Between Dogmatism and Speculation: A Critical Assessment of Qirā'āt Studies
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Jun 8, 2020
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Abstract
Purpose: This paper analyzes the current state of Western research on the variant readings of the Qur’ān and how it differs from traditional Muslim scholarship, through the lens of objectivity and bias.
Methodology: Descriptive and analytical. After a brief survey of the major views in the field, I identify three major sources of contention between the two camps: the problem of sources, disagreements concerning the history of the Arabic language, and disputes over the value of the isnād (chain of transmission) as an indicator of historical reliability. I then discuss how to use the concept of “objectivity as responsibility” (as discussed by Heldke and Kellert) to defuse the bias paradox.
Findings: Each camp’s premises and goals impact their research, and each camp may perceive the other as biased. I chart out five suggestions for measures that the two camps could adopt to facilitate a more productive and objective way forward.
Originality: The article's originality lies in (I) its breadth, including incorporation of recent scholarship, (II) its depth: it pinpoint assumptions and disagreements that underly the rift, (III) analysis of the rift through a philosophical paradigm.
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Keywords
DogmatismQirā'āt Studiesisnād (chain of transmission)Western researchmusḥafs
References
References
• Al-Dānī, Abū ˁAmr; al-Taysīr fī al-Qirā’āt al-Sa ˁ, ed. Otto Pretzl, (in Arabic),(Istanbul: Maṭbaˁat al-Dawlah, 1930).
• Al-Jallad, Ahmad. “Was it sūrat al-baqárah? Evidence for Antepenultimate Stress in the Quranic Consonantal Text and its Relevance for صلوه Type Nouns.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 167.1 (2017): 81-90.
• al-Sharkawi, Muhammad, “Arabic language: pre-classical”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson. Brill, 2016.
• Berg, Herbert. “Competing Paradigms in the Study of Islamic Origins: Qur’ān 15: 89–91 and the Value of Isnāds.” Method and Theory in the Study of Islamic Origins: 259-290.
• Bellamy, J.A. “The mysterious letters of the Qur’an: Old abbreviations of the Basmalah,” JAOS 93, 1973, 267–85.
• -----. “Al-Raqim or al-Ruqud?: A note on Surah 18:9,” JAOS 111, 1991, 115–7.
• -----. “Fa-Ummuhu Hawiyah: A note on Surah 101:9,” JAOS 112, 1992, 485–7.
• -----. “Some proposed emendations to the text of the Koran;” JAOS 113, 1993, 562-573.
• -----. “More proposed emendations to the Text of the Koran,” JAOS 116, 1996, 196–204.
• -----. “Textual criticism of the Koran (Presidential Address),” JAOS 121, 2001, 1–6.
• -----. “A further note on ‘Isa,” JAOS 122, 2002, 587–8.
• Burton, John. “The Collection of the Qur'ān,” (1977).
• Diem, Werner. “Some glimpses at the rise and early development of the Arabic orthography.” Orientalia 45 (1976): 251-261.
• -----. “Untersuchungen zur frühen Geschichte der arabischen Orthographie I. Die Schreibung der Vokale.” Orientalia 48.2 (1979): 207-257.
• Gilliot, Claude. “Reconsidering the Authorship of the Qur'ān: Is the Qur’an partly the fruit of a progressive and collective work?.” The Qur’an in Its Historical Context (2007): 88-108.
• Goldziher, Ignác. Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung: an der Universität Upsala gehaltene Olaus-Petri-Vorlesungen. No. 6. Brill, 1920.
• -----. Schools of Koranic commentators. Harrassowitz in Kommission, 2006.
• Heikes, Deborah K. “The bias paradox: why it's not just for feminists anymore.” Synthese 138.3 (2004): 315-335.
• Heldke, Lisa M., and Stephen H. Kellert. “Objectivity as responsibility.” Metaphilosophy 26.4 (1995): 360-378.
• Ibn al-Jazarī, Muḥammad. Al-Nashr fi al-Qirā’āt al-ˁAshr, (in Arabic),(Miṣr : al-Maktabah al-Tijārīyah al-Kubrā, s.d.).
• Ibn Mujāhid, Abū Bakr. Al-Sabʻah, ed. Shawqī Ḍayf, (in Arabic), (Miṣr, Dār al-Maˁārif, 1972).
• Ibn al-Nadim, Al-Fihrist, (in Arabic), (Beirut: Maktabat Khayyaṭ, 1966).
