RELS3704

This course introduces students to the academic study of the Qur'an through its textual, exegetical, and experiential dimensions. The course will discuss the Qur’an’s revelation, historical context, assembly as a text, main themes, interpreters, and embodied learning practices. We will focus specifically on the literary aspects of the Qur’an and Qur’anic interpretation, exploring the use of narratives, oaths, laws, parables, and arguments. We will map the historical and literary milieu of the Qur’an in 7th-century Arabia and late antiquity, situating the Qur’an within the preceding literary traditions of the ancient world (unit one); learn about the Qur’anic concept of prophecy, with a specific focus on the Prophet Muhammad and the importance of the Prophet's sayings and examples for the formation of Islamic law and practice (unit two); examine interpretations of the Qur'an from different theological, geographical, historical, and gendered perspectives (unit three); and consider some of the experiential aspects of the Qu’ran in ritual practice (unit four). In situating the Qur’an as an ongoing interpretive encounter between the Qur’an-as-text and interpretive communities, we consider: What role has the Qur'an played for Muslims and Muslim societies historically and still today? In what ways does the Qur'an speak to believers? What are some of the ways Muslims have approached and interpreted the Qur'an?

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