is our provision,
of it is no failing ” (Bell).
6 Cf. Thes. I 1859 f., artwk (kuttārā) (1) mora, expectatio, στηριγμός, duratio,
fixitas. Further, in Mannā 360b, artwk (kuttārā), rtk (kattar) (2): . ‫ ثبت‬.‫ استمر‬. ‫دام‬
‫ بقي‬/ dāma, istamarra, ṯabata, baqiya (to last, to continue, to persist, to remain).
7 The ‫ و‬/ waw in the irregular form kawṯar could also be justified as an element
serving to dissolve the following gemination. However, for such a reading there is
no evidence. A parallel case of Syro-Aramaic nominal forms of the second stem
can be found in Surah 78:28: ‫( وكذبوا بايتنا كذابا‬wa-kaḏḏabū bi-ʾāyātinā kiḏḏābā)

(Bell: And they counted Our signs false utterly), and 78:35: ‫ال يسمعون فيھا لغوا وال كذابا‬
(lā yasma‘ūna fīhā laġwan wa-lā kiḏḏābā) (Bell: In which they will hear neither
babble nor accusation of falsehood). The form kiḏḏābā is an erroneous reading
and reflects Syro-Aramaic abdwk /kuddāḇā, in this case, however, without mater
lectionis for the short vowel u. The equivalent truly Arabic nominal form of the
second stem ‫كذب‬ ّ /kaḏḏaba is ‫ تكذيب‬/takḏīb, as in Sura 85:19: ‫بل الذين كفروا في تكذيب‬
(bali l-laḏīna kafarū fī takḏīb) (Bell: Ney, those who have disbelieved are engaged
in counting false). A similar same case is attested of the Syro-Aramaic second stem
verb tjn / naḥḥeṯ, of which the correct nominal form would be atjwn /nuḥḥāṯā.
In Sura 19:24 the form occurs twice, in the first case as the false Arabic reading ‫من‬
‫ تحتھا‬/ min taḥtihā (Bell: from beneath her), which should be read as Syro-Aramaic
min nuḥḥātihā, i.e., “right after her accouchement,” and in the second case as the
erroneous Arabic reading ‫ تحتك‬/taḥtaki (Bell: beneath you) for Syro-Aramaic
nuḥḥātaki – “your accouchement.” See above, p. 127 ff., for the discussion of the
passage from Surah 19:24. A remnant of this Syro-Aramaic form in today’s Arabic
is found in the specific (and abnormal) word ‫ كتّاب‬/ kuttāb (Koran school or
elementary school—plural: ‫ كتاتيب‬/ katātīb), that morphologically could be taken
for the plural of the Arabic singular ‫ كاتب‬/ kātib (writer, author). But actually, it is
the Syro-Aramaic infinitive of the second stem ‫ كتّب‬/ kattaba (to make write = to
teach the art of writing), corresponding to the Arabic infinitive ‫ تكتيب‬/ taktīb.
8 Cf. Thes. II 2284 ff.: rgn /nḡar (1) longus fuit, productus, extensus est (to
continue, to go on and on); (2) patiens, longanimis fuit (to be patient, to have
patience), ‫ تمھّل‬.‫ صبر‬.‫ اصطبر‬.
9 Cf. Thes. II 2668 ff; actually Arabic šāniyaka.
10 The Lisān (XII 24b f.) quotes as sole exception the plural of ‫’( إمام‬imām) = ‫أئمة‬
(’a’imma) (where the second hamza, however, is not vowelless) and explains
nevertheless that this form with two hamza, according to the philologists of Kufa,
is an exception and not a norm (‫)شاذ ال يقاس عليه‬, since the most Koran readers read
‫’( أيمة‬ayimma). Hence he concludes that “two successive radical hamza never
occurred” in Arabic:
! ‫فلھذا لم يأت في الكالم لفظة توالت فيھا ھمزتان أصال البتة‬
11 This is not the unique secondary Arabic formation from a Syro-Aramaic verbal
root. The Koran offers us two further secondary derivations from the Syro-
Aramaic verbal root ata /eṯā: 1. From the 2nd intensive stem Yta / attī (to bring)
(by secondary sonorization of the t > d) > Arabic ‫ أ ّدى‬/ addā (in the Koran in the
meaning “to bring, to give back” in the following passages: Surahs 2:283; 3:75 [2x];
4:58; in the vernacular Egyptian Arabic ‫ ا ّديني‬/ əddīnī means means = ‫ اعطني‬/aʿṭinī
[give me]); 2. from the most used Syro-Aramaic Af‘el stem Ytya / aytī in the sense
of “to bring,” the Qurʾān forms by monophthongization of the diphthong ay > ā
the 4th Arabic stem ‫ آتى‬/’ātā (formally equal to the 3rd stem), as it is attested in
numerous passages with the same meaning. A further secondary derivation is to
be found in the today’s spoken Arabic of Irak, where for example the imperative
form ‫ انطيني‬/anṭīnī (give me) shows its derivation from the Syro-Aramaic intenx-
sive stem Yta / attī (imperative Ynyta / attī-n[ī]) after the dissolution of the
gemination of the medial radical by insertion of a preceding ‫ نـ‬/n, as it can be

