Despite significant progress in the scholarly understanding of the Qur’an, contemporary scholarship is yet to produce a detailed historically oriented commentary on the entire Qur’anic corpus. Arguably the greatest challenges to this endeavour are posed by the long Medinan surahs found at the beginning of the corpus (Surahs 2–5), which constitute touchstones for the feasibility of any commentarial approach to the Qur’an as a whole. Benefiting from the project team’s research into the Qur’an’s literary and compositional structure, into Qur’anic law, and into the Qur’an’s early reception history, QuCIP will deliver crucial groundwork for a model historical-critical commentary covering Surahs 1 and 2. The project aims at exemplifying an integrative exegetical approach capable of addressing three core dimensions of the Qur’an: its close yet theologically selective engagement with antecedent concepts and traditions; the complex compositional structure especially of long surahs like Q 2; and the intricate processes of literary growth and redactional expansion by which the latter have been shaped. An important concern of the project, moreover, is to scrutinise pre-modern Islamic scholarship as a valuable repository of close reading.
The general objectives of QuCIP will be pursued through the following sub-projects:
A Historical and Literary Commentary on Surahs 1 and 2 (Nicolai Sinai): By way of a first milestone towards a commentary on Surahs 1 and 2, Sinai has authored an interpretive dictionary analysing key and frequently recurrent Qur’anic terms and phrases. Sinai is also producing a model commentary on Surahs 1 and 2.
Compositional Devices in the Qur’an (Marianna Klar): Klar is working on the mechanisms by which the Qur’an defines its structural units and its thematic borders. She explores, among other topics, the role that is played by shifts in rhyme and rhythm across otherwise unified expanses of Qur’anic text and how specific surah sections are unified by recurrent diction. Drawing on the Qur’anic Adam narratives as a case study, Klar also examines the distinctive features of Qur’anic language against the background of other late antique literary traditions. Finally, Klar is working on identifying aspects of the Arabic rhetorical tradition that are apt to illuminate the modern literary study of the Qur’an.
Legal Paraenesis in the Qur’an (Nora K. Schmid): Schmid’s project is devoted to legal paraenesis in the Qur’an, particularly in the Medinan surahs. Schmid’s research focuses on the question of how legal knowledge is formed, articulated, and imparted to the believers through exhortations and moral reminders. With a few exceptions, legal and quasi-legal passages in the Qur’an have so far mostly been studied without full regard to their rhetorical form and in isolation from their context. Based on the observation that the nexus of law and paraenesis is not unparalleled in late antiquity, Qur’anic legal paraenesis will be contextualized with Jewish and early Christian practices and ideas surrounding the transfer of legal knowledge and legal-ethical instruction. Topics to be studied against this background include paraenetic literary forms and tropes, their impact on the selection, organisation, and disposition of legal material in the Qur’an, and the nascent Islamic community’s engagement with the process of legal-ethical decision-making.
Hadiths as a Source for the Context of the Qur’an (Behnam Sadeghi): The hadith literature is a significant yet underused source for understanding the origins and early interpretation of the Qur’an. However, the vastness and intricacy of the literature presents significant challenges. A single report may exist in dozens of versions, each transmitted through a different chain of transmission (isnād), thus implicating dozens of transmitters. Moreover, these individuals may have transmitted hundreds of other texts as well. Sadeghi’s work contributes to a better understanding of the individuals and communities engaged in transmitting reports about the Qur’an, its origins, its interpretation, and other topics. His research includes a study determining the demographic trajectories of the communities that were involved in hadith transmission. Sadeghi is also investigating the reception of the Qur’anic verses on menstruation during the first Islamic decades as attested by the hadith literature.
