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Zusatztext Salama's timely book analyzes the debate over the interpretation of the Qur'an through the lens of literary criticism, focusing on iconic renovators in twentieth-century Egypt. The historical contexts and the rhetorical strategies past and present are called on to situate the shift in Qur'anic scholarship that four men and a woman contributed to. It is a study that is indispensable not only for Islamic studies but for the intellectual history of modern Egypt. Informationen zum Autor Mohammad Salama is Professor of Arabic and Qur’anic Studies and Chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at George Mason University, USA. He is the author of Islam, Orientalism and Intellectual History (2011) and co-editor of German Colonialism: The Holocaust and Postwar Germany (2011). Vorwort A pioneering analysis of the intertwined advances in Qur’anic studies and Arabic literary theory in 20th-century Egypt, focusing primarily on the work of two influential literary critics, Taha Huysan and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd. Zusammenfassung In The Qur’an and Modern Arabic Literary Criticism , Mohammad Salama navigates the labyrinthine semantics that underlie this sacred text and inform contemporary scholarship. The book presents reflections on Quranic exegesis by explaining - and distinguishing between - interpretation and explication. While the book focuses on Quranic and literary scholarship in twentieth-century Egypt from Taha Husayn to Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, it also engages with an immense tradition of scholarship from the classical period to the present, including authors such as Abu ‘Ubayda, Ibn ‘Abbas, al-Razi, and al-Tabari.Salama argues that, over the centuries, the Arabic language experienced semantic and phonological shifts, creating a lacuna in understanding the Qur’an and bringing contemporary readers under the spell of hermeneutical and parochial interpretations. He demonstrates that while this lacuna explains much of the intellectual poverty of traditionalist approaches to Quranic exegesis, the work of the modern Egyptian school of academics marks a sharp departure from the programmed conservatism of Islamist and Salafi exegetics. Through analyses of the writings of these intellectuals, the author shows that a fresh look at the sources and a revolutionary attempt to approach the Qur’an could render tradition itself an impetus for an alternative aesthetics—contextual, open, and unfolding. Inhaltsverzeichnis Series ForewordAcknowledgementsA Note on Transliteration and TranslationIntroduction1. A Cartesian Backfire? Taha Husayn, The Qur’an, and the Cogito 2. The Return to Philology and the Unmasking of Traditionalism in Amin al- Khuli3. Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah: The Art of Narrative in the Qur’an4. Bint al-Shati: Literary Significations in the Qur’an 5. Reclaiming Qur’anic Exegesis: Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd between Traditionalism and Postsecularism6. On Metaphor: Abu Zayd and the Ideologies of majaz in the Qur’anConclusionBibliographyIndex...