• Jaˁfariyān, Rasūl. Ukdhubat Taḥrīf al-Qur’ān a bayn al-Shīˁa wal-Sunna, (in Arabic), ( [Iran] : Mumaththiliyat al-Imām al-Qaid al-Sayyid al-Khamanai fi al-Hajj, 1413/1992).
• Jeffery, Arthur, ed., Materials for the History of the Text of the Qurʾān: The Old Codices. EJ Brill, 1937.
• Knauf, Ernst Axel. “Arabo-Aramaic And ‘Arabiyya: From Ancient Arabic To Early Standard Arabic, 200 Ce–600 Ce.” The Qurʾān in Context. Brill, 2009.
• Laher, Suheil. Twisted Threads: Genesis, Development and Application of the Term and Concept of Tawātur in Islamic Thought, Diss Harvard University, 2014.
• Luxenberg, Christoph. The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: a Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran. Verlag Hans Schiler, 2007.
• Macdonald Michael C.A. “Reflections on the linguistic map of pre‐Islamic Arabia.” Arabian archaeology and epigraphy 11.1 (2000): 28-79.
• Madigan, Daniel. The Qur’ān’s Self-Image: Writing and Authority in Islam’s Scripture (Princeton, Princeton University Press, c2001).
• Minnema, Anthony H. “Algazel Latinus: The Audience of the Summa theoricae philosophiae, 1150–1600.” Traditio 69 (2014): 153-215.
• Motzki, Harald. “The Collection of the Qur’ān. A Reconsideration of Western Views in Light of Recent Methodological Developments,” Der Islam 78.1 (2001): 1-34.
• Najjār, Abd al-Ḥalīm. Madhāhib al-Tafsīr al-Islāmī, (in Arabic), (Cairo: Khānjī, 1955/1374).
• Nasser, Shady Hekmat. Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qur’ān: The problem of tawatur and the emergence of Shawadhdh, Diss Harvard University, 2011.
• Nehmé, Laila. “A glimpse of the development of the Nabataean script into Arabic based on old and new epigraphic material.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. Archaeopress, 2010.
• Neuwirth, Angelika. “Orientalism in Oriental Studies? Qur'ānic Studies as a Case in Point,” Journal of Qur'ānic Studies 9:2 (2007), 115-127.
• Nöldeke, Theodor, et al. Ṭhe History of the Qurʾān. (Brill, 2013).
• Rabin, Chaim. “The beginnings of classical Arabic.” Studia islamica 4 (1955): 19-37.
• Retsö, Jan. “Arabs and Arabic in the Age of the Prophet.” The Qurʾān in Context. Brill, 2009
• Sadeghi, Behnam, and Uwe Bergmann. “The Codex of a Companion of the Prophet and the Qur'ān of the Prophet.” Arabica 57.4 (2010): 343-436.
• Said, Edward. “Orientalism: Western representations of the Orient.” New York: Pantheon (1978).
• Shāhīn, ʻAbd al-Ṣabūr Tārīkh al-Qur'ān, (in Arabic), (Cairo: Dār al-Qalam, 1966).
• Schoeler, Gregory, The Genesis of Literature in Islam, 32-33. For more on orality theory, see Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy (London; New York : Routledge, 2002).
• Ṭūfī, Sulaymān. Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar al-Rawḍah, ed. ˁAbd Allāh ibn ˁAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, (in Arabic), (Beirut : Muʼassasat al-Risālah, 1987-1989).
• W.C. Smith, “Scripture as Form and Concept,” Rethinking Scripture, ed. Miriam Levering, (New York:SUNY, 1988).
• Stewart, Devin J. “Notes on medieval and modern emendations of the Qur ‘ān.” The Qur‘ān in its Historical Context. London (2008): 225-248.
• Van Putten, Marijn. “The development of the triphthongs in Qur'ānic and Classical Arabic.” Arabian Epigraphic Notes: 47.
• van Putten, Marijn, and Stokes, Phillip W. “Case in the Qurˀānic Consonantal Text.” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 108 (2018): 143-179.
• Varisco, Daniel Martin. “Muhammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet by David S. Powers” Review of Middle East Studies, vol. 44, no. 1, 2010, pp. 117–118. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41970350.
• -----. Reading Orientalism: Said and the unsaid. University of Washington Press, 2017.
• Vollers, Karl, Volkssprache und Schriftsprache im alten Arabien, (Walter de Gruyter, 1906).