observed in a number of Arabic verbs borrowed from the Eastern (Mesopota-
mian) vernacular Aramaic, as it is relatively frequent e.g., in Mandaic (cf. Th.
Nöldeke, MG, § 68).
This phenomenon can help to clarify the etymology of the Hebrew (and Old
Aramaic) verbal root ‫ נתן‬/ n-t-n (to give) as a secondary formation from Eastern
Aramaic with a secondary first and third radical from the second intensive stem
‫ אתא‬/ attā > antā + the enclitic object suffix of the first person singular –n(ī) or
plural –n = *‫ אנתני‬or *‫ אנתן‬/ antān(ī) / antān, thereby accent-shifting on the last
syllable and consequently dropping of the unaccented initial radical ‫ )א(נתן‬/
(a)ntān > ‫ נתן‬/ natān > ntān (hence no spirantization of the originally geminated
‫ ת‬/ t after the vocalized secondary ‫ נ‬/ n).
The end- L / l in the parallel Syriac variant Ltn / n-t-l is the enclitic
preposition L / l marking the dative (or indirect object), by analogy with the verb
L Bhy/ ya(h)ḇ l- (to give “to” someone). This formation has been nearly
recognized by Stade (according to Th. Nöldeke, MG 52, note 6: in Lit. Centralbl.
1873 Nr. 45, p. 1418), who, however, sees in this end-l (as well as Nöldeke) an
assimilation of the end-n of the previous form, that Nöldeke regards as a former
original one. But in reality, both variants are parallel secondary formations
depending on the use of the original verb: a) attā as ruling the accusative (or direct
object), b) attī as ruling the dative by means of the preposition L / l.
While C. Brockelmann does not quote this irregular form in his Lexicon Syria-
cum, Mannā and the Thesaurus adduce it in alphabetical order under n /n. Mannā
(470b) explains the fictitious verbal root *Ltn / ntal as (‫ ممات‬/ mumāt) (died out);
the Thes. (II 2480) explains it as verbum defectivum and compares it to Hebrew
‫ נתן‬/ natan and Eastern Aramaic ‫ נתן‬/ ntan beside ‫ נתל‬/ ntal (without further
etymological explanation). In his Syrische Grammatik [Syriac Grammar], p. 128,
Th. Nöldeke refers only to ‫ נתן‬/ n-t-n as root of the Syro-Aramaic infinitive Ltm /
mettal, without further explanation.
12 Cf. Nöldeke-Schwally, GdQ I 74–17.
13 Cf. Tor Andrae, Der Ursprung des Islams und das Christentum [Christianity and
the Origin of Islam] (Uppsala, 1926) 139: “The eschatalogical piety of the Qurʾān
is thus very closely related to the religious viewpoint predominant in the Syrian
churches before and at the time of Muhammed. This Syrian piety is actually a
monastic religion. . . .”
14 Pickthall translates as follows: “1. Read: In the name of thy Lord who createth, 2.
createth man from a clot. 3. Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous, 4. Who
teacheth by the pen, 5. Teacheth man that which be knew not. 6. Nay, but verily
man is rebellious 7. That he thinketh himself independent! 8. Lo! unto thy Lord is
the return. 9. Hast thou seen him who dissuadeth 10. A slave when he prayeth? 11.
Hast thou seen if he (relieth) on the guidance (of Allah) 12. Or enjoineth piety? 13.
Hast thou seen if he denieth (Allah's guidance) and is froward? 14. Is he then
unaware that Allah seeth? 15. Nay, but if he cease not. We will seize him by the
forelock 16. The lying, sinful forelock 17. Then let him call upon his henchmen!
18. We will call the guards of hell. 19. Nay! Obey not thou him. But prostrate
thyself, and draw near (unto Allah).”
15 The phrase that is cited in Nöldeke-Schwally, GdQ I 33, ‫ قرأ على فالن السالم‬and ‫قرأ‬
‫( فالنا السالم‬to greet someone) can certainly be traced back to the Syro-Aramaic
