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a technical survey - Rated
This comprises of a collection of essays written on the structure and content of the Quran. It contains very insightful reviews of Mohammad's oracular and feverish utterances that were subsequently pieced together to form Islam's holy book.
Other critical surveys of the Quran tend to focus on the 'asbab', that is to say; the circumstances of revelation. Indeed, Muslim commentaries openly confess to the heavily expedient and pragamatic nature of Quranic verses which, to the neutral observer, have no great value beyond the immediate banditry and warlordism that formed the subject matter of the author's career.
What makes this collection of essays unique, is that it brings togther some of the best pieces on the technical and linguistic merits of the Quran. The article by Richard Bell alone justifies the cover price. Bell shows how nakedly contrived Quranic language is and the manner in which it sacrifices coherency, sense and logical continuity for the sake of catchy assonances that beguile the Arab mind. A typical example is when it bafflingly breaks into tense and gender that is inconsistent with the logical flow of the preceding verses just to finish in a way that sounds flashy.
Muhammad insisted that he was not a 'Kahin' i.e. a soothsayer and was not trained in the lavish styles of the poet. However, the Quran simply oozes with phoenetic flourishes and superflous adornments that hang like shining trinkets off repetitive verses that are quite light in actual content. A classic example is surat 99 - Al Zalzla (The Earthquake), the substance of the surah can be summed up in a one-liner, but it weaves a heavily 'blinged-up' and over-engineered set of versesd that clearly are just there for adornment and to dance with the native tongue. Indeed, the Quran boasts of its linguistic merits and throws a bravado challenge to others to "produce a verse like thereof..." This is a customary slagging match popular among the indigenous folk. Such tacky verbal exhibitionism is clearly beneath the dignity of God.
The more interesting bits are those that touch on the Hebrew and Syriac influences of the Quran. Starry eyed believers will tell you that Arabic is a language of next-to-near primordial antiquity going back to God Himself. The truth is, Arabic like any lingo is a hybrid. Moreover, compared to other lingos of the mid-east it is actually quite young in its sytematic form. Indeed, it is the formal rescension of the Quran that marks the crytallisation of Arabic in its 'perfect' form. Hence, the "miracle" of the Quran is only possible because its sets itself as its own benchmark. This contention is also explored in an article by Arthur Jeffrey that traces the foreign origins of Quranic idioms.
In order to read and appreciate this book, you do need at least a basic familiarity with the Quran and its most common expressions, admonitions and cathechisms. The reason why the Quran is a painful bore to English speakers is that they have no sense of frantic acrobatics of the toungue when its recited in Arabic. On a related note, the reason why Muslims are skeptical of English translation of the Quran is that bares the substantive nakedness of the Quran - like the emperors new clothes, when translation robs it of its glittering adornments and it appears naked in its structural form - it is seen for what it is.
Ibn Warraq's introduction is a masterful and funny account of the bland dogmatism of the believers. He explains how Muslims seek to disarm critics of the Quran by saying "oh you haven't read the Arabic" - but the awful truth is if you look a little deeply into the Arabic, you open a bigger can of worms.
I think the most fitting tribute to this work are the words of Muhammad himself, who in Surah Imran, verse 7 all but conceded that the Quran is a mish mash, and noted that those in whose hearts is a disease will seek to dig out the uncertainties so as to cause turmoil and doubt.
