Altara,
Very interesting Sinai article. I dont really know if his single author proposal (I know he doesnt say it in so many words) is really supported by the evidence. His figure 3 shows in my opinion the existence of two sources: the Medinan corpus with the Meccan one smacked over it. Sinai explains it as continuity, I dont see that.
No., nope... neither of those articles from Sinai have any useful historical information on early Islam and on Quran/its authors. and this figure
has no value., The surah length vs Surah number tells nothing about Quranic author/s neither one can categorize them on that verse lenegth/sura length basis whether they come from Meccan or Medinan , In fact now it is becoming clear & clear the important words in Quran
"Muhammad, Mecca and Medina " are fictional cities with fictional character added in to Islam probably as late as year 680-690., 10 years ago I was under the impression that such analysis might throw some light on the origins and author/s of Quran., That I left looong ago., and then I thought stylometric statistical analysis of Quran could give such info.. but I realized that is also no use .,
what all Sinai did in those two publications is to repeat what Quran repeats in many verses along with surah and verse numbers., In other words he gave information and put together that are repetitive statements/verses which are present in different surahs .
for e.g page 51 of The Unknown Known: Some Groundwork for Interpreting the Medinan Qur’an(ii) Obedience to the Messenger:
.............. About twenty verses enjoin the Qur’anic audience to obey “the Messenger,” who is often bracketed together with God in the phrase“God and His / the Messenger” (e.g.,Q. 3:32.132, 4:13.59.69, 5:92 etc.). That obedience to the Messenger (who is called “Muhammad” inQ. 3:144, 33:40, 47:2,and 48:29) equals obedience to God is explicitly and categorically stated in Q. 4:80. Q. 33:21 even calls the Messenger an “exemplar” (uswa) to the Believers, implying that they are not only to obey but also to emulate him. While the Qur’an does not explain whether and how obedience to, and emulation of, the Messenger continues to be obligatory after his future demise (envisaged in Q. 3:144), the foregoing passages do anticipate the notion of a normative practice of Muhammad, which was of course an important factor in the post-Qur’anic emergence of the hadith canon.....................
.and here on Page 70 of The Unknown Known: Some Groundwork for Interpreting the Medinan Qur’an.............The Medinan boost in Muhammad’s status goes beyond specific political and nor-mative tasks and prerogatives. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the Messenger is cast as a “prophet” (nabiyy), a title that non-Medinan texts tend to reserve for figures of Biblical history. Use of the title “prophet” is most frequent in sura 33, which contains a number of other bold statements as well: the Messenger is portrayed as a quasi-paternal figure to the Believers (33:6),
it is implied that he is superior in rank to other prophets like Moses and Jesus (33:7), and he is called by the enig-matic title “seal of the prophets” (33:40). Medinan texts closely link the Messenger with God by calling not only for obedience to “God and His Messenger” but also by demanding “belief in God and His Messenger” (Q. 49:15, 57:7.19.28, 64: 8 ), as opposed to “belief in God and the Last Day”. Such bracketing induces what David Marshall has described as a “godward movement of the Messenger”. Q 9:128 goes so far as to ascribe to the Messenger two attributes (kindness and mercy) that are otherwise reserved for God and thus implies the Messenger’s “participation in divine characteristics”.................
All those Quran verses are repetitive and have same/ similar meaning/ political ideology for the followers of the faith ., In fact it could have directly come from . ,,
Acts 3:23-25
23 Anyone who does not obey that prophet shall be separated from God's people and destroyed.’ 24 And all the prophets who had a message, including Samuel and those who came after him, also announced what has been happening these days. 25 The promises of God through his prophets are for you, and you share in the covenant which God made with your ancestors. As he said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants I will bless all the people on earth.’
the only difference between that OT verse and many of such verses in Quran is., it gets repeated in different verses in different surahs in slightly different fashion., mundi I gave up on such analysis of Quran.. and waiting for Altara song/Altara book..
One must realize here that
Islam all the way from 8th century or so to today DID NOT COME FROM QURAN.. .. it came from hadith, it came from preachers/warriors and its faith rules gets enforced onto the believers of the god .. allah ((whatever you call)) by those who converted in to Islam .., So it is the converts that enforces its rules. and It is very little to do with original Quran manuscripts which are nothing but songs and sonnets ....praising allah/god and praising believers and chiding those who do not believe in God
well our Altara is trying to hide lot of info and and leaking words here and there in his posts .. for.. e.g here
I think there is a continuity. A subtle one. But one. As I consider that all of this is fiction, it changes the perspective you have about the text. One can built and write a fiction whatever one wants; there is no brake, no limit. You have to remember that the text was (never) destined to be read by other people than arabophone people of the 7th c. That we are not.
that word
"never" is important one in his post .. And also I agree with his statement ..and I think almost 90% or more of the so far published papers on the Origins of Quran & Prophet of Islam are nothing but Fictional imaginative stories of individuals who essentially took Islamist narration of Prophet of Islam and wrote their own stories
with best wishes
yeezevee
Topic: Qur'anic studies today