This 28-minute lecture by Professor Angelika Neuwirth (), a leading scholar in 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍ic studies, invites viewers to a contextual reading of the聽蚕耻谤鈥檃苍Muslims believe that the Holy 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍 contains divine revelations to the Prophet Muhammed received in Mecca and Medina over a period of 23 years in the early 7th century CE. More, in the light of the milieu of the revelation and the subsequent development of the Muslim community.
Based on her thirty years of engagement with the topic,聽聽suggests that scholarly endeavours of understanding the聽蚕耻谤鈥檃苍聽essentially as the 鈥業slamic text鈥 par excellence are insufficient, without due consideration to the聽蚕耻谤鈥檃苍聽as an oral proclamation, addressed by the Prophet Muhammad to pre-Islamic listeners, prior to the formation of the Muslim community.
These pre-Islamic listeners are best described, in Prof. Neuwirth’s view, as individuals familiar with late antique culture – be they pagan Arabs, familiar with the monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity, syncretists of these religions; or learned Jews and Christians, whose presence is reflected in the Medinan suras. She invites viewers to observe the interactive communication process between the Prophet Muhammad and these groups as the harbinger of an epistemic turn in Arab Late Antiquity: the 蚕耻谤鈥檃苍ic ‘discovery’ of writing as the ultimate authority brings the nascent community a new 鈥榯extual coherence鈥 where scripture, with its valorisation of history and memory, was recognised as a guiding concept.
Scripture, Poetry and the Making of a Community: Reading the聽蚕耻谤鈥檃苍聽as a Literary Text聽presents, for the first time, Professor Neuwirth鈥檚 scholarship on the聽蚕耻谤鈥檃苍聽to a global audience in English in a comprehensive way. The book has fourteen articles 鈥 combining new pieces written in English with her previously published works, translated from German, that reflect her original thought on the topic.