expression amlc arq (qrā šlāmā), as given in the Thes. (II 3713) and explained
with salutavit. The same is in Mannā 698: L[ amlc arq (qrā šlāmā ʿal): ‫ قرأ‬. ‫سلّم‬
‫ سالما على‬. The Lisān (XV 174a ff.) lists under the root ‫( قرا‬qarā) (with the variants
‫ قرو‬/ q-r-w and ‫ قرى‬/ q-r-y) a whole series of no longer common expressions in
modern Arabic that can only be explained on the basis of their Syro-Aramaic
origin. One of them is, for example, ‫( قرى الضيف‬qarā ḍ-ḍayf ), which the Lisān
(179b) conjecturally explains with “to honor a guest,” but which in Syro-Aramaic
means “to call = to invite” a guest. Also interesting are the further forms such as ‫إنه‬
ّ ‫ إنه لقر‬, whose form already betrays
‫ لمقرى للضيف ومقراء‬as well as ‫ى وإنھا لقريّة لألضياف‬
their Syro-Aramaic origin.
16 Cf. Thes. II 3713: …Mcb arq (qrā ḇ-šem) proclamavit nomen ejus; vocavit,
invocavit Deum. Furthermore in Mannā 698: ayrm Mcb arq (qrā b-šem māryā)
‫ عبد الرب‬.‫ سجد‬. ‫ صلّى‬. ‫( نوّه باسم الرب‬to invoke God’s name, to pray, to worship, to
worship God). G. Lüling, Über den Ur-Qur’ān [About the Original Qur’ān], p. 30;
A Challenge to Islam for Reformation, p. 32, was right in confirming this under-
standing by Gustav Weil and Hartwig Hirschfeld.
17 Avānī III 16, cited from: Jawād ʿAlī, al-Mufaṣṣal fī tārīḫ al-ʿArab qabl al- Islām
(Exhaustive History of the Arabs Before Islam), vol. 6, Beirut, 31980, p. 651.
18 In the article WARAQA b. Nawfal b. Asad al-Qurašī in the Shorter Encyclopaedia
of Islam (Leiden, 1934, 631) it is reported that Waraqa “encouraged and possibly
influenced the Prophet in the first years of his mission” (in Mecca). As a Christian
“he was abstemious, knew Hebrew, studied the Bible, and had written down” (i.e.,
translated) “the Gospels” (probably one Gospel) allegedly in the Hebrew alphabet.
It was he “who found Muḥammad as a child when he strayed from his nurse.” He
is also the one who “warmly approved” of the first marriage of the Prophet to
Waraqa’s cousin Ḫadīja. The (Islamic) tradition admits that Waraqa was nonethe-
less never converted (to Islam).
19 Arabic ‫( بيعة‬bīʿa) has already been recognized by S. Fraenkel, Aram. Fremdwörter
[Aramaic Foreign Words] 274, as a borrowing from Syro-Aramaic at[yb (bīʿtā)
(egg, dome = church); the plural ‫( بيع‬biyaʿ) occurs in the Qurʾān in Sura 22:40. The
expression is still common today among Arabic-speaking Christians in the
Mesopotamian region.
20 As a Syro-Aramaic substratum al-Munǧid fī l-luġa wa-l-aʿlām, Beirut 1987, 526b,
has recorded the expression ‫( العلق‬al-ʿalaq) in the meaning‫( الطين الذي يعلق باليد‬aṭ-
ṭīn al-laḏī yaʿlaq bi-l-yad) (the clay that sticks to one’s hand). This meaning is
missing in the Lisān.
21 Even though the meaning of the Arabic ‫( الزب‬lāzib) “sticky, clinging” is actually
clear, Paret (368) translates “of pliant [literally, consistent] clay,” [“aus geschmei-
digem (W: konsistentem) Lehm”], Blachère (475) “of solidified clay,” [“d’argile
solidifiée”]; and Bell (II, 443), approximately, “of clay cohering.”
22 Paret begins the sentence with “Nein!”; Blachère sees in it a warning: “Prenez
garde!” Like Paret, Bell understands “Nay.”
23 The same sense has the Syro-Aramaic adverbial expression rmgl / la-ḡmār
(Mannā 112b: ‫ بتّة‬.ّ‫ قط‬.‫ ابدا‬/ abadan, qaṭṭ, batta; C. Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum
121b: absolute, omnino [absolutely, completely, ever / never]).
24 Carl Brockelmann, Syrische Grammatik (Leipzig, 1938), p. 15; a more modern

