reynolds-the-quran-in-its-historical-context-2

Hapaxes in the Qur'an:identifying and cataloguing lonewords (and loanwords) 1Shawkat M ToorawaNew readings are generated not simply by analysis, that is, by breaking down thetext Rather they result from catalysis, that is, by establishing new links and relationsamong the elements of the text itself and with the context in which it is read. 2(Daniel Madigan, 2004)of the attention devoted by classical and medieval Muslim exegetes andscholars to the rare, unusual, difficult, and loan (or so-called "foreign")in the Qur'an, there has been very little discussion of these within the largerof Silra structure, Qur' anic literary structure, and Qur' anic poetics. Onein particular that has not excited any substantial interest but which can·· in important ways to analyses of these issues is the frequency of hapaxre.~;c1mema in the Qur'an. A hapCL-c legomenon (often just hapax, pl. hapaxes, forliterally something "said only once," is a word or form, sometimes even aor expression, that appears only once in a text, author, or corpus. 3 Hapaxare, to be sure, occasionally signaled by modem scholars of the Qur'ansuch mention is usually incidental to discussions of loanwords and emenda-4 I am not aware, however, of any sustained discussion or analysis ofhapaxesor as a group in classical or medieval scholarship, and only aware of. works dedicated to them in modem scholarship - a hard-to-find catalogby a religious scholar in Cairo in 2002, 5 and a 2008 University ofViennagrateful to Andrew Rippin and Walid Saleh for important references; and to Maryam ToorawaYounes for technical help with the hapax lists. I am especially grateful to Gabriel::I