The history of the quran noldeke pdf

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Finding libraries that hold this item. We use cookies to give you the best possible experience. By using our website you agree to our use of cookies. Dispatched from the UK in 10 business days When will my order arrive? Angelika Neuwirth. Theodor Noldeke. Etan Kohlberg. Prices from excl. VAT :. View PDF Flyer. Contents About. Pages: i—xxvi. Pages: 1— Pages: 17— Pages: 47— Pages: 55— Pages: 63— Pages: 97— Pages: — Pages: Biographical Note Wolfgang Behn has translated several works from German, Dutch and Arabic and collected, compiled and published four bibliographies, including the Concise Biographical Companion to Index Islamicus Brill, Save Cite Email this content Share link with colleague or librarian You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:.

Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Middle East and Islamic Studies. The Spiritual Background of Early Islam. Sign in to annotate. He became the heir to the project but was not its originator. He considered it a duty to continue and pre- serve this heritage with which he came to identify himself. Although he came to realize that his pet project, the science of qirt, was of secondary importance when viewed in proper perspective, he became so interested in this dry subject that early in his research he took lessons in Koranic read- ing from a Turkish muqri.

He became unbelievably competent in the most varied minutae of the practical aspects of the qirt, so much so that he once even astonished an old Damascene muqri with this particular compe- tence.

Anton Spitaler, one of Pretzls students, was a witness to the surprise and admiration which Pretzls proficiency caused at this muqris reception. This competence in a field which is the innate domain of Muslims was xiv preface to this edition undoubtedly one reason why Pretzl was a favourite in Muslim circles. In no time was he able to winthe hearts of all, fromthe peevishand sceptical fi of a mosque library to the most inaccessible director of a museum.

When- ever he returned to Istanbul he was a welcome guest of dignified sheikhs and scholars. But Otto Pretzl became the only author to see the complete History of the Qurn in print. He died in an aircraft crash in while on military duty in Germany. For example, Bergstrers need to accentuate the point he is making by spaced type is a reflection on the kind of style the reader has to wade through.

In the original, some of Schwallys paragraphs run up to a solid five pages. An attempt has been made to break up paragraphs of more than one page in length, but this has not always been possible. It also makes rough reading when, for example, several lines of refer- ences are wedged in p.

The over-use of spaced type, exclamation marks on one occasion there are 17 on 14 pages , and the superlative are signs of stylistic weakness. Wherever possible the references to Germanwritings have beenreplaced by English translations that have appeared over the years. Conversely, the English originals have been usedindicating volume and pagewhere Nldekes original edition included German translations, namely the writ- ings of J.

Burckhardt, Richard Burton, E. Lane, Adam Mez, Wm. Muir, E. Palmer, and George Sale. Some of the Arabic texts are fully vocalized in the German edition. Most of such texts appear here either without vowel marks at all or with the vocalization reduced to the decisive vowel.

The translations from the Koran are normally those of Arthur Arberry, but occasionally, for the sake of harmonizing with the context, they have been modified or replaced by some other rendering. The translator is much obliged to Mrs. Anna Evans, Professor Arberrys daughter, for permitting the quotations from her fathers work. Muslim personal names are listed under their first element. If, however, a Muslim writer is not generally known by the first part of his name, that 1 Anton Spitaler, Otto Pretzl, ; ein Nachruf.

Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgen- lndischen Gesellschaft, 99 , To facilitate the location of a passage in the German original, in the left margin reference is made to the first new paragraph of a page of the separately paginated three parts of the German text, but as some German paragraphs run over several pages, there are sometimes long gaps between these references.

However, as an aid, newdivisions have been introduced at the discretion of the translator, wherever this was possible. VIIVIII] Inthe year the honourable publisher surprised me withaninquiry as to whether I would be prepared to produce a second edition of my Geschichte des Qorns, or, in case of a negative reply, I could suggest a suitable scholar for the task. For a number of reasons I was unable to oblige to produce such a revision in the formwhich would somehowsatisfy myself.

After brief considerations I suggestedmy oldstudent andfriend, Professor Schwally, for the enterprise; and he obligingly agreed. The book which I had completed half a century earlier in a rush, he brought up to current requirements as far as this was possible. I purposely say as far as possible because the traces of youthful boldness could not be entirely obliterated without resulting in an entirely different work. Many a thing that I had presented with more or less certainty later turned out to be rather dubious.

