''Geschichte des Qorāns'' () is a foundational work in

Quranic studies Quranic studies is the academic study of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. Like in biblical studies, the field uses and applies a diverse set of Academic discipline, disciplines and methods, such as philology, textual criticism, lex ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

scholar

Theodor Nöldeke Theodor Nöldeke (; born 2 March 1836 – 25 December 1930) was a German orientalist and scholar, originally a student of Heinrich Ewald. He is one of the founders of the field of Quranic studies, especially through his foundational work titled ...

(1836–1930). It was first published in 1860, and then revised and expanded by Nöldeke's students and successors between 1909 and 1938. An English translation came out in 2013. Nöldeke's book represented a major leap forward in the field of Quranic studies, aided by access to collections of manuscripts in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and the recent publication of the ''al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾan'', a major 15th-century traditional commentary on the Quran by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, in 1857. Nöldeke reassessed the traditional chronology of the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

, placing each

surah A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into ayah, verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' (al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while ...

of the Quran into either a

Meccan Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above sea level. Its metropo ...

or a Medinan period, with the Meccan period being earlier. The Meccan period was also split into Early, Middle, and Late Meccan phases. Since its publication, the ''Geschichte'' has exerted a great influence over the field of Quranic studies, and was described by the scholar

Angelika Neuwirth Angelika Neuwirth (born 4 November, 1943) is a German Islamic studies scholar and Professor of Qur’anic studies at the Free University of Berlin. Qur’anic education Born in Nienburg, Lower Saxony, she studied Islamic studies, Semitic studi ...

as "the rock of our church".

Background and publication

The ''Geschichte'', a primarily philological work written in German, emerged from a dissertation Nöldeke began during his university studies, which was completed in 1856 and titled ''De origine et compositione surarum qoranicarum ipsiusque Qorani (On the origin and composition of the Qur'anic suras and the Qur'an itself)''. Compared to earlier studies of the

by Westerners, Nöldeke uncoupled the study of the scripture from inquiries into the life of

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

. Furthermore, unlike predecessors such as

William Muir Sir William Muir (27 April 1819 – 11 July 1905) was a Scottish oriental studies, Orientalist, and colonial administrator, Principal of the University of Edinburgh and Lieutenant Governor of the North-Western Provinces of British Raj, Brit ...

, Nöldeke did not have a missionary zeal. Instead, Nöldeke studied the Quran for its own sake. Before Nöldeke, some work had already been done on trying to establish a chronology of the Quran, primarily that of

. However, Nöldeke's work was far more successful and influential.

Chronology

One of the most important aspects of Nöldeke's argument was his periodisation of the Quranic surahs into a tripartite "

" phase (Early, Middle, and Late Meccan surahs) followed by a " Medinan" phase (an idea already conceived by his predecessor,

Gustav Weil Gustav Weil (25 April 1808 – 29 August 1889) was a German oriental studies, orientalist and one of the earliest academic practitioners of Quranic studies. Biography Weil was born in Sulzburg, then part of the Grand Duchy of Baden. Being desti ...

). Nöldeke followed the traditional chronological division of suras (i.e. the division used by Muslim scholars), but deviated from it in places. At the same time, Nöldeke also considered his division to be malleable and tentative to a degree as opposed to absolute and deciding. As such, Nöldeke's work also produced a consensus among Western scholars that the Quran reflected the preaching of Muhammad in two distinct locations, namely

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

and

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

. Nöldeke also accepted that a canonization event occurred during the reign of the third caliph,

Uthman Uthman ibn Affan (17 June 656) was the third caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruling from 644 until his assassination in 656. Uthman, a second cousin, son-in-law, and notable companion of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, played a major role ...

. * Group 1. First Meccan Period (48 Surahs): Surahs 96; 74; 111;

106 106 may refer to: * 106 (number), the number * AD 106, a year in the 2nd century AD * 106 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 106 (emergency telephone number), an Australian emergency number * 106 (MBTA bus), a route of the Massachusetts Bay Transpor ...

; 108; 104;

107 107 may refer to: *107 (number), the number *AD 107, a year in the 2nd century AD *107 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *107 (New Jersey bus) *107 Camilla, a main-belt asteroid *Peugeot 107, a city car See also

*10/7 (disambiguation) *Bohrium, ...

;

102 102 may refer to: *102 (number), the number * AD 102, a year in the 2nd century AD * 102 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 102 (ambulance service), an emergency medical transport service in Uttar Pradesh, India * 102 (Clyde) Field Squadron, Royal E ...

;

105 105 may refer to: *105 (number), the number * AD 105, a year in the 2nd century AD * 105 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 105 (telephone number), the emergency telephone number in Mongolia * 105 (MBTA bus), a Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority ...

