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Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Wansbrough's "Quranic Studies"Quaranic Studies, Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation by John WansbroughReview by: Leon NemoyThe Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 68, No. 3 (Jan., 1978), pp. 182-184Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1454296 .

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WANSBROUGH'S QURANIC STUDIES*

COMPAREDWITH MODERN Western Biblical criticism, which is a

couple of centuries old, Western critical study of the Koran is a mere

infant. It began, to all intents and purposes, with TheodorNoeldeke's

Geschichtedes Korans (Goettingen, i860; revised edition by F. Schwal-

ly, with supplementary volume by G. Bergstraesser and 0. Pretzl,

Leipzig, I909-38, in 3 volumes). Ignaz Goldziher's studies (Muham-medanische Studien, Halle, I889-90) raised serious questions about the

historical authenticity of the Muslim oral tradition (hadith, the Mus-lim Talmud, if one may be permitted to use such a simile) relatingthe dicta et gesta of the Prophet on the authority of his immediate

family, associates, and followers, and demonstrated that much of

it-much more than previously assumed-is spurious, introduced by

partisans of one or another theological or political faction for their

own private advantage; moreover, that the only critical test used byMuslim theologians and jurists-the personal reputation for veracityof the individual tradents and the lack of chronological gaps in the

chain of successive transmitters of each tradition-was completelyineffective in separating the genuine from the counterfeit. And finally

Joseph Schacht (The Origin of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, Oxford,

1950), in his turn, raised similar doubts about the official Muslim

position that Muslim law (sharicah) was a direct outgrowth flowingout of both the Koran and the hadith; the available evidence, scanty

though it is, suggests rather that Muslim law first arose in response to

the practical needs of the newly established Muslim Empire, in which

the Arab masters found themselves in need of legal norms in dealing

not only with their newly acquired subjects but also with one anotherin their new urban settlements, so different from their original environ-

ment in the Arabian Peninsula. Only much later did Muslim juris-

prudents proceed to relate law back to the sacred fountainheads of the

Holy Writ and the hadith.

The turn of the Koran itself-the keystone of Islam as truly as the

New Testament is the keystone of Christianity-had to come sooneror later. Here, too, the official Muslim dogma makes the critical

Westerner very uneasy. The official position is that the "Masoretic"

* Quranic Studies, Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation;by John Wansbrough. Oxford: Oxford University Press, I977 (Schoolof Oriental and African Studies, University of London. LondonOriental Series, Volume 3I). Pp. xxvi + 256. 8°. $ 34.95.

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WANSBROUGH'SQURANICSTUDIES-NEMOY

text of the Koran, as we have it, was established by a collegium of

experts convened by the third "orthodox" (rdshid) caliph cUthman

(assassinated in 656 C.E.). These "Masoretes" collected all the thenextant recordings of the individual revelations of the Prophet, evalu-

ated their genuineness and accuracy, collated them with each other,reconstructed from them a uniform and consecutive text, and

having thus accomplished their sacred task, destroyed the primitiveUrtexte in order to prevent future disputes and schisms about the

Holy Writ. Unfortunately for the Western critic's peace of mind, the

members of the cUthmanic collegium were considerably less expertin their redactorial craft than their Jewish opposite numbers who

edited the Old Testament canon, or their Christian counterpartswho prepared the textus receptus of the Gospels. The product of their

literary labor suffers from many shortcomings: the order of the chap-ters (Surahs) follows no chronological or logical sequence; the struc-

ture of many chapters lacks uniformity of order and content, and

seems to represent a concatenation of disparate bits and pieces; a

number of passages are practically duplicates, with only slight varia-

tions; and the language, traditionally regarded as the purest Arabic

speech inimitable (mucjiz) in its grammatical and stylistic perfection,

sometimes does not come off so well in the light of the strict rules ofArabic grammar or in comparison with the preserved works of the

best pre-Muhammadan poets. And finally, there is the very awkward

problem of cancellation (naskh), whereby a Koranic ruling in one

place is regarded as cancelled by a contradictory ruling in another

place. To cap it all, no authentic copies of, or recognizable citations

from, the Koran have yet come to light that go further back than the

very end of the 7th century, thus leaving an unexplained hiatus of

almost half a century between the alleged promulgation of the 'Uth-

manic canon and its earliest documented traces.The Western historian can only sigh wistfully about how wonder-

ful it would be if he could examine the destroyed Urtexte, or if he

could read the original written recollections (if any such ever existed)

by the Prophet's companions of his extracanonical sayings and

doings, which served as the foundation-stones of the hadith. Butsince this is, and seems likely to remain, impossible, he has to work

only from internal evidence in the canonical text of the Koran, and

unlike his more fortunate colleague, the Alttestamentler,he can receive

but little help from archeology or comparative history of religion.Hence all his conclusions must remain hypothetical and subject to

constant, possibly radical, change.Dr. Wansbrough's collection of essays (as he himself modestly

characterizes them) deals with many of these extremely difficult

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THE JEWISH QUARTERLYREVIEW

problems, by examining the sacred text, by applying to it the newlyforged tool of form criticism, and most

interestingly, by suggestinga rough parallel between the development of the Koranic canon, ofKoranic exegesis, and of Muslim law, on the one hand, and the devel-

opment of the Old Testament canon, of Biblical exegesis, and ofRabbinic halakhah, on the other. The chapter-headings express this

procedure accordingly:

I. Revelation and Canon [the progress from the Prophet'soriginal revelation to the formal written canon]

II. Emblems of Prophethood [the attributes of the Prophet and

his position vis-a-vis the Biblical prophets]III. Origins of Classical Arabic [the credibility of the traditional

doctrine that the language of the Koran represents the

purest Arabic speech]IV. Principles of Exegesis: Haggadic, Halakhic, Masoretic,

Rhetorical, and Allegorical.

Dr. Wansbrough writes with a careful hand, fortified by his closeand detailed knowledge of the available material and by his keen eye

for the weaknesses in the various traditional positions and for thepossible logical alternatives. The state of the subject itself offers ofcourse no opening for hard and fast conclusions based on incontrover-tible factual evidence. Dr. Wansbrough's book is nevertheless an

important and thought-provoking contribution, particularly sincethe author repeatedly impresses upon the reader the tentative natureof many of his conclusions. Hopefully it will encourage others to

pursue the same line of inquiry and to attempt to shed further light onthis surely very weighty problem-the true origin and real early

history of the Holy Writ of the youngest great monotheistic faith inthe world.

Dropsie University

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LEONNEMOY