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

360 Clare WildeJudea-Christian communities, 8 as does the following quotation from the anonymousmonk ofSinaiAr. 434: "whoever does not read the revealed books of God willput forth out of ignorance what he does not know; but, for the intelligent, reasonable,cultured /:Ia.fi+, he will understand because I did not bring anything from my .own intellect ('aql), but rather from the books of God (kutub alltih), my lord." 9 ···Here, "/:Itifo." indicates one who not only reads, but who has memorized-"preserved" ·-the sacred texts. While sources describe how, in the early Islamic period, both 'Aliand Mu' awiya ordered troops to go into battle with Qur' ans on their spears to avertdefeat 10 (akin to Christian fighting under the sign of the cross since at least the timeof Constantine), eventually the doctrines of the Qur'an's illimitability and its "uncreated"nature would be elaborated, and upheld- even by caliphal edict. 11 And, muchlike classical Christian ceremony surrounding the consecrated host, the Eucharist,the Qur'anic mu(i/:Iaf- as the Word of God- would come to be handled with deeprespect (for example, the Qur'an should always be placed above, not below, othertexts, and should be handled only by those in a state of ritual purity). 12While the normative Islamic understandings of the illimitability of the ArabicQur' an, and the "uncreatedness" of the Word of God, would generally accord adegree of respect both to the Qur'an and to those who handled it (reading, memorizing,reciting, transcribing, interpreting, etc.), Islamic tradition would alsopermit flexibility in interpretive categories. The Qur'an alludes to "clear" and"ambiguous" verses (e.g. Q 3:7), and "abrogated," "forgotten" or "substituted"verses (e.g. Q 2:106; 16:101), but it is up to the Qur'anic reader to identify them. 138 My thanks to S. Griffith for this distinction between later, Islamic usages of "dhikr" as "remembrance"of the names of God, for example, and the possible Qur'iinic use of the term as that whichGod sends down to Muhammad(Q 15:6, 9)-but also Q 16:43 and21:7 as referencing Christians andJews who were charged with "preserving" their sacred texts; for a recent discussion of this concept,seeK. Mohammed, "The identity of the Qur'an's ahl al-dhikr," in A. Rippin and Kh. Mohammed(eds), Coming to Tenns with the Qur 'an, Islamic Publications International, 2008, 39-54.9 Sinai Ar. 434, ff. 174v-175r.10 'Ali at the Battle of the Camel; Mu'awiya at $iffin; seeM. Dakake, "$iffin," EQ, 5:1-2.II As with the caliph al-Qiidir bi-lliih's edict, proclaimed by his son, the caliph al-Qa'im bi-Arnr Allah in430/1039. See Ibn al-Jawz1, al-MuntO?am ji ta 'rikh al-mulzik wa-1-umam. English translation inN. Calder, J. Mcijaddedi and A. Rippin (eds and trans.), Classical Islam: A sourcebook of religious literature,London: Routledge, 2003, 159--62. "Know that the word of God is not created. He has spoken andrevealed it to His messenger through the voice of Gabriel after Gabriel had heard it from Him and thenrepeated it to Muhammad. Muhammad then repeated it to his companions and his companions repeatedit to the community. The repetition of the word of God by created beings does not make it created becausethat speech is in its essence still the speech of God and it is uncreated. So, in every situation, repeated ormemorized or written or heard, it remains that way. Anybody who says it is created in any way is anunbeliever whose blood may be shed after he has been called on to repent [and refused]." Ibid., 160-QI.12 For further. discussion, see W. Graham, Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scriptt1re inthe History of Religion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987; idem and N. Kermani,"Recitation and aesthetic reception", in J. McAuliffe (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to theQur 'iin, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 115-43. See also K. O'Connor, "Popularand talismanic uses of the Qur'an," EQ, 4:163-82; N. Abu Zayd, "Everyday life, Qur'an in," EQ,2:80-98.13 On these themes, see Na~r l:fiimid Abii Zayd's article in this collection.Early Christian Arabic texts 361The Qur' an also affirms tliat God's eternal word is not to be understood as limitedto the Arabic revelation to the prophet MuQ.amrnad. Rather, this Qur'an- theArabic "recitation" or "reading" (a literal translation of"qur 'an")- confirms (and·corrects) that which had come before, handed down by various communities (inthe Qur'an itself, particularly mentioned in this context are the Jews and theChristians of the Children oflsrael). 14 And, while the Arabic Qur'an came to bedeemed inimitable (i 'jtiz), uncreated (qadfm) and free from corruption (tabrif,. tabdfl, taghy'ir), Islamic tradition would preserve accounts of the historical.· context 15 of the revelation of this Arabic "recitation" (in the "occasions of revelation"asbab al-nuziil), as well as its later preservation by the early community,particularly in the accounts of the collection and codification of the mu(i/:Iafin the'Uthmanlc rasm. And, even with the eventual diffusion of the 'Uthmanic rasm, avariety of accepted reading variants (qirti 'tit) thereof circulated."Codices" of the Qur' anWith the widespread printing of the Cairo Edition of 1924 (based on a singlereading tradition), it is fairly easy today to find a "standard" Arabic Qur'an in anypart of the world. 16 But in what form was this text preserved in the early Islamiccenturies, particularly before the solidification of the doctrines of its inimitabilityand uncreatedness, and by those familiar with Arabic? What were the understandingsof the text that would be recited and venerated - and interpreted?The "purity" of the preservation of the record ofthe revelation in the 'Uthmanicrasm has not been uncontested, even in Islamic tradition 17 (accusations of omissionsfrom, but not additions to, the original revelation received by MuQ.ammadinclude the account of a domesticated animal eating the preserved text of the"stoning verse" in '.A'isha's house). 18 Christian texts from the Islamic world, aswell as early Islamic historical narratives, have retained alternative accounts to thatwhich became the normative Islamic tradition of the revelation (e.g. the Christian14 On the Qur'iinic notion of "scripture", see D. Madigan, The Qur 'an's self-image: Writing andauthority in Is/om's scripture, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 200 I.15 Distinctions akin to that in Christian .tradition between God the Son- the Word of God- as thesecond person of the Trinity and its incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth - and, eventually, theChristian memories of Jesus and their understandings of the Son of God and the Word of God inChristological and Trinitarian language. See, e.g. R. Bauckrnan's God Cnteifted: Monotheism andChristology in the New Testament, Carlisle, Cumbria: Paternoster Press, 1998; Grand Rapids,MI: Eerdmans, 1999; J. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1991.16 SeeM. Albin, "Printing of the Qur'iin," EQ, 4:264-76; H Bobzin, "Translations of the Qur'iin,"EQ, 5:340-58; F. Leernhuis, "Readings of the Qur'iin," EQ, 4:353--63.17 Cf. e.g. H. Modarressi, "Early debates on the integrity of the Qur'iin," Sf 77, 1993, 5-39.18 SeeM. Cook, The Koran. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, 125.J. Burton (see his "Abrogation," EQ, 1:11-19), argues that the collection of the normative textactually occurred during the life of the Prophet, unlike J. Wansbrough (Quranic Studies, Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1977), who places the text and its accompanying traditions in the"sectarian milieu" of second/eighth-century Abbasid Baghdad.iil.'1iii!II• II