reference book is Burkhart Kienast, Historische Semitische Sprachwissenschaft
(Wiesbaden, 2001).
25 This sense is attested in the Qurʾān in Sura 2:117 and 6:101: ‫ بديع السموت واالرض‬/
badīʿ as-samāwāt wa-l-arḍ = Syro-Aramaic a[raw aym\c dbA[ / ʿāḇeḏ šmayyā w-
arʿā (Creator of the heaven and the earth). The secondary Arabic verb ‫ بدأ‬/ badaʾa,
with the secondary common meaning “to begin,” has in the Qurʾān partially the
original meaning of “to create,” as it arises e.g., from Sura 7:29: ‫ كما بداكم تعودون‬/
kamā badākum or bada’akum taʿūdūn (As He created you, you will turn again)
(Bell I 139 translates: “As He began you, ye will come again”).
26 Cf. Th. Nöldeke, Syrische Grammatik [Syriac Grammar] § 223: “The personal
pronouns must also express the reflexive wherever this function is not already
performed by the verbal form… . That is, very often one uses acpn (nap̄ šā) “soul,”
and less frequently amwAnq (qnōmā) “person” with the personal suffixes for the
exact expression of the reflexive relationship. . . .” In Arabic the only way to
express the reflexive is by means of the equivalent expressions ‫( نفس‬nafs) and ‫حال‬
(ḥāl). Accordingly, ‫( إن رءاه‬in raʾā-hu—properly: rā-hu) in Arabic should have
properly been ‫( إن رأى نفسه‬in ra’ā nafsahu).
27 Gotthelf Bergstrāsser, Verneinungs- und Fragepartikeln und Verwandtes im
Kurʾān. Ein Beitrag zur historischen Grammatik des Arabischen [Negative,
Interrogative and Related Particles in the Qurʾān: A Study of the Historical
Grammar of Arabic] (Leipzig, 1914) 89–100. Concerning ‫( ارايت‬3-91) he says
laconically: “Subordinate clauses are occasionally inserted after a, but then the a is
usually repeated. The text causes more difficulties here than elsewhere. . . .”
28 Cf. Thes. I 47, particula (1) distinctiva; (48) (2) interrogativa, num, an, ne. The
Hebrew particle ‫( ה־‬ha) that Brockelmann associates with the Arabic interrogative
particle ‫( أ‬ʾa) in Arabische Grammatik [Arabic Grammar] § 86, note (a), would
suggest a sound shift from ha to ʾa. But the parallel use of ‫( أو‬ʾaw) and ‫( أ‬ʾa) as an
interrogative particle in the Qurʾān would seem to verify the creation of the latter
through the monophthongization of the Syro-Aramaic particle wa (aw). This,
however, does not rule out the possibility that the former was also first created
through a sound shift of the demonstrative particle wh (haw) to wa (ʾaw).
29 The Thes. (I 249) gives the spelling ˆya (ʾyn), in addition to â (ʾn), as Chaldean;
the first spelling also appears at times in Christian Palestinian (250): â . For
this: “Est ubi scriptum est ˆy . . .”
30 See Theodor Nöldeke, Mandäische Grammatik (Darmstadt, 1964), p. 162.
31 Cf. W. Diem, “Untersuchungen zur frühen Geschichte der arabischen Orthogra-
phie III. Endungen und Endschreibungen” [Studies in the Early History of Arabic
Orthography III: Endings and Their Spellings], in Orientalia, vol. 50, 1981, § 193,
378. But actually, this orthography goes back to an Eastern Syro-Aramean
(Babylonian) tradition.
32 The translation of the Qurʾānic plural ‫( انداد‬andād) by (gods) “of his own kind,” as
our Qurʾān translators render it, trusting in the Arabic commentators (e.g., Paret
at Sura 2:22), is therefore false.
33 In Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary 148: “The guardians of Hell.”
34 This would be justified as an appellative by the word determined by the Arabic
article ‫ ال‬/ al. The Qurʾān, however, does not always orient itself according to the
Arabic norm, and so it often happens that the Qurʾān also leaves out an article
required by Arabic, as in Sura 95:5, ‫ ثم رددنه اسفل سفلين‬, where what is seen in
Arabic as an indeterminate (and therefore as a false) genitive of the status con-
structus is considered as determinate (and as correct) in Syro-Aramaic. Variations
in both directions are to be observed in the Qurʾān, so that criteria of Arabic as
well as of Syro-Aramaic grammar must be taken into account depending on the
context. Cf. for example the variants in the old codices edited by Arthur Jeffery,
Materials for the History of the Text of the Qur’ān, Leiden 1937, p. 178 (Codex of
Ubai b. Ka‘b), Surah 95:5, where ‫( سفلين‬sāfilīn) is transmitted with the article ‫ ال‬/ al
: ‫( السافلين‬as-sāfilīn), “as Ibn Mas‘ūd.” The same occurs in the following Surah
96:16 : “He read ‫( الناصية الكاذبة الخاطئة‬an-nāṣiya al-kāḏiba al-ḫāṭiʾa). So Abū
Ḥaṣīn.”
35 Salwa Bā l-Ḥaǧǧ Ṣāliḥ al-ʿĀyub, Al-masīḥīya al-ʿarabīya wa taṭawwurātuhā min
našʾatihā ilā l-qarn ar-rābiʿ al-hiǧrī/ al-ʿāsir al-milādī [Arab Christianity and its
Development from its Origins to the Fourth Century of the Hegira/Tenth Century
of the Christian Era] (Beirut, 2007), part I, chapter 4, p. 89.
36 Namely, in Arabic the conjunction ‫ و‬/wa also has an explicative function, inclu-
ding that of a more detailed explanation.
37 Syro-Aramaic alk (klā) is the supposed lexical equivalent for Arabic ‫( نھى‬nahā).
For this, Mannā (337b) cites in Arabic, besides ‫ نفى‬.‫( نھى‬nahā, nafā) (to forbid),
also ‫ عاق‬.‫( ص ّد‬ṣadda, ʿāqa) (to hinder, to hold back).
38 Among the eight different aspects (apwxRp /parṣōpā) of the Syro-Aramaic
conjunction wa (aw) that Bar Bahlūl names, the Thes. (I 48) cites the “intensi-
fying” meaning designated with ryty (yattīr). This conjunction is also used with
such a meaning in the Qurʾān, in Sura 37:147, where it is said of Jonas ‫وارسلنه الى‬
‫“ مائة الف او يزيدون‬and we dispatched him to one hundred thousand or (even)
more.” The Arab philologists have noticed this nuance (see Lisān XIV 54b).
39 The single meaning of the Arabic borrowed verb ‫( أمر‬amara) “to command” does
not do justice to the present context. It is not a question of “commanding,” but
rather of the “beliefs” or “convictions” upon which the action is based. To that
extent the meaning given by Mannā (26a) in Arabic under (4) for the Syro-
Aramaic rma (emar) ‫( ارتأى‬irtaʾā) (to think, to consider, to ponder) is
appropriate.
40 Literally: Bow (instead) (to honor God). As a terminus technicus, ‫( سجد‬saǧada)
here means “to hold divine service.”
41 Ethel Stefana Drower and Rudolf Macuch, A Mandaic Dictionary (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1963), p. 383b.
42 The true meaning of the term ‫( عيد‬ʿīd), which occurs as a hapax legomenon in the
Qurʾān, has until now been overlooked. Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum (515b),
explains the derivation of Arabic ‫( عيد‬ʿīd) in the meaning “feast” as the phonetic
rendering of the common Aramaic pronunciation of ada[ (ʿēḏā >ʿīḏā). As a
faithful rendering of the Syro-Aramaic ady[ (ʿyāḏā), however, the Qurʾānic term
has accordingly, in addition to the original meaning of “practice, custom,” the
meaning of “liturgy,” which is clear here from the Qurʾānic context. Cf. also the
Thes. II 2827: Valet etiam ady[ (ʿyāḏā) ritus, caeremonia (rite, ceremony).
43 Vol. II, 1st edition (Cairo, 1928) 129.

