The International Qur’anic Studies Association is excited to share with its members its new Qurʾan Seminar website! The Qurʾan Seminar is a research project of IQSA dedicated to collaborative study of selected Qurʾanic passages on themes of central importance to the text itself, which collectively represent a diversity of literary genres, and which are of interest to the academic field of Qurʾanic Studies.
The website includes a database of passages of the Qurʾan with commentaries from a range of scholars, and an active forum in which additional Qurʾanic passages are discussed. Scholars are encouraged to address the Qurʾan directly and to not rely on classical exegesis as a lens through which to view the text. Of particular interest to the discussion are the following questions:
The structure of the Qurʾan (its logical, rhetorical, and literary qualities, or naẓm)
The Qurʾan’s intertextual relationships (with both Biblical and other literary traditions)
The Qurʾan’s historical context in Late Antiquity
Qur’an Seminar Access:
Access to Qur’an Seminar is open to IQSA members only. To become a member, click HERE. Once you are a member and have paid membership dues, follow the instructions for accessing Qur’an Seminar.
2. Click Log in/Sign up located on the top right hand corner.
3. Complete the required field under Have an account? Sign up. Click Login. The password you choose can be the same as your IQSA member login or a new one.
4. You will receive an email message which will confirm your registration.
NOTE: Your first access after registration will not be possible immediately. A delay between 6 to 24 hours will be necessary. For questions about Qur’an Seminar or issues with the registration process please contact mehdi.azaiez@theo.kuleuven.be
On November 28th, French publisher CNRS Editions released Le Coran: NouvellesApproches, the fruit of a colloquium of leading francophone scholars of the Qur’an that took place at l’Institut d’études de l’Islam et des sociétés du monde musulman (Paris, 2009).
The work presents thirteen studies divided into three sections: L’histoire du texte (“history of the text”), Le contexte d’émergence (“the context of the Qurʾan’s origins”), and L’analyse littéraire (“literary analysis”). In a detailed introduction, Mehdi Azaiez—editor of the work, along with Sabrina Mervin—presents an insightful analysis of the complicated state of Qur’anic studies, along with an overview of the work’s articles. [See below for the full Table of Contents listing].
Le Coran: Nouvelles Approches includes articles from leading francophone scholars—along with a contribution by Angelika Neuwirth on the Qurʾan and Late Antiquity, translated into French—on topics of significant interest at the current moment in Qurʾanic Studies. It will thus serve readers as a guide to the most important work of contemporary French language research in the field. Le Coran: Nouvelles Approches is dedicated to the memory of Mohammed Arkoun, and fittingly so. The conference on which it is based took place at the institute which Prof. Arkoun founded, and the level of the scholarship in Le Coran: Nouvelles Approches does justice to his memory.
Table of Contents
Introduction, Mehdi Azaiez
Première Partie : l’Histoire du texte
1. Contrôler l’écriture. Sur quelques caractéristiques de manuscrits coraniques omeyyades François Déroche
2. Le Coran silencieux et le Coran parlant. Problématique des sources scripturaires dans le shi’isme ancien
Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi
3. Le Coran des pierres : statistiques et premières analyses
Frédéric Imbert
Deuxième partie : le contexte d’émergence
4. Le Coran – Un texte de l’Antiquité tardive
Angelika Neuwirth
5. Le Coran avant le Coran : la piste syriaque. Nazaréens et Nazaréisme dans le Coran et chez les anciens exégètes Claude Gilliot
6. La possibilité du Coran
Jacqueline Chabbi
7. L’abrogation selon le Coran à la lumière des Homélies pseudo clémentines
Geneviève Gobillot
Troisième partie : l’analyse littéraire
8. Le Coran : l’écrit, le lu, le récité.
Pierre Larcher
9. Le contre-discours coranique : premières approches d’un corpus
Mehdi Azaiez
10. Métatextualité et autoréférence dans le texte coranique
Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau
11. La question de l’abrogation dans son contexte rhétorique. (Une analyse des versets 2, 87-121)
Michel Cuypers
Video Lecture: “How (Not) to Translate the Qur’an”
The public lecture “How (Not) to Translate the Qur’an,” by Dr. Shawkat Toorawa—an event hosted by the Qur’an Seminar project earlier this year—can be viewed online in its entirety here.
