History of the Qur'an (Approaches and Explorations) - 9781847742346

The Qur’ān is the sacred religious book of Muslims around the world. Yet its history, from its inception in seventh-century Arabia to its transmission in the modern world, remains understudied. The twelve chapters in this book address this lacuna by examining multifaceted stages in the Qur’ān’s history and transmission through a broad range of methodological and theoretical approaches. The volume examines the earliest material evidence of the Qur’ān through its manuscript tradition and explores their content and form. This includes a focus on the Qur’ān’s unique orthography and insights into the Sanaa manuscripts. Additionally, this work provides new insights by broaching upon critical moments in the Qur’ān’s history, such as the codification of Abu Bakr. A crucial component of the book deals with approaches to the variant readings of the Qur’ān, understood as being sanctioned through narrations on the aḥruf. It explores fresh insights into how Muslim scholars theorised such variances and the way they related them to the qira’āt, including how they approached the variant codices of prominent companions. Furthermore, this work explores understudied non-Qur’ānic transmissions of the Qur’ān alongside the historical development of Qur’ān translations. This volume advances the field of Qur’ānic studies and Qur’ānic history.