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This volume showcases a wide range of contemporary approaches to the identification of literary structures within Qur'anic surahs. Recent academic studies of the Qur'an have taken an increasing interest in the concept of the surah as a unity and, with it, the division of complete surahs into consecutive sections or parts.
Part One presents a series of case studies focussing on individual Qur'anic surahs. Nevin Reda analyzes the structure of S¿rat ¿l ¿Imr¿n (Q 3), Holger Zellentin looks at competing structures within S¿rat al-¿Alaq (Q 96), and A.H. Mathias Zahniser provides an exploration of the ring structures that open S¿rat Maryam (Q 19). Part Two then focusses on three discrete aspects of the text. Nora K. Schmid assesses the changing structural function of oaths, Marianna Klar evaluates how rhythm, rhyme, and morphological parallelisms combine in order to produce texture and cohesion, while Salwa El-Awa considers the structural impact of connectives and other discourse markers with specific reference to S¿rat ¿¿h¿ (Q 20). The final section of the volume juxtaposes contrasting attitudes to the discernment of diachronic seams. Devin Stewart examines surah-medial oracular oaths, Muhammad Abdel Haleem questions a range of instances where suggestions of disjointedness have historically been raised, and Nicolai Sinai explores the presence of redactional layers within S¿rat al-Nis¿¿ (Q 4) and S¿rat al-M¿¿idah (Q 5).
Bringing a combination of different approaches to Qur'an structure into a single book, written by well-established and emerging voices in Qur'anic studies, the work will be an invaluable resource to academics researching Islam, religious studies, and languages and literatures in general.
Chapters 3 and 6 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.
List of contents
1. Structural Dividers in the Qur’an: Preliminary Remarks and Suggestions for Supplementary Reading Marianna Klar Part I. Competing Structures: Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, Sūrat al-ʿAlaq, and Sūrat Maryam 2. The Poetics of Sūrat Āl ʿImrān’s Narrative Structure (Q 3) Nevin Reda 3. Beyond Ring Composition: A Comparison of Formal Features in Sūrat al-ʿAlaq (Q 96) and Bavli Bava Batra 8a Holger Zellentin 4. The Miraculous Birth Stories in the Interpretation of Sūrat Maryam (Q 19): An Exercise in a Discourse Grammar of the Qur’an A.H. Mathias Zahniser Part II. Small-Scale Structural Markers and Connectives 5. Oaths in the Qur’an: A Structural Marker Under the Impact of Knowledge Change Nora K. Schmid 6. A Preliminary Catalogue of Qur’anic Sajʿ Techniques: Beat Patterning and Parallelism, and Rhyme Marianna Klar 7. Discourse Markers and the Structure of Intertextual Relations in Medium-Length Qur’anic Surahs: The Case of Sūrat Ṭāhā (Q 20) Salwa El-Awa Part III. The Question of Composite Surahs 7. Introductory Oaths and the Question of Composite Surahs Devin J. Stewart 8. Structural Coherence in the Qur’an: How to See the Connections Muhammad Abdel Haleem 9. Towards a Redactional History of the Medinan Qur’an: A Case Study of Sūrat al-Nisāʾ (Q 4) and Sūrat al-Māʾidah (Q 5) Nicolai Sinai
About the author
Marianna Klar is currently Post-Doctoral Researcher at Oxford University, Senior Research Associate at Pembroke College, Oxford, and Research Associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS, University of London. Her publications focus on the Qur’an’s structure, its narratives, and its literary context. She has also worked extensively on tales of the prophets within the medieval Islamic historiographical tradition and on Qur’anic exegesis.
Summary
This volume showcases a wide range of contemporary approaches to the identification of literary structures within Qur’anic surahs. Recent academic studies of the Qur’an have taken an increasing interest in the concept of the surah as a unity and, with it, the division of complete surahs into consecutive sections or parts.