Toorawa is associate professor of Arabic Literature and Islamic Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. His areas of specialty are medieval Arabic literature and modern poetry. He has a special interest in the lexicon of the Qur’an and is currently preparing a critical edition of the Shifa’ al-‘alil by the eighteenth-century belletrist Azad Bilgrami. For a selection of books that Toorawa has authored and edited, see here.
The Qur’an Seminar is an academic project dedicated to advancing scholarly understanding of the Qur’anic text. The project—led by IQSA codirector Gabriel Said Reynolds and steering committee member Mehdi Azaiez—involves the collaboration of scholars worldwide, a series of public lectures by leading Muslim intellectuals, and the production of an innovative commentary on fifty central Qurʾanic passages. It is funded by a Sawyer Seminar grant of the Mellon Foundation and hosted by the University of Notre Dame.
“Fragmentation and Compilation” Workshop at the Institute for Ismaili Studies, London
By Holger Zellentin
This past week, an exciting conversation took place at the Institute for Ismaili Studies in London. The event was convened by one of the Institute’s researchers, Dr. Asma Hilali, who brought together a broad range of researchers in Qur’anic studies. The workshop was the second installment in a series titled “Fragmentation and Compilation,” which seeks to explore the difficult conceptualization of partial transmission and re-arrangement of various “particles” relating to the Qur’an. Among the elements considered in terms of their fragmentation and subsequent compilation were sketches of individual Qur’anic verses and their arrangement within the Qur’an (and beyond), Qur’anic reading instructions and textual variants, and the role of Jewish literary frameworks and exegetical traditions in our understanding of the Qur’an. Presentations were given on material evidence such as: the Ṣan‘ā’ palimpsest (Asma Hilali), early Qur’anic graffiti from Arabia (Frédéric Imbert), the various voices used in Qur’anic discourse (Mehdi Azaiez), the Qur’an’s integration of Jewish exegetical topoi (Holger Zellentin), and on the compositional features of Tafsir collections (Stephen Burge).
Photo by Frédéric Imbert
The presenters’ initially distinct points of departure were united by more than their common focus on the text of the Qur’an. Aziz Al-Azmeh served as a brilliant and erudite discussant, probing the theses and turning the focus of the public discussion towards one overarching topic: the palpability of both unity and dynamism within the Qur’anic text, in its traditional form as well as in its various early iterations. The discussion among the presenters and the notable guests (such as François Déroche, Gerald Hawting, and Hermann Landolt) explored two topics in particular. The first constituted the possibilities and challenges inherent to integrating a study of Qur’anic manuscripts with a study of the Arabian Qur’anic graffitis from the first two centuries after the Hijra. Adjacent foci here were the dating of the earliest graffitis; the importance of the Parisino-Petropolitanuscodex from Fusṭāṭ (Ms. Arabe 328); and the difficulties pertaining to the carbon-dating, the palaeography, and the reconstruction of the Ṣan‘ā’ 1 palimpsest. Secondly, the discussion repeatedly returned to the limits and imperatives of considering a basic chronology of the Qur’an, and the need to differentiate between the development of micro- and macroforms: i.e. between individual stories or traditions and the Surahs as a whole. A more objective way of establishing an inner Qur’anic chronology, it was suggested, is perhaps the increasingly precise tracing of the relatively pointed appearance of Syriac and Rabbinic literary form and content in specific Surahs.
More than a few doctoral theses are yet to be written covering even the most basic preliminaries connecting the material evidence of the text with its relationship to Late Antiquity. The conference was framed by a discussion of the state of the field of Qur’anic studies, and included a presentation of recent research projects housed in Berlin, Notre Dame, and Nottingham. Overall, the open atmosphere and spirit of respectful inquiry was a great success for the organizer and the hosting institution. Those who have missed the event will be able to read the proceedings in a publication edited by Dr. Hilali.
