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 Topic: Qur'anic studies today

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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #900 - June 16, 2016, 11:18 PM
    Gabriel Said Reynolds - The Quran and the Apostles of Jesus

    https://www.academia.edu/26182762/_The_Quran_and_the_Apostles_of_Jesus_Bulletin_of_the_School_of_Oriental_and_African_Studies_76_2013_1-19
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #901 - June 17, 2016, 07:07 PM
    Hi Zeca,

    thanks for your answer to my h-j-r question:

    Quote from: Zaotar on June 08, 2016, 08:01 PM
    Not really.  There's not much lack of clarity over the semantics of hijrah ... it clearly refers to an act of leaving or departure.  The problem is determining what that leaving/departure refers to.  The root is used 31 times in the Qur'an:

    http://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=hjr#

    Almost always the concept is used in a context of believers who are leaving their homeland in order 'to fight for Allah,' as part of a militant expansion, which is quite consistent with how it seems to have been used in the earliest historical references (as Donner says), and quite inconsistent with the idea that it originally designated the migration of a small group of peaceful monotheists from Mecca to Medina.

    For me, the hijrah has always been the single least plausible central element of the traditional biography of Muhammad--used to explain why the corpus strangely shifts from a powerless, peaceful, passive, timeless context to a much more specific contemporary context in which joining in jihad is a consuming obligation.  The hijrah biographical device does not make a lick of sense on its face, and has no support in the Qur'an itself (which seems completely oblivious to a supposed epochal mass exodus of a Meccan community) or the historical record.

    Only in Qur'anic Studies would such a transition within a corpus still be interpreted biographically.


    How closed is this discussion on the meaning of h-j-r? I know there are still scholars who doubt a meaning  for h-j-r as emigrants. I guess they would say that all 31 cases mentioned here (http://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=hjr#) are all misreadings...

    You have of course Kerr saying it here: http://www.academia.edu/1564934/Annus_Hegiræ_vel_Annus_H_Agarorum_Etymologische_und_vergleichende_Anmerkungen_zum_Anfang_der_islamischen_Jahres zählung

    Then I have a reading of the Quran based on Hebrew analogies (from the 80-90´s) and checked this test case (4:34:26) wa-uh'jurūhunna", by accident the "forsake them in bed" verse.... I always thought that a strange punishment for a wife giving her husband a hard time....

    This alternative translation gives: " And those you have married, correct them and cover them, and keep them at home (lit. in the place of rest) and talk to them" . The h-j-r stem would be based on the Agar and gur  Hebrew words meaning to dwell, to come together, reside...

    Is an alternative translation really off the table? The meaning does make more sense to me than the traditional one...Or are grave mistakes made here (I can´t judge, I dont know enough)?
  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #902 - June 17, 2016, 09:36 PM
    I am not sure it is closed, but I don't understand how Kerr reconciles his argument with the Quranic usage.  He seems to turn the usage of the h-j-r root into an alternative meaning that excludes the sense of leaving/forsaking.  I don't know you would do it.

    The Quranic usage seems to focus on those who leave their homes to join the community of believers.  It doesn't seem limited in any way to Meccans.  Kerr may have a good argument, I just don't know what it is.
  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #903 - June 22, 2016, 05:57 AM
    Hi Zaotar,

    Kerr´s argument is that h-j-r in early 7C semitic languages never signifies anything close to "leaving". Contrary, it means rather "dwelling, residing", or is used to describe the Arabs. He says in all 31 case where h-j-r is used in Quran, the word should be read with a different meaning. Giving h-j-r the sense of  emigrating is solely based on the islamic tradition of 2 centuries later and should be questioned (and in this case rejected).
    I picked out a random example (4:34, see above) out of curiosity, and indeed, the alternative reading makes a lot of sense (even more than the traditional one to me). I must admit, didnt check all other 30 cases....
    I don´t know of course if the theory is acceptable to other specialists. That´s why I´m asking so I can make up my mind.
  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #904 - June 22, 2016, 03:10 PM
    Shoemaker reviews Zellentin's The Qur'an's Legal Culture: The Didascalia Apostolorum as a Point of Departure

