The Qur'an

Question 1

Qur’an means:

Answer 1

reading or reciting

Question 2

Other name for Qur’an:

Answer 2

Kitab, writing

Question 3

What is Wansbrough’s thesis?

Answer 3

That the Qur’an was codified over a period of two centuries in the cultural milieu of the fertile crescent

Question 4

Who presents a normative view of Qur’anic codification?

Answer 4

Schoeler

Question 5

What was believed to be the material on which the Qur’anic verses were first written?

Answer 5

Leaves, leather, stones etc and also sheets and booklets

Question 6

What is the earliest known excerpt from a manuscript?

Answer 6

al-Farazdaq in early 600s

Question 7

Who claims it is unlikely that Muhammad would have edited the Qur’an himself?

Answer 7

Burton

Question 8

What was the original purpose of written Qur’anic excerpts?

Answer 8

To be used as memory aids

Question 9

Who commissioned the first collated Qur’an?

Answer 9

Caliph Uthman ibn Affan

Question 10

Who was responsible for collating and distributing the Uthman codex?

Answer 10

Zayd b. Thabit

Question 11

In whose conversion is there mention of a Holy Book?

Answer 11

Umar Ibn-al-Khattab

Question 12

What does Wanbrough use to show that the Qur’an was collated over a length of time?

Answer 12

Variations in the text

Question 13

Who disputed Wansbrough’s explanation for variations in text?

Answer 13

Donner- could just as easily have happened over 20 years and 2 centuries

Question 14

Where was the sectarian milieu?

Answer 14

The Northern Arabian fertile crescent

Question 15

What is Donner’s example disproving the sectarian milieu thesis?

Answer 15

Use of the Western regional dialect ‘fulk’ instead of the more widespread ‘safina’

Question 16

What is in the Hadith but not the Qur’an

Answer 16

Contemporary socio-political references

Question 17

When was the Islamic war?

Answer 17

656c.

Question 18

What is evidence to suggest that the Qur’an was written during the 6th century?

Answer 18

The absence of details about Muhammad’s contemporaries shows that it was written before the Islamic wars

Question 19

What historical evidence disproves the idea of a sectarian milieu?

Answer 19

Evidence of Judeo-Christian clans in Mecca and Medina

Question 20

Who asserted than any attempt to date the Qur’an was not empirically verifiable?

Answer 20

Sinai

Question 21

Who did Sinai use as an example of stylistic interpretation being subjective?

Answer 21

Noldeke and Schwally

Question 22

What is Wansbrough’s ultimate failure?

Answer 22

He does not present an alternative editor