44 This term is still used among the Arabic speaking Christians of the Near and
Middle East.
45 Cf. Thes I 514: Improprie de foetu, hnfb (baṭnāh): id quod conceperat.
46 Cf., e.g., C. Brockelmann, Arabische Grammatik [Arabic Grammar] § 85; Syrische
Grammatik [Syriac Grammar] § 201.
47 Cf. Thes. II on tjn (nḥeṯ) 2344, (γ) ortus est, genus duxit; further in C. Brockel-
mann, Lexicon Syriacum 424a, under 10: oriundus fuit (to spring from, to be
descended from, to be born).
48 Cf. Thes. II 2155: Valet etiam d Nm (men d-): postquam (after). Mannā, 407a:
Yhyrqd Nm (men da-qrāy) : ‫( حالما دعاه‬as soon as he called him).
49 Not to be confused with the temporal ‫ من‬in the sense of ‫ منذ‬، ‫( مذ‬cf., e.g., Lisān XIII
421 b): ‫( من سنة = مذ سنة‬min sanatin : for a year).
50 Discovered with the help of Syro-Aramaic.
51 Lisān II 98a. The reading ‫ النصار‬/ an-nuṣār results from the lexical equivalent of
Syro-Aramaic ajyxn / naṣīḥā, the meanings of which Mannā (461b) gives as
follows: (4) ‫ فائز‬.‫ قاھر‬.‫( مظفر‬successful, victorious, triumphant), and under (7)
‫ فاضل‬.‫ نبيل‬.‫ جليل‬.‫( شريف‬noble, honorable, highborn, illustrious). The Arabic
expression ‫ النصار‬/an-nuṣār renders the Syriac meaning under (4), presupposing
that the semantic nuance under (7) is included. Thus here ‫ النصار‬/an-nuṣār
means ‫ األشراف‬/ al-ašrāf (the notables).
52 Theodor Nöldeke writes about this influence in a work that he labels a “sketch:”
Die semitischen Sprachen [The Semitic Languages] (Leipzig, 21899) 52:
During the entire dominance of Aramaic this language had at least a great
influence on the vocabulary of Arabic. The more meticulous one’s
examination, the more one recognizes how many Arabic words signifying
concepts or objects of a certain culture have been borrowed from the
Arameans [Reference to the aforementioned work by Siegmund Fraenkel,
Die aramāischen Fremdwīrter (Aramaic Foreign Words)]. The northern
cultural influence expressed in these borrowings contributed considerably
to preparing the Arabs for their powerful intervention in world history.
Nöldeke correctly traces the richness of the Arabic vocabulary partially to the
arbitrarily devised expressions of Arabic poetry and partially to words that were
common only to individual tribes. His concluding opinion on the subject (58) is
all the more surprising:
But still the abundance of words is exceedingly large, and the Arabic
dictionary will always remain the principal aid in the search for
instruction on obscure expressions in other Semitic languages [where just
the opposite seems to be the case, though he then adds the qualifier]: only
if this occurs with the requisite amount of level-headedness; then it’s quite
all right.
53 Lisān II 98b; through the conjectural explanation of Arabic ‫( نحت‬naḥata) (97b) —
‫( النحت‬an-naḥt) with ‫( النشر والقشر‬an-našru wa-l-qašr): “to saw, to peel” —the
Lisān testifies to its ignorance of the original meaning of this root originally bor-
rowed from Aramaic, when, for example, it explains ‫ النحاتة‬/ an-nuḥātā with ‫ما‬
‫( نحت من الخشب‬mā nuḥita min al-ḫašab – “what has been planed from wood”). At
the same time, this nominal form already exhibits a direct borrowing from Syro-
Aramaic atjn (nḥāṯā) or atjwn (nūḥḥāṯā) with the correspondent meaning here,
“what has fallen off.” Also, ‫( نحت الجبل‬naḥata l-ǧabal) does not actually mean ‫قطعه‬
(qaṭaʿahu) “to cut,” but according to the original Syro-Aramaic meaning “to chop
off, to strike down” (the mountain); the same is true for ‫( النحائت‬an-naḥāʾit) (98a):
‫( آبار معروفة‬ābār maʿrūfa – “well-known wells”), whose original meaning the Lisān
again derives from “to cut.” The figurative sense “to degrade,” on the other hand,
derives from the following expressions (98b): ‫ المه وشتمه‬: ‫( نحته بلسانه‬naḥatahū bi-
lisānihi: lāmahu wa-šatamahū) (to “degrade” somebody with the tongue: to
rebuke, revile him); ‫( النحيت‬an-naḥīt) (< Syro-Aramaic tyjn / naḥīṯ) means
primarily that which is inferior, bad, reprehensible; ‫ ضربه بھا‬: ‫نحته بالعصا‬
(naḥatahū bi-l-ʿaṣā : ḍarabahu bi-hā— “to hit somebody with a stick,” actually in
this way “to degrade” him, “to knock” him “down” with it); the same is true when
