Qur'ānic Studies Today (Book report): Difference between revisions
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Qur'ānic Studies Today<ref>https://www.amazon.com/Qur%C4%81nic-Studies-Today-Routledge-Quran/dp/1138181951</ref> is a book by Angelika Neuwirth and Michael A. Sells that brings together specialists in the field of Islamic studies to provide a range of essays that reflect the depth and breadth of scholarship on the Qur'ān. | Qur'ānic Studies Today<ref>https://www.amazon.com/Qur%C4%81nic-Studies-Today-Routledge-Quran/dp/1138181951</ref> is a book by Angelika Neuwirth and Michael A. Sells that brings together specialists in the field of Islamic studies to provide a range of essays that reflect the depth and breadth of scholarship on the Qur'ān. | ||
Combining theoretical and methodological clarity with close readings of qur’ānic texts, these contributions provide close analysis of specific passages, themes, and issues within the Qurʾān, even as they attend to the disciplinary challenges within the field of qur’ānic studies today. Chapters are arranged into three parts, treating specific figures appearing in the Qurʾān, analysing particular suras, and finally reflecting on the Qur’ān and its "others." They explore the internal dimensions and interior chronology of the Qur’ān as text, its possible conversations with biblical and non-biblical traditions in Late Antiquity, and its role as scripture in modern exegesis and recitation. Together, they are indispensable for students and scholars who seek an understanding of the Qur’ān founded on the most recent scholarly achievements. | Combining theoretical and methodological clarity with close readings of qur’ānic texts, these contributions provide a close analysis of specific passages, themes, and issues within the Qurʾān, even as they attend to the disciplinary challenges within the field of qur’ānic studies today. Chapters are arranged into three parts, treating specific figures appearing in the Qurʾān, analysing particular suras, and finally reflecting on the Qur’ān and its "others." They explore the internal dimensions and interior chronology of the Qur’ān as text, its possible conversations with biblical and non-biblical traditions in Late Antiquity, and its role as scripture in modern exegesis and recitation. Together, they are indispensable for students and scholars who seek an understanding of the Qur’ān founded on the most recent scholarly achievements. | ||
Offering both a reflection of and a reflection on the discipline of qur’ānic studies, the strong, scholarly examinations of the Qur’ān in this volume provide a valuable contribution to Islamic and qur’ānic studies. | Offering both a reflection of and a reflection on the discipline of qur’ānic studies, the strong, scholarly examinations of the Qur’ān in this volume provide a valuable contribution to Islamic and qur’ānic studies. | ||
=Introduction= | =Introduction= | ||
This is a volume intended to be both a reflection of and a reflection on the discipline of qurʾānic studies. Contributions provide close analysis of specific | This is a volume intended to be both a reflection of and a reflection on the discipline of qurʾānic studies. Contributions provide a close analysis of specific passages, themes, and issues within the Qurʾān even as they attend to the disciplinary challenges, promises, or contentions with the field of qurʾānic studies today. | ||
The field of qurʾānic studies has developed significantly over the past two decades. Suffice it to note at this point a few milestones in the area of collabo-rate | The field of qurʾānic studies has developed significantly over the past two decades. Suffice it to note at this point a few milestones in the area of collabo-rate endeavours and scholarly infrastructure: the establishment of the bilingual Journal of Qurʾanic Studies (JQS)/Majallat al-Dirāsāt al-Qurʾānīya in 1999; the completion of the five-volume Encyclopedia of the Qurʾan (EQ) in 2006; the establishment of the Corpus Coranicum project in 2007; | ||
the burgeoning of pan-els devoted to qurʾānic studies at the American Academy of Religion and | the burgeoning of pan-els devoted to qurʾānic studies at the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature over the past decade; the founding of the International Qurʾanic Studies Association in 2012; the appearance of the collaboratively produced two-thousand-page Study Qurʾan in 2015; and development of web-based Qurʾān programs with hypertext interfaces for recitation, grammatical analysis, tajwīd indications, transliterations, and concordances, along with a growing web-accessible corpus of classical and modern Arabic commentaries.1 | ||
The idea for this volume stems from a Fall 2012 conference, “Qurʾānic Studies Today,” that was organized by Angelika Neuwirth and Michael Sells at the University of Chicago.2 Several essays in the volume are by conference participants, and all address the issues that were of core concern at the conference. Our | The idea for this volume stems from a Fall 2012 conference, “Qurʾānic Studies Today,” that was organized by Angelika Neuwirth and Michael Sells at the University of Chicago.2 Several essays in the volume are by conference participants, and all address the issues that were of core concern at the conference. Our intention in organizing the conference and in editing this volume has been to reflect the depth and breadth of scholarship on the Qurʾān. | ||
