Podcast episode

March 14, 2025

Episode 203: Introducing the Qur’ān, Part I: Revelation, Text, and History

In this episode, Part I of our introduction to the Qur’ān, we introduce some useful terms of art and historical parameters for discussing the holy text of Islām, we give a very basic summary the traditional Islamic account of the Qur’ān‘s origin, and also discuss the modern, scholarly approach to the Qur’ān through text-critical analysis. It emerges that the Qur’ān is not a book, exactly.

This is difficult, delicate, and sublime territory to cover; many thanks to Dr Michæl Noble, whose knowledge saved yours truly from many egregious errors, and hugely enriched this episode. The errors which remain are, of course, mine and not his.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Primary:

Qur’ān:

References to ‘the book’ referring (or quasi-referring) to the qur’ān itself: there are too many references to a ‘book’ or ‘books’ or ‘the book’ in the qur’ān to list. Try checking out this article, which breaks down some theme-clusters in a clear way: Danielle Madigan. Book. Encyclopædia of the Qur’an, ed. J.D. McAuliffe, 6 vols (Leiden: Brill 2001-2006).

The ‘guarded tablet’ (al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ): Q 85:22; cf. 22: 70 and 57: 22, where references to Allah keeping a record of events have been taken in exegesis to refer to the Tablet.

God is closer to you than your jugular vein: Q 50:20.

‘Recite, in the name of your lord who created man from a clot of clay …’: 6:1-2.

Secondary:

The Cairo edition (a.k.a. the Amiri Mus’haf, the King Fu’ād Quran or the Azhar Quran): see M. W. Albin, “Printing of the Qurʾān,” in Encyclopædia of the Qur’ān, ed. J.D. McAuliffe, 6 vols (Leiden: Brill 2001-2006), vol. IV, pp. 264–76, or Rezvan, Efim (2020). A History of Printed Editions of the Qur’a. In Mustafa Akram Ali, Shah; Abdel Haleem, Muhammad (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Qur’anic Studies. Oxford: The University Press,

Gustav Leberecht Flügel. Corani textus arabicus. Tauchnitz, Leipzig, 1834.

John E. Wansbrough. Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation. The University Press, Oxford, 1977.

Recommended Reading:

SHWEP Episode 203 Recommended Reading

 

Themes

Islam, Qur'ān