Reddit reviews The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran

With respect, it is the opinion of Christof Luxenberg, who wrote an interesting interpretation of the Quran called The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran. In it, Luxenberg says the word for "virgins" is confused with the word "white" meaning dried white grapes - raisins.

The entire text is here

While I agree that the issue is probably arguable, and this is one scholar's opinion, it did not come from a parody.

>There a lot of conetmporary records of him being around. What he did is a lot more questionable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Muhammad

If I had a nickle for every time that I was sent the wikipedia for the "Historicity of Muhammad" I'd be a rich man. There aren't any satisfactory contemporary non-Islamic sources referencing "Muhammad" as a ruler/leader until well after his "death" in 632. There aren't even any before 632, when he was allegedly alive. The earliest describe the Arabs of MHMT, which is what I am pretty sure is a Christological term for Jesus in ancient Syriac, but nothing about the character himself until later. These descriptions could easily be similar to how the Christian Chi-Rho brandishing Byzantines could have been called "The Romans of Christ" or something along those lines.

Basically, Early "Islam" was non-Trinitarian Christianity where God had no Sons but Jesus was the highly revered prophet. There is also very little about Muhammad inside the Quran itself (only mentioned twice by name, whereas Jesus mentioned ~60 times). And in both, "Muhammad" could be synonymous with Jesus, aka Allah's Messenger.

How familiar are you with the non-Trinitarian Christian sects Nestorians and Arians? Because those two sects were hugely popular in Africa (thanks Vandals and Visigoths), the Levant, Persia, and Arabia. Then after the Council of Nicea where the Divinity of Christ was recognized as a core Christological belief, making the non-Trinitarians heretics many were exiled to Eastern Persia. Ancient Syriac (Christian Aramaic) was the primary language of the religion, particularly in the Levant, Persia, and Arabia Petraea. This is where the "Quran" was actually written, as a Christian liturgy of Christian and Jewish stories. The ancient Syriac word meaning "Liturgy of Christian Texts" is pronounced "Qur-i-an" and with the dotting removed, looks identical to the Ancient Arabic word for "Quran". This Qurian was meant to bring unity amongst the Christians and Jews to follow the true messengers of God. From Musa (Moses), to Daud (David), to Isa/MHMT (Jesus/"Praised One") while remaining consistent with Monotheism.

After the collapse of the Sassanids ~620 AD, these Eastern Christians assumed power and moved to Damascus. After a while the new Empire needed to develop a uniform Identity for its people, which was fairly diverse (both religiously and racially). This is why the Sira (Biography) of Muhammad came out centuries after his death as well the earliest Hadith. Modern Islam is built way more on the Sira and Hadith than the Quran, which (if you have read) reads exactly like Christian texts.

If the Islamic Record is to be trusted...

• Why are there coins dating back to the earliest times of Islam with "MHMT" in Arabic on one side of the coin and a figure holding a cross on the other?
  
• Why are the earliest mosques pointing to Petra or Jerusalem and not Mecca?
  
• Why are there shockingly few references to MHMT prior to the Abbassids over a Century and a half after his death, when the references sky rocketed?
  
• Why do we think Islam arose in Arabia Magna (Hejaz) like the Islamic record says when the style of Arabic the Quran is written in was only in Arabia Petraea (Jordan/North Arabia) at the time, when a significantly different language was used in the area of Mecca and Yathrib (Medina)?
  
• Why are there no references to Mecca on maps until centuries after Islam's founding? Surely this trade center where tons of people flocked for pilgrimage would show up before hand?
  
• Why is there missing archeological evidence for MHMT's alleged conquests in Arabia?
  
  Here are (some) of my sources. Hope you like scholarly books and articles referencing ancient Syriac Christian sources and their influences on Ancient Arabic primarily:
  
  
• Early Islam: A Critical Reconstruction Based on Contemporary Sources by Karl-Heinz Ohlig
  
• CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM SYMBOLISM ON COINS OF THE EARLY ARAB EMPIRE (7 – 8th century CE) by Marcin Grodzki
  
• The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran by Christoph Luxenberg
  
• Early Islam: An Alternative Scenario of Its Emergence by M. Gross
  
• From muhammad Jesus to Prophet of the Arabs The Personalization of a Christological Epithet from Early Islam by K.-H. Ohlig
  
• Syriac Liturgy and the 'Mysterious Letters' in the Qur'an: A Comparative Liturgical Study from Christmas in the Qur'an by Christoph Luxenberg
  
• Relics of Syro-Aramaic Letters in Early Qur'anic Codices of the hijazi and kufi Style from Christmas in the Qur'an by Christoph Luxenberg
  
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Unless you want purely faith-promoting works, I suggest looking at the academic side of Quranic studies:
You can read some interesting articles in the Journal of Qur'anic Studies by Edinburgh University Press.
Keith Small’s Textual Criticism and the Qur’an Manuscripts looks at small textual variants over the centuries. It hasn’t been updated yet with the recent find of one of the oldest known text that was found.
Another academic scholar to look into is Christopher Luxenberg (who writes under a pseudonym due to death threats) that looks at the Quran through textual and linguistics analysis. His book most popular book is The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Quran.
For history, Patricia Crone’s Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World and From Arabia Tribes to Islamic Empire are very good. She summarized much of her research here.