Re: API

From: Dr. Rainer Thiel (thielr@pprz03.HRZ.Uni-Marburg.DE)
Date: Sat Apr 26 1997 - 12:51:02 EDT


At 9:41 Uhr +0200 on 26.04.1997, Daniel p. Tompkins wrote:

> One area of history where one sees the API is the study of Islam: How, we
> are asked, could a bunch of ignorant desert Arabs have composed the
> Koran? It
> must have been the result of contact with more civilized types along the
> Mediterranean coast. Needless to say, this upsets Moslems, who point out
> that Mecca and Media were cities, etc. Here the API is based on a crude
> notion of what "Arabs" are like.

This argument goes back to the Koran itself where, of course, there is no
mention of ignorant desert Arabs and more civilized mediterraneans, but
only of the excellence of the Koran that therefore cannot be composed by
men or even good daemons. The paraphrase Nicolaus de Cusa (in his Cribratio
Alkorani, ch. vii) gives of the passage is: (Nec debet quemquam movere id,
quod [sc. Mahumetus] dicit alibi) librum Alkorani non potuisse nec ab
omnibus hominibus nec daemonibus componi ob illius admirabilis dictaminis
elegantiam ac quod ideo divinus censeri debet.

The relevant Koran passage is 17,88.

Dr. Rainer Thiel
- Paper mail: Univ. FB 07, Klass. Phil. - D-35032 Marburg, Germany (EU)
- For more information and for my PGP public key check my homepage:
  http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~thielr/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:38:13 EDT