ISLA 370: The Qur'an: History and Interpretation

Professor Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim

Fall 2013

Classroom: ARTS W-20

Hours: 4:05 PM – 5:25 PM MW

Ahmed.f.ibrahim@mcgill.ca

Office: Morrice Hall Rm. 310

Professor’s office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3-4 PM

Course description

The Qur'an: History and Interpretation examines the teachings, form, history, and modes of
interpretation of the Qur’ānic text in both the modern and pre-modern periods. We will
discuss what the Qur’an means to Muslims as a religious text, as well as its influence and
centrality in other disciplines such as law, literature, and theology. Students will be exposed to
traditional hermeneutical approaches, as well as reformist approaches such as feminist and
modernist interpretations of the Qur’ān.

A number of themes to be considered while reading:

- Approaches to the Qur’an (the mediation of interpreters vs “original” meaning
intended by the author)
- Context of Arabia
- General features of the text (Meccan/Medinan)
- Sectarian interpretation, narratives
- Hermeneutical approaches (modernist, feminist, traditional, orientalist)

This is a student-centered course. Participation and working in groups are essential.

Course Requirements and Evaluation

NB: Students are required to meet and work with other students in small groups both inside
and outside the classroom. On the first day of classes, groups will be assigned.

NB: Students may not use computers inside the classroom for any purpose other than writing
class-related notes. Any student violating this rule will be banned from bringing a computer
into the classroom and maybe asked to leave the class, in which case (s)he would be
considered absent on that day. No Facebook, please!

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20% Online Forum: students should post their (1) brief thoughts, (2) questions, and (3) how
the readings relate to other readings, (4) critique of class readings on the mycourses forum by
midnight, the night before class. These thoughts will be read by other students and the
Professor and will inform class discussions. You should write your thoughts on every reading.
It is as important as doing the readings.

20% Class Participation: All students are expected to finish their readings and participate
effectively in class discussions.

20% Reflection Paper: Students are required to write one individual 750-1000 essay (stick to
this range) reflecting on one of the course’s themes of her/his choice. Reflection papers
should be synthetic and analytical, addressing the debates the authors are engaging, and the
strengths and weaknesses of their arguments, as well as posing questions for the class to
discuss (2 or 3 questions). A collaborative reflection paper will be written in groups. For
groups of 4, the total word count would be approximately 1900-2100 words (500 words per
person). The objective of this exercise is to devise a plan as a group for different parts of the
course, different themes and tie them together as a group in an essay. Group reflection papers
will be evaluated by other groups and there will be a winner!

20% Final Paper: Students are required to write a typed 15-page paper (double-spaced, 12-
point font, one-inch margins) on a topic related to the Qur’ān (the history of the text, its
interpretation, its reception, etc.). An outline of the paper would be due about a month before
the final paper due date. Students are required to present their findings to their classmates in
the last two weeks of classes. They are also required to provide the rest of the class with a
one-page summary of their argument and sources.

20% Presentations: Students will present all articles and book chapters assigned for this
class. Each essay or book chapter has a number attached to it. Reserve your article or book
chapter in the first day of classes. Essay/book chapter presentations should last about 10
minutes. They should include the next elements:
1- Quick summary of the main concepts, ideas, arguments (approximately 5 minutes)
2- Critique of the argument, positive or negative (approximately 3 minutes).
3- Questions for discussion (approximately 2 minutes).

Students will also present their final papers to the entire class in the last few sessions of the
course.

Class Policies

 You are allowed only one unexcused absence; the second unexcused absence will
reduce your class participation grade by one level (e.g. A to A-) and the third by
another level and so on.
 Late assignments will be penalized at the rate of one grade per day (e.g. an A will be
A- if late for one day and B+ if late for two days). Extensions will be granted only in
cases of genuine emergency.
 No incompletes will be given except in cases of genuine emergency.