CLAIMING TRADITION: MODERN REREADINGS OF THE CLASSICAL ISLAMIC HERITAGE
Organisers: Elisabeth Kendall, Ahmad Khan, Christopher Melchert, Nicolai Sinai
Venue: Pembroke College, Oxford. OX1 1DW
Date: 27-28 September 2013
Both the resurgence of Islamist politics and the political, social, and intellectual upheaval accompanying the Arab Spring challenge us to reconsider the interplay between the pre-modern Islamic tradition and modern proponents of continuity, reform, and change in the Muslim world. The colloquium therefore invites scholars with an in-depth knowledge of the classical Islamicate heritage to explore modern texts that stake out some sort of claim to pre-modern traditions in disciplines as diverse as Islamic law, hadith, Qur’anic exegesis, politics, and literature. The colloquium will encourage specialists to embark on a hermeneutically sophisticated exercise that avoids some of the extremes to which an examination of how the classical heritage functions in the modern Islamic world has often been subjected. The colloquium aims to move beyond works that contain the tacit assumption that modern Muslims are subconsciously steered by the Islamic tradition, without exerting any sort of agency or control over it, and studies that suggest that modern Muslim thinkers arbitrarily distort elements of the tradition to which they lay claim. Instead, we invite scholars to consider modern re-appropriations of pre-modern concepts, texts, persons, and events, and thereby to transcend an increasing bifurcation between classical and contemporary Islamic studies.
Participants:
Carole Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh), Robert Gleave (University of Exeter), Christopher Melchert (University of Oxford), Ahmad Khan (University of Oxford), Nicolai Sinai (University of Oxford), Islam Dayeh (Freie Universitat Berlin), Karen Bauer (Institute of Ismaili Studies), Elisabeth Kendall (University of Oxford), Marilyn Booth (University of Edinburgh), Jon Hoover (University of Nottingham), Christian Lange (Utrecht University)
Acknowledgement:
This colloquium has been made possible thanks to the generosity of Brian Wilson, a long-standing benefactor of Arabic studies at Pembroke.
Fragmentation and Compilation : The Making of Religious Texts in Islam A Comparative Perspective II (30 septembre – 1er octobre)
Workshop
30 September–1 October 2013
The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
2nd Floor, Room 2.3
Convenor : Asma Hilali
Abstracts
Fragmentation and Variation in the First Islamic Graffiti (1st–2nd century AH)
Frédéric Imbert, Aix-Marseille University, France
The latest research in the field of Islamic graffiti in the first two centuries AH in the Middle East is uncovering new information about Muslim society at the dawn of Islam. Most of this information concerns the Islamic faith, the place of the Qur’an and the figure of the Prophet Muhammad, but the oldest graffiti also allow us to reflect on the status of writing during the same period. Thousands of Arabic Kufic graffiti recently discovered in Saudi Arabia and in the wider Middle East reflect an extreme fragmentation due to the quantity of inscriptions scattered all over the area. These Arabic graffiti, which were not subjected to any kind of censorship, are the expression of variation and repetition at the same time : variation of the Qur’anic text and of the attitude of people towards the new religion and the Prophet, and repetition of the religious prayers and invocations. The picture of early Islam emanating from the first Islamic graffiti is one of fragmentation.
Repetitions and Variations, and the Problem of ‘Qur’anic Variants’
Asma Hilali, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
The field of Qur’anic Studies has been greatly influenced by the medieval reception of the Qur’an text manifested in the exegetical literature and by the theories related to the ‘Qur’anic variants’. The concept of ‘Qur’anic variants’ is deeply rooted in the history of the canonisation of the Qur’an and in the various assumptions made about scribal errors and falsification. My paper will provide a critique of the conceptual tools used in Qur’anic Studies in the last two decades and will propose a new perspective in the study of the textual features interpreted by the medieval and modern scholars as ‘Qur’anic variants’. The new perspective takes the fragmented aspect of the text to be inseparable from the history of its transmission.
Fragmentation, Compilation and Discourse : A Comparison of Three Arbaʿūn Collections on Jihād and Martyrdom Compiled in the Late Mamluk Period
Stephen Burge, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
This paper examines the ways in which hadith scholars went about compiling hadith collections by undertaking a comparative analysis of three similar works written in the same period. The three collections are all arbaʿūn collections – short collections of around forty hadith – which focus on the themes of jihād and martyrdom. The three studied are Suyuti’s Abwāb al-suʿadāʾ fī asbāb al-shuhadāʾ (‘The Gates of the Lucky in the Occasions of Martyrdom’) and his Arbaʿūn ḥadīthan fī faḍl al-jihād (‘Forty Hadith on the Merits of Jihad’) and al-Biqāʿī’s Dhayl al-istishhād bi-āyāt al-jihād (‘The Appendix to Martyrdom in the Verses on Jihād’). I will argue that by closely analysing the material included and excluded from a hadith collection, as well as the ways in which the hadith have been arranged, it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of particular nuances within a text in which a compiler does not give his views openly to his reader. This paper will argue that the ‘hadith literature’ contains a vast, almost infinite, body of texts and the job of the hadith compiler is to fragment this wider body of texts, to reconstitute them, and then to arrange them in order to provide a specific discourse on a subject. This process can be seen in the different ways the three works under consideration in this paper respond to the subjects of jihād and martyrdom.
