It has been remarked
that the Arabic of the Koran is full of offences against and inconsequential
observance of the grammar of Classical Arabic, the so called ‘Arabiyyah.
For instance the complicated rules of congruence with regard to number and
gender, as usually obeyed by the Arabic of the Koran, not seldom are
“neglected” by it.
For instance surah
12, verse 43 reads:
“Wa-qāla al-maliku innī arā sab‘a baqarātin simānin ya’kulu-hunna sab‘un ‘ijāfun
wa-sab‘a sunbulātin khuDrin wa-ukhara yābisātin …“
The sense of this
sentence and its translation are not dubious:
“And
the king said: "I myself see seven fat cows, seven lean ones are devouring them, and seven green ears of corn and seven others withered. ..."
The
“correct” version, i.e. correct according to usually obeyed rules
of the grammar of Classical Arabic, however would be:
Wa-qāla l-maliku: innī arā sab'a baqarātin samīnatin [instead of simānin] ya'kulu-hā [instead of ya’kulu-hunna] sab'un 'ajfā'u [instead of ‘ijāfun] wa-sab'a sunbulātin
khaDrā'a [instead of khuDrin]
The use of the plural
forms of the adjectives like in 'ijāfun, khuDrun and 'ukharu instead of the singular forms 'ajfā'u, khaDrā'a and 'ukhrā – if not referring
to rational female beings, i.e. women –, strictly speaking, violates the
grammar of Classical Arabic, as usually obeyed by the Koran, though it is
common in vernacular Arabic and, due to the influence of the latter, also in
modern Standard Arabic. An analogous situation applies to the personal suffix
feminine plural “-hunna”, instead of the singular form “-hā”, and feminine
plural ending “-āt”
(ﺕ-,
defective writing with regard to the vowel “ā”), instead of
the singular form “-at” (ﺔ-, with tā’ marbūTa).
There are a goodly
number of such an inconsequential observance of this rule of Classical Arabic
in the Koran, as there are other “offences” against other rules of
Classical Arabic in these old texts. The explanation has been given by Koran
scholar Christoph Luxenberg, Die syro-aramäische Lesart des Koran. Ein Beitrag zur
Entschlüsselung der Koransprache, Berlin 12000 and 22004: The Koran in these
passages follows the usage of Syro-Aramaic, i.e. Christian Aramaic, a language
which deeply influenced vernacular and Koranic Arabic and which doesn’t
make this difference whether adjectives, personal suffixes etc. refer to
rational beings (women) or not.