Qur'anic Studies Today brings together specialists in the field of Islamic studies to provide a range of essays that reflect the depth and breadth of scholarship on the Qur'an. Combining theoretical and methodological clarity with close readings of qur'anic texts, these contributions provide close analysis of specific passages, themes, and issues within the Qur'an, even as they attend to the disciplinary challenges within the field of qur'anic studies today. Chapters are arranged into three parts, treating specific figures appearing in the Qur'an, analysing particular suras, and finally reflecting on the Qur'an and its "others." They explore the internal dimensions and interior chronology of the Qur'an as text, its possible conversations with biblical and non-biblical traditions in Late Antiquity, and its role as scripture in modern exegesis and recitation. Together, they are indispensable for students and scholars who seek an understanding of the Qur'an founded on the most recent scholarly achievements. Offering both a reflection of and a reflection on the discipline of qur'anic studies, the strong, scholarly examinations of the Qur'an in this volume provide a valuable contribution to Islamic and qur'anic studies.

The first volume of a world-renowned scholar's long-awaited Qur'an commentary, now available in English Angelika Neuwirth's six-volume commentary, published originally in Germany, offers a historical and philological analysis of the form, structure, and semantic message of each of the 114 Qur'anic suras. It brings together the fruits of the past hundred years of modern scholarship and provides access to the aesthetic, theological, linguistic, and semantic background required to appreciate the unique novelty, force, and historical position of the Qur'an. Contextualizing the Qur'anic message in the broader world of late antiquity, it bridges the gaps between the inner-Islamic scholarly world and the academy. Skillfully translated by Samuel Wilder, this first volume focuses on the Meccan suras, the earliest and often the most aesthetically striking and compelling part of the corpus of Qur'anic proclamations.

In this book, Angelika Neuwirth provides a new approach to understanding the founding text of Islam. Typical exegesis of the Qur'an treats the text teleologically, as a fait accompli finished text, or as a replica or summary of the Bible in Arabic. Instead Neuwirth approaches the Qur'an as the product of a specific community in the Late Antique Arabian peninsula, one which was exposed to the wider worlds of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, and to the rich intellectual traditions of rabbinic Judaism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. A central goal of the book is to eliminate the notion of the Qur'an as being a-historical. She argues that it is, in fact, highly aware of its place in late antiquity and is capable of yielding valuable historical information. By emphasizing the liturgical function of the Qur'an, Neuwirth allows readers to see the text as an evolving oral tradition within the community before it became collected and codified as a book. This analysis sheds much needed light on the development of the Qur'an's historical, theological, and political outlook. The book's final chapters analyze the relationship of the Qur'an to the Bible, to Arabic poetic traditions, and, more generally, to late antique culture and rhetorical forms. By providing a new introduction to the Qur'an, one that uniquely challenges current ideas about its emergence and development, The Qur'an and Late Antiquity bridges the gap between Eastern and Western approaches to this sacred text.

Qur'anic Studies Today brings together specialists in the field of Islamic studies to provide a range of essays that reflect the depth and breadth of scholarship on the Qur'an. Combining theoretical and methodological clarity with close readings of qur'anic texts, these contributions provide close analysis of specific passages, themes, and issues within the Qur'an, even as they attend to the disciplinary challenges within the field of qur'anic studies today. Chapters are arranged into three parts, treating specific figures appearing in the Qur'an, analysing particular suras, and finally reflecting on the Qur'an and its "others." They explore the internal dimensions and interior chronology of the Qur'an as text, its possible conversations with biblical and non-biblical traditions in Late Antiquity, and its role as scripture in modern exegesis and recitation. Together, they are indispensable for students and scholars who seek an understanding of the Qur'an founded on the most recent scholarly achievements. Offering both a reflection of and a reflection on the discipline of qur'anic studies, the strong, scholarly examinations of the Qur'an in this volume provide a valuable contribution to Islamic and qur'anic studies.

The Qura (TM)an is an orally composed poetical text which Muslimshave always known mainly in the form of oral recitation. Western scholarship however has hardly ever read it as literature, on account of the inaccessibility of its structure,and insteadhas used it mainly to mine theological or legislative statements. Angelika Neuwirth brings order to this supposed chaos by demonstrating meaningful compositional structures for the Makkan suras of the Qura (TM)an. This 2nd edition has been extended to include a new study which examines the suras as pointing to a historical development in the preaching of the Qura (TM)an and the formation of a community.