My personal copy contained haphazard unimportant notes which Schwally was free to use. The result, which is nowpresented in printed form, I proof-read once. In so doing I made all sorts of marginal notes but left it to him whether or not to incorporate them. I did not check every detail, and by no means did I make researches as if it had been my own rewritten text. Thus, the second edition has the advantage of being the result of two schol- ars researches, but also the disadvantage that the responsibility is divided between the two of them.

It seems doubtful that I shall be able to proof-read the second part since my failing eyesight is making reading increasingly difficult. Herrenalb Wrttemberg , August, Nldekes Geschichte des Qorns I did not doubt for a moment that the new edition of this book, which in the world of learning was con- sidered a standard work, must proceed with great care.

Although it would have been far easier to produce a new book by making use of the first edi- tion, I did not consider myself justified to do so. Rather, I attempted to bring the text up to the current state of research by making as few changes as possible. Only when such means failed did I decide on radical changes or extensive additions. In spite of this conservative procedure the volume of the present first part has grown by five sheets of paper.

In viewof this work- ing procedure it turned out to be impossible to indicate changes from the first edition. Nearly all the discussions regarding Muir, Sprenger, and Weil I retained. Even if the view of these scholars is now largely outdated, their research is of lasting importance. Relatively fewworks on the genesis of the Koran have appeared during the last four decades. The number of valuable publications is evenfewer.

If anything substantial has beenomittedthis is purely acciden- tal. In general, the Arabic works of tradition are quoted according to books, chapters and paragraphs respectively. Whenever passages were too volumi- nous, references to volume and page number of a certain edition had to be added.

In the literature of adth there is regrettably no counterpart to the established pagination of the Talmud. For advice and corrections I am grateful to Th. Nldeke, my dear teacher and author of the first edition. I am much obliged to the two scholars to whom this work could be dedicated, my highly esteemed friend Professor Dr. Snouck Hurgronje of Leiden. Only after my manuscript had been completed, and uponmy request, did Th. Nldeke and I. Goldziher make their private copies of the book available to me for a few days.

The Preuische Akademie der Wissenschaften, and the Ministry of State of the Grand Duchy of Hesse enabled me with their financial support to conduct research in Cairo, the very centre of Muslim learning, for which I here take the opportunity to express my most respectful thanks. The supervision of the printing, which had commenced in the Spring of , I had to interrupt for half a year because of most urgent research in Turkey.

The second section of the work, including the literary introduction, is scheduled to appear next year. The preliminaries for the third section came to a halt at an important moment since it has not been possible for me to study the old manuscripts of the Koran at the libraries of Paris, London, and Petersburg.

During last years visit to Constantinople none of these codices was accessible to me. Still, I am optimistic that also those treasures, which have been too well-guarded for too long, will be made accessible to me. Giessen, August 27, Fr. IIIIV] On 5 February of this year the author of the second section of the book, my dear brother-in-law, Friedrich Schwally, expired in his fifty-sixth year as one of the many casualties of the Anglo-American starvation blockade to which his frail health finally succumbed.

Until the last weeks before his death he was strenuously busy with the completion of the manuscript of the Geschichte des Qorns. Thus, at the time of his death, the manuscript of the second part of this work was nearly ready to be sent to the printers. In such circumstances it could easily be seen through the press also by a Semitic scholar who, like the present writer, was not anArabist. This taskwas supported by my local colleague, August Fischer, who kindly agreed to share inthe professional proof-reading andrevision, thus guaranteeing the proper and consistent choice and romanization of Arabic names and book titles which had not been entirely completed in the manuscript.

August Fischer also supplied some additions which led to the correction of some actual errors as well as some references to important works which have appeared recently. The present second part of the History of the Koran together with its literary-historical supplement is not only more voluminous than the cor- responding second part and the literary introduction of the first edition of Nldekes edition because Schwally went much further and considered a wealth of new source material and the important advances in the field during the last sixty years.

In comparison to the first part, this second part changed to such an extent that, as he repeatedly emphasized, little of Nldekes original work remained.

