Friday, April 15, 2016

A Bibliography of Studies in English on the Coherence and Structure of the Qur'an's Suras

Cross posted from: http://blog.bayyinah.com/nazm-bibliography

The topic of the Qur'an's naẓm, "arrangement" or "composition," has achieved significant interest in contemporary study of the scripture, giving rise to a number of extremely interesting and insightful studies of the coherence and structure of the Qur'anic suras.  Here I would like to provide a bibliography of such studies in English for interested readers and students of the Qur'an.  This post can be continually updated as further studies in this field are published.

First, however, I would like to give mention of two contemporary pioneering works outside of the English language.  First, Amin Ahsan Islahi has written a commentary of the entire Qur’an in Urdu focused on the study of coherence, titled Tadabbur-i Qur’ān (Pondering the Qur’an).  His commentary of suras 32-114 have been translated into English and may be found on http://www.tadabbur-i-quran.org/text-of-tadabbur-i-quran/.  For studies of this commentary in English, see Mustansir Mir, Coherence in the Qur'an (Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1986), as well as Neal Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an: A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown UP, 2003), pp. 271-283.

Second, the formal structure of all of the Meccan suras, and especially the early Meccan suras, has been studied by Angelika Neuwirth, Studien Zur Komposition Der Mekkanischen Suren (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1981). Although this work has yet to be translated into English, her findings are refined by Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an: A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text), pp. 97-161.  Neuwirth’s structural or thematic divisions of the Meccan suras are also outlined in an appendix by Carl Ernst, How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide, With Select Translations (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), pp. 213-222.  

What follows is a bibliography of coherence-based studies of particular suras in English.

MECCAN SURAS

Sura 1: The Opening (al-Fātiḥa)
  • Michel Cuypers, “Semitic Rhetoric as a Key to the Question of the Naẓm of the Qur’anic Text” Coherence in the Qur’an 13 no. 1 (2011): 13-15.
  • Raymond Farrin, Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation: A Study of Symmetry and Coherence in Islam’s Holy Text, Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 2014, 1-7.
Sura 12: Joseph (Yusuf)
  • Mustansir Mir, “The Qur’anic Story Of Joseph: Plot, Themes, And Characters,” Muslim World1 (1986): 1-3, points out the chiastic structure of the sura.
  • Michel Cuypers, “Semitic Rhetoric,” 15-19, offers a deeper and more refined analysis of the sura as a ring composition.
Sura 15: al-Ḥijr
  • Ernst, 111-120, underscores the structure of the sura and its anchors with earlier suras.
Sura 17: The Night Journey (al-Isrā’)
  • Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an, 188-195.
Sura 23: The Believers (al-Mu’minūn)
  • Neal Robinson, “The Structure and Interpretation of Sūrat al-Mu’minūn,” Journal of Qur’anic Studies 2, no. 1 (2000): 89-106.
Sura 51: The Scatterers (adh-Dhāriyāt)
  • Mir, Coherence in the Qur’an, 39-41, summarizes Hamid al-Din Farahi’s analysis of the sura.
  • Ernst, 78, outlines the structure and balance of the sura.
Sura 53: The Star (an-Najm)
  • Ernst, 98-104, provides some observations on the structure and balance of the sura.
Suras 54: The Moon (al-Qamar) and 55: The All-Merciful (ar-Raḥmān) (as a sura pair)
  • Farrin, Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation, 63-69.
Sura 55: The All-Merciful (ar-Raḥmān) – also 54 and 56
  • Muhammad Abdel Haleem, “Context and Internal Relationships: Keys to Qur’anic Exegesis” Approaches to the Qur’an, eds. G. R. Hawting and Abdul-Kader A. Shareef (London: Routledge, 1993), 71-98; also presented in Muhammad Abdel Haleem, Understanding the Qur’an: Themes and Styles, 3rd ed. (London: I.B. Taurus, 2011), 161-186.
Sura 75: The Resurrection (al-Qiyama)
  • Neal Robinson, “The Qur’ān as the Word of God” in Heaven and Earth: Essex Essays in Theology and Ethics, ed. Andrew Linzey and Peter J. Wexler (Worthing: Churchman, 1986), 38-54.
  • Salwa M.S. El-Awa, Textual Relations in the Qur’ān: Relevance, Coherence, and Structure (Routledge: New York, 2006), 101-159.
Sura 78: The News (an-Naba’)
  • Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an, 167-176.
Sura 79: The Pullers (an-Nāzi‘āt)
  • Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an, 177-188.
Sura 101: The Crashing Blow (al-Qāri‘a)
  • Cuypers, “Semitic Rhetoric,” 7-9.

