The Qur’an and Poetry

This chapter discusses the relationship of the Qur’an to poetry, both in terms of poetry as a broader interpretive category and, in specific, in relation to pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, in which poetry is associated with prophecy. Specific Qur’anic statements in relation to poetry are discussed, but the broader relevance of the function of poetry in the pre-Islamic Arabian context is also brought to bear on the historical interpretation of the function of the Qur’an in the lives of its first recipients. The Qur’anic text actively counters negative associations with poets and seers in pre-Islamic Arabic culture, distancing the proclaimer from charges of ecstatic possession.

Stages of Communal Formation in Medina

This chapter presents the final stage of “communal formation” reflected in the Qur’an, which occurred during the Medinan period. During this period, through processes involving the insertion of texts within existing proclamations from the Meccan period, concepts such as the “discovery of God’s wrath” and the “discovery of ambiguity in the divine scripture” come to the fore. Furthermore, Mecca again becomes the focus of communal ritual, after that focus had strayed toward Jerusalem. Finally, in this chapter the Qur’anic conception of martyrdom is discussed in relation to its monotheistic precedents.

Sura Structures and Chronology

This chapter lays out the criteria for the chronological arrangement of the suras that will be followed in the rest of the book. It argues critically for upholding the basic chronology first set out by Nöldeke at the end of the nineteenth century, providing detail on the textual and rhetorical qualities used to define the chronological development of the text. It also provides an overview of the structural qualities of the sura as a genre, and of the verbal features characteristics of the successive stages of the text’s development.

How the Qur’an Has Been Read So Far

A sketch of the previous research on the Qur’an is provided in detail. The overview of approaches and results in Western research goes back to the nineteenth century, following the story of Qur’an research first up to the Wissenschaft des Judentums (science of Judaism) school of the early twentieth century. Following this, more recent trends in Qur’an research, including the more source-critical and skeptical methods of recent decades, are described. Finally, a sketch of the diversity of current approaches is given, situating the approach of this volume within its relevant scholarly context.

The Rhetorical Qur’an

This chapter examines the notion that the Qur’an is a document of an “age of rhetoric,” showing the ways in which the Qur’an uses rhetorical means to present a convincing and novel statement in relation to previous texts and credos. This includes a view to the early reception of the Qur’an in terms of the concept of its “incapacitating” rhetoric, which was highlighted in the early reception history, and also shows the ways in which the rhetorical structures of earlier creeds are incorporated and “overcome” in particular ways in the Qur’an. This shows how the Qur’an and the community around it developed within a Late Antique milieu.

Biblical-Qur’anic Figures

In this chapter, a detailed depiction is offered of the development of specific biblical figures and narratives in the Qur’an. Each figure reflects the Qur’anic reframing of the role of prophecy in general and the biblical figuration of prophecy and Prophets in specific. The depictions of these figures are set against the background of their evidence in the preceding Late Antique religious and literary traditions, including Alexander legends, Christian homilies, and the Jewish accounts of Josephus.

The Qur’an and Scripture

This chapter provides a study of the Qur’an’s self-presentation as a revealed and proclaimed text. The concepts of “writing” (kitāb) as well as the various terms used within the Qur’an to refer to revelation and the proclaimer’s delivery of scripture are discussed, and the relevant Qur’anic texts are studied. This leads to a discussion of the somewhat controversial concept of “inlibration,” or the supposed becoming-book of the text. The resulting image of the self-understanding of the Qur’an as text is a complex one, in which the self-conceptions of earlier scriptures are adapted to the pre-Islamic Arabian conceptual area.

Stages of Communal Formation in the Middle and Late Meccan Periods

This chapter focuses on the process of communal formation in the middle and late Meccan time and the way the Qur’an reflects this process. This involves the construction of a “text world” whereby the stories of “God’s people” are told in relation to their predecessors among the earlier religious communities of the Jews and the Christians, as well as the emergence of anti-pagan polemic as a major theme in the proclamation. It also involves the alteration of existing mythic narrative paradigms and the emergence of new homiletic instruments, namely, the usage of parables and the distinctive Qur’anic simile or “likeness,” the mathal.

Stages of Communal Formation in the Early Meccan Period

This chapter reviews the “communal development” that occurred over the course of the early Meccan period of the Qur’an’s proclamation. This proceeds from an early “psalmic” piety based largely around the vigil and the Prophet-biographical elements of the early suras to proclamations more focused on “warning” and reflections on writing and signs of creation.

The Qur’an and History

This chapter examines the notions of “history” as they are presented and developed in the Qur’an. It critically reviews the notion that the Qur’an is ahistorical—that the Prophet stories and other narrative elements in the text do not show an understanding of or interest in history as such. Rather, it is argued, the text reveals a relationship to history that is quite varied, presenting vital and interesting reinterpretations of earlier narratives, both pagan and biblical, and a constant “conversation” with the notion of history at work in earlier traditions. This conversation reflects the formation of the community and the process of its development.