The Qur’an’s Fragmentation and Realignment of Gospel and Talmud
Holger Zellentin, The University of Nottingham, UK
The unique ways in which the Qur’an ‘heard’ select stories from the Aramaic Gospel tradition has been considered by generations of scholars. Yet, only the most rudimentary consensus has been established about the nature of the texts with which the Qur’an’s audience was familiar, let alone the ways in which the Qur’an used these texts. The Qur’an’s utilisation of Talmudic material has received even less attention, and a consensus is even more remote. The present paper seeks to advance, one small step, our understanding of the deployment of both corpora in the Qur’an by considering them jointly. More than occasionally, the Qur’an fragments and realigns demonstrable elements of the (likely oral) Gospel and the Talmudic traditions together in order to solidify its claim of being a correction to the shortcomings of both.
Unity and Fragmentation in the Standard Text of the Qur’an : The Prophet as First Addressee and Dialogic Argumentation. Mehdi Azaiez, CNRS/IREMAM, FRANCE
As defined in discourse analysis, first addressee (or interlocutor) is the person involved in a conversation or dialogue. The figure of the Qur’an’s first addressee is a textual phenomenon linked to the structure of the text and its argumentative dimension. In my contribution, I will define the notion of the first addressee in the Qur’an, its linguistic forms and functions within the entire Qur’an. I will explore the following questions : The variety of the notions of ‘the first addressee’ ; the double aspect of fragmentation/unity of text after its collection and the role of the first addressee in the argumentative shape of the text. My contribution aims to show (i) how the dialogic relation between a Qur’anic enunciator and its first addressee reveals one of the main aspects of Qur’anic argumentation ; (ii) how the Qur’an legitimates the status of its first addressee as a prophet.
Programme
Day 1 : Monday, 30 September 2013
12:00 Arrival of speakers at hotel and lunch
14:00 Welcome
Asma Hilali, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
14:00–16:00 Session 1 : Qur’anic Studies : From a Fragmentary Approach to an Approach about Fragmentation
Speakers : Stephen Burge, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
Asma Hilali, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
Holger Zellentine, The University of Nottingham
Discussant : Prof. Aziz al-Azmeh
This session will examine the state of the field of Qur’anic Studies. It will cover the following topics :
(i) Qur’anic manuscripts : A tool or an aim ?
(ii) Intertextuality : Methodological remarks
(iii) Fragmentation/Compilation perspectives on the Qur’an text in the context of the history of its transmission.
16:00 Break
16:20–17:50 Session 2 : Variation and Repetition in Qur’anic Texts
Chair : Holger Zellentin
Fragmentation and Variation in the First Islamic Graffiti (1st–2nd century AH)
Frédéric Imbert, Aix-Marseille University
Repetitions and Variations, and the Problem of ‘Qur’anic Variants’
Asma Hilali, The Institute of Ismaili Studies
19:00 : Speakers’ Dinner
Day 2 : Tuesday, 1st October 2013
9:00–11:00 Session 3 : Comparative Perspectives
Chair : Mehdi Azaiez, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Fragmentation, Compilation and Discourse : A Comparison of Three Arba’un Collections on Jihad and Martyrdom Compiled in the Late Mamluk Period
Stephen Burge, The Institute of Ismaili Studies
The Qur’an’s Fragmentation and Realignment of Gospel and Talmud
Holger Zellentine, The University of Nottingham
Unity and Fragmentation in the Standard Text of the Qur’an : The Prophet as First Addressee and the Dialogic Argumentation
Mehdi Azaiez, LabexResmed, Paris
Our newly designed website is now online, and we hope visitors find it practical, as well as elegant. A number of helpful improvements were made, including translating the “About Us” page into Arabic, Turkish, Bhasa and French. Translations into further languages will soon follow. We hope this to be of most benefit to visitors who access our website from around the world.
A number of graphical enhancements were made throughout the web pages, including our new logo. We are also happy to share photographs of IQSA’s officers and steering committee under “People.” That being said, the overall platform of our web platform remains relatively unchanged. Visitors will be notified when the “Conference Papers” page starts being populated.