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Required Books (available at the bookstore and on reserve)

 Coursepack
 Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide with Select Translations
(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011).
 Asma Barlas, Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretation of the
Qur’an (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2002).
 Amina Wadud, Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam (Oneworld, 2006).
 Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and Interpretation (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

Reference Works and Guides

The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an

The Encyclopaedia of Islam

Introduction (week 1, Sep. 4)

What do you want to learn about the Qur’an and why? What are the approaches you would
use to study it? Choose the people you want to work with in this class.

Part I: The Formation and Form of the Qur’an

Formation and Chronology (week 2, Sept. 9-11)

Monday
 (1) Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “The True Meaning of Scripture: An Empirical
Historian's Non-reductionist Interpretation of the Qur'an," International Journal of
Middle East Studies 11 (1980), pp. 487-505.
 (2) Fred McGraw Donner, “Mecca’s Food Supplies and Muhammad’s Boycott,”
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 20, no. 3 (October 1,
1977): 249–266, doi:10.2307/3631958.
 (3) Gene W Heck, “‘Arabia Without Spices’: An Alternate Hypothesis,” Journal of the
American Oriental Society 123, no. 3 (2003): 547–576.

Wednesday
 (4) Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide with Select Translations
(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), pp. 1-19.
 (5) Claude Gilliot, “Creation of a Fixed Text,” in The Cambridge Companion to
the Qur'ān, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Cambridge Companions to Religion
(Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 41-58.
 (6) Harald Motzki “Alternative Accounts of the Qur'an's Formation,” in The
Cambridge Companion to the Qur'ān, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Cambridge
Companions to Religion (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press,
2006), pp. 59-75.
 (7) Hossein Modarressi, “Early Debates on the Integrity of the Qur’ān: A Brief
Survey,” Studia Islamica no. 77 (January 1, 1993): 5–39.

The Form of the Qur’an: Meccan Suras (week 3, Sept. 16-18)

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Monday
 (8) Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide with Select Translations
(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), pp. 20-75.
 Read Surah # 1 of the Qur’an: http://quran.com
Wednesday
 (9) Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide with Select Translations
(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), pp. 76-124.
 Read Surah # 113 and 114 of the Qur’an: http://quran.com

The Form of the Qur’an: Meccan and Medinan Suras (Week 4, Sept. 23-25)
Monday
 (10) Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide with Select Translations
(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), pp. 125-154.

Wednesday

 (11) Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide with Select Translations
(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), pp. 155-212.
 Read Surahs # 110-112 of the Qur’an: http://quran.com

The Qur’an: A Comparative Perspective (week 5, Sept. 30-Oct. 2)

Monday
 (12) Angelika Neuwirth, “Orientalism in Oriental Studies? Qur’anic Studies as a Case in
Point," Journal of Qur’anic Studies 9, no. 2 (January 1, 2007): 115–127.
 (13) Joseph Witztum, “The Foundations of the House (Q 2: 127),” Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studies 72, no. 01 (2009): 25–40.
 (14) Ayaz Afsar, “Plot Motifs in Joseph/Yūsuf Story: A Comparative Study of Biblical and
Qur’ānic Narrative,” Islamic Studies 45, no. 2 (July 1, 2006): 167–189.

Wednesday
 Individual reflection paper due today
 Documentary: http://vimeo.com/49317210
 Qur’ān: 12 (Surat Yusuf)

Part II: The Qur’an’s Areas of Influence

Literary Approaches to the Qur’an (week 6, Oct. 7-9)

Monday
 (15) Nasr Hamid Abu-Zayd, “The Dilemma of the Literary Approach to the
Qur’an,” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, no. 23 (January 1, 2003): 8–47.

Areas of influence: Law, theology, literature, ethics

Wednesday
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  (16) Alexander Knysh, “Multiple Areas of Influence,” in The Cambridge
Companion to the Qur'ān, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Cambridge Companions
to Religion (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 211-
234.
 (17) David S. Powers, “The Islamic Law of Inheritance Reconsidered: A New
Reading of Q. 4:12b,” Studia Islamica no. 55 (January 1, 1982): 61–94.
 Read Surah # 4:1-10 (i.e. Surah # 4 verses 1 through 10) of the Qur’an:
http://quran.com.

