解讀宗教經典的德國學者

I expected elderly academics in a dark, dusty room lined by religious books. I thought their tales would take me on a magical journey into a kind of Da Vinci Code world. But at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Potsdam, I find instead a young researcher in a modern office, who tells me that much of his work is tedious analysis of ancient manuscripts.

我原以爲會在一間黑暗、積滿灰塵、擺放着一排排宗教書籍的房間裏，遇到幾位年長學者。我設想他們的故事會帶我踏上一段魔幻之旅，帶我進入《達芬奇密碼》(Da Vinci Code)那樣的世界。但在柏林-勃蘭登堡科學與人文科學院(Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities)波茨坦分院，我卻在一間現代風格的辦公室裏看到了一位年輕研究員，他告訴我他的大部分工作是分析古代手稿，非常枯燥。

I am visiting Michael Marx, co-ordinator of a fascinating project called Corpus Coranicum. The aim of the endeavour, little known outside scholarly circles, is to produce a collection of material to provide chronological commentary on the Koran and place it in historical context.

我訪問的這位年輕研究員名叫邁克爾•馬克思(Michael Marx)，他是“古蘭經語料庫”(Corpus Coranicum)項目的協調人員。這項有趣的研究在學術圈外幾乎不爲人知，其目的是編制一批文獻材料，提供按時間順序排列的《古蘭經》(Koran)評論集，並將這些評論置入歷史背景中。

I’d heard that this systematic approach, involving databases and scientific manuscript analysis, was a first. I knew that much of the Muslim world might prefer it to remain that way. For believers, the Koran is a transcript of the word of God as told to the Prophet Mohammed. It is not to be questioned even in the mildest and most constructive way — and never to be doubted. “Generally speaking, in the Muslim tradition, dealing with Koranic manuscripts is considered an odd thing,” says Mr Marx, words that sound to me like an understatement.

我曾聽說這套系統研究方法是個首創，它涉及建立數據庫和對手稿進行科學分析。我之前就知道穆斯林世界絕大部分人可能寧願讓這些資料保持原樣。對於信徒來說，《古蘭經》是真主傳授給先知穆罕默德(Prophet Mohammed)的話的文字記錄。哪怕是以最溫和、最有建設性的方式對《古蘭經》提出質疑都是不可以的，而且永遠不能對《可蘭經》產生懷疑。馬克思說：“通常來說，在穆斯林傳統裏，研究《古蘭經》手稿被認爲是件很奇怪的事。”這話在我聽來似乎有些輕描淡寫。

Sensitive as the project is, it’s a welcome venture that brings a tradition of critical thinking to a sacred text that is the source of great controversy in the west. In the course of its 18-year lifespan, it may well help in the understanding of Islam at a time when extremists have sullied the religion’s image. Indeed, while some Muslim scholars are sceptical of the work, others are intrigued and have been encouraging.

古蘭經語料庫是一個敏感的研究項目，但這一冒險值得歡迎，它爲《古蘭經》帶來了批判性思維傳統，這一宗教經典文本是西方世界大量爭議的根源。在極端分子玷污伊斯蘭教形象的當下，這項預計將持續到2025年的工作很可能會有助於人們理解該宗教。實際上，雖然部分穆斯林學者對這項工作表示懷疑，但其他一些對此很感興趣，且一直支持這項工作。

Corpus Coranicum was created in 2007 by Koranic scholar Angelika Neuwirth and two of her students, one of whom is Mr Marx. It came about in an environment, following the attacks of September 11 2001, that made many in the west want to learn more about the Koran. “There’s a certain desire, a curiosity in the German academia and the larger public. Some people have questions: what does it say, where is it from, what is the context, and how to understand the text in the context,” says Mr Marx.

2007年，古蘭經學者安格莉卡•諾伊維爾特(Angelika Neuwirth)帶着兩名學生創建了古蘭經語料庫，馬克思便是其中一名。2001年的9/11襲擊事件發生後，許多西方人想更多地瞭解《古蘭經》，該項目便誕生在這一背景下。馬克思說：“當時德國學術界和廣大民衆有種渴望，有種好奇。有人產生疑問：《古蘭經》上都說什麼了？它來自哪兒？它誕生的背景是什麼？怎樣在其誕生背景中理解它的文本？”

He and his colleagues are still far from providing the answers; for now they’ve been collecting fragments of Koranic manuscripts, carbon-dating parchments and studying variant readings. Though “banal and boring”, the work can also be captivating; one strand involves reconstructing the historical milieu in which the book was born.

馬克思和他的同事們離找到答案還有很長的路要走，他們目前一直在收集《古蘭經》手抄本的碎片，用放射性碳素測定羊皮紙的年代，研究各種經文變化。雖然這項工作“乏味而枯燥”，但也有引人入勝之處，其中一條線索涉及到《古蘭經》誕生歷史環境的重建。

Corpus Coranicum builds on a tradition of Koranic scholarship in the German language that was halted by the Third Reich. Indeed, it revives a pre-second world war project that was based on a treasure trove of copies of ancient manuscripts of the Koran. The scholar running the project at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities back then, Anton Spitaler, had claimed the archive was destroyed in the British bombing. But, as detailed in a Wall Street Journal article in 2008, Spitaler had been hiding it all along. Ms Neuwirth was one of Spitaler’s pupils.

古蘭經語料庫基於《古蘭經》德語研究傳統，這一傳統被第三帝國打斷了。該項目實際上恢復了二戰前一個基於《古蘭經》古代手稿副本寶庫的研究計劃。當時在巴伐利亞科學與人文學院(Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities)負責該項目的學者名叫安東•施皮塔勒(Anton Spitaler)，他曾聲稱相關文檔毀於英國轟炸。但根據《華爾街日報》(Wall Street Journal) 2008年一篇文章的詳述，施皮塔勒一直藏着這些資料。而諾伊維爾特便是施皮塔勒的學生。