one is said ‫ نكحھا‬: ‫( نحت المرأة‬naḥata l-marʾa: nakaḥahā – to “degrade = to
dishonor” a woman: to lie with her).
On the other hand, in his Lexicon Syriacum 424b, C. Brockelmann categorizes
the Syro-Aramaic tjn (nḥeṯ) etymologically with the Arabic ‫حت‬ ّ (ḥatta), and that
its first radical ‫ ن‬/ n (nūn) has fallen off suggests, in turn, according to the ex-
pressions cited in the Lisān (II 22a ff.), a borrowing from this very Syro-Aramaic
root with the original meaning “to fall off.” That this root was unknown to the
Arabs is shown not least by its reduction in colloquial modern Arabic to a verbal
form with the meaning “to rub off, to scratch off” (see, for example, Hans Wehr)
as well as “to become worn through use” (said of pieces of clothing and carpets,
actually “to be worn out, run down”).
54 Cf. Lisān II 98a where ‫( النحاتة‬an-nuḥāta) is explained with the help of ‫( البراية‬al-
burāya – “shavings”). For this unidentified Syro-Aramaic root in the Lisān the
derivation of the Arabic ‫( نحاتة‬nuḥāta) from Syro-Aramaic atjn (nḥāṯā) or
atjwn (nuḥḥāṯā) would nevertheless be obvious, whereby the Arabic feminine
ending is to be viewed occasionally as a purely phonetic rendering of the Syro-
Aramaic emphatic ending of the masculine nominal form. This, however, does not
rule out the possibility that an Arabic feminine ending may be derived from such
an ending in Syro-Aramaic. Concerning this nominal form Nöldeke writes in his
Beiträge zur semitischen Sprachwissenschaft [Essays on Semitic Linguistics]
(Strasbourg, 1904) 30, under Nomina of the Form Fuʿāl : “In Arabic, then, the
femininum ‫( فعالة‬fuʿāla) is still quite alive as the form of refuse, of shavings. This is
shown, among other things, by the fact that it can even be formed from recently
borrowed words.”
That Nöldeke, in the case of the examples named here ‫( نشارة‬nušāra) (wood
shavings) and ‫( كناسة‬kunāsa) (sweepings), does not already recognize a borrowing
from the Syro-Aramaic equivalents that he has also cited, atrsn (nsārtā) and
atcnk (knāštā), may be because he views his presentation from the sole per-
spective of a neutral study in comparative Semitistics. The same applies for the
Arabic form ‫( فعال‬fuʿāl), which Nöldeke would like to see as separate from the
preceding form, but which seems merely to be the Arabic pausal form or the
reproduction of the status absolutus of the Syro-Aramaic nominal form al[p
(pʿālā), as several of the examples he cites also attest. Thus ‫( سعال‬suʿāl) (coughing)
can most likely be derived from al[c (šʿālā), ‫( عطاس‬ʿuṭās) (sneezing) from
acf[ (ʿṭāšā), ‫( خناق‬ḫunāq) (angina) from aqnj (ḥnāqā). Other forms derived
from Arabic roots would be merely analogous formations. From a purely philolo-
gical perspective, comparative Semitics may be useful, but it leads one all too easily
to blur the reciprocal influences, relevant to cultural history, of its individual
languages.
55 Although not specifically in the meaning “to be delivered of, to give birth to,” but
in the general meaning “to send down, to drop, to lower,” the Eastern Syrian
lexicographers include among the various derivations the following Arabic equi-
valents: ‫( أنزل‬anzala), ‫( أخفض‬aḫfaḍa), ‫( حط‬ḥaṭṭa), ‫( واضع‬wāḍaʿa). (Cf. Thes. II
2344 f.; Mannā 442b f.). Since the Thes. does not provide any examples for tjn
(naḥḥeṯ) in the meaning “to be delivered of, to give birth to,” it would be interes-
ting to document this usage in other Aramaic dialects.
56 Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebrāisches und aramāisches Handwörterbuch [Concise
Dictionary of Hebrew and Aramaic], 1915, unrev. reprint (Berlin, Göttingen,
Stuttgart, 171959) 512b, under (b).
57 What is striking here is that, regarding the “sent-down Scriptures” in the sense of
revelations, the Qurʾān usually employs the Arabic ‫( انزل‬anzala – “to have come
down, to send down”) in addition to ‫( آتى‬ātā < Syro-Aramaic Ytya / aytī – “to
have come, to bring, to deliver”).
58 Cf. GdQ I 117–143; but on page 130 (line 3) it is conceded: “The Surah is the
oldest, or at least one of the oldest, in which holy persons from the New
Testament such as Mary, Zachary, John the Baptist and Jesus are mentioned.”
59 Cf. Lisān XIV 377b: ‫ المروءة والشرف‬: ‫( السرو‬as-sarwa: al-murūʾa wa-š-šaraf –
