Research Catalog

Title

Scripture, poetry, and the making of a community : reading the Qurʼan as a literary text / Angelika Neuwirth.

Author

Neuwirth, Angelika.

Publication

Oxford : Oxford University Press, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2014.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Institute of Ismaili Studies.

Description

xl, 470 pages; 23 cm

Summary

We are used to understanding the Qur'an as the "Islamic text" par excellence, an assumption which, when viewed historically, is not evident at all. More than twenty years before it rose to the rank of Islamic Scripture, the Qur'an was an oral proclamation addressed by the Prophet Muhammad to pre-Islamic listeners, for the Muslim community had not yet been formed. We might best describe these listeners as individuals educated in late antique culture, be they Arab pagans familiar with the monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity or syncretists of these religions, or learned Jews and Christians whose presence is reflected in the Medinan suras. The interactive communication process between Muhammad and these groups brought about an epistemic turn in Arab Late Antiquity: with the Qur'anic discovery of writing as the ultimate authority, the nascent community attained a new 'textual coherence' where Scripture, with its valorisation of history and memory, was recognised as a guiding concept. It is within this new biblically imprinted world view that central principles and values of the pagan Arab milieu were debated. This process resulted in a twin achievement: the genesis of a new scripture and the emergence of a community. Two great traditions, then, the Biblical, transmitted by both Jews and Christians, and the local Arabic, represented in Ancient Arabic poetry, appear to have established the field of tension from which the Qur'an evolved; it is both Scripture and Poetry which have produced and shaped the new Muslim community. -- provided by publisher

Series Statement

Qur'anic studies series

Uniform Title

Qur'anic studies series.

Alternative Title

Reading the Qurʼan as a literary text

Subjects

• Islam
• Qurʼan
• Authority > Religious aspects
• Arabic literature > History and criticism
• Entstehung
• Qurʼan > Evidences, authority, etc
• History
• Koran
• Qurʼan > History
• Islam > Relations > Christianity
• Philologie
• Qurʼan as literature
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Islam > Relations > Judaism

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction -- I. Pagan and Monotheistic Frameworks -- 1. Neither of the East nor of the West (lāsharqīyyatan wa-lāgharbīyyatan, Q. 24:35): Locating the Qurʼan within the History of Scholarship -- 2. From Tribal Genealogy to Divine Covenant: Qur'anic Re-figurations of Pagan Arab Ideas Based on Biblical Models -- 3. Glimpses of Paradise in the World and Lost Aspects of the World in the Hereafter: Two Qurʼanic Re-readings of Biblical Psalms -- 4. Images and Metaphors in the Introductory Sections of the Early Meccan Suras II. The Liturgical Qurʼan and the Emergence of the Community -- 5. From Recitation through Liturgy to Canon: Sura Composition and Dissolution During the Development of Islamic Ritual -- 6. Sūrat al-Fātiha: Opening of the Textual Corpus of the Qurʼan or Introit of the Prayer Service? -- 7. Referentiality and Textuality in Sūrat al-Hijr (Q. 15): Observations on the Qur'anic 'Canonical Process' and the Emergence of a Community -- 8. From the Sacred Mosque to the Remote Temple: Sūrat al-Isrāʼ (Q. 17), between Text and Commentary -- 9. A Discovery of Evil in the Qurʼan?: Revisiting Qurʼanic Versions of the Decalogue in the Context of Pagan-Arab Late Antiquity -- III. Narrative Figures between the Bible and the Qurʼan -- 10. Narrative as a Canonical Process: The Story of Moses Seen through the Evolving History of the Qurʼan -- 11. Oral Scriptures in Contact: The Quar'anic Story of the Golden Calf and its Position between Narrative, Cult and Inter-communal Debate -- 12. Imagining Mary, Disputing Jesus: Reading Sūrat Maryam (Q.19) and Related Meccan Texts in the Context of the Qurʼanic Communication Process -- 13. Mary and Jesus: Counterbalancing the Biblical Patriarchs: A Re-reading of Suūrat Maryam (Q. 19) in Sūrat Āl ʻImrān (Q. 3) -- 14. Myths and Legends in the Qurʼan: An Itinerary through its Narrative Landscape.

Call Number

JFE 16-6074

ISBN

• 9780198701644
• 0198701640

LCCN

• 2014428766
• 9780198701644

OCLC

859555928

Author

Neuwirth, Angelika.

Title

Scripture, poetry, and the making of a community : reading the Qurʼan as a literary text / Angelika Neuwirth.

Publisher

Oxford : Oxford University Press, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2014.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Qur'anic studies series

Qur'anic studies series.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Added Author

Institute of Ismaili Studies.

Other Title

Reading the Qurʼan as a literary text

Other Standard Identifier

9780198701644

Research Call Number

JFE 16-6074