7/28/2019 Wansbroughs Quranic Studies http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/wansbroughs-quranic-studies 1/4 Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania Wansbrough's "Quranic Studies" Quaranic Studies, Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation by John Wansbrough Review by: Leon Nemoy The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 68, No. 3 (Jan., 1978), pp. 182-184 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1454296 . Accessed: 11/12/2011 05:23 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of Pennsylvania Press and Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Jewish Quarterly Review. http://www.jstor.org
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Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Wansbrough's "Quranic Studies"Quaranic Studies, Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation by John WansbroughReview by: Leon NemoyThe Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 68, No. 3 (Jan., 1978), pp. 182-184Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1454296 .
Accessed: 11/12/2011 05:23
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
University of Pennsylvania Press and Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania are
collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Jewish Quarterly Review.
COMPAREDWITH MODERN Western Biblical criticism, which is a
couple of centuries old, Western critical study of the Koran is a mere
infant. It began, to all intents and purposes, with TheodorNoeldeke's
Geschichtedes Korans (Goettingen, i860; revised edition by F. Schwal-
ly, with supplementary volume by G. Bergstraesser and 0. Pretzl,
Leipzig, I909-38, in 3 volumes). Ignaz Goldziher's studies (Muham-medanische Studien, Halle, I889-90) raised serious questions about the
historical authenticity of the Muslim oral tradition (hadith, the Mus-lim Talmud, if one may be permitted to use such a simile) relatingthe dicta et gesta of the Prophet on the authority of his immediate
family, associates, and followers, and demonstrated that much of
it-much more than previously assumed-is spurious, introduced by
partisans of one or another theological or political faction for their
own private advantage; moreover, that the only critical test used byMuslim theologians and jurists-the personal reputation for veracityof the individual tradents and the lack of chronological gaps in the
chain of successive transmitters of each tradition-was completelyineffective in separating the genuine from the counterfeit. And finally
Joseph Schacht (The Origin of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, Oxford,
1950), in his turn, raised similar doubts about the official Muslim
position that Muslim law (sharicah) was a direct outgrowth flowingout of both the Koran and the hadith; the available evidence, scanty
though it is, suggests rather that Muslim law first arose in response to
the practical needs of the newly established Muslim Empire, in which
the Arab masters found themselves in need of legal norms in dealing
not only with their newly acquired subjects but also with one anotherin their new urban settlements, so different from their original environ-
ment in the Arabian Peninsula. Only much later did Muslim juris-
prudents proceed to relate law back to the sacred fountainheads of the
Holy Writ and the hadith.
The turn of the Koran itself-the keystone of Islam as truly as the
New Testament is the keystone of Christianity-had to come sooneror later. Here, too, the official Muslim dogma makes the critical
Westerner very uneasy. The official position is that the "Masoretic"
* Quranic Studies, Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation;by John Wansbrough. Oxford: Oxford University Press, I977 (Schoolof Oriental and African Studies, University of London. LondonOriental Series, Volume 3I). Pp. xxvi + 256. 8°. $ 34.95.
problems, by examining the sacred text, by applying to it the newlyforged tool of form criticism, and most
interestingly, by suggestinga rough parallel between the development of the Koranic canon, ofKoranic exegesis, and of Muslim law, on the one hand, and the devel-
opment of the Old Testament canon, of Biblical exegesis, and ofRabbinic halakhah, on the other. The chapter-headings express this
procedure accordingly:
I. Revelation and Canon [the progress from the Prophet'soriginal revelation to the formal written canon]
II. Emblems of Prophethood [the attributes of the Prophet and
his position vis-a-vis the Biblical prophets]III. Origins of Classical Arabic [the credibility of the traditional
doctrine that the language of the Koran represents the
purest Arabic speech]IV. Principles of Exegesis: Haggadic, Halakhic, Masoretic,
Rhetorical, and Allegorical.
Dr. Wansbrough writes with a careful hand, fortified by his closeand detailed knowledge of the available material and by his keen eye
for the weaknesses in the various traditional positions and for thepossible logical alternatives. The state of the subject itself offers ofcourse no opening for hard and fast conclusions based on incontrover-tible factual evidence. Dr. Wansbrough's book is nevertheless an
important and thought-provoking contribution, particularly sincethe author repeatedly impresses upon the reader the tentative natureof many of his conclusions. Hopefully it will encourage others to
pursue the same line of inquiry and to attempt to shed further light onthis surely very weighty problem-the true origin and real early
history of the Holy Writ of the youngest great monotheistic faith inthe world.