“manfulness, noblemindedness”); 378a: additional remarks on ‫ي‬ ّ ‫( سر‬sarī) in the
meaning of ‫( شريف‬šarīf) (noble, nobleminded).
60 The compiler of the Lisān nevertheless saw no reason not to include the unrecog-
nized Syro-Aramaic expression ‫( سري‬sarī) in the supposed meaning of ‫( نھر‬nahr)
(river) and ‫( جدول‬ǧadwal) (brook) and to cite in connection with it the
corresponding misinterpretation by the Qurʾān commentators: ‫النھر الصغير‬
‫“( كالجدول يجري إلى النخل‬a small or a stream-like river that flows to the palms”)
(Lisān XIV 380a). As we shall see, this is not an isolated case of misread and mis-
understood Qurʾānic expressions that have been accepted into the Arabic lexico-
graphy without being contested up to the present day. But also other expressions
cited by the Lisān under the root ‫( شري‬šariya) and ‫( سري‬sariya) and explained by
means of folk etymology provide ample proof of their Aramaic origins. To point
these out here, however, would be to exceed the scope of this study. It would
therefore be of eminent importance not only from the standpoint of cultural
history, but also from that of philology, to scrutinize the Arabic lexicon for the
countless Aramaisms that have until now been overlooked or falsely taken to be
“Old Arabic.”
61 Blachère, loc. cit. 331, notes 23–32.
62 Bell, loc. cit. I 286, note 2.
63 Wilhelm Rudolph, Die Abhāngigkeit des Qorans von Judentum und Christentum
[The Dependence of the Qurʾān on Judaism and Christianity] (Stuttgart, 1922) 79.
64 Blachère 331, notes 23–32.
65 Ṭabarī XVI 63.
66 Cf. C. Brockelmann, Syrische Grammatik [Syriac Grammar] § 167.
67 The Qurʾānic spelling ‫ سرقيا‬is to be read sarqīyā according to Syro-Aramaic
/sarqāyā (empty = waste) and not as Arabic ‫ شرقيا‬/ šarqīyā (to a place,) “eastward”
(Bell). The Syro-Aramaic reading is logically confirmed by the parallel verse 22,
where it is said that Mary, after having become pregnant, was expelled with her
child to a place “far away ” (makānan qaṣīyā): ‫فحملته فانتبذت به مكانا قصيا‬
68 Cf., e.g., Lk. 2:18: atw[R ˆm ˆwhl Yllmtad ˆylya L[ wrmdta Hw[mcd ˆwhlkw (w-
ḵullhōn da-šmaʿū eddammarū ʿal aylēn d-eṯmallalī l-hōn men rāʿawwāṯā) “And all
they that heard (it) wondered at those (things) which were told them by the
shepherds” (from the Syriac Bible 63DC, United Bible Societies [London, 1979]
77a). The Qurʾān, moreover, has the same passive construction in Sura 21:43,
where it is said of the idols: ‫“ يستطيعون نصر انفسھم وال ھم منا يصحبون ال‬they are
not (even) capable of helping themselves nor are they (as idols) accompanied by
us (as helpers)” (i.e., nor are we put with them as god).
This construction, which is indefensible from the point of view of Arabic
syntax, also confuses our Qurʾān translators. Paret, for instance, translates (265):
“(– Götter) die weder sich selber Hilfe zu leisten vermögen noch (irgendwo) gegen
uns Beistand finden [(– gods) who neither are capable of rendering themselves
assistance nor find assistance against us (anywhere)] (?wa-lā hum minnā
yuṣḥabūna).” Similarly Blachère (351): “et il ne leur est pas donné de compagnon
contre nous [and they are not given a companion against us]” Only Bell translates
correctly in terms of the meaning (I 308b 44): “and from Us they will have no
company.”
69 Cf. C. Brockelmann, Arabische Grammatik [Arabic Grammar] § 96.
70 See Thes. II 4308: arc (šārā) absolvens; solvit, liberavit. Further, Mannā 816b
(among the 27 different meanings of arc šrā) (21): ‫ ضد حرّم‬. ‫ حلّل‬. ‫( اذن‬to allow,
to declare legitimate; opposite of to forbid, to declare illegitimate), and under ayrc
šaryā (7): ‫ خالف ممنوع ومحرّم‬.‫ مباح‬.‫( حالل‬legitimate, allowed, opposite of forbidden
and illegitimate). C. Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum [Syriac Lexicon] 804a: 6.
ayrc (šaryā): licet (it is allowed, legitimate).
71 For the Qurʾānic expression ‫( وقري عينا‬wa-qarrī =aynan), Mannā gives (698a) as
the Syro-Aramaic equivalent any[ trwq qurraṯ ʿaynā), ajwr abl trwq qurraṯ
lebbā, rūḥā): ‫ تعزية‬. ‫ فرح‬. ‫( قرّة العين‬qurratu l-ʿayn, faraḥ, taʿziya) (cheerfulness,
joy, consolation); see also Thes. II 3711: ajwr trwq (qurraṯ rūḥā): consolatio
(consolation).

