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Tovey, and revisiting Q26:63

Reader comment on item: "Godless Saracens Threatening Destruction":
in response to reader comment: Translating the Ancients in Search of Truth

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jan 6, 2021 at 11:29

Tovey,

This is an old post of mine, but it is worth revisiting
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Submitted by dhimmi no more, Mar 5, 2019 at 13:19

Dr Pipes,

We can find the word طود in Q26:63! The verse talks about Moses splitting the Red Sea and the end result is:

فَكَانَ كُلُّ فِرْقٍ كَالطَّوْدِ الْعَظِيمِ

Or: And each division became like a great طود (Tuud)

Notice that I left the word طود or Tuud untranslated because there is no such Arabic word

If we turn to al-Tabari he tells us that the word طود means الجبل or the mountain which is not true. In actual fact the word طود must be a misreading of the Quranic word طور or Tuur.

al-Tabari also tells us that the word طور is a loan word from السريانية or from the Syriac language where the word mountain is Tura or ܛܘܪܐ

http://www.assyrianlanguages.org/sureth/dosearch.php?searchkey=5051&language=id

This is what really happened: The Syriac letter R is: ܪ Notice the dot above the slope. Syriac letter D is: ܕ or the dot is below the slope. To untrained eye the Syriac letter R can be read as D and now we have the Arabic طود or Tuud in the verse instead of the correct (but still Syriac) طور or Tuur

Why did this happen? The editor who was reading the verse must have been reading a Syriac text and he misread the letter R and read it as D!

And more evidence that the claim by the Islamic historical tradition that the Qur'an was first memorized is just not true..
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And more evidence that at least some of the Quranic material are from Arabized Syriac texts

Submitting....

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