This second volume constitutes largely Schwallys own contribution. As pointed out above, Schwallys manuscript could essentially be sent straight to the printers without textual changes. The final part of the literary-historical supplement, whichtreats more recent Christian investigations, has been taken over without changes, although, unlike the rest of the work, there existed no final draft, and it is likely that Schwally would have made minor changes and possibly additions.

This applies in particular to additional translations of the Koran as well as the corrections at the end, which have been incorporated in the present text.

There are indications in the manuscript to supplementary information but, unfortunately, this could no longer be discovered. Upon my request, Gotthelf Bergstrer, Schwallys successor to the chair at the Universitt Knigsberg, kindly agreed to look after this third part by utilizing Schwallys remaining materialfor which, incidentally, he had already completed all sorts of preliminary investigation during his stay at Constantinopleas soon as his other literary commitments would permit.

There is, thus, a good chance that a new edition of Theodor Nldekes excellent first publication does not remain unfinished so that it can be presented to the public within a short time. May our respected old master live long enough to see this. There are, first of all, those that he would have most likely made himself if he had been granted to put the final touches on his manuscript, and then see it through the printers himself.

Then there are such that he would have readily accepted when suggested by competent outsiders. With the consent of the publisher, the type of additions and corrections which required only minor changes in the type I tacitly made directly on the proofs. Death swept away two scholars who had been entrusted with the production of the second edition. Friedrich Schwally died on 5 February, , having worked on the first two volumes until he breathed his last. Got- thelf Bergstrer thencontinuedwiththe thirdvolume.

He was still working on the third and final instalment of the History of the Text of the Koran when he died on 16 August, The first two instalments had been pub- lished already in and respectively. The reason for the long delay of the remaining part was the accumulated bulk of unknown manuscript source material which had been unearthed on his initiative.

It thus hap- pened that Bergstrer spent the last years of his busy life doing preliminary work without being able to make use of it himself. As his colleague it fell to me to complete the work. In , he himself saw the text through the printers down to page For the continuation of the part on the historical development I discovered an outline among his papersas main source for this served a nearly complete edition of Ibn al-Jazar, abaqt al-qurr, authored by him.

It was pure accident that we had agreed ona mutual work- ing scheme, where I became responsible for the literature of the reading variants according to manuscript sources. This was intended to constitute the main part of the third instalment. Precisely on this subject I had just then published a lengthy paper entitled Die Wissenschaft der Koranlesung ilm al-qirah , ihre literarischen Quellen und ihre Aussprachegrundlagen ul.

The results have been used mainly in the chapter on manuscripts of the Koran. Bergstrer left valuable material on variant readings of the Koran nearly ready togotothe printers, viz. For his two editions of the shawdhdh works of Ibn Jinn and Ibn Khlawayh he had completed the preliminary research, without leaving written notes.

I could not get myself to include Bergstrers completed collection of the canonical variants without the far more important uncanonical ones. I think that I can justify this change of his plan since the arbitrarily selected reading xxvi pretzl [preface to the german edition, part 3, pp. An edition of the shawdhdh would have unduly postponed the publication of the work, and this particularly since the most comprehensive and impor- tant source material became known only after the death of Bergstrer.

I hope that my presentation of the main differences of the pronunciation of the readers of the Koran qurr with special reference to the general tajwd-rules of pronunciationsatisfies the most urgent need of scholar- ship. The realization of Bergstrers plan is intended to fit the framework of his projected apparatus criticus to the Koran. I am much obliged to Dr. Anneliese Gottschalk-Baur for her detailed indexes to the three parts which she competently compiled. I acknowledge with thanks the generous support from the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften which enabled me to complete my prede- cessors work.

This assistance enabled me to study the much neglected field of the variant readings of the Koran at libraries in Europe and the Orient, and accumulate a large photographic archive of manuscripts of the Koran as well as Koran-related works. For this purpose I received considerable funds for the acquisition of photographs from the Einjahrhundert-Stiftung [centenary foundation] of the Universitt Mnchen as well as fromthe Uni- versittsgesellschaft Mnchen.

