The Qur'an in its historical context (pdf - Islam and Christian-Muslim ...

INTRODUCTION
Lüling theories, but also of the idiosyncratic theories of Joseph Azzi, a provocative
Lebanese scholar little known outside of the Middle East. The question of the
historical plausibility of Luxenberg’s theory is again taken up by Prof. Gilliot,
who illuminates evidence within the Arabic Islamic tradition that suggests the
Qur’an was not the work of one author. Prof. Griffith, meanwhile, focuses on
the Syriac Christian tradition, particularly on the Syriac antecedents to the Cave
narrative of Q 18. Thereby he argues that while the Qur’an’s relationship with its
linguistic and religious context is intimate, its meaning cannot be reduced to a
Syriac subtext.
In Part 2 the authors focus on the Qur’an’s relationship with that context, above
all with Christianity. In this, too, the present book is exceptional. As mentioned
before, the great majority of publications, particularly in recent decades, contain
a retrospective viewpoint. Here, however, scholars use their knowledge of
regional history, religion and language to provide a compelling contextual
perspective on Islamic origins. Prof. Samir describes how Christian theology – and
not simply narrative or nomenclature – is reflected in the Qur’an in unexpected
ways. The Qur’an’s relationship to Christian religious tradition is again addressed
by Prof. Mourad, who shows how canonical and non-canonical traditions on Mary
are present in the Qur’an. Prof. Van Bladel turns to a second narrative in Q 18,
that of Dhu l-Qarnayn. He demonstrates in detail how the Qur’an alludes to the
story of Alexander the Great as told in an early seventh century Syriac Christian
text, while describing the particular historical circumstances in which this text
may have been received by early Muslims. Prof. Kropp, meanwhile, elucidates
how other Qur’anic pericopes reflect particular religious traditions of Ethiopic
Christianity. Finally, Prof. Saadi considers how the earliest Syriac Christian
reports of Islam might shed light on our understanding of the genesis of the
religion and its scripture.
The final two articles, which make up Part 3 in the present book, ask the reader
to consider the importance of critical study of the Qur’an. Prof. Stewart turns to
medieval Muslim scholarship to show that speculation over emendation of the
Qur’anic text has an important precedent within the tradition. He argues that
difficulties in the text calls the reader to emendation, while proposing that the
test of validity for such emendation can be found in the Mu’tazili phrase, sukun
al-nafs, “ease of mind.” Prof. Rippin, meanwhile, looks back to the Islamic tradition
of investigating the foreign origin of Qur’anic terms (the so-called kalimat
dakhila), showing that the work of critical scholars today is not per se novel. Yet
he also suggests that contemporary attempts to uncover the original context of
the Qur’an are no less speculative than their medieval precedents, as “faith in the
historical record rivals faith in the divine.”
The present book, therefore, is designed to be a robust yet sober challenge to
the field of Qur’anic Studies. It is a book that honors the Qur’an by appreciating
its complexity. Hopefully it will encourage others to take up this same task. Thus
while the great Qur’an project of Bergsträsser, Jeffery and Pretzl came to a
premature end, perhaps with this book a new project is just beginning.
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