Description
Book SynopsisThe Qur'an's biblical foregrounds have long formed a controversial concern within Qur'anic Studies, with field-leading scholars debating the Muslim scripture's complex relationship and response to the Judeo-Christian canon. This contentious subject has largely overshadowed, however, a reciprocal, yet no less rich, question which motivates the present study. Rather than read the Muslim scripture in light of its biblical antecedents, The Qur'an & Kerygma adopts the inverse approach, situating the Qur'an as itself the formative foreground to Western literary innovation and biblical exegesis, stretching from late antiquity in the 9th century to postmodernity in the 20th. The book argues, in particular, that Qur'anic readings and renditions have provoked and paralleled key developments in the Christian canon and its critique, catalyzing pivotal acts of authorship and interpretation which have creatively contoured the language and legacy of biblical kerygma. Structured chronologically, the study's span of more than a millennium is sustained by its specific concentration on four case studies selected from representative areas and eras, exploring innovative translations and interpretations of the Qur'an authored by Christian literati from 9th-century Andalucia to 20th-century North America. Mirroring its subject matter, the book engages a literary critical approach, offering close-readings of targeted texts frequently neglected and never before synthesized in a single study, highlighting the stylistic, as well as spiritual, influence on Western authors exercised by Islamic writ.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 From al-Fatihah to Hallelujah: The Qur'anic Psalter of Hafs al-Quti Chapter 2 "Verily have I Found Allah Oft-Returning": The Qur'anic Poetics of Sulaiman al-Ghazzi Chapter 3 "The Religion of the Messiah in Multitudes": Echoes of the Qur'an across Christian Schisms Chapter 4 "Adheres to the Arabic Idiom": Ludovico Marracci's Qur'anic Vulgates Chapter 5 "By Origin and Language an Hebrew": The Genesis of a Judaic Qur'an Chapter 6 A "Totally Typological" Christian Qur'an: Northrop Frye's Triple Mirror Coda to The Qur'an & Kerygma: "Synthesis of the Word"