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Christmas and the Eucharist in the Qurʾān

1. Language of the Koran

2. St. Peter: Persevere in Your Prayers: Surah 108 (al-Kawṯar –

These three verses are rendered according to the Arabic understanding as

Blachère 668: 1 En vérité, Nous t’avons donné l’Abondance.4 2 Prie donc en

way into Arabic in the meaning of abundance. This is also, as it is often

3. Excursus: On the Etymology of the Arabic Root ‫ أعطى‬/ aʿṭā

4. Christian Epistolary Literature in the Qurʾān (Surah 108)

8 Wake up (Brothers) and be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a

Syro-Aramaic expression familiar to it. With ‫( من علق‬min ʿalaq) what is meant

6. Excursus: On the Etymology of the Verbal Root ‫( طغى‬ṭaġā)

7. On the Origin of the Arabic Final Hamza

Syro-Aramaic origin, are to read likewise as hudā wa-šifā (after dropping

8. Continuation of Surah 96:6

8.4 Excursus: (a) On the Meaning of the Particle ‫ أ‬/ʾa

8.6 The Solution of Verses 9 to 14

11–12. The second ‫ ارءيت‬is to be understood as a question in the sense

13–14. Parallel to Verse 9, the repeated ‫ ارءيت‬is in turn to be read ‫إن‬

Aramaic meaning clear. Namely, therein ʿĀʾiša is recorded as

In the same way as for ‫( ناصية‬nāṣiya, but actually naṣṣāyā), the

17. The expression ‫( ناديه‬nādiyahu), which occurs here, must be rede-

or “idols” designated with synonymous expressions in Syro-

18. The expression ‫( الزبانية‬until now pronounced az-zabāniya)33 is still

charist). The latter meaning is logically to be assumed provided

10. ʿabdan iḏā ṣallā

According to this understanding, Surah 96 proves to be a unified composition

Aramaic term. An important task in the history of religion would be to find

importance in terms of the history of religion has in a similar way been

9. Surah 5: al-Māʾida – “the Table”: The Last Supper in the

Paret’s commentary and concordance:

Bell translates as follows:

Bell’s footnote to the whole scene (Q 5:112–115):

Paret’s German translation is quite similar to Bell’s:

In his reply, God says (according to R. Blachère, op.cit., verse 115)

Nothing to verse Q 5:115 in Paret’s Kommentar und Konkordanz. Bell’s

Paret’s version of Q 5:114 is very similar to Bell’s:

10. Surah 19: Mary

Régis Blachère tries to soften this rather unlikely interpretation by translating

Paret’s commentary and concordance:

Bell’s version of Q 19:24:

Bell’s footnote to “he:” “Probably ‘the child.’”

There is no agreement among the Arab commentators on the Qurʾān about

For Arabic ‫( تحت‬taḥta), which is understood as the preposition under by all of

The memory of an earlier nominal use of ‫( تحت‬taḥt) has, moreover, been

As a conjecture the Lisān explains the expression ‫( نحيت‬naḥīt) as ‫( دخيل‬daḫīl)

Still, the above-mentioned evidence merely confirms the Syro-Aramaic

Based on this understanding, the concerns expressed by Paret in his Qurʾān

The passive usage is additionally confirmed here by the preposition ‫( من‬min)

But this unphilological and conjectural reading and interpretation, unfor-

is now, after this elucidation of its original meaning, to be understood as

11. Christmas in the Qurʾān—Surah 97: al-Qadr – “the Destiny”

connected to a liturgy of Christmas. The author believes he has recognized

Paret’s commentary und concordance:

tation 3) gives several interpretations and translates it (as follows, cited by

In his introduction to the Surah, Bell writes:

Bell’s footnote to “it” in verse 1:

Bell’s footnote to “Night of Power” in verse 1:

Bell’s footnote to the whole verse 4:

Paret’s German version: