Though there have been many studies on the ϳܰ’a’s importance in ٲڲī (ϳܰ’aic commentary), there are comparatively few which look at the reception of the ϳܰ’aMuslims believe that the Holy ϳܰ’a 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 other forms of literature. This volume seeks to rectify the gap in the scholarship by placing the ϳܰ’a in its broader cultural and literary contexts. It explores the relation of Arabic (and Persian) classical literary traditions (adabA word of many meanings usually connoting courtesy, etiquette, rules and manners, civilisation, culture and literature.) to the ϳܰ’a from pre-Islamic times until the fifteenth century CE, focusing on the various ways in which the classical literati (ܻ岹ʾ) engaged with the ϳܰ’aic text, linguistically, conceptually, structurally and aesthetically, to create works that combined the sacred with the profane, thereby blurring the boundaries between formal ٲڲī and adab.
Through a detailed introduction and a series of case studies, the volume rethinks the concept of adab and the relation of scripture to humanistic traditions in classical Islam and questions the general classification of adab as belles-lettres. It explores the religious aesthetic found in different types of adab works – poetry, literary criticism, epistles, oratory traditions, anthologies, ‘mirrors for princes’, folklore and mystical/Sufi literature.
The key themes of the contributions are the intertextuality between pre-lslamic poetry and the ϳܰ’a, and the innumerable approaches to the ϳܰ’a by classical authors and poets. Discussed here are the various citation techniques employed in the ܻ岹ʾ’s borrowing of ϳܰ’aic language, concepts and stories. The chapters explore how the use of these techniques reflect a hermeneutical involvement with the ϳܰ’a and how the choice of these techniques was determined by the literary conventions of the particular genres and contexts within which the ܻ岹ʾ were working, as well as by their authorial intention, and theological and ideological outlooks. Also highlighted here is the link between the functions ascribed to ϳܰ’aic quotations in a specific text and the need to convey a particular message to specific audiences.
Collectively, these contributions by leading scholars offer a new, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the interaction of the literary traditions of classical Islam with the ϳܰ’a. Conversely, the analysis of these literary works enhances the understanding of the ϳܰ’a’s reception during the period studied. Students and specialists in the field of ϳܰ’aic Studies, Literature and Religion will welcome this volume.
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Note on Transliteration, Conventions and Abbreviations
Preface
1. Introduction: The Relation of Adab to the ϳܰ’a: Conceptual and Historical Framework
Nuha Alshaar
Section I: The Qur’an and Classical Arabic Poetry: Intertextuality and Sensibilities
2. The ‘Discovery of Writing’ in the ϳܰ’a: Tracing a Cultural Shift in Arab Late Antiquity
Angelika Neuwirth
3. The ϳܰ’a and the Character of Pre-Islamic Poetry: The ⲹ of al-Aswad b. Yaʿfur al-Nahshalī (d. c. 600 CE)
Ghassan El-Massri
4. Abbasid Poets and the ϳܰ’a
Beatrice Gruendler
Section II: The ϳܰ’a in Literary Criticism
5. The ϳܰ’a in Kitāb al-Badīʿ by Ibn al-Muʿtazz (d. 296/908)
Geert Jan van Gelder
6. ‘I See a Distant Fire’: Thaʿālibī’s (d. 429/1030) Kitāb al-Iqtibās min al-Qurʾān al-Karīm
Bilal Orfali and Maurice Pomerantz
Section III: The ϳܰ’a as a Moral, Literary and Aesthetic Model
7. The Place of the ϳܰ’a in ‘The Sermons and Exhortations’ of Abū ʿUbayd (d. 224/838)
Andrew Rippin
8. Rhythmical Anxiety: Notes on Abū’l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s (d. 449/1058) al-Fuṣūl wa’l-Ghāyāt and Its Reception
Devin Stewart
9. The ϳܰ’a and the Aesthetics of Adab: Ḥikāyat Abīl-Qāsim al-Baghdādī by Abū’l-Muṭahhar al-Azdī (fl. Fifth/Eleventh Century)
Sarah R. bin Tyeer
Section IV: Approaches to the ϳܰ’a in Adab: Five Case Studies
10. ϳܰ’a Citation in Early Arabic Oration (ṭb): Mnemonic, Liturgical, and Testimonial Functions
Tahera Qutbuddin
11. The Impact of the ϳܰ’a on the Epistolography of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Yaḥyā al-Kātib (d. 132/750)
Wadād al-Qāḍī
12. The ϳܰ’a in Literary Anthologies: A Case Study of al-ʿIqd al-Farīd by Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih al-Andalusī (d. 328/940)
Nuha Alshaar
13. Wisdom and Justice: The Reception of the ϳܰ’a in Some Arabic and Persian Mirrors for Princes
Louise Marlow
14. Solomon’s Ring in the Arabic Literary Imaginary
Wen-chin Ouyang
Section V: The ϳܰ’a in Sufi Literature
15. Sufi Negotiation of the ϳܰ’aic Text and its Prophetic Stories in the Literature of Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz (d. 286/899)
Nada Saab
16. Ibn ʿArabī (d. 637/1240) and the ϳܰ’a: A Series of Poems
Denis McAuley
17. ‘Serving from Afar’: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī (d. 672/1273) on the Adab of Interpreting the ϳܰ’a
Steffen Stelzer
Bibliography
Index of ϳܰ’aic Citations
General Index
‘This collection treats a significant issue – the relation of the ϳܰ’a to the literary imagination; the analyses presented here will surely stimulate further scholarly consideration of the relation of scripture to humanistic traditions in classical Islam.’
– Paul Heck, Professor, Department of Theology, Georgetown University
‘This is a rich and eminently readable collection of articles. The volume will be a welcome addition to ϳܰ’aic studies as well as literary studies for its wide-ranging exploration of the connection between the ϳܰ’a and adab.’
– Asma Afsaruddin, Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Indiana University Bloomington
Nuha Alshaar (Phd, University of Cambridge) has been a Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies since 2009, focusing on classical literary traditions (adab). She teaches Islamic Intellectual History and Thought as well as Arabic Literature at the American University of Sharjah. She has taught at various academic institutions, including the School of Oriental and African Studies. Her publications include Ethics in Islam: Friendship in the Political Thought of al-Tawḥīdī and his Contemporaries (Abingdon, Oxon, 2015) and the co-edited volume Sources and Approaches across Disciplines in Near Eastern Studies (Leuven, 2013), with Verena Klemm. Currently, she is preparing a volume of the Anthology of ϳܰ’aic Commentaries based on ϳܰ’a verses on ethics, as well as a critical edition, with an introduction, of The Layered Ordering of the World, in the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, as part of the Brethren of Purity Series.