Our introductory essay outlines our shared perspectives on the critical interpretive issues with which contemporary scholarship is engaged. Angelika Neuwirth has composed the larger part of the introduction. Michael Sells has written the section of the introduction titled “Aurality and Interdiscursivity.” Although our positions are engaged and in some sense programmatic; we did not expect the participants in the conference, and we do not expect the contributors to this volume, to agree with our priorities or perspectives. | Our introductory essay outlines our shared perspectives on the critical interpretive issues with which contemporary scholarship is engaged. Angelika Neuwirth has composed the larger part of the introduction. Michael Sells has written the section of the introduction titled “Aurality and Interdiscursivity.” Although our positions are engaged and in some sense programmatic; we did not expect the participants in the conference, and we do not expect the contributors to this volume, to agree with our priorities or perspectives. | ||
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This label is not only apt for lending expression to the elevated status that the Bible has attracted in the entire realm of Near Eastern cultures, where it was present as a subtext of innumerable liturgical and literary texts and moreover of oral debates; it also highlights the holistic aspect of its reception. | This label is not only apt for lending expression to the elevated status that the Bible has attracted in the entire realm of Near Eastern cultures, where it was present as a subtext of innumerable liturgical and literary texts and moreover of oral debates; it also highlights the holistic aspect of its reception. | ||
Frye’s observation that “what matters is that ‘the Bible’ has | Frye’s observation that “what matters is that ‘the Bible’ has traditionally been read as a unity, and has influenced Western imagination as a unity”4 can easily be translated into the Near Eastern context, where it is shared by the Late Antique educated elite, among them members of the nascent qurʾānic community. This community, from a certain time onward, was aware of the existence of different parts of the Bible that are attributed as scriptures to the Jews and Christians, respectively. | ||
These parts in their entirety, however, are regarded as emanations of “the Book” as a whole, al-kitāb, which is understood as a transcendent scripture from which pericopes are subsequently sent down to the various prophets. One of these dispatches – according to the early community’s view, which is reflected in the text – gradually materialized into a new scripture with the Qurʾān.5 | These parts in their entirety, however, are regarded as emanations of “the Book” as a whole, al-kitāb, which is understood as a transcendent scripture from which pericopes are subsequently sent down to the various prophets. One of these dispatches – according to the early community’s view, which is reflected in the text – gradually materialized into a new scripture with the Qurʾān.5 | ||
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John Wansbrough’s paired works Quranic Studies and The Sectarian Milieu have been recognized for their radical departure from mainstream scholarship on the Qurʾān and early Islamic history. Unfortunately, their difficulty has prevented many scholars in Islamic studies from constructive engagement with the theories proposed therein. | John Wansbrough’s paired works Quranic Studies and The Sectarian Milieu have been recognized for their radical departure from mainstream scholarship on the Qurʾān and early Islamic history. Unfortunately, their difficulty has prevented many scholars in Islamic studies from constructive engagement with the theories proposed therein. | ||
In addition to dense style and technical terms in Greek, Latin, German, and Hebrew, unstated assumptions and unexplained methods made all the more obscure because | In addition to dense style and technical terms in Greek, Latin, German, and Hebrew, unstated assumptions and unexplained methods made all the more obscure because the absence of introductions and conclusions have presented a challenge to comprehension. It would aid investigators to understand the main intellectual background of these works, which Wansbrough merely hints at rather than sets forth methodically. | ||
They are based primarily on the methods of Formgeschichte (“Form-History”) developed by scholars of the New Testament who sought, by investigating the synoptic Gospels, to gain access to the earlier, folkloric texts from which they had been formed and thereby to understand the nature of the early Christian community in which those texts had been produced and circulated. The following remarks discuss Wansbrough’s indebtedness to Formgeschichte and critique the theory of variant traditions he proposes in Quranic Studies. | They are based primarily on the methods of Formgeschichte (“Form-History”) developed by scholars of the New Testament who sought, by investigating the synoptic Gospels, to gain access to the earlier, folkloric texts from which they had been formed and thereby to understand the nature of the early Christian community in which those texts had been produced and circulated. The following remarks discuss Wansbrough’s indebtedness to Formgeschichte and critique the theory of variant traditions he proposes in Quranic Studies. | ||
