The Qur'an

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course will provide students with an introduction to the Qur’an. We will be reading the Qur’anic text closely and comparing different translations. We will also study the history of the text, its revelation, the context in which it originated, it’s compilation, structure, content, process of canonization, central themes and the diverse ways in which Muslims have interpreted it and continue to interpret it today. Students will acquire a close familiarity with the Qur’anic text, its form, style and literary aspects as well as the broader debates on hermeneutics within the study of religion. This course will go beyond approaching scripture as a bounded, collected, literary text, by examining the experiential and material encounters between the Qur’an and Muslim communities. As such, this course will examine the Qur’an as a text and as a revelation that has a history of reception among communities of believers.