Günter Lüling

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Günter Lüling (born October 25, 1928 in Varna , Bulgaria ; † September 10, 2014 ) was a German theologian , political scientist as well as a doctorate in Arabic and Islamic studies . Lüling was director of the German Goethe Institute in Aleppo (Syria) and is considered an important early proponent of anti-traditionalist research on the Koran due to his studies on the Christian heretical origin of the Koran .

biography

The Lüling family has long-standing connections to the Middle East and oriental studies : The Prussian General Theodor Lüling (* 1762) was an envoy at the Sublime Porte in Constantinople , and Lüling's father Gerhard fought as a Prussian officer in Germany from 1916 to 1918 Imperial Asia Corps on the side of the Ottomans . Lüling's older cousin Hans Heinrich Schaeder was an internationally renowned professor of oriental studies in Berlin and Göttingen . From 1925 to 1935, Lüling's father worked as an employee of the Aid Association for Christian Love Work in the Orient .

When he returned to Germany, Lüling's father took over a Protestant parish near Köslin ( Western Pomerania ). In 1942/43, there was a trial against fourteen-year-old Günter Lüling because of his rejection of the leadership of the local Hitler Youth . The verdict was mild, and from January 1944 Lüling served as a naval helper , from March 1945 as a tank grenadier of the Wehrmacht . At the end of the war he was taken prisoner of war. After his release in autumn 1945 he was trained as a bricklayer.

In 1949 he made up his Abitur in Wolfenbüttel and from 1950 studied Protestant theology at the University of Göttingen , specializing in the Old Testament , the Aramaic and Old Arabic languages ​​as well as the minor subjects Classical Philology and German Studies (theological exam: 1954). Because of his anti- Trinitarian views in the spirit of Albert Schweitzer and Martin Werner , Lüling was unable to serve as a church or to obtain a theological doctorate . That is why he took up a second degree in Erlangen from 1954 , this time political science with the minor subjects Arabic studies, Islamic studies, religious studies and sociology , which he completed in 1957 with a diploma. He was also denied a doctorate in Islamic studies due to anti-traditionalist views.

After his marriage to Hannelore Lüling, he worked from 1961 to 1965 as a lecturer at the Goethe Institute in Munich and from 1962 to 1965 took over the directorate of the Goethe Institute in Aleppo (Syria), where the couple had two children. In Syria Lüling learned the Arabic colloquial language, which was to help him decisively in his later work on the original Koran. In 1965 the family returned to Germany. Lüling first became a revocation officer and scientific assistant in the history of medicine at the University of Erlangen in autumn 1965 , then from autumn 1967 in Arabic and Islamic studies.

In 1970, by reconstructing selected Koran suras as early Christian poetic stanzas, he achieved his doctorate with the evaluation eximium opus , which equates to accepting the dissertation as a habilitation thesis. Nevertheless, he was dismissed from university at the end of 1972 and lived on unemployment benefits until he retired in 1991. Lüling had unsuccessfully appealed against his release. His application for a habilitation with an extended version of his dissertation was rejected in 1974. After a six-year legal dispute, the rejection of his habilitation and his dismissal were confirmed despite positive reports from respected foreign scientists. In the meantime, his work, which is critical of Islam and the Koran, is known in specialist circles - including Muslims - worldwide.

Since 1974 Günter Lüling has published most of his books through his wife's bookstore . One of the first publications was the book About the Ur-Qur'an , intended for habilitation . a. Since the English translation was published (2003) it has been favorably discussed abroad and has undergone a late rehabilitation in the context of the increased anti-traditionalist research on the Koran (see below). Despite this, with a few exceptions, Lüling's work has so far remained unnoticed in German academic circles. Further applications by Lüling for research grants and a translation of Über der Ur-Qur'an were regularly rejected. Due to the academic isolation of his research and research projects, Lüling published his articles at times in the context of the chronology critics around Uwe Topper and Heribert Illig .

Most recently, Günter Lüling worked on a two-volume work on the prehistory and early history of the Hebrews , their transgressive and mediatorial work as a decisive factor for the development from chieftainship to kingship as well as for the formation of the prehistoric and ancient religions in the Mediterranean and in the area of ​​the fertile crescent sees, especially the Abrahamic religions , but z. B. also the old Italian cults.