In the preface to Quranic Studies, Wansbrough criticizes the current state of qurʾānic scholarship: “To argue a case for the Qurʾān as scripture may seem gratuitous. As the record of Muslim revelation, the book requires no introduction. As a document susceptible of analysis by the instruments and techniques of biblical criticism it is virtually unknown.”1 Scholars of Islamic studies have often similarly lamented the fact that biblical criticism has not been applied to the Qurʾān, an observation that is justified in general though not true categorically. | In the preface to Quranic Studies, Wansbrough criticizes the current state of qurʾānic scholarship: “To argue a case for the Qurʾān as scripture may seem gratuitous. As the record of Muslim revelation, the book requires no introduction. As a document susceptible of analysis by the instruments and techniques of biblical criticism it is virtually unknown.”1 Scholars of Islamic studies have often similarly lamented the fact that biblical criticism has not been applied to the Qurʾān, an observation that is justified in general though not true categorically. | ||
However, Wansbrough’s lament does not specify what is meant by biblical | However, Wansbrough’s lament does not specify what is meant by biblical criticism, which encompasses a large number of distinct critical approaches that can be classed under the already broad rubrics of textual criticism, historical criticism, source criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, canonical criticism, feminist criticism, and so forth. | ||
Wansbrough’s Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (1977) and The Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History (1978) certainly respond to the dearth of critical study to which he refers and does employ biblical critical methods. However, awareness of the particular strand of biblical criticism on which he draws is a requirement necessary for an appreciation of his assumptions, methods, and theories that appear arbitrary or anomalous. | Wansbrough’s Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (1977) and The Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History (1978) certainly respond to the dearth of critical study to which he refers and does employ biblical critical methods. However, awareness of the particular strand of biblical criticism on which he draws is a requirement necessary for an appreciation of his assumptions, methods, and theories that appear arbitrary or anomalous. | ||
Many of Quranic Studies’ main arguments have been passed over in silence in part because it is a difficult book to read and comprehend. As reviewers have repeatedly noted, Wansbrough assumes the reader will readily understand | Many of Quranic Studies’ main arguments have been passed over in silence in part because it is a difficult book to read and comprehend. As reviewers have repeatedly noted, Wansbrough assumes the reader will readily understand quotations and technical terms in Hebrew, German, Latin, and Greek; to alleviate this problem, Andrew Rippin’s new edition of the work includes a glossary.2 | ||
In addition, Wansbrough’s prose is dense. Stephen Humphreys remarks, “He affects a ferociously opaque style which bristles with unexplained technical terms in many languages, obscure allusions, and Teutonic grammar.”3 | In addition, Wansbrough’s prose is dense. Stephen Humphreys remarks, “He affects a ferociously opaque style which bristles with unexplained technical terms in many languages, obscure allusions, and Teutonic grammar.”3 | ||
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In an effort to make Wansbrough’s ideas more accessible, several scholars have explained and commented on parts of his work, but they have not resolved the main difficulties it presents by tracing its intellectual genealogy, addressing it instead from the point of view of qurʾānic and Islamic studies. | In an effort to make Wansbrough’s ideas more accessible, several scholars have explained and commented on parts of his work, but they have not resolved the main difficulties it presents by tracing its intellectual genealogy, addressing it instead from the point of view of qurʾānic and Islamic studies. | ||
Scholarship addressing Quranic Studies has focused on a limited number of issues and especially on the claim of a late redaction of the Qurʾān. Gregor | Scholarship addressing Quranic Studies has focused on a limited number of issues and especially on the claim of a late redaction of the Qurʾān. Gregor Schoeler critiques Wansbrough on this account, arguing that the compilation and redaction of the Qurʾān under ʿUthmān (r. 644–656) are, if not proven, at least extremely probable because it is unanimously supported by tradition. The dispute over the writing down of hadith presupposes an already complete and published Qurʾān by the beginning of the second Islamic century. | ||
Moreover, now fragments of a Qurʾān manuscript have been found in Ṣanʿāʾ that date to as early as the second half of the seventh century.7 | Moreover, now fragments of a Qurʾān manuscript have been found in Ṣanʿāʾ that date to as early as the second half of the seventh century.7 | ||
Andrew Rippin, Herbert Berg, and others have | Andrew Rippin, Herbert Berg, and others have written commentaries and explanations of Wansbrough’s theories in general, pointing out, for example, that the mere existence of the Qurʾān as scripture at a certain date does not prove that it had been canonized by that time.8 Gerald Hawting has written a significant defence of Wansbrough’s claim that the Qurʾān cannot have been written in the Arabian peninsula, addressing what is perhaps the strongest piece of contrary evidence, the material in the Qurʾān that is related to pre-Islamic pagan traditions, and arguing that the references to pagan beliefs do not derive from pre-Islamic Arabian pagan beliefs but are rather part of a strategy often seen on the part of monotheists, of accusing opponents of pagan beliefs.9 | ||
=Notes= | =Notes= | ||