ABSTRACT

William A. Graham is an influential and pioneering scholar of Islamic Studies at Harvard University. This volume brings together 17 contributions to the study of the Qur’an and Islam, all influenced by his work.

Contributions to this collection, by his colleagues and students, treat many different aspects of Islamic scripture, from textual interpretation and hermeneutics to recitation and parallels with the Bible. Other chapters tackle in diverse ways the question of what it means to be "Islamic" and how such an identity may be constituted and maintained in history, thought, and learning. A final section reflects on the career of William Graham and the relation of scholarship to the undervalued tasks of academic administration, especially where the study of religion is concerned.

This book will be of interest to readers of Islamic Studies, Qur’anic Studies, Islamic history, Religious Studies, scripture, exegesis, and history of the book. Given Graham’s role at the Harvard Divinity School, and the discussions of how he has shaped the study of religion, the volume should be of interest to readership across the study of religion as a whole.

Chapters 2 and 15 of this book are available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. They have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

part I|90 pages

Textual Studies on the Qurʾan

chapter 1|20 pages

The Written Torah and the Oral Qurʾan in Pagan Mecca

Towards a New Reading of Q 6:91

chapter 2|21 pages

Qurʾanic Anosmia

chapter 4|25 pages

The Masjid in the Qurʾan

part II|122 pages

Qurʾan as Scripture

chapter 5|15 pages

The Canonizations of the Qurʾan

Political Decrees or Community Practices?

chapter 6|33 pages

Principles of Qurʾanic Exegesis and Qurʾanic Revelation in “Seven Ways of Reading”

Revelation, Exegesis, the Religious Imaginaire, and Apologetics in Islam 1

chapter 8|16 pages

Al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944), Early Sunni Exegesis, and Muʿtazilism

Sura 67 and the Five Principles of Sunni Exegesis

chapter 9|25 pages

The Gināns

Betwixt Satpanthī Scripture and “Ismaili” Devotional Literature

chapter 10|19 pages

The Holy Qurʾan

part III|90 pages

The “Islamic” in Islamic History

chapter 12|23 pages

The Present Absentee

The Prophet Muhammad in Jerusalem

chapter 13|10 pages

And Muhammad Is His Messenger

The Role of Sunna and Hadith in the Formation of Islamic Identity

chapter 15|22 pages

People Versus Books 1

part IV|20 pages

William A. Graham as Colleague and Administrator