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This collection of papers focusses on the literary, the text-linguistic, the intertextual, and the receptional aspects of the Qur anic text. Using modern methodology can open the way towards a more adequate hermeneutical approach to the Qur an.
For all Muslims the QurE3/4an is the word of God. In the first centuries of Islam, however, many individuals and groups, and some ShiEis, believed that the generally accepted text of the QurE3/4an is corrupt. The ShiEis asserted that redactors had altered or deleted among other things all passages that supported the rights of EAli and his successors or that condemned his enemies. One of the fullest lists of these alleged changes and of other variant readings is to be found in the work of al-SayyArA (3rd/9th century), which is indeed among the earliest ShiEi books to have survived. In many cases the alternative readings that al-SayyArA presents substantially contribute to our understanding of early ShiEi doctrine and of the early and numerous debates about the QurE3/4an in general.
This unique work takes a method of textual analysis commonly used in studies of ancient Western and Eastern manuscripts and applies it to twenty-one early Qur'an manuscripts. Keith Small analyzes a defined portion of text from the Qur'an with two aims in view: to recover the earliest form of text for this portion, and to trace the historical development of this portion to the current form of the text of the Qur'an. Small concludes that though a significantly early edited form of the consonantal text of the Qur'an can be recovered, its original forms of text cannot be obtained. He also documents the further editing that was required to record the Arabic text of the Qur'an in a complete phonetic script, as well as providing an explanation for much of the development of various recitation systems of the Qur'an. This controversial, thought-provoking book provides a rigorous examination into the history of the Qur'an and will be of great interest to Quranic Studies scholars.
In this book, Angelika Neuwirth provides a new approach to understanding the founding text of Islam. Typical exegesis of the Qur'an treats the text teleologically, as a fait accompli finished text, or as a replica or summary of the Bible in Arabic. Instead Neuwirth approaches the Qur'an as the product of a specific community in the Late Antique Arabian peninsula, one which was exposed to the wider worlds of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, and to the rich intellectual traditions of rabbinic Judaism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. A central goal of the book is to eliminate the notion of the Qur'an as being a-historical. She argues that it is, in fact, highly aware of its place in late...
In recent decades, new paradigms have radically altered the historical understanding of the Qur'ān and Early Islam, causing much debate and controversy. This volume gathers select proceedings from the first conference of the Early Islamic Studies Seminar. These studies explore the history of the Qur'ān and of formative Islam, with the methodological tools set forth in Biblical, New Testament and Apocryphal studies, as well as the approaches used in the study of Second Temple Judaism, Christian and Rabbinic origins. It thereby contributes to the interdisciplinary study of formative Islam as part and parcel of the religious landscape of Late Antiquity.
This excellent collection of critical commentaries on the Koran brings together outstanding articles by noted scholars from the beginning of the 20th century to recent times. These important studies, as well as the editor's own lengthy introduction, show that little about the text of the Koran can be taken at face value. Among the fascinating topics discussed is evidence that early Muslims did not understand Muhammad's original revelation, that the ninth-century explosion of literary activity was designed to organize and make sense of an often incoherent text, and that much of the traditions surrounding Muhammad's life were fabricated long after his death in an attempt to give meaning to the Koran. Also of interest are suggestions that Coptic and other Christian sources heavily influenced much of the text and that some passages reflect an essential background reaching back to the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This valuable compilation will be a welcome resource to interested lay readers and scholars alike.
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assigned reading in universities, both here and abroad."-Phyllis Chesler, PHD Author of Woman's Inhumanity to Woman and The Death of Feminism --