; 92; 90; 94; 93; 97; 86; 91; 80; 68; 87; 95;

103 103 may refer to: *103 (number), the number *AD 103, a year in the 2nd century AD *103 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 103 (Tyne Electrical Engineers) Field Squadron, a territorial regiment * 103 (Newcastle) Field Squadron, Royal Engineers * 103 ...

; 85; 73;

101 101 may refer to: *101 (number), the number * AD 101, a year in the 2nd century AD * 101 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC It may also refer to: Entertainment * ''101'' (album), a live album and documentary by Depeche Mode * "101" (song), a 19 ...

; 99; 82; 81; 53; 84;

100 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standard SI prefix for a hundred is " hecto-". 100 is the b ...

; 79; 77; 78; 88; 89; 75; 83; 69; 51; 52; 56; 70; 55; 112;

109 109 may refer to: * 109 (number), the integer following 108 and preceding 110 * AD 109, a year of the Julian calendar, in the second century AD * 109 BC, a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar * 109 (department store), a department store in Shi ...

;

113 113 may refer to: *113 (number), a natural number *AD 113, a year *113 BC, a year *113 (band), a French hip hop group *113 (MBTA bus), Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus route *113 (New Jersey bus), Ironbound Garage in Newark and run to ...

;

114 114 may refer to: *114 (number) *AD 114 *114 BC *114 (1st London) Army Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, an English military unit *114 (Antrim Artillery) Field Squadron, Royal Engineers, a Northern Irish military unit *114 (MBTA bus) *114 (New Je ...

; 1 * Group 2. Second Meccan Period (21 Surahs): 54; 37; 71; 76; 44; 50; 20; 26; 15; 19; 38; 36; 43; 72; 67; 23; 21; 25; 17; 27; 18 * Group 3.

Third Meccan Period Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (dis ...

(21 Surahs): 32; 41; 45; 16; 30; 11; 14; 12; 40; 28; 39; 29; 31; 42; 10; 34; 35; 7; 46; 6; 13 * Group 4. Medinan Period (24 Surahs): 2; 98; 64; 62; 8; 47; 3; 61; 57; 4; 65; 59; 33; 63; 24; 58; 22; 48; 66; 60;

110 110 may refer to: *110 (number), natural number *AD 110, a year *110 BC, a year *110 film, a cartridge-based film format used in still photography * 110 (MBTA bus), Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus route *110 (song), 2019 song by Cap ...

; 49; 9; 5

Revised editions

First published in 1860, the ''Geschichte'' was revised and expanded by Nöldeke's students and successors

Friedrich Schwally Friedrich Zacharias Schwally (10 August 1863 – 5 February 1919) was a German Orientalist with professorships at Strasbourg, Gießen and Königsberg. He held the degrees of PhD, Lic. Theol., Dr. Habil., and the Imperial honour of the Order of th ...

Gotthelf Bergsträsser Gotthelf Bergsträsser (5 April 1886, in Oberlosa, Plauen – 16 August 1933, near Berchtesgaden) was a German linguist specializing in Semitic studies, generally considered to be one of the greatest of the twentieth century. Bergsträsser wa ...

and

Otto Pretzl Otto Pretzl (Ingolstadt, 20 April 1893 – Sevastopol, 28 October 1941) was a German Arabist- orientalist, who specialized in Koranic studies. From 1912 he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and in 1920 was ordained as a pries ...

until 1938. Revisions and expansions by Schwally appeared between 1909 and 1919, and this included a new chapter not present in the previous edition, titled "Recent Christian Research on the Qur’an". Additional supplements by Bergsträsser appeared from 1926 to 1929, and Pretzl's supplements were later published in 1938. The expansions by Bergsträsser and Pretzl brought into particular focus the subject of the variant readings ( qirāʼāt) of the Quran including how they had been received in the history of classical scholarship.

Reception

Though Nöldeke's work has been followed closely by some and rejected by others, it has been so influential that at least one scholar has referred to his work as "the rock of our church". For decades, it was the only substantive scholarly introduction to the Quran in any European language. In 2013, a complete translation of the volume into English was published. The

Corpus Coranicum Corpus Coranicum (2007 - 2024) was a digital research project of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The project made sources accessible that are relevant for the history of the Quran. These primary texts include Jewish, Ch ...

project has been working with the aim of revising Nöldeke's chronology since the developments that have occurred since its publication.

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * {{Cite journal , last=Stewart , first=Devin , date=2024 , title=Ignoring the Bible in Qur'anic Studies: Scholarship of the Late Twentieth Century , url=https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/reorient.9.1.0131 , journal=ReOrient , volume=9 , issue=1 , pages=131–169, doi=10.13169/reorient.9.1.0131 , doi-access=free

External links

* Full copy of Geschichte des Qorâns (Archive.org) 1860 non-fiction books Works about the Quran German-language non-fiction books