MEDINAN SURAS

Sura 2: The Cow (al-Baqara)
  • Mustansir Mir, “The Sūra as a Unity: A Twentieth Century Development in Qur’an Exegesis” in Approaches to the Qur’an, eds. G. R. Hawting and Abdul-Kader A. Shareef, eds. (London: Routledge, 1993), 211–24; reprinted in Colin Turner, ed., The Koran: Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies (4 vols. London: Routledge, 2004), vol. 4, 198–209.
  • Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an, 201-223.
  • H. Mathias Zahniser, “Major Transitions and Thematic Borders in Two Long Sūras: al-Baqara and al-Nisā’” in Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’an, ed. Issa J. Boulatta (Richmond: Curzon, 2000), 26–55.
  • David E. Smith, “The Structure of al-Baqarah,” Muslim World 91 (2001): 121–36.
  • Raymond Farrin, “Surat al-Baqara: A Structural Analysis,” Muslim World1 (2010): 17-32.
  • Farrin, Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation, 9-21.
  • Nevin Rida El-Tehry, Textual Integrity and Coherence in the Qur’an: Repetition and Narrative Structure in Surat al-Baqara (PhD diss., University of Toronto, Toronto, 2010).
Sura 3: The House of ‘Imrān (Āl ‘Imrān)
  • Neal Robinson, “Surat Al ‘Imran and Those with the Greatest Claim to Abraham,” Journal of Qur'anic Studies 6, no. 2 (2004): 1-21.
  • Neal Robinson, “The Dynamics of Surah Āl ‘Imrān” Pak Tae-Shik, Saramui Jonggyo, Jonggyoui Saram (Seoul: Baobooks, 2008), 425-486.
  • Farrin, Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation, 24-32.
  • Bilal Gökkir, “Form and Structure of Sura Maryam—A Study from Unity of Sura Perspective,” Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 16, no. 1 (2006): 1-16.
Sura 4: Women (an-Nisā’)
  • Mustansir Mir, Coherence in the Qur’an (Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1986), 46-62, provides a summary and analysis of Islahi’s study of the structure and coherence of the sura.
  • A. H. Mathias Zahniser, “Major Transitions and Thematic Borders in Two Long Sūras: al-Baqara and al-Nisā” in Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’an, ed. Issa J. Boulatta (Richmond: Curzon, 2000), 26–55.
  • A. H. Mathias Zahniser, “Sura as Guidance and Exhortation: The Composition of Surat al-Nisa” in Humanism, Culture, and Language in the Near East: Studies in Honor of Georg Krotkoff, ed. Asma Afsaruddin and A.H. Mathias Zahnisr (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 71-86.
Sura 5: The Dining Table (al-Mā‘ida)
  • Neal Robinson, “Hands Outstretched: Towards a Re-Reading of Surat al-Mā’ida” Coherence in the Qur’an 3, no. 1 (2001): 1-19.
  • Michel Cuypers, The Banquet: A Reading of the Fifth Sura of the Qur’an, trans. Patricia Kelly (Miami: Convivium Press, 2009); cf. Cuypers, “Semitic Rhetoric,” 9-13.
Sura 33: The Confederations (al-Aḥzāb)
  • El-Awa, Textual Relations in the Qur’ān, 45-100.
Sura 60: She Who is to Be Examined (al-Mumtaḥana)
  • Ernst, 163-166, analyzes the sura as a ring composition.
Suras 113: Daybreak (al-Falaq) and 114: Mankind (an-Nās) as a sura pair

  • Farrin, Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation, 22-24.

9 comments:

  1. Great stuff mashaAllah. I think some material on theory wouldn't look bad in this post either- e.g. Cuypers' The Composition of the Qur'an, e.g. the opening two chapters of Salwa el-Awa's thesis, the relevant chapter from Blackwell's Companion to the Qur'an (both of these last two suggestions present very unique perspectives). Also, http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/jqs.2015.0194 this one was brought to mind as well, if for anything but its unique yet conciliatory approach to Baqara.

