Arthur Jeffery (18 October 1892 in Melbourne,

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– 2 August 1959 in South Milford,

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) was a Protestant Australian

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...

from 1921 at the School of Oriental Studies in Cairo, and from 1938 until his death jointly at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and Union Theological Seminary in

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. He is the author of extensive historical studies of

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ern manuscripts. His important works include ''Materials for the History of the Text of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

: The Old Codices'', which catalogs all surviving documented variants of the orthodox Quran text; and ''The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an'', which traces the origins of 318 foreign (non-

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

) words found in the Qur'an. Some of Jeffery's studies are included in '' The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Book'', edited by

Ibn Warraq Ibn Warraq is the pen name of an anonymous author critical of Islam. He is the founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society and used to be a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry, focusing on Quranic criticism. ...

. They are also discussed in

Mohar Ali Muhammad Mohar Ali ( bn, মোহাম্মদ মোহার আলী); 1929–2007) was a British Bangladeshi Islamic scholar, historian and barrister. He is the only Bengali to have received the King Faisal International Prize. Acade ...

's ''The Qur'an and The Orientalists'':M. Mohar Ali, ''The Qur'an and The Orientalists'' p. 313 cited i
The Qur'an's Pure Arabic and the Presence of Foreign Words
by Ansar Al-'Adl

Books

Books by Arthur Jeffery include: *''The Textual History of the Qur'an'' *''The Mystic Letters of the Koran'' *''A Variant Text of the Fatiha'' *''The Orthography of the Samarqand Codex'' *''Materials for the History of the Text of the Qur'an'' *''The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an'' *''A Reader on Islam''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffery, Arthur 1892 births 1959 deaths Australian Arabists History of Quran scholars Australian orientalists