Bibliography of Qur'anic Studies in European Languages (Book report)

“Bibliography of Qur'anic Studies in European Languages” compiled by Morteza Karimi-Nia and Foreword by Andrew Rippin was published by the Centre for Translation of the Holy Quran,Qum, Islamic Republic of Iran, 2012/1433 AH. The following are introductory parts of the book.

Foreword

A BIBLIOGRAPHY is defined as "a list of writings relating to a given subject". It is that, of course, but it is also so very much more. A bibliography serves to define a field of study and to document that field's history, contours, and participants. It displays in a lucid way how areas of interest come and go over time, and, in its silences and absences, suggests areas of investigation that still need attention. This bibliography of Qur’anic studies tells us a great deal about our discipline as it has unfolded in European languages. Several observations may be made. For one, the extent of this bibliography has reached such proportions that no individual scholar could hope to be intimately acquainted with all of its entries. That state of affairs reflects not only the general phenomenon of the explosion of knowledge -and of the access to that knowledge -in contemporary times but also the significant increase in interest in the scholarly study of the Qur'an in recent decades. The range of topics that this bibliography covers is impressive as well; it is possible to see the emergence of sub-disciplines within Qur’anic studies in the way subjects start to cohere: manuscript studies, tafsir studies, textual studies, thematic studies, historical studies, the Qur'an in ritual, and so forth.

It is also worth noticing the range of names associated with the scholarly endeavor of Qur’anic studies reflected in this bibliography. Given that all this writing is in European languages, it is notable that the names of the authors reflect the global diversity that is the academic world today. On the basis of those names alone, one would have difficulty in asserting that research in this area is the domain of one particular culture, language, ethnicity, gender, or religion. This fact signifies a number of things. It shows that the Qur'an has truly entered into the canon of world literature, subject to analysis through a wide range of methods, approaches and presuppositions. It also uncovers a hopeful message for the future. I often encounter expressions of distrust when it comes to considering writings about the Qur'an stemming from "outside Islam. Certainly it is possible to point to entries in this bibliography that no reputable scholar would wish to cite as anything other than a component in the history of the discipline: the existence of bias and questionable motives on the part of some writers must be acknowledged and we must all be alert to the need to detect it (and to teach our students how to assess their sources critically). However, what a bibliography such as this shows us is the active dialogue and debate that is taking place in the academic world of Qur’anic studies across every border and boundary. And that, I believe, is a positive sign that should encourage further development of scholarly studies of the Qur'an and its world.

In the end, however, a bibliography is primarily a research tool, one that allows us access to what other scholars have investigated. The importance of that cannot be overstated. Scholarship must take place as a conversation, a back-and-forth between the individual academic and the scholarly community. It is only in such a way that scholarship can move ahead; that is also how we come to understand the history of why certain questions have become focal points for investigation and why research questions are framed in the way that they are. Every new piece of scholarship must, if it is to be useful and significant, stand in an acknowledged relationship with what has come before it. Thus, this bibliography is an indispensable tool, and all scholars of the Qur'an from all around the world owe a substantial debt of gratitude to Morteza Karimi-Nia for his efforts in producing this invaluable resource.

Introduction

TAFSIR and Qur'anic studies are at present among the main and most thriving fields in Islamic studies throughout the world. Every year a considerable number of books and articles are published by scholars, Muslims and non-Muslims, in the Islamic world as well as other countries. Knowledge of these publications is useful, even essential, for scholars. Apart from Islamic languages such as Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Malay, and Indonesian, a significant part of both early and recent sources have been published in European languages.

This short introduction is not the place to discuss the history, development, and diversity of Qur'anic studies in European languages or their strengths and weaknesses. It seems pertinent, however, to emphasize the lack of a road map or a precise, comprehensive bibliography of Qur'anic studies in European languages. Though there do exist outdated, brief, and selective bibliographies in this area, there is no comprehensive, systematic, up-to-date listing of European writings.

The present book is an exhaustive bibliography of Qur’anic books and articles published in the European languages (i.e., English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and Latin) within the time-span of 1500-2012 CE. As a listing of Quran translations into European languages requires a separate volume altogether, the works catalogued fall in the following categories: general books and bibliographies, Qur’anic sciences (all branches), history of the Qur'an, Qur'anic scripts and manuscripts, tafsir works and studies, history of tafsir and the exegetes, Qur'an translators and translation studies, Qur’anic vocabulary and etymology, studies focusing on Qur'anic verses, srahs, personages, or concepts, Qur’anic scholars, the Quran and challenges of the modern world, and critiques of Western Qur’anic works.