• Wald Abbāh, Muḥammad al-Mukhtār. Tārīkh al-Qirā'āt fī al-Mashriq wal-Maghrib, (in Arabic), (Salā, Morocco: al-Mu'assasah al-Islāmiyyah lil-Tarbiyah wal-ʻUlūm wal-Thaqāfah, 2001/1422).
• Wild, Stefan. “Lost in philology? The virgins of paradise and the Luxenberg hypothesis.” The Qurʾān in context. Brill, 2009. 625-648.
• Al-Dānī, Abū ˁAmr; al-Taysīr fī al-Qirā’āt al-Sa ˁ, ed. Otto Pretzl, (in Arabic),(Istanbul: Maṭbaˁat al-Dawlah, 1930).
• Al-Jallad, Ahmad. “Was it sūrat al-baqárah? Evidence for Antepenultimate Stress in the Quranic Consonantal Text and its Relevance for صلوه Type Nouns.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 167.1 (2017): 81-90.
• al-Sharkawi, Muhammad, “Arabic language: pre-classical”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson. Brill, 2016.
• Berg, Herbert. “Competing Paradigms in the Study of Islamic Origins: Qur’ān 15: 89–91 and the Value of Isnāds.” Method and Theory in the Study of Islamic Origins: 259-290.
• Bellamy, J.A. “The mysterious letters of the Qur’an: Old abbreviations of the Basmalah,” JAOS 93, 1973, 267–85.
• -----. “Al-Raqim or al-Ruqud?: A note on Surah 18:9,” JAOS 111, 1991, 115–7.
• -----. “Fa-Ummuhu Hawiyah: A note on Surah 101:9,” JAOS 112, 1992, 485–7.
• -----. “Some proposed emendations to the text of the Koran;” JAOS 113, 1993, 562-573.
• -----. “More proposed emendations to the Text of the Koran,” JAOS 116, 1996, 196–204.
• -----. “Textual criticism of the Koran (Presidential Address),” JAOS 121, 2001, 1–6.
• -----. “A further note on ‘Isa,” JAOS 122, 2002, 587–8.
• Burton, John. “The Collection of the Qur'ān,” (1977).
• Diem, Werner. “Some glimpses at the rise and early development of the Arabic orthography.” Orientalia 45 (1976): 251-261.
• -----. “Untersuchungen zur frühen Geschichte der arabischen Orthographie I. Die Schreibung der Vokale.” Orientalia 48.2 (1979): 207-257.
• Gilliot, Claude. “Reconsidering the Authorship of the Qur'ān: Is the Qur’an partly the fruit of a progressive and collective work?.” The Qur’an in Its Historical Context (2007): 88-108.
• Goldziher, Ignác. Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung: an der Universität Upsala gehaltene Olaus-Petri-Vorlesungen. No. 6. Brill, 1920.
• -----. Schools of Koranic commentators. Harrassowitz in Kommission, 2006.
• Heikes, Deborah K. “The bias paradox: why it's not just for feminists anymore.” Synthese 138.3 (2004): 315-335.
• Heldke, Lisa M., and Stephen H. Kellert. “Objectivity as responsibility.” Metaphilosophy 26.4 (1995): 360-378.
• Ibn al-Jazarī, Muḥammad. Al-Nashr fi al-Qirā’āt al-ˁAshr, (in Arabic),(Miṣr : al-Maktabah al-Tijārīyah al-Kubrā, s.d.).
• Ibn Mujāhid, Abū Bakr. Al-Sabʻah, ed. Shawqī Ḍayf, (in Arabic), (Miṣr, Dār al-Maˁārif, 1972).
• Ibn al-Nadim, Al-Fihrist, (in Arabic), (Beirut: Maktabat Khayyaṭ, 1966).
• Jaˁfariyān, Rasūl. Ukdhubat Taḥrīf al-Qur’ān a bayn al-Shīˁa wal-Sunna, (in Arabic), ( [Iran] : Mumaththiliyat al-Imām al-Qaid al-Sayyid al-Khamanai fi al-Hajj, 1413/1992).
• Jeffery, Arthur, ed., Materials for the History of the Text of the Qurʾān: The Old Codices. EJ Brill, 1937.
• Knauf, Ernst Axel. “Arabo-Aramaic And ‘Arabiyya: From Ancient Arabic To Early Standard Arabic, 200 Ce–600 Ce.” The Qurʾān in Context. Brill, 2009.
