THE QUR’AN IN ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT The Qur’an in Its Historical Context is a remarkable work of primary source scholarship on the Qur’an. While most studies address the Qur’an through the retrospective lens of later Islamic commentaries, the present work presents a contextual perspective. The reader is challenged herein to consider, first, the great debates over the meaning of the Qur’an and, second, the new research that claims to present a definitive solution to those debates. In Part 1, the authors consider, and advance, theories for a new understanding of the Qur’an’s interpretation. The question of Christoph Luxenberg’s Syro-Aramaic reading is debated, as is the importance of newly discovered early Arabic inscriptions. In Part 2, the authors place the Qur’an within the Late Antique religious milieu, demonstrating its conversation with Jewish and Christian literature. In Part 3, the authors consider the Islamic tradition of Qur’an interpretation, and ask how scientific research relates to religious tradition. Collectively the essays herein present a new approach to the study of the Qur’an. This approach will allow scholars to shed new light on the Qur’anic passages that have been shrouded in mystery and debate. It will also illuminate the Qur’an’s relationship to Judaism and Christianity, thereby demonstrating the Qur’an’s place in a shared Jewish–Christian–Islamic tradition. As this collection of distinguished authors represents a distinct sub-field within Qur’anic Studies, students and specialists will welcome this volume in order to get to know the state-of-the-art methods within this specific sphere of scholarship. Gabriel Said Reynolds is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, where he specializes in Qur’anic Studies. ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN THE QUR’AN Series Editor: Andrew Rippin University of Victoria, Canada In its examination of critical issues in the scholarly study of the Qur’an and its commentaries, this series targets the disciplines of archaeology, history, textual history, anthropology, theology and literary criticism. The contemporary relevance of the Qur’an in the Muslim world, its role in politics and in legal debates are also dealt with, as are debates surrounding Qur’anic studies in the Muslim world. LITERARY STRUCTURES OF LOGIC, RHETORIC AND RELIGIOUS MEANING IN LEGAL REASONING IN THE QUR’AN THE QUR’AN Edited by Issa J. Boullata God’s arguments Rosalind Ward Gwynne THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXEGESIS IN EARLY ISLAM TEXTUAL RELATIONS IN The authenticity of Muslim literature THE QUR’AN from the Formative Period Relevance, coherence and structure Herbert Berg Salwa M. El-Awa BIBLICAL PROPHETS IN THE SÁFI COMMENTARIES QUR’AN AND MUSLIM ON THE QUR’AN IN LITERATURE CLASSICAL ISLAM Robert Tottoli Kristin Zahra Sands MOSES IN THE QUR’AN AND THE QUR’AN IN ITS ISLAMIC EXEGESIS HISTORICAL CONTEXT Brannon M. Wheeler Gabriel Said Reynolds THE QUR’AN IN ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT Edited by Gabriel Said Reynolds First published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2008 Gabriel Said Reynolds, selection and editorial matter; the contributors, their own chapters All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-93960-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–42899–8 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–203–93960–3 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–42899–6 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–93960–4 (ebk) CONTENTS List of images vii Notes on contributors viii Foreword by Daniel A. Madigan xi List of abbreviations xiv Map: locations cited in the present volume xv Introduction: Qur’anic studies and its controversies 1 GABRIEL SAID REYNOLDS PART 1 Linguistic and historical evidence 27 1 The Qur’an in recent scholarship: challenges and desiderata 29 FRED M. DONNER 2 Epigraphy and the linguistic background to the Qur’an51 ROBERT HOYLAND 3 Recent research on the construction of the Qur’an70 GERHARD BÖWERING 4 Reconsidering the authorship of the Qur’an: is the Qur’an partly the fruit of a progressive and collective work? 88 CLAUDE GILLIOT 5 Christian lore and the Arabic Qur’an: the “Companions of the Cave” in Surat al-Kahf and in Syriac Christian tradition 109 SIDNEY GRIFFITH v CONTENTS PART 2 The religious context of the late antique Near East 139 6 The theological Christian influence on the Qur’an: a reflection 141 SAMIR