Research approach

As early as the end of the 19th century, new approaches to understanding the history of the Koran were being sought in oriental studies. Representatives of such research are, for example, Adolf von Harnack (who assumed the origins of the Koran in Jewish Christianity) or David Heinrich Müller (he pointed to a possible stanza structure of the Koran), as well as Rudolf Geyer, Karl Vollers and Paul Kahle. Lüling builds on this research. With the help of several suras he was able to show that metrical verse poems can actually be reconstructed from the Quran text in everyday Arabic. The adjustments that had to be made to the traditional Koran text were minimal; it was sufficient to change a few of the diacritical marks that were only introduced into the Arabic script a long time after the Koran was written . The original, pure consonant text ( Rasm ) did not have to be changed.

According to his statements, Lüling's criticism of the traditional text of the Koran and its orthodox translations is based on three criteria: philology, metrics and stanzas as well as dogma criticism. He sees the reconstruction of an "Ur-Qur'anic" stanza as successful if the new reading offers fewer grammatical problems or interpretation difficulties than the original, if a new translation is closer to the word meanings handed down outside of the Koran, i.e. colloquial Arabic, and when a regular text structure and rhyme could be restored. In individual cases, there was even agreement with historically documented, but now officially rejected, interpretations of individual Koran verses.

Due to the close proximity of the reconstructed suras to Jewish-Christian, strictly monotheistic ideas (see, for example, the interpretation of the term Az-Zabaniyya ), Lüling assumes that Muhammad's original theological opponents were not primarily pagan Arabs, but rather Trinitarian Arab Christians who were tied to the Byzantine Church . This original direction was lost when the Koran was compiled years or decades after Muhammad's death and the new religion was to serve as a unifying bracket for Arab expansion, just as the religion known today as "Christianity" was originally just a splinter group within the Jewish religious community (the Jewish Christianity was preserved in the Ebionites until almost Islamic times ), but was later transformed into the Gentile Christian state religion of the late ancient Roman Empire.

Etymology and comparative linguistics are important foundations for Lüling's work . His research, such as his derivation of the word “metal” from a Semitic root, also attracts attention outside of oriental studies.

With his research approach, Lüling is a representative of the " Saarbrücker Schule ", which in turn is part of the revisionist school of Islamic studies .

reception

Lüling's work has not been openly discussed in scientific circles for decades. Only the publication of an English translation (2003) made Lüling's theses known to a larger research community. The consequences of the decades of silence are still noticeable, however, Lüling's theses are only rudimentary known to many researchers, and therefore Lüling is often cited in an ambiguous way or even in the opposite direction to his theses. Lüling has neither denied the historical existence of the prophet Mohammed, nor can Lüling be used as trustee for the theses of Christoph Luxenberg or Karl-Heinz Ohlig .

The German daily press only recognized Lüling late and rarely, Thomas Kapielski also calls him one of “the great scholars of humanities and religion as well as Islamic scholars of our time”. Nicolai Sinai contrasts “Lüling's combination of courageous historical constructions, philological detailed work and the breadth of the history of religion” with the “Manichean clarity of his understanding of history”, according to which only “a philologist like Lüling gifted with apocalyptic insight into the formula of history can uncover the massive censorship operations”. Sinai also criticizes Lüling's “self-portrayal as a victim of concerted persecution”.

On June 19 and 20, 2015, an international symposium with the title “Critical Koran Hermeneutics - Günter Lüling in Memoriam” took place in Erlangen. One of the goals of this event was to honor Günter Lüling's scientific work.

