What the Koran Really Says

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What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary is a collection of over 40 critical essays on the Qur'an by philological scholars and orientalists, edited by author Ibn Warraq and published by Prometheus Books in 2002.

The essays examine alleged incongruities, historical fallacies related to the history of the Qu'ran and claims to objectively trace its roots and presents findings that purport to refute the traditional Islamic version of its history.

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PART 1. INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction by Ibn Warraq
2. What Is the Koran? by Toby Lester

PART 2. BACKGROUND

1. Towards a Prehistory of Islam by Yehuda D. Nevo

PART 3. A QUESTION OF LANGUAGE

1. Syriac Influence on the Style of the Koran by Alphonse Mingana
2. Some Additions to Prof. Jeffery's Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an by David Samuel Margoliouth
3. The Arabic Readers of the Koran by Paul E. Kahle
4. The Beginnings of Classical Arabic by C. Rabin
5. The Role of the Bedouins as Arbiters in Linguistic Questions and the Mas'ala Az-Zunburiyya by Joshua Blau
6. Some Suggestions to Qur'an Translators by A. Ben-Shemesh

PART 4. SOURCES OF THE KORAN: ESSENIAN, CHRISTIAN, COPTIC

1. Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls by Ibn Warraq
2. The Qumran Scrolls and the Qur'an by Eric R. Bishop
3. An Essenian Tradition in the Koran by Marc Philonenko
4. A Qumranian Expression in the Koran by Marc Philonenko
5. A Possible Coptic Source of a Qur'anic Text by Wilson B. Bishai
6. Introduction to Raimund Kobert by Ibn Warraq
7. The Shahadat az-zur: The False Witness by Raimund Kobert
8. On the Meaning of the Three Final Words of Sura XXII.30-31 by Raimund Kobert
9. Early and Later Exegesis of the Koran: A Supplement to Or 35 by Raimund Kobert

PART 5. SURAS, SURAS, SURAS

1. Introduction to Sura IX.29 by Ibn Warraq
2. Some Minor Problems in the Qur'an by Franz Rosenthal
3. Koran IX.29 by Claude Cahen
4. A Propos de Qur'an IX.29: Hatta Yu'tu L-Gizyata wa-hum Sagiruna by Meir M. Bravmann and Claude Cahen
5. The Ancient Arab Background of the Koranic Concept al-Gizatu 'an Yadin by Meir M. Bravmann
6. "'An Yadin" (Qur'an IX.29): An Attempt at Interpretation by M.J. Kister
7. Koran and Tafsir: The Case of "'an Yadin" by Uri Rubin
8. Koran XXV.1: Al-Furqan and the "Warner" by C. Heger
9. The Buddha Comes to China by Michael Schub
10. The Secret Identity of Dhu l-Kifl by Michael Schub

PART 6. EMENDATIONS, INTERPOLATIONS

1. Studies Contributing to Criticism and Exegesis of the Koran by J. Barth
2. A Qur'anic Interpolation by A. Fischer
3. Regarding Qur'an CI.6 by A. Fischer
4. Three Difficult Passages in the Koran by Charles Cutler Torrey
5. A Strange Reading in the Qur'an by Charles Cutler Torrey
6. Some Proposed Emendations to the Text of the Koran by James A. Bellamy

PART 7. RICHARD BELL: INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY

1. Introduction to Richard Bell by Ibn Warraq
2. From INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR'AN by Richard Bell
3. From A COMMENTARY ON THE QUR'AN by Richard Bell

PART 8. POETRY AND THE KORAN

1. The Strophic Structure of the Koran by Rudolf Geyer
2. On the Koran by Julius Wellhausen
3. On Pre-Islamic Christian Strophic Poetical Texts in the Koran: A Critical Look at the Work of Gunter Luling by Ibn Rawandi

PART 9. MANUSCRIPTS