In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 5, no.5), David Cook (Rice University) reviews Michel Cuypers (ed.) A Qurʾānic Apocalypse: A Reading of the Thirty-Three Last Sūrahs of the Qurʾān (Atlanta, GA: Lockwood Press, 2018).
In his review, Cook writes “That the Qurʾān as a text has apocalyptic affinities has been the focus of scholarly research for the past century. Of late, due to the work of Fred Donner and others, defining the Qurʾānic apocalypse has come into vogue. Michel Cuypers’ ‘A Qurʾānic Apocalypse: A Reading of the Thirty-Three Last Sūrahs of the Qurʾān’ is a welcome addition to this genre. However, one should note that Cuypers’ work is quite different from other research and readings on the subject. While most scholars seek to place the Qurʾān within an apocalyptic framework, and then relate the text to outside events, or to extract history—such as it is—from the text, Cuypers seeks to read the entire text as if it were an apocalypse in terms of its rhetoric…”
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First IQSA Studies in the Qur’ān Publication with Lockwood Press “A Qur’ānic Apocalypse: A Reading of the Thirty-Three Last Sūras of the Qur’ān” by Michel Cuypers
The present volume closes a trilogy devoted to the exegesis of the Qurʾān analyzed according to the principles of Semitic rhetoric, a method of textual analysis developed in the field of biblical studies. It studies the shortest sūrahs of the Qur’ān, which are traditionally dated to the beginnings of the preaching of Muḥammad in Mecca. The reference to the initial vision of Muḥammad in Sūrah 81, the point of departure for his career as Prophet, provides the starting point of the study of this group of sūrahs. The analysis shows that the redactors who assembled the textual fragments of the Qur’ān into a book were guided by precise intentions. In the end, it is these intentions that the rhetorical analysis of the text enables us to discover and better understand.
About the Author:
Michel Cuypers is a researcher at the IDEO, the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies, Cairo, Egypt.
384 pages | 9 x 6 inches | Published October 2018
Hardback | ISBN 9781948488013 | $49.95
PDF eBook | ISBN 9781948480994 | $40.00
In the latest installment of IQSA’s Review of Qur’anic Research 1, no. 4, Dr. Michel Cuypers reviews Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau’s La Coran par lui-même: Vocabulaire et argumentation du discours coranique autoréférentiel (Leiden: Brill, 2014). The book is the latest and fullest study of “what the Qur’an says about itself.” Situated within the current of synchronic studies of the Qur’anic text, Boisliveau’s approach combines the ancient exegetical principle of explaining the Qurʾan by the Qurʾan with a rigorous modern critical method.
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Cover of Michel Cuypers, La composition du Coran (Librairie Gabalda, 2012).
In the latest installment of IQSA’s Review of Qur’anic Research 1, no. 2, Prof. Gabriel Said Reynolds offers a lucid assessment of Michel Cuypers’ provocative 2012 work, La composition du Coran, which analyzes rhetorical structures in the Qur’an to argue for its textual coherence.
Full access to the Review of Qur’anic Research (RQR) is available in the members-only area of our IQSA website. Not an IQSA member? Join today to enjoy RQR and additional member benefits!
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
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.
