The Qur'an and Adab

The Shaping of Literary Traditions in Classical Islam
Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-0-19-878718-1
Verlag: OUP/Institute of Ismaili Studies

Buch, Englisch, 600 Seiten, Format (B × H): 142 mm x 218 mm, Gewicht: 930 g

Though there have been many studies on the Qur'an's importance in tafsIr (Qur'anic commentary), there are comparatively few which look at the impact of the Qur'an on other forms of literature. The Qur'an and Adab: The Shaping of Literary Traditions in Classical Islam bridges the gap in the scholarship by placing the Qur'an in its broader cultural and literary contexts. It explores the Qur'an's relation to classical literary traditions (adab) from pre-Islamic times until the fifteenth century CE, focusing on the various ways in which the classical literati (udaba") engaged with the Qur'anic text, linguistically, conceptually, structurally, and aesthetically, to create works that combined the sacred with the profane, thereby blurring the boundaries between formal tafsIr and adab.

Through a detailed introduction and a series of case studies, the volume rethinks the concept of adab and the relation of scripture to humanistic traditions in classical Islam and questions the general classification of adab as belles-lettres. It examines the religious aesthetic found in different types of adab works--poetry, literary criticism, epistles, oratory traditions, anthologies, 'mirrors for princes', folklore, and mystical/Sufi literature. Featuring contributions by leading scholars, the collection investigate the intertextuality between pre-lslamic poetry and the Qur'an, and the innumerable approaches to the Qur'an by classical authors. It discusses the various citation techniques employed in the udaba"'s borrowing of Qur'anic language, concepts, and stories. The chapters explain how the choice of these techniques was determined by the literary conventions of the particular genres and contexts within which the udaba" were working, as well as by their authorial intention, theological, and ideological outlooks. They also highlight the link between the functions ascribed to Qur'anic quotations in a specific text and the need to convey a particular message to specific audiences.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Alshaar, Nuha

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Koran, Heilige Texte & Traditionsliteratur
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Leben & Praxis
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Kult, Riten, Zeremonien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Notes on Contributors

- Note on Transliteration, Conventions and Abbreviations

- Preface

- 1: Nuha Alshaar: Introduction: The Relation of Adab to the Qur'an: Conceptual and Historical Framework

- Section I: The Qur'an and Classical Arabic Poetry: Intertextuality and Sensibilities

- 2: Angelika Neuwirth: The 'Discovery of Writing' in the Qur'an: Tracing a Cultural Shift in Arab Late Antiquity

- 3: Ghassan El-Massri: The Qur'an and the Character of Pre-Islamic Poetry: The Daliyya of al-Aswad b. Ya'fur al-Nahshali (d. 600 CE)

- 4: Beatrice Gruendler: Abbasid Poets and the Qur'an

- Section II: The Qur'an in Literary Criticism

- 5: Geert Jan van Gelder: The Qur'an in Kitab al-Badi' by Ibn al-Mu'tazz (d. 296/908)

- 6: Bilal Orfali and Maurice Pomerantz: 'I See a Distant Fire': Tha'alibi (d. 429/1030) Kitab al-Iqtibas min al-Qur'an al-Karim

- Section III: The Qur'an as a Moral, Literary, and Aesthetic Model

- 7: Andrew Rippin: The Place of the Qur'an in 'The Sermons and Exhortations' of Abu 'Ubayd (d. 224/838)

- 8: Devin Stewart: Rhythmical Anxiety: Notes on Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri's (d. 449/1058) al-Fusul wa'l-Ghayat and Its Reception

- 9: Sarah R. bin Tyeer: The Qur'an and the Aesthetics of Adab: Hikayat Abi'l-Qasim al-Baghdadi by Abu'l-Mutahhar al-Azdi (fl. Fifth/Eleventh Century)

- Part IV: Approaches to the Qur'an in Adab: Five Case Studies

- 10: Tahera Qutbuddin: Qur'an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khutba): Mnemonic, Liturgical, and Testimonial Functions

- 11: Wadad al-Qadi: The Impact of the Qur'an on the Epistolography of 'Abd al-Hamid b. Yahya al-Katib (d. 132/750)

- 12: Nuha Alshaar: The Qur'an in Literary Anthologies: A Case Study of al-'Iqd al-Farid by Ibn 'Abd Rabbih al-Andalusi (d. 328/940)

- 13: Louise Marlow: Wisdom and Justice: The Reception of the Qur'an in Some Arabic and Persian Mirrors for Princes

- 14: Wen-chin Ouyang: Solomon's Ring in the Arabic Literary Imaginary

- Part V: The Qur'an in Sufi Literature

- 15: Nada Saab: Sufi Negotiation of the Qur'anic Text and its Prophetic Stories in the Literature of Abu Sa'id al-Kharraz (d. 286/899)

- 16: Denis McAuley: Ibn 'Arabi (d. 637/1240) and the Qur'an: A Series of Poems

- 17: Steffen Stelzer: 'Serving from Afar': Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 672/1273) on the Adab of Interpreting the Qur'an

- Bibliography

- Index of Qur'anic Citations

- General Index

Über Autor(innen)

Nuha Alshaar joined the Institute of Ismaili Studies in 2009 as a Research Associate, where she focuses on ethical concepts in early Qur'an interpretation, and on the relationship between the Qur'an, tafsIr, and classical literary traditions (adab). She also teaches Islamic Intellectual History and Thought, as well as Arabic Literature at the American University of Sharjah. Dr Alshaar has taught at various academic institutions, including the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Queens University Canada in the UK. She is also a member of the Arabic-German Young Academy for Science and Humanities (AGYA). Her publications include Ethics in Islam: Friendship in the Political Thought of al-TawhIdI and his Contemporaries (Routledge, 2015) and the co-edited volume Sources and Approaches across Near Eastern Disciplines (Peeters, 2013).