The Koran (Qur’an) Books

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Book SynopsisDer Koran ist noch immer nicht Teil des europäischen Wissenskanons, obwohl er tief in der biblischen Tradition verwurzelt ist. Er gilt weithin noch als exklusiv islamischer Text. Die kritische Bewertung seiner Beziehung zur Bibel und damit zur europäischen Tradition setzt seine Einbettung in die ‒ auch für das spätere Europa formative – spätantike Kultur voraus, in die er sich theologisch innovativ einbrachte. Die großen Fragen der Zeit wurden nicht nur von Rabbinen und Kirchenvätern, sondern auch von der koranischen Gemeinde debattiert. Ihre besonderen Antworten verdienen daher als Beiträge zu einer neuen, sich intensiv in die laufenden Religionsdebatten einbringenden Theologie Beachtung. Die sich dabei abzeichnende Fokussierung des gesprochenen Wortes als der maßgeblichen Manifestation Gottes in der Welt kann nicht außerhalb des besonderen kulturellen Umfelds gesehen werden, in dem lokale Dichtung der arabischen Hochsprache bereits eine besondere Aura verliehen hatte. Der neue Blick auf den Koran erfordert jedoch gleichzeitig eine kritische Neureflektion unserer modernen – nie ganz unpolitischen – Philologien. Der Blick muss frei werden für die Textpolitik des Koran, die den Prozess der Islamentstehung am ehesten erkennbar macht.

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Book Synopsis In 1143 Robert of Ketton produced the first Latin translation of the Qur’an. This translation, extant in 24 manuscripts, was one of the main ways in which Latin European readers had access to the Muslim holy book. Yet it was not the only means of transmission of Quranic stories and concepts to the Latin world: there were other medieval translations into Latin of the Qur’an and of Christian polemical texts composed in Arabic which transmitted elements of the Qur’an (often in a polemical mode). The essays in this volume examine the range of medieval Latin transmission of the Qur’an and reaction to the Qur’an by concentrating on the manuscript traditions of medieval Qur’an translations and anti-Islamic polemics in Latin. We see how the Arabic text was transmitted and studied in Medieval Europe. We examine the strategies of translators who struggled to find a proper vocabulary and syntax to render Quranic terms into Latin, at times showing miscomprehensions of the text or willful distortions for polemical purposes. These translations and interpretations by Latin authors working primarily in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Spain were the main sources of information about Islam for European scholars until well into the sixteenth century, when they were printed, reused and commented. This volume presents a key assessment of a crucial chapter in European understandings of Islam.

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Book SynopsisConciliation in the Qurʾan addresses an existing imbalanced focus in Islamic Studies on conflict in the Qurʾan, and moves beyond a restrictive approach to ṣulḥ (reconciliation) as a mediation process in fragmented social contexts. The book offers a critical analysis of conciliation as a holistic concept in the Qurʾan, providing linguistic and structural insight based on the renowned pre-modern Arabic exegesis of Al-Rāzī (d. 1209) and the under-studied contemporary Urdu exegesis of Iṣlāḥī (d. 1997). This ambitious thematic study of the entire Qurʾan includes an innovative examination of the central ethical notion of iḥsān (gracious conduct), and a challenging discussion of notorious passages relating to conflict. The author offers solutions to unresolved issues such as the significance of the notion of iṣlāḥ (order), the relationship between conciliation and justice, and the structural and thematic significance of Q.48 (Sūrat Al-Fatḥ) and Q.49 (Sūrat Al-Ḥujurāt). Conciliation in the Qurʾan offers a compelling argument for the prevalence of conciliation in the Islamic scripture, and will be an essential read for practitioners in Islamic studies, community integration, conflict-resolution, interfaith dialogue and social justice.

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Book SynopsisThe Qur’an: A Guidebook is an updated English version of the work appeared in Italian (Rome 2021) Leggere e studiare il Corano which deals with the contents of the Qur’an, the style and formal features of the text, the history and fixation of it and an poutline of the reception in Islamic literature. The aim of the work is to give a reader a description of what he/she can find in the Islamic holy text and the state of the critical debates on all the topics dealt with, focusing mainly on the growing scholarly literature which appeared in the last 30 years. As such, the work is unique in combining the aim to give comprehensive information on the topic and, at the same, time, reconstruct the critical debate in a balanced outline also emphasizing confessional approaches and the dynamics in the study of the Qur’an. There is nothing similar in contemporary scholarship and the book is a handbook for students and scholars of Islam but also for readers in religious studies who need to know how the main questions related to the Islamic text have been discussed in recent scholarship.

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Book Synopsis Over the last twenty years, the rise of Qur'anic studies has been one of the most remarkable developments within the wider framework of Islamic scholarship. This evolution can be viewed from three angles: exponential growth in the accessibility of relevant primary; the use of contemporary methods for developing new analytical agendas; a renewed appreciation of diverse hermeneutical orientations. A veritable gold-rush of publications, theses, colloquia and study projects devoted to the Qur'an in the past two decades illustrates these developments. This scholarly community subsists primarily in European countries and the United States, but its effects are not limited there. The reception and dissemination of this work in Muslim-majority countries is constant and bodes as a promising opportunity to establish a real dialogue between scholars and lived community. The present book contains expert contributions emerging from this nexus, with scholars from North African, Middle Eastern and Western backgrounds who share a common ambition: to advance academic study of the Qurʾan by promoting cooperation across global boundaries.