Translations of the Qur'an into European languages are not listed here mainly to prevent the work from becoming unnecessarily lengthy. The only exceptions are translations of the Qur'an incorporating tafir or possessing some characteristic relevant to the development of Western Qur’anic studies. Such works include Rudi Paret's translation in German, Richard Bell's in English, and Regis Belacher's in French. The bibliography covers exegetical (explanatory) translations, Qur’anic exegeses in European languages, and translations of Islamic exegetical works in these languages.

This catalogue is arranged alphabetically by the author's last name. Articles and prepositions do not figure in the ordering of the authors' names or titles of works (in all languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Latin). Publications without an author's name are sorted by the title.

All common names have been recorded with the Standard English spelling. The authors' dates of birth and, when applicable, death, have been recorded, whenever possible, from sources that were available.

The entries give the bibliographical data of each work, including the author's full name (and the translator's when applicable), the work's full title, the publisher, date and location of publication, number of pages, and the journal in which the work was published.

For reprints, revised editions, and works printed in several journals the data are given in chronological order under a single entry.

Articles published in specialized encyclopedias (except for The Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an) or on the Internet are not included at in the present catalogue unless they were previously published in recognized journals. Book reviews are not included.

Translations or summaries in Islamic languages (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Malay and Indonesian) of the books and articles in European languages are mentioned in footnotes under the related entries.

As the first printing of the book is in Iran, titles are translated into Persian for ease of use. The Persian captions are not word-for-word renditions of the original titles. The aim was to give the Persian reader not conversant with these languages some idea, at a quick glance, of the general contents of the works. As such, I have translated a single word variously in different contexts depending on the contents of the work in question. For example, "Bible which is mostly translated as al-Ahdayn, but is also rendered as Ahd al-Qadim (the Old Testament; e.g. entry 271) or al-Ahd al-Jadid or al-Injil (the New Testament; e.g. entry 1536). The same holds for such terms as 'Middle Ages,' 'Prophet,' and 'Messenger.' I have been careful to exclude books and articles that are not related to the Qur'an even though their titles may contain the word 'Qur'an.' For instance, Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran, a popular French novel translated into over thirty languages, is not included. That is also the case with the German book ... mit Sabel und Koran, which is a piece of research on the political and religious origins of the Al Saud in the Arabian Peninsula, and the English work, Quran and Cricket: Travels through the Madrasahs of Asia and Other Stories. The detailed index of general and specific topics has been created through examining the contents of the sources. It covers names of persons, places, individual verses, surahs, concepts, subjects, terms of tafsir and Qur'anic sciences, and book titles. Entries pertaining to any Quran- or tafsir-related issue or subject can easily be found by consulting the index. The spellings and transliterations of Islamic terms are exactly as they appear in the books and articles. Accordingly, the term Qur'an appears here in various forms, including Qur'an, Quran, Qur'an, Quran, Koran, Coran, Kur'an, Kur'an, Kuran, and even with the incorrect spelling, Qu'ran (e.g. entry 1222). The present bibliography does not and cannot purport to be exhaustive. At the time of this volume's publication, some works published during 2009-2012 were not available to me. I hope that this failing will be rectified in future revisions. Nevertheless, I pray that this near-complete work will contribute to the depth and richness of Qur'anic scholarship and tafsir studies in both the East and the West. In the end, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the revered Director of the Centre for Translation of the Holy Qur'an (CTHQ), all my friends and colleagues, and fellow researchers in the area of Islamic studies worldwide who have aided me in the development and completion of this work. I also ask readers to not withhold from me any suggestions or corrections.

Foot notes

1. Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran, Paris: Editions Albin Michel, 2001. 84pp. English translation: Monsieur Ibrahim and flowers of the Koran, translated by Marjolijn de Jager, New York: Other Press, 2003. 117pp.

2. Jorg-Dieter Brandes, ... mit Sabel und Koran: der Aufitieg der Konigsfamilie Saud und der Wahabiten, Stuttgart: Thorbecke, 1999. 296pp.

3. Farish Ahmad Noor, Qur'an and cricket: travels through the madrasahs of Asia and other stories, KualaLumpur: Silverfish Books, 2009. 286pp.