I was much encouraged to carry on the difficult task of my great prede- cessors, in particular the kindly promised and readily granted help of Herrn Geheimen Hofrat Dr.

Fischer, Leipzig. He read the proofs and corrected many a mistake and obscurity. Jeffery, Cairo, obligingly shared with me and my predecessor the treasure of his own Koranic researches. My sin- cere thanks are due to these gentlemen as well as to my assistant, Dr. Anton Spitaler, who was most helpful and displayed great understanding and inde- fatigable diligence when it came to reading the proofs.

Since I can no longer thank the scholar to whomI amindebted most, my respected and unforgettable teacher, Gotthelf Bergstrer, I am asking his wife to accept the dedication of the book, in the completion of which she participated like no one else as the partner of her husband.

Mnchen, 26 January Dr. The essence of a prophet is that his mind becomes so filled and taken by a religious idea that he ultimately feels compelled, as though driven by a divine force, to announce that idea to his peers as a God-given truth. Jesus of Nazareth wanted to be more than a prophet. He felt that he was the promised messiah of Israels prophets and the founder of a new religion of the heart and sentiment.

Indeed he knew how to instil in his community the belief that he, as the Son of God and Lord of the faithful, would enter into the glory of the Father in spite of his martyrdomand death. Among the original Christian communities, too, the prophetic spirit beat its wings, although after the decline of Montanism it was forced to retreat to the most distant corners of obscure sects. Let us state here that all the other Semitic languages derive their expression for prophet from the Hebrew.

Yet as soon as an attempt is made to teach it in schools or pass it on, and organize prophets in guilds, it quickly becomes reduced to a profession. Typical of the essence of the genuine prophet is Amos, I am no prophet by class , neither a prophets son, but an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: And Yahweh took me as I followed the flock, and said unto me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel.

That Muammad was a true prophet 4 must be conceded if one considers his character carefully and without prejudice, and properly interprets the notion of prophethood. One could perhaps object that the main tenets of his teaching are not the prod- uct of his own mind but rather originate from Jews and Christians. While the best parts of Islam certainly do have this origin, the way Muammad utilized these precursors spiritually, how he considered them a revelation descended from God, destined to be preached to all mankind, shows him to be a true prophet.

Indeed, if possessing entirely new and unprecedented ideas were the only prerequisite of prophethood, would not then every last man of God and founder of a religion be denied the title of prophet?

On the contrary, we must recognize the fervour of prophethood, frequently border- ing on fanaticism, in Muammads receiving those external ideas, carrying themwith himduring his long solitude, and allowing themto influence and shape his own thinking until, at long last, his decisive inner voice obliged him to face his countrymen and attempt to convert them, despite danger and ridicule.

How else could he have preached so fervently in the Koran against the deniers, whom he threatened with the most horrible torments of hell, confessing that he himself would have suffered divine chastisement if he had not proclaimed the complete reve- lation? Snouck-Hurgronje, Une nouvelle biographie de Mohammed They venerated their ancient gods, but without true faith, their cult was sacred only in so far as it was taken over fromtheir ancestors and, like all other traditions, mere superstitio.

Added to the testament of such a numerous following is especially the fact that menfromnotedfamilies, raisedinthe pedigree-arrogance of the thoroughly aristocratic Arab, joined a sect consisting largely of slaves, freedmen, and individuals fromthe lowest strata of society, even though their countrymen considered this to be the greatest shame, solely because of their enthusiasm for the Prophet and his teaching. Furthermore, there is the fact, which the Muslims naturally tried to hide, that Muammad was by nature a soft, even fearful person who initially did not dare to make public appearances.

His inner voice, however, allowed him no peace. He was compelled to preach and, whenever he felt discouraged, to rally his spirits in the face of the ridicule and insults of his early friends. If prophecy in general originates from excited fantasy anddirect impulse of feeling rather thanfromspeculative reasoning, it is the latter that Muammad was lacking. Although endowed with great practical acumen, without which he would have never been triumphant over his enemies, he was almost totally incapable of logical abstraction.

As a consequence, he regarded whatever moved his inner self as coming from external, heavenly sources. He never questioned his belief, relying on his instinct as it led here and there, for it was precisely this instinct that he considered to be the voice of God, destined uniquely for him.