Publications

  • Critical-exegetical examination of the text of the Qur'an , Erlangen 1970 (inaugural dissertation)
  • The unique pearl of Suwaid b. Ab¯i K¯ahil [Ibn-Ab¯iK¯ahil] al-Yaskur¯i, Part Two - On the unambiguous Christianity of this poem , which was highly praised in pre-Islamic pagan times , Erlangen 1973
  • About the original Qur'an. Approaches to the reconstruction of pre-Islamic Christian verse songs in the Qur'an , Erlangen 1974 (reprint: 1990, 3rd corr. Edition: 2004), ISBN 3-922317-18-9
  • Two essays on religious and intellectual history , including: 1. "The prehistoric sense of the word 'metal'" & 2. "Avicenna and its Buddhist origins", Erlangen 1977
  • The Christian cult on the pre-Islamic Kaaba as a problem of Islamic studies and Christian theology , Erlangen 1977 (2nd corr. Edition: 1992), ISBN 3-922317-16-2
  • The rediscovery of the Prophet Muhammad. A Critique of the 'Christian' Occident , Erlangen 1981, ISBN 3-922317-07-3
    • Review by AA Brocket in: International Journal of Middle East Studies , Vol. 13, No. 4, 1981, pp. 519-521
  • “The Passover lamb and the Altarabic 'mother of blood revenge', the hyena. The Passover sacrifice as an initiation rite for blood revenge and holy war ”, in: Zeitschrift für Religion und Geistesgeschichte 34, Leiden 1982, pp. 131–147, ISBN 3-922317-11-1
  • "Archaic words and things in pilgrimage on the Zionsberg", in: Dielheimer Blätter zum Alten Testament 20, 1984, pp. 52–59
  • Language and archaic thinking. Nine essays on intellectual and religious history , Erlangen 1985, ISBN 3-922317-13-8
  • A challenge to Islam for reformation. The rediscovery and reliable reconstruction of a comprehensive pre-Islamic Christian hymnal hidden in the Koran under earliest Islamic reinterpretations , Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, New Delhi 2003 (rev. And extended English edition of Über den Ur-Koran ), ISBN 81-2081952 -7
  • Language and Archaic Thinking. Essays on the history of ideas and religion , Erlangen 2005
  • Further articles:
    • “Islam and History of Israel” , draft contribution to the Colloquium “Koran and Hadith” (University of Cambridge) , Erlangen 1985
    • “Semitic Repha'im and Teraphîm as well as Greek Orpheus ”, in: Zeitensprünge Vol. 1, 1995, pp. 31–35
    • “European Investiture and Archaic Semitic Mask Being ”, in: Zeitensprünge Vol. 4, 1995, pp. 432–449
    • “The blood right (the blood revenge) of the archaic-mythical tribal society. On the constitutional law of written culture ”, in: Zeitensprünge. Interdisciplinary Bulletin , Vol. 2, 1999, pp. 217-227
    • “The Hebrew problem”, in: Zeitensprünge Vol. 2, 2000, pp. 180–193
    • “Yesterday's Prussia and Tomorrow's Islam” (PDF file; 167 kB), Erlangen 2006, in: Enlightenment and Criticism . Journal for free thinking and humanistic philosophy , special issue 13 (2007): Islamism . Pp. 291-310

literature

Ibn Warraq has undertaken to bring the numerous older German literature critical of the Koran, on which Lüling relies, to the knowledge of worldwide science through English translations.

  • Ibn Warraq (Ed.): Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book , Prometheus Books 1998, ISBN 1-57392-198-X
  • Ibn Warraq (Ed.): Quest for the Historical Muhammad , Prometheus Books 2000, ISBN 1-57392-787-2
  • Ibn Warraq (Ed.): What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text and Commentary , Prometheus Books 2002, ISBN 1-57392-945-X

Further literature:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Example: Sura 74 : 1–30 or Sura 80 : 1–22; see Lüling (2003)
  2. ↑ Example: Sura 96 : 1–15 eight dots or vowel marks; Lüling (2003), p. 91.
  3. ↑ For example, Lüling's reading is "The grove will be destroyed ." ( Sura 50 : 30-32) and a. to be found at ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd . All you have to do is read زلف zlf instead of زلق zlq.
  4. ↑ Lüling (1981)
  5. ↑ 'Etymological Dictionary of German', dtv, Munich 2003
  6. ^ Stefan Wild , Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 24, 2004
  7. ^ As claimed by Tilman Nagel in Mohammed: Leben und Legende (p. 896)
  8. ↑ On this in detail Zainab A. Müller Conditions in Islamic Studies ; Enlightenment and criticism (2/2009): http://www.gkpn.de/Mueller_Islamwissenschaft.pdf
  9. ↑ E.g. Wolfgang Günter Lerch , “About Christian Stanzas in the Koran”, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 1, 2004.
  10. ↑ a b Nicolai Sinai, “In search of the lost past: Günter Lülings apocalyptic Koran philology” ( Memento of October 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , February 19, 2004, p. 37 et al.
  11. ↑ Thomas Kapielski, “Stacked Deep: Biblical Researcher”, in: Frankfurter Rundschau , March 10, 2005, p. 32
  12. ↑ International Symposium "Critical Koran Hermeneutics - Günter Lüling in Memoriam"
personal data
SURNAME Lüling, Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian, Arabist and Koran scholar
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Varna , Bulgaria
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 2014