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Book SynopsisThe issue of Muslim women’s rights never seems outdated and has become trendy in the post-9/11 environment. That is, the mainstream media and Western politicians often view Muslim women as victims of male-patriarchy and frequently justify Western involvement in the Middle East and in other Muslim majority counties at least in part to "rescue" women. Within this realm, Nawal El Saadawi is a famous Egyptian writer whose writings focus on the struggle of Muslim women and are widely read in the Middle East and many Western societies as well. Because of her bold feminist views on politics, religions, and gender, she is described as the "Simone de Beauvoir of the Arab world." After the death of El Saadawi in 2021, a flurry of arguments and criticism in the Egyptian press and women's press around the world is created in which different social media platforms were filled with numerous comments and discussions of her writings and arguments. Whereas some mourned El Saadawi and her dedication to women’s issues, others celebrated her death, wishing her the worst punishment in the afterlife for what they described as her "destructive thoughts." This monograph genuinely analyzes her views on five controversial issues – marriage, polygamy, divorce, inheritance rights, and veiling – in light of Qur’anic exegeses offered by two classical scholars (i.e., Muhammad ibn Jarir Al Tabari and Ismail ibn Umar Ibn Kathir) and two contemporary Muslim feminists (i.e., Amina Wadud and Azizah Al Hibri). By taking a critical look at her views, the book contributes not only to this ongoing debate but adds value to assessing El Saadawi's work and helps readers gain a greater understanding of her writings as well. It also enables readers to comprehend the current tension between feminism and Islam by understanding the perspectives of both sides. Since El Saadawi’s writings are available in the Western countries, the book would appeal to academics, researchers on Islam and gender and Middle Eastern women, as well as to lay audiences interested in women and gender in Muslim societies.

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Book SynopsisThe study of Islam’s origins from a rigorous historical and social science perspective is still wanting. At the same time, a renewed attention is being paid to the very plausible pre-canonical redactional and editorial stages of the Qur'an, a book whose core many contemporary scholars agree to be formed by various independent writings in which encrypted passages from the OT Pseudepigrapha, the NT Apocrypha, and other ancient writings of Jewish, Christian, and Manichaean provenance may be found. Likewise, the earliest Islamic community is presently regarded by many scholars as a somewhat undetermined monotheistic group that evolved from an original Jewish-Christian milieu into a distinct Muslim group perhaps much later than commonly assumed and in a rather unclear way. The following volume gathers select studies that were originally shared at the Early Islamic Studies Seminar. These studies aim at exploring afresh the dawn and early history of Islam with the tools of biblical criticism as well as the approaches set forth in the study of Second Temple Judaism, Christian, and Rabbinic origins, thereby contributing to the renewed, interdisciplinary study of formative Islam as part and parcel of the complex processes of religious identity formation during Late Antiquity.

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Book SynopsisConciliation in the Qurʾan addresses an existing imbalanced focus in Islamic Studies on conflict in the Qurʾan, and moves beyond a restrictive approach to ṣulḥ (reconciliation) as a mediation process in fragmented social contexts. The book offers a critical analysis of conciliation as a holistic concept in the Qurʾan, providing linguistic and structural insight based on the renowned pre-modern Arabic exegesis of Al-Rāzī (d. 1209) and the under-studied contemporary Urdu exegesis of Iṣlāḥī (d. 1997). This ambitious thematic study of the entire Qurʾan includes an innovative examination of the central ethical notion of iḥsān (gracious conduct), and a challenging discussion of notorious passages relating to conflict. The author offers solutions to unresolved issues such as the significance of the notion of iṣlāḥ (order), the relationship between conciliation and justice, and the structural and thematic significance of Q.48 (Sūrat Al-Fatḥ) and Q.49 (Sūrat Al-Ḥujurāt). Conciliation in the Qurʾan offers a compelling argument for the prevalence of conciliation in the Islamic scripture, and will be an essential read for practitioners in Islamic studies, community integration, conflict-resolution, interfaith dialogue and social justice.

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Book SynopsisDie Darstellung der Begegnungen der ostsyrischen Christen (Nestorianer) im ehemaligen Perserreich mit dem frühen Islam ist für die heutige Auseinandersetzung von Christentum und Islam von größter Relevanz. Sowohl die Theologie und Gelehrsamkeit der Nestorianer werden in diesem Buch behandelt, als auch ihre erfolgreiche Mission unter den benachbarten arabischen Stämmen. Weiter wird die Entwicklung der ostsyrischen Kirche nach dem Siegeszug der Araber herausgearbeitet. Nachdem diese Bagdad im Jahre 762 zu ihrer Hauptstadt gemacht hatten, nahmen die Kontakte zu, weil die Nestorianer hier die christliche Mehrheit bildeten. Die Rekonstruktion dieser Wechselwirkungen zwischen den gelehrten Nestorianern und den neuen arabischen Herrschern, des Sinns und Zwecks ihrer Religionsgespräche und der Rolle der christlichen Araber könnte gerade heute hilfreich sein, die eigene Tradition und die der Nachbarn in einer neuen Perspektive zu sehen.

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