The superficial, literal interpretation of the revelation, which forms the basis of Islam, follows from this. Connected with this is the fact Muammad presented those sras that he clearly produced with conscious effort, using foreign stories, as the first fruit of his excited mind and a real, divine message. This reproach, however, can equally be heaped upon the Israelite prophets who presented their literary products as the words of Yahweh Sabaoth.

Yet in general such claims, here or elsewhere, are not made purposely to deceive but rather follow from a nave belief. Juynboll, Encyclopedia of canonical adth, p. There is little likelihood that his enemies at any time could resort to bodily maltreatment because the honour of his protectors and all the Ban Hshim, believing and disbelieving alike, wouldhave demandedrevenge. Alsothe reports concerning Muammads unprotected followers are certainly an exaggeration. In spite of thisas we shall see later 10 Muammaddidnot intendevery revelationto be proclaimedinthe Koran, nor indeed did he present all of his communications as revelations.

When reviewing these facts it must not be overlooked that at that time religionand the social order were closely connected, andthat by involving Godinthe most humanaffairs daily life thus became elevated to a higher, divine sphere.

The nave thinker that he was, Muammad was forced to consider per- missible everything that didnot blatantly conflict withthe voice of his heart. Since he was not endowed with an acute and robust perception of good and evilwhich alone can save a person walking in the heights of humanity from the most suspicious lapseshe did not hesitate to use reprehensible means, even pious fraud, 11 to spread his belief.

While Muslimwriters tend to hide these traits, European biographers of the Prophet are easily shocked at one moral indignation after another. Both conceptions are equally unhis- torical. It would be a miracle if prophets were without blemish and sin, particularly in the case of Muammad, who was at the same time a mili- tary leader and statesman. If we knew as much of the private lives of other prophets as we know of Muammad, some of them would be less exalted than they now appear to be on the basis of the fragmentary surviving liter- ature, endlessly sifted through throughout the centuries.

Muammad was no saint, and did not aspire to be one ; , etc. We will hardly ever be able to tell for sure how much of our criticism owes to the semi-barbaric conditions of the time, to his good faith, or to the weakness of his charac- ter.

The central point is that until he breathed his last he was struggling for his God, for the salvation of his peopleeven all of humanityand that he never lost faith in his divine mission. Sprenger rightfully says in his Life of Mohammad, p. This applies not only to the field of religion, but equally to political and other affairs. Muammads entire doctrine carries already in its first sras the obvious traces of this origin. It would be superfluous to explain here that not only most of the histories of the prophets in the Koran but also many of the dogmas and laws are of Jewish origin.

For example, the familiar Muslim creed,. Jews were, of course, numerous in several regions of Arabia, particularly in the vicinity of Yathrib, which had multiple connections with Muammads place of birth; they must have visited Mecca frequently as well. By the same token, Oriental Christianity ingeneral was strongly infused with Jewish ideas.

In education and edification throughout the ancient Church the New Testament always took the second place to the Old Tes- tament.

Christianity in particular had experienced a notable proliferation in the Arabian Peninsula 14 among the tribes of the Byzantine-Persian bor- der Kalb, Tayyi, Tankh, Taghlib, Bakr , in the interior among the Tamm, and in the Yemen, which for a long time had been politically subservient to Christian Abyssinia.

Wherever Christianity had not become established at least some knowledge of it prevailed. Some of the best-known pre-Islamic poets, though remaining pagan, display familiarity with Christianity in their attitude and thinking. We must therefore recognize that apart from Jewish influence on the Prophet there was also a Christian counterpart. In view of 12 It would be desirable that a profound scholar of ancient Arabia, Islam, and Jewish lit- erature would continue Abraham Geigers penetrating study, Was hat Mohamed aus dem Judentum aufgenommen The Arabic as well as the Jewish sources Midrashim , are now of such abundance that the mere reprint of the work Leipzig, was totally super- fluous.

ZDMG, 12 , Julius Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heiligtums Berlin, , pp. In some instances the Christian origin is beyond doubt. For me this includes the institution of vigils, several forms of the prayer rite, the designation of revelationas , whichcanhave beenderivedonly fromChristianAramaic furqn in the meaning of redemption, cf.

