Welcome back to Varian Qurʾan; I'm Daniel Brubaker. In 2019, when I was approaching the publication
of my first book, "Corrections in Early Qurʾan Manuscripts," I sent an electronic copy of it
to IRCICA in Istanbul. IRCICA is responsible for the publication, among other things, of
many facsimile editions of early Qurʾan manuscripts, and I've used these myself. Partly,
I sent my book to them because they had received me so warmly there in 2011 when I visited. When I
did send them the review copy of my book in 2019, I asked specifically if they would forward it to
Dr. Tayyar Altıkuliç, because I hoped that he would make some sort of engagement with it. Well, just two
days ago, on Thursday, I discovered that not only had there been a response made to my book, but it
was actually a book in its own right. It is a forty dollar edition that is available through IRCICA, by
Dr. Tayyar Altıkuliç, and has a forward by Professor Halit Eren, in whose office I sat
and with whom I spoke when I visited there. And, it is titled, "Refutation of Daniel Alan Brubaker's
Corrections in Early Qur'ān Manuscripts. As you can see from the title, it is apparently a criticism of
my book. I will read you the book description. It says, "The present book has been prepared by
the internationally recognized scholar in quranic studies, Dr. Tayyar Altıkuliç, in response to the book
by Daniel Brubaker titled, "Corrections in Early Quranic Manuscripts: 20 examples." Brubaker's book
can be described as one of numerous publications authored by the western writers who perceive
the various corrections on scribal errors found in the earliest copies of the Quran as changes
that could have been deliberately made to its text. Brubaker presents a collection of twenty examples of
scribal corrections, interpreting them as possible evidence of changes that could have been made at
different times in the authentic text of the Qurʾan. The present book by Dr. tayyar Altıkuliç,
on the other hand, discusses and evaluates each and every one of Brubaker's proposed examples.
Through these evaluations, the book demonstrates that any claims, including Brubaker's, that suggest
to raise questions about the intactness of the Holy Qurʾan, are bound to fail." Now, of course,
on its face -- I have not received this book yet; I contacted IRCICA this week
and actually expressed my gratitude, and asked them to convey my gratitude to Dr. Altıkuliç for
his taking so seriously my book, and going so far as to write a book
of his own, of more than a hundred pages, in response to it. That's an honor to be taken
seriously. And so, IRCICA replied to me that I need not order the book; they
had already sent me, as a gift, three copies of it in early January, and they confirmed with me
just after that, that it has cleared customs into the United States, so I should be receiving
them shortly. So, I've not read the book yet. Here is my prior expectation of what this
book is going to be like, and then after the fact ... I will ... As I have said, I will engage with scholarly
criticisms of my work, and this would certainly qualify as a scholarly criticism of my work
so you can expect that I will read it and have a response to whatever's in it. I will engage
it here, and I will talk with you about it. But what I do expect from Dr. Altıkuliç is a fair
treatment of my work. My reading of his writings, mainly through the Prefaces of the various editions
of the Qurʾan manuscripts, has been that he is fair-minded and that he does not necessarily take
the standard view of things, nor even the traditional view, when it comes to
these matters. He's certainly a senior scholar; he's quite far advanced to
myself in years, and I think in learning, and so I do look forward to reading what he has to write.
Being a senior scholar does not necessarily mean that we are always
correct, and this is why we, you know, engage with each other as academics, and as scholars. But, I do
expect to respect what it is that he has to say, and to take it seriously, and I do trust
that it will have been fair. So, that's all I wanted to say about that. I just want to
thank you for that, for watching. I wanted to announce it to you it was a pleasant surprise,
in many ways, and some people said, "Aren't you upset that your book is being criticized in
this way?" And, I'm actually pleased, so long as criticism is fair. So, that's all I want to
say about that right now. I'll let you know more when I know more about the book itself. Thank you
so much for watching, and we will talk again soon. Take care, wherever you are in the world. Bye.