Processes of exchange in the recitations of holy texts from the Iranian-Mesopotamian region: the risk of losing the Jewish, Christian, Mandaean, and Muslim heritage

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The tradition for sacred texts to be recited, i.e. chanted rather than just read out, is very old. Already in the Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 32a it is said about anyone, who reads from the Scripture without melodic formula: "I gave them also statutes that were not good." (Ez.20:25) The importance of Biblical recitation has various reasons: The holy text was, however, to be produced with elevated voice, not in the tone of regular parlance, since it was, after all, directed towards God. Furthermore, a text with melodic structuring was easier to retain in memory. Correct recitation became very important because of the fear that through improper recitation the meaning of a text could be altered or multiple ways of understanding a text could emerge. The goal was to make the public recitation of the texts of the Torah, the Gospels, the Ginza and the Qur´an as intelligible as possible to those gathered in worship, since the laity could not read the text. Their access to the holy texts was strictly an aural one. The common study of East Syriac and Mandaic recitations as well as of the recitation of the Qur´an in Iran and Iraq is based on these insights. It is the first research on these traditions which are at the risk of loss.