These facts might lead to the conclusion that Islam is basically a reli- gion following in the footsteps of Christianity, or, even further, that it is the manifestation in which Christianity entered Greater Arabia.

This combi- nation would find a welcome support in the verdict of Muammads con- temporaries. The Arabian disbelievers frequently called his followers Sabi- ans, who were closely related to certain Christian sects Mandaeans, Elke- saites, Hemerobaptists.

On the other hand, Muslims consider themselves to be descendants of the anfs, people who, disillusioned with paganism, sought fulfilment in Christian and Jewish teachings. Since this name was also applied to Christian ascetics, this would strongly suggest that the Mus- lims were particularly close to Christians.

The emigration of some followers of the Prophet to the Christian King of Abyssinia would also fit into that pic- ture. For this reason the Old Testament stories in the Koran are much closer to Haggadic embellishments than their originals; 15 the New Testament stories are totally legendary and display some common features with the reports of the apocryphal Gospels, e.

The only brief passage of the Koran copied verbatimfromthe Old Testament is sra For We have written in Psalms, The earth shall be the inheritance of My righteous servants; cf. Psalms, Geiger, Was hat Mohamed aus demJudentumaufgenommen.

Ibn Sad abaqt Biographie Muhammads bis zur Flucht, p. It is knownthat sra has beenreferredto as evidence that Muammadallegedly hadreadthe Bible. Marraccis idea Pronomi adrefutationem, Alco- rani, vol. The Arabian Christians, who, by the way, were far less numerous than Sprenger thinks, were to a large extent rather superficially converted.

Caliph Al is supposed to have remarked regarding one of the tribes among whomChristianity had translate this by , which would prove the unthinkable, i. John is translated by. But also this is wrong. Such a corruption of the text cannot be explained by no matter what; this cannot be documented either in a Syriac or Arabic transmission.

Rather, the different forms of the name Paraclete encountered among Muslims pretty much all correspond to with or without the of the Aramaic stat. Marracci, loc. Sezgin, GAS, vol. If Ibn Hishm, loc. John lists also as a name of Muammad, this is nothing but the usual translation of - mnahmn inthe dialect of ChristianPalestinianAramaic cf.

Schwally, Idioticon which, misled by the outward sound, he erroneously associates with. In Talmud and Midrash the name of the Jewish Messiah is not uncommon, cf.

Levy, Neuhebrisches Wrterbuch, vol. Rsch, Die Namen, p. Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, also consid- ered himself a Paraclete; cf. Flgel, Mn, pp. II, Incidentally, there are still other Aramaic names for the Prophet, e. Diyrbakr, Tarkh al-khams, vol. Sprenger Leben und die Lehre, vol. But all the arguments supporting this view and advanced by Sprenger himselfand afterwards by H. Hirschfeld New researches, pp.

Bethge Ramn et Amad, p. Caetani Annali dellislam, vol. Ibn Sad al-abaqt, vol. There is not the least reason to distrust these references.

What on earth ought to have been the reason for the forgery? By the way, the name on a Greek inscription from Palmyra, anno Seleuc. The rabbis and clergy were thus obliged to translate foreign prayers, liturgies, hymns and homilies into Arabic. Although it is unlikely that they ever expressed their own theological writings in Arabicas can be seen from existing Syriac works of ancient Arab clericsit is neverthe- less conceivable that people beganinpre-Islamic times tofix inwrittenform those oral Targums.

As the art of writing among the Meccans and Medinans in the age of Muammad was anything but common cf. Liter- ature presupposes ad hoc writing. Sheets of note-paper , panegyrical songs or satirical poems cf. Goldziher, introduction to Dwn al-ueja, p. Collections of pre-Islamic authors work, however, are not known. As far as Muammads relation to Jewish and Christian literatures is con- cerned, it is undoubtedly safe to say that he had no access to material in languages other than Arabic, even if only because of his ignorance of for- eignlanguages.

The superstitious fear withwhichthe Jewslong before the Muslimswere watching the. On these points the statements of Muslims differ. Both parties resort to the weapon of fabricated or twisted traditions, a method that was widespread in early Islam. Search Upload Book. The source of the book This book was brought from archive. Reviews 0.

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