Toward a Redactional History of the Medinan Qur’an

The homely nineteenth-century assumption that grasping what something is requires us to grasp how it came to be has much to recommend it still. However, as opposed to earlier scholars who have attempted to reconstruct processes of redactional growth in the Qur’an, most notably Richard Bell, it is crucial to acknowledge that the hypothesis of secondary redaction and expansion in no way conflicts with the discovery that the long surahs in their canonical form. Also noteworthy is that surahs in Class 1 deploy a number of structuring devices that are prominent in Classes 2 and 3, too. Arguably the primary exhibit are vocatives, which are a popular structural marker in Medinan surahs from all three classes. Another, and less conjectural, case in point are the final 22 verses of Surat al-Nahl, which Neuwirth has tentatively but convincingly singled out as partly comprised of Medinan insertions.

Education and Islamic Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy

• Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur'an

  Andrew G Bannister•Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur'an•2014

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