Arab vowels, Qeryana, Samaritans etc.

Submitted by gato branco (United States), Feb 8, 2018 at 03:52

Dear dhimmi no more,

It is not easy to represent vowels as well and consonants of the EA with the Roman alphabet. If one tries to record EA in writing I think it enough to represent approximatively but the exact pronuntiation can be learnt only from audio recordings. Since I have listened I know more or less how it is pronounced but I cannot represent it in writing, eg. "a" would have 4 somewhat different pronuciations in words gahez, gahza, 3aref, 3arfa. It would be possible to write more exactly with the signs of International Phonetical Aassotiation(IPA), but it would not very practical.

Numerous references about agriculture among Quraysh is one of the reasons why the location of "Mekka-in-Hejaz" is very unlikely for "Muhammed's Mekka". Another reason maybe the fact that as Patricia Crone wrote, Quraysh were deriving much of their income from sales of hides and skins to the Roman army. Again it is very incredible that suppliers of the Roman Army would have their headquarters some 1000 km away from the place where Roman military bases were located. Certainly their headquarters should have been somewhere in Greater Syria, maybe Petra, maybe Bosra maybe elsewhere. However the geographical location and the landscape of Petra better tallies with the description of "Mekka" in aHadith that that of other cities.

Of course I know about Qeryana and its meaning as "lectionary". What you describe as "Non Trinitarian Syro-Arabic Christianity" I think it is the same that what I decribe as a "Judeo-Christian sect". Yet I surmise that this sect has emerged from a Judaic sect(probably Samaritan) converted to Christianity, probably ofter the crushing of the Samaritan rebellion (Wikipedia - "Under a charismatic, messianic figure named Julianus ben Sabar (or ben Sahir), the Samaritans launched a war to create their own independent state in 529. With the help of the Ghassanids, Emperor Justinian I crushed the revolt; tens of thousands of Samaritans died or were enslaved.") Some of Samaritans may have converted in order to avoid persecutions, but they probably retained some of their previous customs(the prohibition of pork, the idea of local, non-Jerusalem centered temple, animal sacrifices etc.). So that the initial Qur'an can indeed be a lectionary of a christianized Samaritan sect. Obviously, almost all religious groups in the Middle East before Islam ere using Aramaic(various dialects) as their sacral language, whether they were Christians, Rabbinic Jews, Samaritans or Mandaeans(Sabians?), however the "Qeryana" was conceived not in Aramaic but in Aramaized Arabic, in order to serve as an instruction to ignorant(ummi, Hanpe) Arabs. And certainly if the sect of "Qeryana" was indeed of Samaritan origin, it would be easy explain their bitter hatred against Monophysite Trinitarian Christians since Ghassanids after all put down their revolt.

Apparently there are very little materials("true" aHadith etc.) about Muhammed during the so called "Mekkan" period, I think even Muslim apologists had to recognize that. I think that maybe the fact that he was married to the woman named Khadija could be real fact since she was 15 year his elder and this was rather unusual for these times. And he probably had the cousin Ali and the daughter Fatima. But everything else is very vague.

However if there are little materials about the "Mekkan" period and Mekka itself is very uncertain, I think it is impossible to say that about Madina and I think that Muhammed indeed came there with a group of his followers as emigrants and refugees(muhagiruun, mhaggraye).References about people being "driven out from their homes" are too numerous to be simply dismissed as later accretions.But where from have they immigrated to Madina? It is not clear but probable from somewhere in Greater Syria. Historical materials about Madina are more plentiful yet it is doubtful that it would possible to ever reconstruct the exact course of event during the Madina period.

Still another point - some historians think that the conflict of Muhammed with Jews (the excision of Banu Qurayza etc.) happened later, somewhere in 636-640 and that Jews were temporary allies of Muslims up to that time. Apparently after the conquest of Jerusalem Jews wanted to construct their temple and establish their power over the Palestine and this was not in the plans of the emerging Muslim community.

Concerning Adulis, it is probable that it was an important commercial center during 610-632 but 750 and later when the most of Islamic writings were written it has already lost its importance, hence Muslims failed to mention it.

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