    https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/Shoemaker-Review%20of%20Zellentin%2C%20The%20Qur_an_s%20Legal%20Culture.pdf?token=AWwQXg-59xwlEazvh0nHr1hNNxG1Nfpq9TnHqsu0S78_3IyEZstLELWFeM9xXfx79N6NSvdHTp1wacW325LnxcOZA9xURMm3pWWbekSOWwdCrfU7blMpz23BQ8MFAjZ3OizywQJ8L4epfub_0EpmbxRx
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #905 - June 22, 2016, 03:23 PM
    Gabriel Said Reynolds - "Gabriel"

    https://www.academia.edu/26406571/_Gabriel_Encyclopedia_of_Islam_Brill_3rd_Edition_2014
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #906 - June 29, 2016, 03:30 PM
    Gabriel Said Reynolds reviews Michel Cuypers, Le festin: une lecture de la sourate al-Māʾida

    https://www.academia.edu/26592340/Review_of_Michel_Cuypers_Le_festin_une_lecture_de_la_sourate_al-Māʾida_
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #907 - July 11, 2016, 03:15 PM
    Fred Donner - The concept of 'umma' in early Islam
    Quote
    In this keynote lecture Fred Donner of the University of Chicago addresses the nebulous, often misunderstood concept of ‘umma’ in early Islam in general, and the Qur’an in particular. Fred discusses how the word has come to signify any and all forms of community in contemporary Arabic, a range of meanings that it has held since the seventh century at least. From at least the ninth century, however, it has also had the particular signification of the universal community of Muslim believers. It is this last meaning that Fred seeks to interrogate in the earliest period and Quranic text, in order to establish whether this was part of Islamic discourse from its earliest inception, or a development of the post-conquests era. Through a brilliantly close and erudite reading he picks apart the many strands and meanings of umma in the Qur’an, thereby clearly demonstrating that the sacred work has in fact a very contingent and context-based understanding of communities’ formation, rise and fall, even as it understands them as the basic organising social unit above that of the family. In the final part of his talk Fred moves on to discuss the workshop itself, and the ways in which this research is relevant - and very much not relevant - for understanding phenomena like Daesh (IS/ISIS/ISIL) in the contemporary world.

    Listen to the lecture: http://torch.ox.ac.uk/concept-umma-early-islam

    Lecture given at this conference: http://torch.ox.ac.uk/and-you-shall-be-unto-me-kingdom-priests-holy-nation
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #908 - July 11, 2016, 03:23 PM
    Comparing Fred Donner to Tom Holland(Origins of Islam)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drv0p_EDngA

    what Islam needs is throwing hadith in to trash and exploring strictly Quran's earliest narration .. , We know New testament  is better than Old  testament .. Quran being newest Abraham faith book.,  It should be better than NT in the context of the folks and time  living  during those alleged revelations .,   Sure rascals added junk in to Quran at later times..  . Unfortunately more junk seeped in to it in the form of hadith as Islam took war mongering Jihadi  path ways immediately after the death alleged Prophet(Prophet 3rd  or 4th?).. and it became worse with Genghis Khan type of war mongers..
    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim     
  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #909 - July 13, 2016, 10:52 AM
    Thomas Carlson - Did Muhammad quote Paul?

    https://mafqudwamawjud.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/did-muhammad-quote-paul/
    Quote
    In summary, al-Bukhārī depicts Muhammad as quoting God, but in a form which clearly depends upon Paul’s paraphrase of a passage in Isaiah.  Of course, before we could say that Muhammad quoted Paul, we would need to address the authenticity question of the hadith (did Muhammad say this).  It is not contentious to say that many such ahadith (plural of hadith) were forged – medieval Muslim religious thinkers said as much many times – but it is contentious to say that any of the forged ahadith made it into a collection such as al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ.  But whether it was Muhammad or someone else, at least one early Muslim was willing to quote Paul’s letter 1 Corinthians, with only three mild adjustments, and prefix the whole sentence with “Allah said”!