Arabic Literature: Postmodern Perspectives introduces the work of twenty-nine pivotal authors from the Arab world writing in Arabic, English, French and Hebrew. Organised around the central themes of memory, place and gender, each of which is discussed in an introductory essay, the volume provides a critical framework for Arab writing, locating it alongside contemporary world literature. The contributors maintain that Arabic literature reflects the Western postmodern condition without denying its own traditions. As such, Arabic Literature: Postmodern Perspectives paves the way for an important cultural dialogue between East and West. This collection is ideal for students of Arabic and comparative literature and equally of interest to general readers. Authors covered include Rabih Alameddine, Hoda Barakat, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Mahmoud Darwish, Assia Djebar and Elias Khoury. It provides an extensive list of further reading to complement the work.

Der Koran ist noch immer nicht Teil des europaischen Wissenskanons, obwohl er tief in der biblischen Tradition verwurzelt ist. Er gilt weithin noch als exklusiv islamischer Text. Die kritische Bewertung seiner Beziehung zur Bibel und damit zur europaischen Tradition setzt seine Einbettung in die - auch fur das spatere Europa formative - spatantike Kultur voraus, in die er sich theologisch innovativ einbrachte. Die grossen Fragen der Zeit wurden nicht nur von Rabbinen und Kirchenvatern, sondern auch von der koranischen Gemeinde debattiert. Ihre besonderen Antworten verdienen daher als Beitrage zu einer neuen, sich intensiv in die laufenden Religionsdebatten einbringenden Theologie Beachtung. Die sich dabei abzeichnende Fokussierung des gesprochenen Wortes als der massgeblichen Manifestation Gottes in der Welt kann nicht ausserhalb des besonderen kulturellen Umfelds gesehen werden, in dem lokale Dichtung der arabischen Hochsprache bereits eine besondere Aura verliehen hatte. Der neue Blick auf den Koran erfordert jedoch gleichzeitig eine kritische Neureflektion unserer modernen - nie ganz unpolitischen - Philologien. Der Blick muss frei werden fur die Textpolitik des Koran, die den Prozess der Islamentstehung am ehesten erkennbar macht.

Die Diskussion der Beziehungen zwischen Europa und dem Nahen Osten wird zunehmend von einem Denken in Gegensatzen und mangelnder Kenntnis der historischen und zeitgenossischen Kontexte gepragt. Dabei sind die Geschichte und die Gesellschaften Europas und des Nahen Ostens seit der Antike eng miteinander verflochten. In Europa wie im Nahen Osten sind die Deutungen und Bilder einer geteilten Beziehungsgeschichte und Gegenwart oft von unvereinbar erscheinenden Stereotypen und Zuschreibungen gepragt. Die Voraussetzung fur gegenseitiges Verstehen in von Globalisierungs- und Ubersetzungsprozessen gepragten Gesellschaften ist eine kritische Hinterfragung der scheinbaren Einheitlichkeit, Ursprunglichkeit, Kontinuitat und Unveranderlichkeit von Traditionen, auch der eigenen europaischen. Wissenschaft kann dazu beitragen, durch Bewusstmachung der Analoga und durch Verzicht auf triumphalistische Gesten westlichen und ostlichen Phanomenen den gleichen Rang zuzuweisen, um einen Ausweg aus Polemik und Apologetik zu eroffnen. Der Band versammelt eine Auswahl an Vortragen, die im Rahmen des Jahresthemas 2007/8 der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften stattfanden. Die Wahl des Jahresthemas "Europa im Nahen Osten Der Nahe Osten in Europa" entstand in Verbindung mit dem gleichnamigen Forschungsprogramm, das von der Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, dem Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin und der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften gemeinsam getragen wird. Die Beitrage dieses Bandes hinterfragen gangige Grenzziehungen, Ursprungserzahlungen, Identitatsvorstellungen und werfen Schlaglichter auf eine europaisch-nahostliche Beziehungsgeschichte. Mit Beitragen von Aziz Al-Azmeh, Michael Borgolte, Vera von Falkenhausen, Joschka Fischer, Malte Fuhrmann, Kader Konuk, Gudrun Kramer, Wolf Lepenies, Christoph Markschies, Christian Meier, Angelika Neuwirth, Heinz Schilling, Stephan Johannes Seidlmayer, Viola Shafik, El Hassan bin Talal, Maria Todorova, Stefan Wild und Zafer Yenal."

Although recent scholarship has increasingly situated the Qur'an in the historical context of Late Antiquity, such a perspective is only rarely accompanied by the kind of microstructural literary analysis routinely applied to the Bible. The present volume seeks to redress this lack of contact between literary and historical studies. Contributions to the first part of the volume address various general aspects of the Qur'an's political, economic, linguistic, and cultural context, while the second part contains a number of close readings of specific Qur'anic passages in the light of Judeo-Christian tradition and ancient Arabic poetry, as well as discussions of the Qur'an's internal chronology and transmission history. Throughout, special emphasis is given to methodological questions.

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.