The book
Ibn Warraq (ed.), Koranic Allusions: The Biblical, Qumranian, and Pre-Islamic Background to the Koran, New-York, Prometheus Books, 2013, 432 p.
The author
Ibn Warraq is the editor of The Origins of the Koran, What the Koran Really Says, The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, and Which Koran?.
Presentation
For anyone with an interest in the early history of Islam, this erudite anthology will prove to be informative and enlightening. Scholars have long known that the text of the Koran shows evidence of many influences from religious sources outside Islam. For example, stories in the Koran about Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other characters from the Bible obviously come from the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels. But there is also evidence of borrowing in the Koran from more obscure literature. In this anthology, the acclaimed critic of Islam Ibn Warraq has assembled scholarly articles that delve into these unusual, little-known sources. The contributors examine the connections between pre-Islamic poetry and the text of the Koran; and they explore similarities between various Muslim doctrines and ideas found in the writings of the Ebionites, a Jewish Christian sect that existed from the second to the fourth centuries. Also considered is the influence of Coptic Christian literature on the writing of the traditional biography of Muhammad.
Contents
Preface, Acknowledgments, and Advertisement for Myself
Transliteration and Other Technical Matters
Transcription/Transliteration
Part 1. Pre-Islamic Poetry as a Source for the Koran
1. The Consequences of Authenticity Ibn Warraq
2. On Umayya B. Abi al-Salt Aloys Sprenger
3. A New Source of the Koran Clement Huart
4. Umayya b. abi-Salt Friedrich Schulthess
5. Umayya ibn Abi s-Salt E. Power
6. The Poems of Umayya B. Abi-s-Salt: Additions, Suggestions, and Rectifications E. Power
7. The Origins of Arabic Poetry D. S. Margoliouth
8. The Authenticity of the Poems Ascribed to Umayya Ibn Abi al-Salt Tilman Seidensticker
9. The Divine in the Works of Umayya B. Abi al-Salt Gert Borg
Part 2. The Koran, the Bible, and the Dead Sea Scrolls
1. The Gideon-Saul Legend and the Tradition of the Battle of Badr: A Contribution to Islam’s Oldest Story Hans von Mzik
2. Some Literary Enigmas of Koranic Inspiration A. Regnier
3. The Figure of Abraham: At the Turning-Point of Muhammad’s Development, Analysis of Sura II, 124–41 Edmund Beck
4. The Prophet’s Kunya and Sharing the Spoils: A Midrash on Joshua? Jean-Louis Déclais
5. Dave and the Knave in the Cave of the Brave Michael B. Schub
6. Qumran and the Preserved Tablet(s) E. F. F. Bishop
7. Qumran and "The Companions of the Cave" Hugh Nibley
8. Ebionite and Elkesaite Elements in the Koran Martiniano P. Roncaglia
9. An Essenian Rule in the Koran Marc Philonenko
10. David in Islamic Tradition in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls R. Stehly
Part 3. Muhammad and the Koran
1. The Legend of Muhammad’s Call to Prophethood Tor Andrae
2. An Example of Coptic Literary Influence on Ibn Ishaq’s Sirah Gordon D.
Newby
3. The Biography of the Prophet and Its Scriptural Basis Wim Raven
Appendixes
Abbreviations
Glossary
Conversion Char
List of Contributors