We hope to make further changes to our website in 2014, which will include setting up the architecture to host IQSA’s online journal. Until then, visitors should await further news about the 2014 annual meeting in San Diego, as well as future international meetings. Our thanks go to Mehdi Azaiez, Mun’im Sirri, Esra Tasdelen and Leanova Designs.
Our International Meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland
By Emran El-Badawi and Gabriel Reynolds
The International Qur’anic Studies Association is happy to announce its first international meeting, taking place in St. Andrews, Scotland, from July 8-10, 2013. IQSA will be co-sponsoring a number of panels on the Qur’an with the Society of Biblical Literature, as well as a public lecture by Dr. Alain George. Please consult the schedule below for panel details. All meeting room assignments are currently TBD. Further details will be forthcoming here.
You are also strongly encouraged to subscribe to our blog in order to receive weekly news updates or informed posts on various dimensions of Qur’anic Studies today. On behalf of the co-directors, steering committee and partners we thank you for your enthusiasm and support for IQSA. We look forward to seeing you in St. Andrews!
St. Andrews (standrewsfreshers.com)
Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective
July 8, 2013 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Theme: Islam and Interfaith Studies in Scottish Universities
Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, University of Aberdeen, Presiding
Hugh Goddard, University of Edinburgh Islam and Interfaith Relations in Scotland (20 min)
Fiona McCallum, University of St. Andrews ‘Same Old’? Muslim-Christian Relations and the Arab Uprisings (20 min)
Discussion (35 min)
Break (30 min)
Johan Rasanayagam, University of Aberdeen From an Anthropology of Islam to an Anthropology through Islam (20 min)
Saeko Yazaki, University of Glasgow Dialogues between Islam and Judaism in Ethics and Spirituality: The Andalusi landscape and Zionism (20 min)
Discussion (35 min)
Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective Joint Session With: Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective, International Qur’anic Studies Association July 8, 2013 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Theme: Prophets and Prophethood between Bible and Qur’an
Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, University of Aberdeen, Presiding
Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston, Introduction (7 min)
Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Introduction (7 min)
Anne-Laure Zwilling, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Moses and the Burning Bush: A Two-Voice Analysis (20 min)
David Kiltz, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften “Ebionism” and the Qur’an Revisited (20 min)
Discussion (16 min)
Break (30 min)
Mehdi Azaiez, IREMAM / CNRS Prophetical Polemics in the Bible and the Qur’an: The Case of Counter-Discourse (20 min)
Michael Pregill, Elon University Intertextual Complications: The Qur’anic Cain and Abel Reconsidered (20 min)
Tommaso Tesei, University of Notre Dame Apocalyptic Prophecies in the Qur’an and in Seventh Century Extrabiblical Literature (20 min)
Discussion (20 min)
Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective Joint Session With: Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective, International Qur’anic Studies Association July 9, 2013 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Theme: Rhetoric and the Qur’an: Structure, Composition, Argumentation
Orhan Elmaz, University of St. Andrews, Presiding
Michel Cuypers, IDEO Semitic Rhetoric in Sura 81 (Al-Takwir) and Chapter 10 of the Testament of Moses (20 min)
Ulrika Mårtensson, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Al-Tabari’s Rhetorical Concept of the Qur’an: Implications for Historical and Contemporary Research (20 min)
Discussion (35 min)
Break (30 min)
Mustansir Mir, Youngstown State University Hamid al-Din al-Farahi on Qur’anic balaghah (20 min)
Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Respondent (20 min)
Discussion (35 min)
Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective Joint Session With: International Qur’anic Studies Association, Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective July 9, 2013 3:00 PM to 4:15 PM
Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Presiding
Alain George, University of Edinburgh On an early Qur’anic palimpsest and its stratigraphy: Cambridge Or. 1287 (45 min)
Break (5 min)
Discussion (25 min)
Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective Joint Session With: Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective, International Qur’anic Studies Association July 10, 2013 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Theme: Qur’anic and Biblical Discourses in Comparative Perspective
Andreas Görke, University of Edinburgh, Presiding