• Laher, Suheil. Twisted Threads: Genesis, Development and Application of the Term and Concept of Tawātur in Islamic Thought, Diss Harvard University, 2014.
• Luxenberg, Christoph. The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: a Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran. Verlag Hans Schiler, 2007.
• Macdonald Michael C.A. “Reflections on the linguistic map of pre‐Islamic Arabia.” Arabian archaeology and epigraphy 11.1 (2000): 28-79.
• Madigan, Daniel. The Qur’ān’s Self-Image: Writing and Authority in Islam’s Scripture (Princeton, Princeton University Press, c2001).
• Minnema, Anthony H. “Algazel Latinus: The Audience of the Summa theoricae philosophiae, 1150–1600.” Traditio 69 (2014): 153-215.
• Motzki, Harald. “The Collection of the Qur’ān. A Reconsideration of Western Views in Light of Recent Methodological Developments,” Der Islam 78.1 (2001): 1-34.
• Najjār, Abd al-Ḥalīm. Madhāhib al-Tafsīr al-Islāmī, (in Arabic), (Cairo: Khānjī, 1955/1374).
• Nasser, Shady Hekmat. Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qur’ān: The problem of tawatur and the emergence of Shawadhdh, Diss Harvard University, 2011.
• Nehmé, Laila. “A glimpse of the development of the Nabataean script into Arabic based on old and new epigraphic material.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. Archaeopress, 2010.
• Neuwirth, Angelika. “Orientalism in Oriental Studies? Qur'ānic Studies as a Case in Point,” Journal of Qur'ānic Studies 9:2 (2007), 115-127.
• Nöldeke, Theodor, et al. Ṭhe History of the Qurʾān. (Brill, 2013).
• Rabin, Chaim. “The beginnings of classical Arabic.” Studia islamica 4 (1955): 19-37.
• Retsö, Jan. “Arabs and Arabic in the Age of the Prophet.” The Qurʾān in Context. Brill, 2009
• Sadeghi, Behnam, and Uwe Bergmann. “The Codex of a Companion of the Prophet and the Qur'ān of the Prophet.” Arabica 57.4 (2010): 343-436.
• Said, Edward. “Orientalism: Western representations of the Orient.” New York: Pantheon (1978).
• Shāhīn, ʻAbd al-Ṣabūr Tārīkh al-Qur'ān, (in Arabic), (Cairo: Dār al-Qalam, 1966).
• Schoeler, Gregory, The Genesis of Literature in Islam, 32-33. For more on orality theory, see Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy (London; New York : Routledge, 2002).
• Ṭūfī, Sulaymān. Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar al-Rawḍah, ed. ˁAbd Allāh ibn ˁAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, (in Arabic), (Beirut : Muʼassasat al-Risālah, 1987-1989).
• W.C. Smith, “Scripture as Form and Concept,” Rethinking Scripture, ed. Miriam Levering, (New York:SUNY, 1988).
• Stewart, Devin J. “Notes on medieval and modern emendations of the Qur ‘ān.” The Qur‘ān in its Historical Context. London (2008): 225-248.
• Van Putten, Marijn. “The development of the triphthongs in Qur'ānic and Classical Arabic.” Arabian Epigraphic Notes: 47.
• van Putten, Marijn, and Stokes, Phillip W. “Case in the Qurˀānic Consonantal Text.” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 108 (2018): 143-179.
• Varisco, Daniel Martin. “Muhammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet by David S. Powers” Review of Middle East Studies, vol. 44, no. 1, 2010, pp. 117–118. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41970350.
• -----. Reading Orientalism: Said and the unsaid. University of Washington Press, 2017.
• Vollers, Karl, Volkssprache und Schriftsprache im alten Arabien, (Walter de Gruyter, 1906).
• Wald Abbāh, Muḥammad al-Mukhtār. Tārīkh al-Qirā'āt fī al-Mashriq wal-Maghrib, (in Arabic), (Salā, Morocco: al-Mu'assasah al-Islāmiyyah lil-Tarbiyah wal-ʻUlūm wal-Thaqāfah, 2001/1422).
• Wild, Stefan. “Lost in philology? The virgins of paradise and the Luxenberg hypothesis.” The Qurʾān in context. Brill, 2009. 625-648.
How to Cite
Laher, Suheil. 2020. “Between Dogmatism and Speculation: A Critical Assessment of Qirā’āt Studies”. Journal of College of Sharia and Islamic Studies 38 (1):176-90. https://doi.org/10.29117/jcsis.2020.0262.
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Articles in English