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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #910 - July 13, 2016, 12:59 PM
    Interesting - that's always been one of my favourite hadith about the next life - thanks Zeca  Afro

    Old Testament: Isaiah 64:3 (64:4 in most English versions):
    “And from forever ago, they have not heard, they have not listened, eye has not seen gods apart from you, who acts for the one who waits for him.”

    The New Testament: 1 Corinthians 2:9
    “The things that eye has not seen and ear has not heard and have not come up upon a person’s heart, are the things that God has prepared for those who love him”

    Hadith Qudsi:
    “I have prepared for My Pious slaves things which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor occurred to a human’s heart”
  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #911 - July 13, 2016, 11:40 PM
    The Page 99 Test: Peter Webb's "Imagining the Arabs"

    http://page99test.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/peter-webbs-imagining-arabs.html
    Quote
    The first people who called themselves Arabs seem in fact to have been the early Caliphate’s elite who rigorously distinguished themselves from Bedouin. Being Arab did not signify an antique sense of Arabian nomadic origin, but was instead a novel means for early Muslims to express what it meant to belong to their exclusive elite group in Islam’s mostly urban empire. Arabness emerged as an end-product of Islam’s remarkable success...

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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #912 - July 22, 2016, 05:11 PM
    Gabriel Said Reynolds - On the Qurʾān’s Māʾida Passage and the Wanderings of the Israelites
    Which side are you on?
  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #913 - July 28, 2016, 10:50 AM
    Jonathan Brown is now on twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/JonathanACBrown/status/758424024573771776
    Quote
    @JonathanACBrown @holland_tom I love how your first tweets are arguing with Tom Holland [...] typical


    Tom Holland and Sean Anthony on the Ezra question: https://mobile.twitter.com/holland_tom/status/758400288348893184
    Quote from: Tom Holland
    How to explain the Qur'an getting things palpably wrong? It's eternally true - except when it isn't. #Apologetics  http://almadinainstitute.org/blog/the-quran-the-jews-and-ezra-as-the-son-of-god/

    Quote from: Sean Anthony
    @holland_tom I like Crone's insight: `Uzayr might be `Azazel misread and the passage is denunciation of Jewish magic. http://bit.ly/2aeUUZI

    @SalalahSultan @holland_tom Yes, Jewish 'worship' of Ezra is unattested; 'worship' of Azazel is.

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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #914 - July 28, 2016, 03:26 PM
    Quote from: zeca on July 22, 2016, 05:11 PM
    Gabriel Said Reynolds - On the Qurʾān’s Māʾida Passage and the Wanderings of the Israelites


    I really appreciate your posts, Zeca. Please never stop.
  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #915 - July 29, 2016, 08:56 AM
    Thanks. New articles keep appearing so it's possible to go on indefinitely.

    Mehdy Shaddel - An Apocalyptic Reading of Qur’an 17:1-8
    Quote
    Modern scholarship on the Qur’an has, since long, pointed out three problems with the traditional interpretation of Q Isrāʾ 17:1 as a scriptural testimonium for Muḥammad’s ‘ascension’ story. The first is that there is nothing in the verse, and not even in the whole pericope, to suggest that the ‘servant’ (ʿabd) mentioned therein must be identified with Muḥammad – although there is nothing against this identification either. Secondly, the verse does not even allude to an ascension; it only speaks of a ‘nocturnal journey’ (isrāʾ).[ii] The third, and most worrying, problem of the ‘miʿrāj verse’ is in its seeming incongruity with the rest of the pericope....

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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #916 - August 01, 2016, 05:32 PM
    Schedule for IQSA annual meeting 2016: https://iqsaweb.wordpress.com/annual-meeting-2016/
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #917 - August 05, 2016, 03:47 PM
    Gabriel Said Reynolds - Remembering Muhammad
    Quote
    In Islamic tradition Muḥammad is remembered as the proper name of the Prophet, even if various ḥadīth include muḥammad ("the praised-one") in a list of his honorary epithets. These traditions, however, led Aloys Sprenger to speculate in the nineteenth century that Muḥammad was not the Prophet's birth name at all, but rather a messianic title that he took in Medina in the hopes of winning Jewish support. Over the next several decades a lively debate took place over this question in German scholarship. In the present article I revisit this debate and then turn to more recent publications, especially those from the newly formed scholarly group Inarah, which argue on historical and theological grounds that the name Muhammad is symbolic. Ultimately I contend that this matter is best addressed instead in the light of the Qurʾān's onomastica.

