ABSTRACT
The publication of Christoph Luxenberg’s Die syro-aramäische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Qur’ansprache, in which he argues that attention to Syriac Christian vocabulary, syntax, calques, and texts enables one to “decipher” the Qur’an, thus revealing the secrets of its difficult and obscure passages, has provoked strong reactions, both positive and negative.1 A celebratory review by Robert R. Phenix Jr. and Cornelia B. Horn in Hugoye, a Syriac studies journal, touts this work as a major breakthrough in Qur’anic criticism – the first serious attempt, in their estimation, to apply historical and textual criticism to the Qur’an.
