19th November 2003

We present the display of what is widely held to be the ‘Uthmanic manuscript of the Qur'an in the Topkapi Museum, Istanbul, Turkey. It has three images (~850 kb!) and will take some time to load.

This material is added in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.

16th November 2003

Addition of 14 more canons, viz., Hilary of Poitiers, Amphilochius, Peshitta, Innocent I, Gelsius, John of Damascus, Earliest Low German Bible, Complutensian Polyglot, Council of Trent, Emden Bible (New Edition), Camden Bible (Revised), Batavia Bible, Duoay-Rheims Bible and Port Royal Version in The Canons Of The Old Testament & The New Testament Through The Ages. That brings the total to 56 canons. As usual please do not forget to go through the useful notes and references at the end. If you find any errors please do not hesistate to email us.

More canons would be added in the due course, insha'allah.

The article is in the section Canon Of The Bible.

24th October 2003

Many of you might have heard about Christoph Luxenberg's book Die syro-aramäische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Koransprache and how New York Times, Newsweek and The Guardian heaped praises on it. In scholarly journals, this book has received some serious trashing. We present the reviews of this book by Angelika Neuwirth and François de Blois published in Journal of Qur'anic Studies (2003, Volume V, Issue I).

According to Neuwirth: The method (of Luxenberg) presupposes its very results: the facticity of a Syriac layer underlying the Arabic text. Much of his material relies on obvious circular argument.... This is an extremely pretentious hypothesis which is unfortunately relying on rather modest foundations.

Blois says: [A]ny reader who wants to take the trouble to plough through Luxenberg's 'new reading' of any of the numerous passages discussed in this book will concede that the 'new reading' does not actually make better sense than a straight classical Arabic reading of the traditional text. It is a reading that is potentially attractive only in its novelty, or shall I say its perversity, not in that it sheds any light on the meaning of the book or on the history of Islam.... He is someone who evidently speaks some Arabic dialect, has a passable, but not flawless command of classical Arabic, knows enough Syriac so as to be able to consult a dictionary, but is innocent of any real understanding of the methodology of comparative Semitic linguistics. His book is not a work of scholarship but of dilettantism.

The articles are in the section The Text Of The Qur'an.

20th October 2003

Addition of eight more canons, viz., Melito, Muratorian, Origen, Cheltenham, Synod of Laodicea, The Apostolic Constitutions, Augustine and Third Council of Carthage in The Canons Of The Old Testament & The New Testament Through The Ages. The canons of the Old Testament and the New Testament have been divided to show what came before and after the advent of Islam.

This article has received positive reviews from our readers, both Muslims and non-Muslims, and their suggestions/corrections have been added wherever necessary. A big thank you!

The article is in the section Canon Of The Bible.

13th October 2003

The Canons Of The Old Testament & The New Testament Through The Ages is an article listing various canons of the Bible since the advent of Christianity. The article lists 34 canons of the Old and the New Testament and new canons will be rapidly added as references are checked and verified. Please do not forget to go through the useful notes and references at the end.

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

23rd September 2003

The article On The Origins Of Kufic Script is updated with the addition of references from Christian missionaries' literature on the web. The material is in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.

We have also added a link to Dr. Peter Head's modified paper in Tyndale Bulletin in The New Testament Manuscripts section. The material in the link deals with the refutation of Thiede's dating of P⁶⁴ manuscript.

8th September 2003

Hadiths Inserted Posthumously In The Sahih Of Al-Bukhari? A devastating refutation of the claim of Christian missionaries as well as the Qur'an-only sect that the hadiths of "unreliable" narrators were inserted posthumously in the Sahih of al-Bukhari.

This article is added in the section Issues Concerning Hadith.

28th August 2003

The article Did al-Hajjaj Change The Qur'an? has been updated with an addition of entry on ‘Abbad bin Suhayb in Kitab al-Du‘afa wa al-Matrukin of al-Nasa'i.

This article is in the section The Text Of The Qur'an.

26th July 2003

Couple of new Qur'anic manuscripts from first and second century of hijra are added as external links. A new sub-section on External Links to the Qur'anic Manuscripts is also started with a link to Professor Brannon Wheeler's website.

The material is added in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.

26th June 2003

The article Did al-Hajjaj Change The Qur'an? has been revised thoroughly. The authenticity of the report in Kitab al-Masahif of Ibn Abi Dawud was checked both from the point of view of isnad as well as text (i.e., matn) of the hadîth. This article used to be composed of two sections and now they are fused into one. Please re-direct your links.

This article is in the section The Text Of The Qur'an.

4th June 2003

A mailing list for informing the updates of Islamic Awareness has been started. Please email us if you want to join the mailing list mentioning "subscribe" in the subject.

2nd June 2003

The article Arda Wiraz Namag (Iranian "Divina Commedia") And The Prophet's^(P) Night Journey has been substantially updated. A devastating refutation of the claim that the story of Arda Viraz Namag "existed long before the time of Muhammad" is added and a detailed study of the parallels between Arda Wiraz Namag, Kirdir's inscriptions and the Islamic accounts of Prophet's^(P) night journey is made.

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

20th January 2003

11th January 2003