Keren Abbou Hershkovits, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Idris, Enoch, and Celestial Knowledge: Astronomical Knowledge Given (or Taken?) from Heaven (20 min)
Nadjet Zouggar, Louvain-la-Neuve University The Biblical Prophets’ Place in the Elaboration of Sunni Prophetology (20 min)
Abdulla Galadari, University of Aberdeen The Qiblah: A Qur’anic Allusion to the Shema (20 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Break (30 min)
Roy Michael McCoy III, University of Oxford An Arabian Trudgman in Nazareth: The Gospel Narrative of al-Biqa’i’s Nazm al-durar fi tanasub al-ayat wa’l-suwar (20 min)
Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, The Institute of Ismaili Studies Messianism and the Idea of Universal Exegesis in Islam: The Parallel Interpretation of the Qur’an and the Bible in the Jawidan-nama of Fadlallah Astarabadi (d. 796/1394) (20 min)
The Throne Verse (‘āyat-l-kursī) in Light of Rhetorical Analysis
By Mehdi Azaiez
(travelblog.org)
During the first meeting of the Qur’an Seminar in October of 2012 (an academic project dedicated to advancing scholarly understanding of the Qur’anic text, hosted at the University of Notre Dame), I proposed a particular reading of the throne verse based on rhetorical analysis. This method, which was developed by Michel Cuypers, aims to excavate the Qur’an’s compositional structure. It relies on fundamental “figures of speech” such as parallelism and chiasmus. As Cuypers explains, “the aim of the analysis will therefore essentially be to pinpoint the various forms of symmetry which make up the text, defining the relationships which they have with one another, and the textual divisions which they determine.”[1] I present here an example by applying one aspect of this method to the famous throne verse.
My aim here is to show how compositional features of the verse highlight embedded meanings. I will start by presenting the text and its transliteration and then move on to focus on its composition. (Cuypers’ method also proposes an intertextual study, but for the present purposes we will limit the discussion to composition). Lastly, I will briefly compare examples of classical exegesis of this verse and the result of the rhetorical analysis proposed here.
4. Some remarks about the composition of this verse
This presentation reveals a symmetrical structure, wherein units of text are arranged concentrically (ABCD/x/D’C’B’A’). The relationship between those units is one of identity: terms and segments have similar meanings,[2] and each segment responds or corresponds to its pair. The first segments (A and A’) possess three words each. Both share an identical term (huwa) and use synonymy which corresponds to attributes of God (al-ḥayyu al-qayyūmu responding to al-ʿaliyyu al-ʿaẓīmu). The second segments (B and B’) highlight the role of God as one who maintains the existence of the Universe (lā taˈḫuḏuhū sinatun wa- lā nawmun /lā yaˈūduhū ḥifẓuhumā). The parallelism of the third segments (C, C’) refers to the cosmology and sovereignty of God (lahū mā fī as-samāwāti wa-mā fī al-ˈarḍi/ wasiʿa kursiyyuhu as-samāwāti wa al-ˈarḍa). And finally, the parallelism of the fourth segments (D,D’) draws attention to God’s will (man ḏā allaḏī yašfaʿu ʿindahū ˈillā bi-ˈiḏnihī/ wa-lā yuḥīṭūna bi-šayˈin min ʿilmihī ˈillā bi-mā šāˈa). These four main topics—God’s attributes, God’s power, God’s sovereignty, and God’s will— converge on one central idea: the knowledge of God embraces all things (yaʿlamu mā bayna ˈaydīhim wa-mā ḫalfahum). Located in the center of the whole structure, this segment has no relationship of identity with any other segment.
As Cuypers points out—and Nils W. Lund before him—this central segment is the semantic pivot. In the perspective of rhetorical analysis, the center gives meaning to the whole structure. Rhetorical analysis thus understands this verse’s principal message to be the glorification of the knowledge of God. This interpretation seems to confirm explanations of the verse by classical mufassirūn, as shown below.
5. Classical interpretation and rhetorical analysis
A brief look at Islamic exegesis reveals the existence of a debate about the nature of the term kursiy (segment C’), which gives the verse its name. On one hand, some traditions insist that this term means a material reality and object which represents the place of the footstool of God,[3] while other traditions identify the kursiy as a metaphor of God’s knowledge. Tabari accepts the latter explanation and comments:
This may be proved by His saying, “And the preservation of them does not burden Him,” which means that He is not burdened by the preservation of that which his knowledge encompasses, which is all that is in the heavens and the earth. God also said of His angels that they say in their prayers, “Our Lord, You encompass all things in mercy and knowledge” (40,7).[4]
Rhetorical analysis thus supports this particular exegetical reading of the verse.
