For all Muslims the Qurʾan is the word of God. In the first centuries of Islam, however, many individuals and groups, and some Shiʿis, believed that the generally accepted text of the Qurʾan is corrupt. The Shiʿis asserted that redactors had altered or deleted among other things all passages that supported the rights of ʿAli and his successors or that condemned his enemies. One of the fullest lists of these alleged changes and of other variant readings is to be found in the work of al-Sayyārī (3rd/9th century), which is indeed among the earliest Shiʿi...

The codex Parisino-petropolitanus is one of the earliest witnesses of the handwritten transmission of the Qurʾanic text which has survived to this day. The various fragments which were part of the original manuscript are scattered among various collections; once put together, they provide a unique picture of the state of the text during the 7th century (orthography and textual peculiarities) and of the circumstances in which the canonical version as we know it today took shape physically. The present study, first of its kind, paves the way for a more accurate understanding of the...

Previous scholarship on recent Muslim Qurʾanic exegesis has mostly focussed on modernising trends, usually remaining within the confines of a single language area. Transcending this hitherto dominating narrow focus, this book offers a comparative analysis of a body of contemporary Sunnite Qurʾanic commentaries from the Arab World, Indonesia and Turkey. It takes into account both the influence of specific local conditions and the common intellectual heritage they rely on. By paying special attention not only to new developments, but also to the embeddedness of contemporary...

This work is a study of the transmission of the variant readings of the Qurʾān, the canonization of the system Readings, and the emergence of the non-canonical shawādhdh readings. Nasser argues that Ibn Mujāhid and the early Muslim scholars viewed the variant readings as legal rulings aḥkām and that the later generation of Qurrāʾ were responsible for moving the discipline of Qirāʾāt from the domain of fiqh to the domain of Ḥadīth. After studying the theories of tawātur in detail, Nasser shows...

A Qurʾān Commentary by Ibn Barrajān of Seville (d. 536/1141) is a critical Arabic text edition of a medieval Muslim Qurʾān commentary entitled, Īḍāḥ al-ḥikma bi-aḥkām al-ʿibra (Wisdom Deciphered, the Unseen Discovered). The annotated Arabic text is accompanied by an analytical introduction and an extensive subject index. This Qurʾān commentary is Ibn Barrajān's last and most esoteric work, and as such offers the most explicit articulation of his mystical and philosophical doctrines. It...

Islamic Studies Today: Essays in Honor of Andrew Rippin, is a collection of essays on the Qur'ān, qur'anic exegesis, the early history of Islam, the relationship of the qur'anic text to writings from other religious traditions, and the use of the Qur'ān in modern discussions and debates. Its scope is medieval and modern contexts and it covers regions right across the Muslim world. The essays are based on and reflect Rippin's broad interests and methodological innovations; his studies of text transmissions, hermeneutical studies of the Qur'ān; careful unpacking of the...

In Malay Court Religion, Culture and Language: Interpreting the Qurʾān in 17th Century Aceh Peter G. Riddell undertakes a detailed study of the two earliest works of Qur’anic exegesis from the Malay-Indonesian world. Riddell explores the 17th century context in the Sultanate of Aceh that produced the two works, and the history of both texts. He argues that political, social and religious factors provide important windows into the content and approaches of both Qur’anic commentaries. He also provides a transliteration of the Jawi Malay text of both commentaries on sūra 18 of the Qur'ān...

Le parfait manuel des sciences coraniques al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān de Ğalāl ad-Dīn as-Suyūṭī (849/1445–911/1505) est une description complète des problèmes relatifs au texte coranique qui se posent encore aujourd’hui, des solutions proposées et des méthodes employées. Al-Suyūṭī’s (1445-1515) The Perfect Handbook of the Qurʾānic Sciences is a complete description of the problems concerning the Qurʾānic text that still arise today, of the solutions proposed and the methods employed.

In Tafsir as Mystical Experience, Todd Lawson shows how the Quran may be engaged with for meaning and understanding, the usual goal of mystical exegesis, and also how it may be engaged with through tafsīr in a quest for spiritual or mystical experience. In this earliest of the Báb’s extended works, written before his public claim to be the return of the hidden Imam, the act of reading is shown to be something akin to holy communion in which the sacred text is both entrance upon and destination of the mystic quest. The Quran here is a door to an “abode of glory” and an abiding...

In The Inimitable Qurʾān: Some Problems in English Translations of the Qurʾān with Reference to Rhetorical Features, Khalid Yahya Blankinship examines certain Arabic rhetorical features of the Qurʾān as represented in seven English translations. The author addresses the intersection of two important topics in Qurʾānic studies: the critique of the available English translations and the role of rhetoric in the interpretation of the Qurʾān. He identifies a number of figures characteristic of Qurʾanic style which represent some of the chief stumbling blocks for readers who are used to...