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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #918 - August 07, 2016, 04:15 PM
    "Great take on fluidity of beliefs in the early Islamic world": https://mobile.twitter.com/shlin28/status/762289035545047040
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #919 - August 07, 2016, 08:14 PM
    Christian Sahner reviews Michael Penn's Envisioning Islam: Syriac Christians and the Early Muslim World

    https://www.academia.edu/26871241/The_Medieval_Review_Review_of_Michael_Penn_Envisioning_Islam_2015_
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #920 - August 08, 2016, 02:29 PM
    Christian Sahner reviews Fred Donner's Muhammad and the Believers

    https://www.academia.edu/916242/2011_Ecumenical_Islam_Review_of_Fred_Donner_Muhammad_and_the_Believers_
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #921 - August 08, 2016, 05:10 PM
    Fred Donner - How Islam Began
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5RFK5u5lkhA
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #922 - August 08, 2016, 09:56 PM
    Afro I find myself sharing a great many of your posts on my Facebook timeline.
  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #923 - August 09, 2016, 03:53 PM


    Forthcoming book

    Asma Hilali - The Sanaa Palimpsest: The Transmission of the Qur'an in the First Centuries AH

    https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-sanaa-palimpsest-9780198793793?prevSortField=1&sortField=8&start=0&resultsPerPage=20&prevNumResPerPage=20&lang=en&cc=us#
    Quote
    The Sanaa Palimpsest: The Transmission of the Qur'an in the First Centuries AH provides a new annotated edition of the two layers of the "Sanaa Palimpsest," one of the oldest Qur'an manuscripts yet discovered. It features a critical introduction that offers new hypotheses concerning the transmission of the Qur'an during the first centuries of Islam. The palimpsest contains two superimposed Qur'anic texts within two layers of writing, on thirty-eight leaves of parchment collectively numbered MS 01.27-1 in the Dar al-Makhtutat, Sanaa, Yemen. The palimpsest's lower text, which has been dated to the first century of Islam (seventh century CE), was subsequently erased and the parchment was later reused for writing another Qur'anic text, which remains visible in natural light. This upper text is thought to date from the second century of Islam (eighth century CE). The two layers were imaged in 2007 by a French-Italian mission.

    Both Qur'anic texts are fragmented and present aspects of work in progress. In its lower layer, the manuscript offers the oldest witness of a reading instruction in Qur'an text and perhaps even in any Arabic text. Such peculiarities offer rare evidence as to how the Qur'an was transmitted, taught and written down in the first centuries of Islam. The critical introduction and annotated edition contextualises the volume in the field of Qur'an manuscript studies and Qur'anic studies, and engages with the historical and institutional contexts of transmission of the Qur'anic passages. Asma Hilali also makes systematic reference to previous studies and partial editions of the same manuscript.

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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #924 - August 09, 2016, 04:15 PM
    That looks absolutely fantastic, and reasonably priced to boot!  I'll put it on my Xmas list.
  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #925 - August 09, 2016, 04:31 PM
    This is an interesting summary of a symposium from 2013:

    Seventh Mingana Symposium on Arab Christianity & Islam: “The Qur’an and Arab Christianity”

    https://iqsaweb.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/bertaina/
    Quote
    ....
    In the earliest chronological period, Robert Hoyland presented his case for the existence of pre-Islamic Christian Arabic literature based upon an Arabic martyrion inscription dated to ca. 570, among several other examples, which has implications for the formation of the Qur’an and its possible references to Christian Arabic dialects and/or Syriac.
    ....
    Alba Fedeli’s study examined a number of early Qur’an fragments from the Mingana Collection. The group was able to visit the repository at the University of Birmingham and inspect a number of these early fragments thanks to her preparations. In her presentation, Fedeli pointed out examples of textual emendation in early Qur’an texts that suggest a re-writing of texts to conform to later canonical versions of the holy text (see the bottom line of the pictured insert for an example). Moreover, her study of a Qur’an palimpsest in a Christian Arabic manuscript suggests the concept of linking early Islam with Arab Christianity needs further attention in the academy.

