Qur’ān

The Qur’ān: What? When? How? Why?

How consistent is the Qur’ānic attitude to Christians and Christianity?

How extensive are Christian influences on the Qur’ān?

Primary

*Qur’ān trans. e.g. M. A. S. Abdel Haleem (Oxford, 2005)

Secondary

Introduction:
F. Donner, Muhammad and the Believers. At the Origins of Islam (Cambridge, MA, 2010) esp. chs 1-
2
*S. Griffith, The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam
(Princeton, NJ, 2008) ch. 1
*J. D. McAuliffe (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Qur’ān (Cambridge, 2006) chs 1-3
*S. Shoemaker, ‘Muhammad and the Qur’ān,’ in S. Fitzgerald (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Late
Antiquity (Oxford, 2012) 1078-1108

Compilation and Codification:

B. Sadeghi and U. Bergmann, ‘The Codex of a Companion of the Prophet and the Qurʾān of the
Prophet,’ Arabica 57 (2010) 343-436
A. Neuwirth et al (eds), The Qur’ān in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the
Qur’ānic Milieu (Leiden, 2010) chs of Schoeler
*G. S. Reynolds (ed.) The Qur’ān in Its Historical Context (London, 2009) chs of Donner, Hoyland,
Böwering, Gilliot

Christ and Christianity:

F. De Blois, ‘Naṣrānī and ḥanīf: Studies on the religious vocabulary of Christianity and Islam,’
Bulletin of SOAS 65 (2002) 1-30
*G. S. Reynolds, ‘The Islamic Christ,’ in F. A. Murphy, The Oxford Handbook of Christology
(Oxford,
2015) 183-198
G. S. Reynolds (ed.) The Qur’ān in Its Historical Context (London, 2009) chs of Griffith, Samir,
Mourad
*G. S. Reynolds (ed.) New Perspectives on the Qur’an: The Qur’an in its Historical Context 2
(London, 2011) chs of Hoyland, Griffith, Mourad
A. Neuwirth et al. (eds), The Qur’ān in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the
Qur’ānic Milieu (Leiden, 2010) chs of Finster, De Blois and Marx
Things to think about: What is the Qur’ān? When was it written, and in what language? By whom was
it written, and for whom? When was it compiled? Can one distinguish different stages of
composition? Are traditional Islamic accounts of these processes convincing? What kind of milieu
produced it? Does it point more to a pagan milieu, or to a monotheistic one? What does it reveal of the
presence of Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and others in its environs? How does it approach such
groups? Does it adopt an ecumenical approach, imagining their integration within a wider ‘Believers’
movement? Or is the attitude far more antagonistic? How much Christian material is present in the
Qur’ān, and what are its origins? How does the Qur’ān treat Christ, his birth, his death? What legacy
did the Qur’ān bequeath to future generations for treatment of the People of the Book?