What's New and Updated?

Updates for the years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Added a simple Guestbook to our site. No ads this time.

10th November 2002

The article Is The Qur'anic Story Of Solomon & Sheba From The Jewish Targum? is now updated with new information about its origins and the manuscripts (or the lack of it!).

This article is in the section Refutation Of The Borrowing Theories Of The Qur'an.

6th November 2002

Ramadhan Mubarak to our readers!

We start the blessed month of Ramadhan with updates and new articles in the section Refutation Of The Borrowing Theories Of The Qur'an. Three of them deal with the claims of Arent Wensinck concerning the "sources" of Qur'an 18:60-82. They were published under "Al-Khadir" in the Encyclopaedia Of Islam.

The first one is the story of Moses and al-Khidr in Qur'an 18:60-65 and it was claimed by Wensinck that it is dependent on Alexander Romances. This issue has been discussed in Is The Source Of Qur'an 18:60-65 The Alexander Romances?

This part of the story is also tied to the Gilgamesh Epic and a refutation of this claim is in the article Is The Source Of Qur'an 18:60-65 The Epic of Gilgamesh?

The story of Moses and al-Khidr in Qur'an 18:60-82 was also been claimed to be dependent on Ibn Shahin's Hibbur Yafeh me-ha-Yeshu‘a and this has been dealt with in Arent Wensinck & Jewish Sources Of Qur'an 18:65-82?

Finally, The Sources Of The Qur'anic Dhul-Qarnayn being a devastating refutation of the claim that the Christian Legend attributed to Jacob of Serug as the source of story of Dhul-Qarnayn in the Qur'an.

29th October 2002

Lost Books Of The Bible?, A. C. Cotter, Theological Studies, 1945, Volume 6, pp. 206-228. An interesting discussion about the "lost books" of the Bible and its implications on the Catholic and Protestant canons.

The article is added in the section Canon Of The Bible.

11th October 2002

The "holy" Protestant Bibles came in different forms since the time of Reformation. One such Bible was published by the German theologian and Reformer Johann Brenz that contained the Third Book of Maccabees as discussed in An Early Protestant Bible Containing The Third Book Of Maccabees: With A List Of Editions And Translations Of Third Maccabees, B. Metzger in M. Brecht's Text - Wort - Glaube Studien Zur Überlieferung, Interpretation Und Autorisierung Biblischer Texte, 1980, pp. 123-133., © Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.

Noteworthy is the presence of Third Book of Maccabees in many of the printed Bibles. This article is added in the section Canon Of The Bible.

4th October 2002

The Protestants are the latest major Christian sect and they were the ones who had some major controversies concerning the "inspired" canon of the New Testament (interestingly they are the ones who make a lot of noise about the "integrity" of New Testament canon!).

Martin Luther brought the Reformation and with it he also brought the controversy concerning the New Testament canon. Luther's treatment of four New Testament books (Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation) reflected his early doubts about their full canonicity. This created a huge impact for over two centuries. In certain printed editions of the Bible, these four books were either printed as "apocrypha" or sometimes they were eliminated altogether from the printed editions! A detailed discussion is available in Luther And "New Testament Apocrypha", A. Wikgren in R. H. Fischer's A Tribute To Arthur Vööbus: Studies In Early Christian Literature, 1977, pp. 379-390.

This article is added in the section Canon Of The Bible.

1st October 2002

We add the article Forgotten Witness: Evidence For The Early Codification Of The Qur'an, Estelle Whelan, Journal Of The American Oriental Society, 1998, Volume 118, No. 1, pp. 1-14. This article discusses the Umayyad inscriptions on Dome of the Rock among others to show that the Qur'an was already codified before the construction of Dome of the Rock.

This article is added in the section Dome Of The Rock. and is accessible from The Islamic Inscriptions and The Qur'anic Studies section.

27th September 2002

It is time to discuss The Biblical Canon Of The Ethiopic Orthodox Church Today, R. W. Cowley, Ostkirchliche Studien, 1974, Volume 23, pp. 318-323. The article discusses the Biblical Canon of the Ethiopic Orthodox Church as seen today. This canon consists of a "broader" and a "narrower" canon.

This article is added in the section Canon Of The Bible.

20th September 2002

We start a new section on Canon Of The Bible. This section would be exclusively devoted to the canons of the books of New Testament drawn at various times and by various Churches.

We inaugrate this section with an article on The Origin And Authority Of The Biblical Canon In The Anglican Church, H. W. Howorth, Journal Of Theological Studies, 1906, Volume 29, pp. 1-40. As the name of the article suggests, it deals with the origins of the Canon of the Anglican Church. The author shows that the Anglican Canon originated as a result of a strange and confused mixture between the past and the present and obviously it was something that never existed before!

7th August 2002

The article Surah al-Walayah & Surah al-Nurayn: Their Authenticity & Literary Style is updated with the addition of contemporary Christian material on the attribution of these two alleged Surahs to Shiites.

22nd January 2002

We add a very recent study of Professor Harald Motzki in Nevo & Negev Inscriptions: The Use & Abuse Of The Evidence. His study deals with the collection of the Qur'an as described in the Islamic traditions and the ones claimed as plausible in Western scholarship. Motzki has been shown that the Islamic traditional description is nearer to the time of events than the "accounts" claimed by Wansbrough, Mingana, and their likes.

Manuscripts that are written in the Qira'a of Ibn Kathir, Warsh, Qalun and Abu ‘Amr are added in The Qira'at Identified In Qur'anic Manuscripts.

16th January 2002

We have collected The Qira'at Identified In Qur'anic Manuscripts.

This article also serves as a refutation of Christian missionaries' polemics about the Qira'at of the Qur'an and hence linked from Versions Of The Qur'an? and Reply To Mr. Samuel Green's "The Seven Readings Of The Qur'an".

8th January 2002

The article Surah al-Walayah & Surah al-Nurayn: Their Authenticity & Literary Style is substantially updated and revised with the information about the history "Surah al-Walayah" and "Surah al-Nurayn" and the author of these forged surahs [hint: The author is not a Shi'ite!].

1st January 2002

It is usually assumed that the dotting of the Arabic script began with the advent of dotting of Qur'anic manuscripts. However, recent observation on a 70 year old Arabic papyri has shown conclusively that dotting was available as early as 22 AH, perhaps even earlier. The article The Dotting Of A Script And The Dating Of An Era: The Strange Neglect Of PERF 558 (A. Jones, Islamic Culture, 1998, Volume LXXII, No. 4, pp. 95-103.) furnishes interesting evidence.

This is added in The Arabic Papyri section.

As a result of this interesting information the article Did al-Hajjaj Change The Qur'an? A Reply To Christian Polemic has been updated.