The Qur'ān in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qur'ānic Milieu

by Angelika Neuwirth (Editor), Nicolai Sinai (Editor), Michael Marx (Editor)

By addressing various aspects of the Qur'an's linguistic and historical context and offering close readings of selected passages in the light of Jewish, Christian, and ancient Arabic literature, the volume seeks to stimulate a new interaction between literary and historical scholarship.

Genres: Islam, Religion

740 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Angelika Neuwirth is a professor of Qur'ānic studies at the Free University of Berlin. She studied Islamic studies, semantic studies and classical philology at the Universities of Berlin, Tehran, Göttingen, Jerusalem, and Munich.

Between 1994 and 1999 she was the director of the German Institute of Oriental Studies. She was awarded the Sigmund Freud prize for her research on the Qur'ān.

Reviews

[Brett C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a collection of essays about Islam. The first half explored pre-Islam, early Islam, and the Quran's early historical context. This included essays from European historians on topics of Mecca and caravan routes of pre-Islamic antiquity, political history of 6th-century Arabia, ancient Arabic to Early Standard Arabic, early Islam in Christian and Jewish sources, and Arabs & Arabic in the age of the Prophet.

The second section was contextualization that included text analysis of the Quran, intertextuality and coherence of the Meccan surah's, understanding Muhammad's prophethood, early Arabic poetry, codification of the Quran, Islam in the Arabian context, and the House of Abraham & the House of Amram.

Overall, this was a very informative and in-depth look at the Quran as a text to show its religious, historical, literary, and cultural significance. I would recommend this to anyone's religious bookshelf because of it's array of knowledge given to the reader. Thanks!

[Nadeen Alsulaimi]

تكمن أهمية الكتاب في تسليط الضوء على الجاهلية وما قبلها وموقف القرآن منها.. يُقدم التوجه الجديد في عالم الدراسات الغربية عن القرآن

[Cep Subhan KM · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of interesting contemporary Qur'anic studies.