    I also think people will be interested in the history of coherence studies as well- El-Awa and Nevin Rada both deal with the issue ably in the literature review sections of their theses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The first chapter on coherence in the Divine Speech book will have the history and a little bit of theory.

      Good recommendations. I will incorporate them insha'allah.

      Delete
  2. As salamu alaykum, brother. I have a very plaguing and even doubt-provoking question bugging me since recently.

    That's about a quite strange similarity between the Syriac Gospel of Jesus' Infancy and the Quranic account. Yes, I've fortunately learned to get easily along with similarities between some initially Biblical narratives like that of the Qur'anic "... nor will they enter the Garden, until the camel can pass through the eye of a needle". It's conceivable that the similarity here is well explained by the fact from our Aqeedah that all Sacred Scriptures were preserved by Allah before the creation of this World, so the language there i.e. expressions used must recieve somewhat similar appearance in the "earthly" versions of the text, adding that sometimes the once divine part of the Scripture can be distorted.

    But here we're dealing with something negatively untypical. After looking at the given Gospel:

    "He has said that Jesus spoke, and, indeed, when He was lying in His cradle said to Mary His mother: I am Jesus, the Son of God, the Logos, whom thou hast brought forth, as the Angel Gabriel announced to thee; and my Father has sent me for the salvation of the world."

    And then the Qur'an:

    "But she pointed to the babe. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?" He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet; And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live; (He) hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable; So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again)"! Such (was) Jesus the son of Mary: (it is) a statement of truth, about which they (vainly) dispute."

    ... the following question arises. How could an evidently forged and man-written passage (dated to the 6-th century and based on plain oral fiction from centuries before) suddenly come up in the same wording in the Quran?

    Now let's look for the origins of the quote in question. Look what Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_Infancy_Gospel states about the contents of the Syriac gospel:

    "It consists of three parts:

    1. The birth of Jesus - based on the Protevangelium of James
    2. Miracles during the Flight into Egypt - seemingly based on nothing more than local traditions
    3. The miracles of Jesus as a boy - based on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas"

    So we learn, that the needed story is "based on the Ev.of James", i.e. it has it's innovative features to some extent and for some not, so the primal motives should be traced back to a certain Gospel of James of the late 2-nd century.

    Now, if we go to the contents of Gospel of James, we see no trace of this particular event of speaking in the cradle:

    "The Gospel of James is in three equal parts, of eight chapters each:

    1. the first contains the story of the unique birth of Mary to Anna and her childhood and dedication to the temple, ===
    2. the second starts when she is 12 years old, and through the direction of an angel, Saint Joseph is selected to become her husband. ===
    3. the third relates the Nativity of Jesus, with the visit of midwives, hiding of Jesus from Herod the Great in a feeding trough and the parallel hiding in the hills of John the Baptist and his mother (Elizabeth) from Herod Antipas. === " , for the full description see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_James

    It can unfortunately leave us with a conclusion that the story mentioned in the Qur'an about Jesus is made up gradually over time with it's culminative point at 6-th century when the Syriac Gospel was invented.


    ReplyDelete
  3. Not only the internal similarity of contents (exactly the same miracles are displayed), and the external similarity of phrasing is highly suspicious here, but also mention the well-known scholarly consensus that infancy gospels writings generally were late inventions to satisfy the eager for peoples' curiosity about the early part of Jesus' life.

    Yet I've seen almost only one answer given by Shabir Ally, who unpersuasively decided to put off with something like this: "still you cannot exclude that this story was present and circulating by the time of Jesus' as well". It' fine, but it conveniently bypasses the very aforementioned source problem, leaving it out of the point and contributing basically nothing to it's solution.

    Dear brother, I hope you reply to this contention extensively and most properly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wa `alaykum us-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Yes, I am aware of everything you mentioned. Drop me an email and we can discuss it in more detail, insha'allah: msharif124@gmail.com.

      Delete
  4. As salamu alaykum. Hopefully, you're doing great at this blessed month! I wonder, do you access the stated books in Texas or order them online from certain shops? I thought I could find many needed items at Amazon and Ebay, and cumulatively the range for islamic studies they provide is indeed good, but not enough.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wa `alaykum us-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Thanks! I'm doing well, alhamdulillah. I pray you are as well.

      For books, I love pdfs so I first check http://gen.lib.rus.ec/ and http://bookzz.org/. If I need to buy a hard copy, then I usually use Amazon.

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete