Andrew Rippin

Der Koran als Text der Spätantike. Ein europäischer Zugang

Der Koran als Text der Spatantike. Ein europaischer Zugang , by Angelika Neuwirth, Verlag der Weltreligionen: Berlin, 2010, 859 pp. ISBN 978 3 458 71026 4, €39.90 (hbk) The contemporary popular med...

Provocation and Its Responses

Abstract The discussions of textbooks, academics’ various roles, and the changes to the study of Islam over the past thirty years found in the essays in this special issue display the full range of concerns common to Religious Studies and also bring a welcome dialogue on the issues, a phenomenon that is not common within Islamic Studies.

The Qur’ān on the Internet: Implications and Future Possibilities

The Qurʾān prominently proclaims its status as a “book”, kitāb, throughout the text and the Muslim definition of the scriptural codex, muṣḥaf, as that which is “between two covers” is a firm legal and theological doctrine. Of course, that textual sense of the Qurʾān is always balanced by a strong sense of the orality of the scripture and its ultimate definition as the “speech” of God. That is so not only in discussions of the transmission of the text but also in daily piety. Still, it remains the case that the Qurʾān’s textuality stands as a prominent trait. Thus, the transition of the text to a digital format and the increasing reliance on electronic distribution that we are witnessing in the current generation are significant events for Muslims in many ways.

The Muslim Samson: medieval, modern and scholarly interpretations

The biblical figure of Samson (Judges 13: 1–16: 31) is not mentioned by name in the Quran. He was, however, incorporated by medieval Muslims such as al-Ṭabarī and Tha‘labī into the quranic prophetic world. How and why that was accomplished is the initial focus of this paper. While the medieval ability to find Samson in the text of scripture was admittedly limited, the attempt does illustrate the process of fitting scripture into a pre-existing world view itself composed on the basis of a variety of competing priorities. That world view does not always agree with the biblical text, nor with the full dimension of the living traditions of Judaism and Christianity; rather, the overall cultural framework of the Islamic tradition necessitated a range of interpretive strategies, dictated by the demands of the interpretive situation. Putting this medieval interpretive process in focus provides a context for discussing some modern Muslim views of Samson, about whom it is sometimes proclaimed proudly that he is not to be found in scripture. Why that position should be taken proves revealing of the process and the priorities of modern quranic interpretation. Marked by the abandonment of the value of tradition, contemporary interpretive strategies involve the same hermeneutical processes found in the medieval approach – the fitting of world views to the text of scripture – with the primary difference to be located in the rejection of the accumulative nature of the interpretive enterprise. Finally, the role of modern “secular” scholarship interacts with Muslim tradition by its focus on the boundaries of a strict scriptural text as the source of Islam. The scholarly focus on the textual is seen in a world view not of confessional dogma but one that still supports a confessional position that is also textually focused. It pretends to an appearance of being “scientific”. Scholarship plays its own political role within the process of modern interpretation.

The trace of prostration and other distinguishing bodily marks in the Quran

The mark known as the “trace of prostration” ( sīmā ) that is mentioned in the Quran is well established in Islam as being a physical blemish on the forehead. Such marks on the forehead are widespread in religious traditions, often denoting community membership and piety. The Quranic instance fits this tendency. The forelock is also a symbol associated with the forehead that the Quran mentions, although that piece of hair carries negative connotations. This common feature of a persons appearance can, in other cultural situations, denote membership and piety just like a mark on the forehead. The vocabulary of the Quran incorporates images from the past, although the evidence is too slight to allow origins to be traced; popular religious ideas and practices have many sources beyond scripture.

The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān: The Problem of Tawātur and the Emergence of Shawādhdh

insight might emerge from personal papers, letters, and other unpublished archival materials or texts written by women and local Christians. Beyond recognizing a few prominent intellectuals who worked for the mission, the book gives little attention to “native helpers,” Protestant converts, or others who interacted with and were changed by the Syria Mission. Khalaf alludes to a forthcoming sequel, however, which may shed more light on the concrete transformations of Syrian life by the late nineteenth century. The book weaves back and forth between critique of missionary rhetoric and appreciation of the “ungodly” aspects of Puritanism that missionaries transplanted into Syrian soil. Khalaf deplores missionary expressions of religious superiority, but he nevertheless shows sensitivity toward American Protestants’ sense of spiritual calling. The book notes that missionaries modified their practical strategies in response to local circumstances, but, despite the repeated emphasis on secular Puritanism, it does not demonstrate that the members of the Syria Mission ever shifted from the evangelicalism of Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Hopkins to the Puritan ethics of Benjamin Franklin. It may be that mission employees and mission school graduates took these secular virtues and employed them in ways the American missionaries never intended. This claim might be substantiated with greater attention to Syrian experiences and the processes by which Muslims, Druze, Maronites, and Greek Orthodox Christians “became ‘puritanized’ without being ‘evangelized’” (xxi). The book’s primary focus is the American Syria Mission under the ABCFM between 1820 and 1860, but it also draws on a range of missionary sources from outside of the region and beyond this designated time period. Citations from later missionaries in Syria and from mission theorists in the United States demonstrate Khalaf’s familiarity with the wider history of American missions. Further explanation is needed, however, to situate such references in relation to the specific environment of the early-nineteenth-century Syria Mission. Otherwise, readers who are new to the history of missions in the Middle East may become disoriented by the broad scope of history the book actually covers. The book’s accessible style and its extensive quotations from missionary sources will make it a helpful resource for students. As one of few books on American missionaries in Syria, Khalaf’s work is a necessary read for anyone interested in Middle East mission history.

The Good Muslim: Reflections on Classical Islamic Law and Theology

Crone. Fred Donner’s very different account of Islamic origins (Donner 2010) is listed, but Reynolds does not engage with it (perhaps its 2010 publication was too late). The origins and early transmission of the qur’anic text are discussed without explicit reference to current controversies, apart from an unsourced allusion to Christophe Luxenberg’s famous white grapes (p. 108). Only six sources are listed in the relevant section of the bibliography, mostly reference works or older books. All too modestly, Reynolds notes the collection of essays he himself edited in 2008 (Reynolds 2008) only indirectly by citing one of the contributions. Elsewhere, writers are sometimes quoted without references (Abdel Halim, p. 32) or an idea is attributed rather vaguely to “Islamic tradition” (Gabriel as the source of the Qur’an’s division into sūras, p. 93). In discussing the Christological debate as a context for the emergence of the Qur’an, the anthology byRichardA.Norris (1980) is consistently attributed to “Norton” (pp.163–165; cf. 217). There is an associated website, and other useful sites are listed. The book itself is attractively laid out with double column print, primary sources in text boxes, brief profiles on key figures, a reasonably detailed glossary, and monochrome photographs. However, the glossy paper reflects so much light that the faint gold print used for headings and some text is difficult to see. Oddly, the large map of the Middle East in the early seventh century on page xv includes only four place names in the Arabian Peninsula, whereas a much smaller map of the early Islamic conquests on page 67 represents a larger area and has six place names within the Peninsula. A map showing where there were Christians in Arabia uses a font so small it is barely legible (p. 156). The Taurus Mountains are mentioned several times in the book but are not labelled on any map. Worst of all, my copy fell apart well before I had completed a first reading. Reynolds’ timely, readable, and insightful work certainly deserves better.