Mondher Sfar

This is an excellent introduction to the issue of how corrupt the text of the Koran is. Sfar demonstrates that Muhammed never collected a Koran, that in fact it was a controversial decision to collect the Koran--literally recitation, and not a book--after his death, and the original fragments of Koranic material were destroyed, and perhaps most importantly, a book of the Koran did not exist until about the time of the Third Caliph. Nonetheless, Islam has suppressed any attempt to understand the Koran in historico-critical terms and has thus glossed over the problematic collection of Koranic materials. In its stead, a miraculous and fanciful narrative predominates Islamic accounts of the Koran and this fairy tale predominates contemporary accounts of Islamic development as well.… (meer)