RECONSIDERING THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE QUR’AN: Is the Qur’an partly the fruit of a progressive and collective work?

The hypothesis that the Qur’an could be partly or wholly the fruit or the product of a collective work (German: Gemeindeprodukt) is seldom clearly expressed. It is, however, often in the background of the Qur’anic researches of many western scholars. To give only a few such examples we can mention the Austrian physician and Arabist Aloys Sprenger (1813-93),1 and more recently the late English Semitist and Arabist John Wansbrough (1928-2002),2 along with Patricia Crone and Michael Cook.3