KHALIL SAMIR 7 Mary in the Qur’an: a reexamination of her presentation 163 SULEIMAN A. MOURAD 8 The Alexander Legend in the Qur’an 18:83–102 175 KEVIN VAN BLADEL 9 Beyond single words: Ma’ida – Shaytan – jibt and taghut. Mechanisms of transmission into the Ethiopic (GY‘Yz) Bible and the Qur’anic text 204 MANFRED KROPP 10 Nascent Islam in the seventh century Syriac sources 217 ABDUL-MASSIH SAADI PART 3 Critical study of the Qur’an and the Muslim exegetical tradition 223 11 Notes on medieval and modern emendations of the Qur’an 225 DEVIN J. STEWART 12 Syriac in the Qur’an: classical Muslim theories 249 ANDREW RIPPIN Bibliography 262 Index of Biblical verses 283 Index of Qur’anic verses 285 Index of people, places and subjects 289 vi IMAGES 1 Epitaph of Imru’ al-Qays, Nemara (S. Syria), 328 CE 53 2 Dedication to Obodas, ‘Ayn Abada/En Avdat (S. Palestine), ca. second century CE 54 3 Funerary text, Hegra (NW Saudi Arabia), 267 CE 54 4 Building text, Zebed (N. Syria), ca. 512 CE 55 5 Graffito, Jabal Usays (S. Syria), 529 CE 55 6 Building text, Harran (S. Syria), 569 CE 56 7 Funerary text, Nebo (Jordan), mid-sixth century CE 56 8 Graffiti, Umm Judhayidh (NW Arabia), ca. fourth to fifth century CE 61 9 Graffiti, Umm Judhayidh (NW Arabia), ca. fourth to fifth century CE 62 10 Graffito, Qa‘ al-Mu‘tadil (NW Arabia), AH 24 62 11 Poetry quotation, Mecca (Arabia), AH 98 64 vii CONTRIBUTORS Kevin van Bladel is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Southern California. His publications include “Heavenly cords and prophetic authority in the Qur’an and its Late Antique context,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 69 (2007), 223–47 and “The Iranian characteristics and forged Greek attributions in the Arabic Sirr al-asrar (Secret of Secrets),” Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 57 (2004), 151–72. Gerhard Böwering is Professor of Islamic Studies at Yale University (USA). His publications include: Mystical Vision of Existence in Classical Islam (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1980) and Sulami’s Minor Qur’an Commentary (Beirut: Dar al-Mashriq, 1995; 1997). Fred M. Donner is Professor of Near Eastern History in the Oriental Institute and the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at the University of Chicago (USA). His publications include: Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1997) and “From believers to Muslims: Communal self-identity in the early Islamic community,” Al-Abhath 50–1 (2002–3), 9–53. Claude Gilliot is Professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Provence, Aix-en-Provence (France). His publications include: Exégèse, langue, et théologie en Islam. (Paris: Vrin, 1990) and “Le Coran, fruit d’un travail collectif?” in D. De Smet, G. de Callatay and J.M.F. Van Reeth (eds), Al-Kitab. La sacralité du texte dans le monde de l’Islam, Acta Orientalia Belgica, 2004, 185–223. Sidney Griffith is Ordinary Professor in the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at the Catholic University of America (USA). His publications include two collections of his studies: Arabic Christianity in the Monasteries of Ninth-Century Palestine (Aldershot: Ashgate/Variorum, 1992) and The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic (Burlington, VT: Ashgate/ Variorum, 2002). Robert Hoyland is Professor of Arabic and Middle East Studies at the University of Saint Andrews (Scotland, UK). His publications include: Seeing Islam as viii CONTRIBUTORS Others Saw it (Princeton: Darwin, 1997) and Arabia and the Arabs (London: Routledge, 2001). Manfred Kropp is Professor of Semitic and Islamic Studies at Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz (Germany). His publications include: Die Geschichte der “reinen Araber” vom Stamme Qahtan. Aus dem Kitab Namwat at-tarab fi ta’riw æahiliyyat al-‘Arab des Ibn Sa‘id al-Ma∫ribi (2nd edition: Frankfurt: Lang, 1982) and Der siegreiche Feldzug des Königs ‘Amda-Seyon gegen die Muslime in Adal. CSCO 538–9 (Louvain: Peeters, 1988). Daniel A. Madigan is Director of the Institute for the Study of Religions and Cultures at the Gregorian University, Rome. His publications include The Qur’an’s Self-Image: Writing and Authority in Islam’s Scripture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), and “The Limits of Self-referentiality in the Qur’an,” in Stefan Wild (ed.), Self-referentiality in the Qur’ân; Diskurse der Arabistik 11 (Wiesdbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 2006), 59–70. Suleiman A.