History of the Quran: Approaches and Explorations
Redhwan Karim
Paperback, 400 pages
9781847742346
The Quran is the sacred religious book of Muslims around the world. Yet its history, from its inception in seventh-century Arabia to its transmission in the modern world, remains understudied. The twelve chapters in this book address this lacuna by examining multifaceted stages in the Quran’s history and transmission through a broad range of methodological and theoretical approaches. The volume examines the earliest material evidence of the Quran through its manuscript tradition and explores their content and form. This includes a focus on the Quran’s unique orthography and insights into the Sanaa manuscripts. Additionally, this work provides new insights by broaching upon critical moments in the Quran’s history, such as the codification of Abu Bakr r.a.
A crucial component of the book deals with approaches to the variant readings of the Quran, understood as being sanctioned through narrations on the aḥruf. It explores fresh insights into how Muslim scholars theorised such variances and the way they related them to the qira’āt, including how they approached the variant codices of prominent companions. Furthermore, this work explores understudied non-Quranic transmissions of the Quran alongside the historical development of Quran translations. This volume advances the field of Quranic studies and Quranic history.
Contents
1. Towards a History of the Quran / E Redhwan Karim
2. Early Quranic Manuscripts: An Overview / François Déroche
3. Ancient Scribes and Qur'änic Manuscripts: Uncovering Scribal Practices in the San'a' Palimpsest / Éléonore Cellard
4. Writing About the Quran: Scribal Practices of Qur'ânic Studies Manuscripts from the Fourth/
Tenth century / Yousry Elseadawy
5. The Compilation of the Quran during the Reign of Abu Bakr / Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan
6. Rasm (Qur'anic Orthography): The Written Representation of the Recited Text of the Quran / M.A.S. Abdel Haleem
7. The View of 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud on the Uthmãnic Quran Compilation / Zahed Fettah
8 An Alternative Opinion on the Reality of the 'Seven Ahruf' and Its Relationship with the Qira'at / Jasir Oadhi
9. The Multifaceted Sanad Traditions of Extra-Mushaf Quranic Transmission / Khairil Husaini Bin Jamil
10. Multivocality, Variegation, and the Trajectories of "Text": Ausgangstexte as an Approach to Quranic Pluriformity / Stephen Cúrto
11. The Recitations of the Shiah Imams and its Role in the History of the Quran / Meysam Kohantorabi
12. Shaping the Quran's Journey: A Global History of Translation / Afsan Redwan