Part III: Qur’anic Interpretation

Qur’anic Interpretation (week 7, Monday 14 Holiday)

Wednesday October 16
 (18) Claude Gilliot, “The Beginnings of Qur’anic Exegesis,” in The Qur’an, Formative
Interpretation, ed. Andrew Rippin (Aldershot, Hampshire; Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, c1999),
1-27.
 (19) A. Rippin, “Al-Zuhrī, ‘Naskh al-Qur’ān’ and the Problem of Early ‘Tafsīr’ Texts,”
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 47, no. 1
(January 1, 1984): 22–43.
 (20) Jane Dammen McAuliffe, “The Tasks and Traditions of Interpretation,” in
The Cambridge Companion to the Qur'ān, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe,
Cambridge Companions to Religion (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2006), pp. 181-209.
 (21) Walid A. Saleh, “The Last of the Nishapuri School of Tafsīr: Al-Wāḥidī (d.
468/1076) and His Significance in the History of Qur’anic Exegesis,” Journal of
the American Oriental Society 126, no. 2 (April 1, 2006): 223–243.
 Read Surah # 4:10-22 of the Qur’an: http://quran.com

Part IV: Modern Approaches

Modern, Modernist, feminist approaches to the Qur’an Monday (Week 8, Oct. 21-23)
Monday
 Final paper outline due today
 (22) Fazlur Rahman, Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual
Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 1-28.
 (23) Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and
Interpretation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 25-82.
 Read Surah # 4:22-35 of the Qur’an: http://quran.com

Wednesday
 Collaborative reflection paper due today
 (24) Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and
Interpretation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 85-103.
 (25) Stefan Wild, “Political Interpretation of the Qur'an,” in The Cambridge
Companion to the Qur'ān, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Cambridge Companions

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 to Religion (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 273-
289.
 (26) Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and Interpretation
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 119-134.

Modern, Modernist, feminist approaches (Week 9, Oct. 28-30)

Monday
 (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 SEVEN CHAPTERS) Amina Wadud, Inside the Gender
Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam (Oneworld, 2006), pps. Vii-87.

Wednesday
 Amina Wadud, Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam (Oneworld, 2006),
pps 87-187.

Modern, Modernist, feminist approaches (Week 10, Nov. 4-6)

Monday
 Amina Wadud, Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam (Oneworld, 2006),
pps. 187-263.

Wednesday
 (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 SIX CHAPTERS) Asma Barlas, Believing Women in Islam:
Unreading Patriarchal Interpretation of the Qur’an (Austin, Texas: University of
Texas Press, 2002), 1-89.

Modern, Modernist, feminist approaches (Week 11, Nov. 11-13)

Monday
 Asma Barlas, Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretation of the
Qur’an (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2002), 91-210.

Wednesday

Modern, Modernist, Feminist approaches (Week 12, Nov. 18-20)

Monday
 Final paper due today
 Documentary (Me and the Mosque)
http://www.nfb.ca/film/me_and_mosque?
 (40) Juliane Hammer, “Gender Justice in a Prayer: American Muslim Women’s
Exegesis, Authority, and Leadership,” Hawwa 8, no. 1 (July 1, 2010): 26–54.

Wednesday
Student presentations of final papers start today

Presentations of final papers (Week 13, Nov. 25-27)

Presentations of final papers (Dec. 3).

University Honor System and Students’ Rights

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McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the
meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the
Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see
www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/ for more information). L'université McGill attache une
haute importance à l’honnêteté académique. Il incombe par conséquent à tous les étudiants de
comprendre ce que l'on entend par tricherie, plagiat et autres infractions académiques, ainsi
que les conséquences que peuvent avoir de telles actions, selon le Code de conduite de
l'étudiant et des procédures disciplinaires (pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez
consulter le site www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/).

In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have
the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.
Conformément à la Charte des droits de l’étudiant de l’Université McGill, chaque étudiant a
le droit de soumettre en français ou en anglais tout travail écrit devant être noté (sauf dans le
cas des cours dont l’un des objets est la maîtrise d’une langue).