Gerd Puin and the Ur Qur'an

Submitted by dhimmi no mored (United States), Aug 9, 2015 at 07:55

Dr. Pipes

I urge any reader interested in the history of early Islam and the Qur'an as a text to watch this second interview of Gred Puin of the San'aa codex by brother Rachid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEU6knDtTSc

Puin claims that the Hijazi or Ma'il Arabic cript pre-dates the Kufi script (which clearly has its origin in Syriac Abgad) and he claims that the Kufi script cannot be dated before the Abbassids. The historicizing Islamic historical tradition tells us that the Kufic script pre-dated the Hijazi Ma'il script. I do believe that Puin is very correct

Puin says that the order of Suras in the San'aa codex is very different from what we have in the 1923-1924 or ترتيب مختلف or tateeb mukhtalef and we have two examples

1. سورة الشعراء or Q26 is followed by سورة الصافات or Q37

2. سورة التوبة or Q9 is followed by سورة مريم or Q19

This really means that the Qur'an as a text was still in flux when the San'aa codex was written

But what is most amazing is that these folios reveal that there is an older text underneath that was erased or what is called النص الباطن or the hidden (erased) script or النص الممحو or the erased script is very different from النص الظاهر or the text that we have today and can read

And here is an example from Surat al-Tauba or Q9:107

1. In th erased text (ET) we can read ق وتفرقة بين المؤمنين or Qaf wa tafriqa bayn al-mu'mineen and in the text that replaced the ET in the folio it is وكفراوتفريقا بين المؤمنين or wa kufran wa tafriqan bayna al-mu'meneen

Very different indeed

2. In the same aya in the ET it reads وإرصادا للذين يحاربون الله or wa irsadan lel ladhina yuharibuna Allah and in the text that replaced the ET in the folio وارصادا لمن حارب الله or wa irsadan li man yuharib Allah

Very different indeed

3. In the same aya وليقسمن بالله مااردنا or wa yaqsiman bi allah ma aradna this appears in the ET and it was replaced by وليحلفن إن اردنا or wa liyahlifan in aradna

Again very different

4. In the same aya الا حسنى or ila husna in the ET becomes الا الحسنى or ila al-husna

And this is only one aya

Puin stated that this editing must have taken place very early on but the reason of the editing is very unclear

This really means that as Wansbrough suggeted that the Qur'an was still in flux as a text for a very long period of time with clear editing

The Islamic historical tradition must have been aware of all this editing of the text and this is why they came up with the famous saying attributed to 'Aisha where she is quoted as saying هذا عمل الكتاب اخطءوا في الكتاب or this is the work of the scribes they made mistakes in the book (the Qur'an) and when the question came up so which reading should Muslims follow Othman's answer was لاتغيروها فان العرب ستغيرها or do nor change it (the editing and even the mistakes) because the Arabs (when reading the Qur'an) will chnage it

The Qur'an as expected is an edited book and how can a book be canonized if the text was stll in flux?

Next would be Q20:1 or surat Taha and the story of the conversion of Omar ibn abd al-Manaf aka Omar to Islam and the Ur Qur'an

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