    Krisztina Szilagyi examined Muslim and Arab Christian interpretations of Q 53:7-10 and Q 112 in reference to the fact that God is called al-ṣamad. She pointed out eight instances from Christian Arabic sources, ranging from the eighth century through eleventh century, that assume that early Muslims understood this word to associate corporealism with the divine. Szilagyi argued that corporealism might have been more prevalent than previously thought among the first Muslims and that these Christian critiques were one of the possible reasons for the decline of corporealism in Islamic theology.
    ....
    Gabriel Said Reynolds presented on recent scholarly debates concerning the history of the Qur’an, arguing that many studies presuppose a later Islamic interpretive framework that potentially hinders our knowledge concerning the earliest stages of the formation of the Qur’an. Instead of presupposing a “normative” ʿUthmānic codex on which to judge early manuscripts, scholars need to read the texts while being open to surprising discoveries regarding its textual formation.
    ....


    Edit: A longer summary of this symposium:

    https://www.uco.es/revistas/index.php/cco/article/download/207/204
    Quote
    ....
    Robert Hoyland (“Christian Arabic language and Christian legends in the Qur’ān”) presented his case for the existence of pre-Islamic Christian Arabic literature based on an Arabic martyrion inscription dated to ca. 570. His initial question was, “What was the ‘ajamī language that was spoken by the one who was teaching the messenger of Islam?” (according to Q 16:103 and Muslim tradition). Hoyland suggested that Christian missionaries were evangelizing Arabic speakers at the time of Islam’s emergence and had developed an Arabic Christian vocabulary. He supported this thesis by discussing the Qur’anic story of the sleepers in the cave (Q 18:9-26).
    ....

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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #926 - August 09, 2016, 05:03 PM
    Gordon Nickel - Mingana's "Transmission of the Kur'an" after 100 years

    http://www.academia.edu/16652028/Minganas_Transmission_of_the_Kuran_after_100_years

    Other articles by Gordon Nickel, but bear in mind that he's definitely coming from a Christian point of view

    http://ucalgary.academia.edu/GordonNickel
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #927 - August 09, 2016, 05:26 PM
    While we're on the subject of early Qur'anic scholarship here's Zimriel's translation of Casanova:

    Paul Casanova - Mohammed and the End of the World

    http://www.academia.edu/20363722/Mohammed_and_the_End_of_the_World
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #928 - August 09, 2016, 07:09 PM
    Alba Fedeli - The Kufic Collection of the Prussian Consul Wetzstein

    http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/reference/books/Kerr-2010-Milo-Writings/Kerr-2010-Milo-Writings-117-142-Fedeli.pdf

    Alba Fedeli - The Qur’anic Manuscripts of the Mingana Collection and their Electronic Edition

    https://iqsaweb.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/qmmc/

    Alba Fedeli on the Mingana-Lewis Qur'anic palimpsest (video)

    https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1736307

    Alba Fedeli on the Birmingham Qur'an (video)

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35522831

    Also here, though this video is something of a missed opportunity to hear Alba Fedeli's views on the manuscript.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b4POM5uDELw
    Alba Fedeli - Working on Early Qur'anic Manuscripts: Reading and Editing Their Texts
    https://soundcloud.com/cirucberkeley/working-on-early-quranic-manuscripts-reading-and-editing-their-texts-alba-fedeli-040716
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  • Qur'anic studies today
     Reply #929 - August 09, 2016, 07:12 PM
    Alain George - On an Early Qur'anic Palimpsest and its Stratigraphy

    https://iqsaweb.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/st_andrews_ag2.pdf

    Other articles by Alain George

    http://edinburgh.academia.edu/AlainGeorge
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