>>>> The fact that both the script and language of the Koran point to the Classical Arabia Petraea of Syro-Palestine, and not Arabia Deserta, is further supported by the fact that the Koran’s vocabulary is largely borrowed from Aramaic, especially Syriac, the liturgical language of the local churches.> As Pressburg tells it, the standard Muslim accounts that tell of Caliphs succeeding the Prophet are false. The men today presented as Muslim caliphs were not Muslims at all, but Christians. Later generations of the people we now know as Muslims reinterpreted them into the Islamic tradition. This point is substantiated with historical evidence. Coins minted under the rule of these “caliphs” still exist, for example. They bear the symbol of the Christian cross and the ruler’s boast that he was protector of the remains of John the Baptist in Damascus. This is certainly a curious choice for a Muslim caliph. > Translation mistakes form an important part of Pressburg’s story. According to his account (here drawing on the work of Christoph Luxenberg) a significant part of the Koran is written in Syro-Aramaic. There is speculation that an original version of the Koran (the “Urkoran”) was written entirely in Syro-Aramaic then acquired Arabic accretions and adaptations in the course of time. It may even have begun life as a qeryan, a Syrian-Christian liturgical book containing summarised versions of the Old and New Testament. > The “Exalted Servant of God” is Jesus Christ. Abd al-Malik was not a Muslim. He was a Christian. However, he was a Christian who denied that Jesus was the Son of God. In this heretical branch of Christianity, Jesus was accepted only as the Messenger of God. In time, this doctrinal difference gave rise to Islam. > In part, then, the Arab “conquests” were not really conquests at all; they were nothing more than Arab armies filling the vacuum left by the Persians. Because the Arabs were Christians occupying Christian territory, the resistance was not as intense as it might otherwise have been. Later, doctrinal differences led to tensions and then conflict with Byzantium.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 11:37:45 +0000
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