[1] Michel Cuypers, The Banquet, A Reading of the Fifth Sura of the Qur’an, Convivium Press, 2009, p. 35.
Qur’anic Studies is, now more than ever, a discipline wherein women scholars have demonstrated groundbreaking expertise and leadership.
In the western academy especially, Muslim and Non-Muslim women have helped give shape to the discipline itself. Among the former are scholars like Ingrid Mattson, former president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and author of The story of the Qurʼan: its history and place in Muslim life and Amina Wadud, whose Qurʼan and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective, explores the intersection between Gender and Qur’anic Exegesis. The latter includes Jane Dammen McAuliffe, author of Qur’anic Christians: An Analysis of Classical and Modern Exegesis and editor of preeminent, standard Qur’an reference works like Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an and the Cambridge Companion to the Qur’an. Included in the latter category as well is Angelika Neuwirth, director of the Corpus Coranicum, as well as author and editor of landmark publications including Der Koran als Text der Spätantike; The Qur’an in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qur’anic Milieu; and several others. Jacqueline Chabbi, similarly, has authored a number of important works on the Qur’an, most notably Le coran décrypté : Figures bibliques en Arabie, préface d’André Caquo.
Among Qur’an translators—most of whom are still men—a handful of women have distinguished themselves and built bridges between the western academy and those in Islamic societies, including Iran. Among them are Laleh Bakhtiar, author of The Sublime Qur’an, and the late poet Tahere Saffarzadeh (d. 2008) who authored The Holy Qur’an English and Perisan Translation with Commentary. In the Arab world the work of Olfa Youssef–author of Le Coran au risque de la psychanalyse— and Asma Hilali continue to both shape and enrich the discipline.
The expertise and leadership demonstrated by women scholars in Qur’anic Studies is perhaps demonstrated best in two recent talks delivered at the Qur’an Seminar, and ongoing conference at the University of Notre Dame co-directed by Mehdi Azaiez and Gabriel Reynolds. Below are the video of the talks delivered by two eminent scholars: Nayla Tabbara (Adyan Foundation, Lebanon) and Maryam Mosharraf (Shahid Beheshti University, Iran).
Lecture of Nayla Tabbara Director of Cross-Cultural Studies Department (Adyan Foundation, Lebanon) “The Qur’ān and Muslim-Christian relations” ; December 6, 2012
Maryam Mosharraf Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature (Shahid Beheshti University, Iran)“The Qur’ān and Islamic Mysticism”; December 7, 2012
There are several research projects, journals, conferences and other initiatives dedicated to the academic study of the Qur’an around the world. One of IQSA’s goals is to give scholars from these different international initiatives the opportunity to meet regularly.
The Qur’an Seminar meets 5 times throughout 2012-13 at the University of Notre Dame. This conference series is directed by Gabriel Reynolds (associate professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame) and Mehdi Azaiez (PhD, Université Aix-Provence). The seminar allows invited participants to share their insights on 50 central passages distributed throughout the Qur’an text. The work of the participants will eventually be collected, edited and published. See in relation the Qur’an in Its Historical Context.
The Corpus Coranicum is a project directed by Angelika Neuwirth (professor of Semitic and Arabic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin) and Michael Marx, and it belongs to the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Included in the work of the Corpus Coranicum is research on the paleography and intertextuality of the Qur’an.
Among the academic journals in this area is the Journal of Qur’anic Studies (JQS), whose editor in chief is M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (professor of Islamic Studies, School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London). Another biennial journal is Al-Bayan: Journal of Qur’an and Hadith Studies, whose editor in chief is Faisal Bin Ahmad Shah (senior lecturer, al-Qur’an & al-Hadith Academy of Islamic Studies, University of Malaya).
The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an (EIQ) is a seven volume reference work that originated as a joint academic venture between the Center for Islam and Science, Canada and the Society for Qur’anic Studies, Pakistan. Among other things, EIQ preserves centuries worth of classical Islamic scholarship on the Qur’an. This publication is not related to the Encyclopedia of the Qur’an (EQ) published by E.J. Brill.
The International Institute of Qur’anic Studies (IIQS), which was co-founded by H.E. Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid and Dr. Syafi’i Ma’arif, explores the intersection between modern scholarship and the study of the Qur’an in Indonesia. The institute belongs to the organization LibForAll, chaired by Holland Taylor, and has worked with the late Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (d. 2010).
For more information on Qur’anic Studies around the world visit the External Resources link.
