The Limits of Historical Context: A Methodological Reassessment of Reynolds’ New Perspectives on the Qurʾān

Abstract

This study offers a methodological reassessment of Gabriel Said Reynolds’ edited volume New Perspectives on the Qurʾān: The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context 2 (Routledge, 2011), fifteen years after publication, situating it within Reynolds’ wider research programme. Measured against uṣūl al-tafsīr, balāgha, and ʿulūm al-Qurʾān, the volume’s framework reveals three interlocking assumptions: that “historical context” settles Qurʾanic meaning where the exegetical tradition disagrees; that the cumulative tafsīr tradition can be bypassed in favour of cognate-language evidence; and that the Qurʾan’s literary structure is best read against a biblical “subtext.” Through case studies of Sidney Griffith on al-naṣārā, Christoph Luxenberg on Q 53, and Reynolds on Q 19, the study argues that the classical apparatus, including the furūq al-lughawiyya, the muʿarrab and gharīb al-Qurʾān literature, the qirāʾāt, and iʿjāz lughawī, supplies instruments more precise than those the volume deploys, and proposes an integrative methodology coordinating both registers.

Keywords

• Tafsir
• Tafsir Methodology
• Qurʾanic Studies
• ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān
• Balāgha
• Late Antiquity
• Syro-Aramaic Hypothesis.

Tarihsel Bağlamın Sınırları: Reynolds'ın New Perspectives on the Qur'ān Eserinin Metodolojik Bir Yeniden Değerlendirmesi

Abstract

Bu çalışma, Gabriel Said Reynolds tarafından editörlüğü yapılan New Perspectives on the Qurʾān: The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context 2 (Routledge, 2011) adlı eserin yayımlanmasından on beş yıl sonra metodolojik bir yeniden değerlendirmesini sunmaktadır. Usûlü't-tefsîr, belâgat ve ulûmü'l-Kur'ān ölçütleriyle değerlendirildiğinde, eserin çerçevesi üç birbiriyle bağlantılı varsayımı ortaya koymaktadır: "tarihsel bağlam"ın, tefsir geleneğinin ihtilaf ettiği yerlerde Kur'ân anlamını belirlediği; mütearif tefsir geleneğinin sâmî dillerden gelen kanıtlar lehine atlanabileceği; ve Kur'ân'ın edebî yapısının en iyi şekilde İncîlî bir "alt-metin"den türetilmiş olarak okunacağı. Sidney Griffith'in en-Nasârâ, Christoph Luxenberg'in Q 53 ve Reynolds'ın Q 19 okumalarına ilişkin örnek olay incelemeleri aracılığıyla bu çalışma, klasik tefsir geleneğinin—özellikle furûku'l-luğaviyye, kırâ'ât ve iʿcâzü'l-luğavî—eserin kullandığından daha hassas analitik araçlar sunduğunu ve her iki kaydı koordine eden bütünleştirici bir metodolojinin Kur'ân metnine daha yüksek sadakatli okumalar verdiğini ileri sürmektedir.

Keywords

• Tefsir
• Tefsir Metodolojisi
• Kur'an Araştırmaları
• Ulûmu'l-Kur'ān
• Belâgat
• Geç Antik Çağ
• Süryano-Aramî Hipotezi

References

1. ʿAbd al-Jabbār, al-Qāḍī Abū al-Ḥasan. Critique of Christian Origins: A Parallel English-Arabic Text. ed. and trans. Gabriel S. Reynolds – Samir Khalil Samir. Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 2010.
2. Abū Dāwūd, Sulaymān b. al-Ashʿath. al-Sunan. ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ – Muḥammad Kāmil Qarah Balalī. 7 Vols. Beirut: Dār al-Risāla al-ʿĀlamiyya, 1430/2009.
3. al-ʿAskarī, Abū Hilāl al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd Allāh. al-Furūq al-lughawiyya. ed. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Salīm. Cairo: Dār al-ʿIlm wa-l-Thaqāfa li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzīʿ, n.d.
4. Azaiez, Mehdi – Reynolds, Gabriel S. – Tesei, Tommaso – Zafer, Hamza M. (ed.). The Qurʾan Seminar Commentary: A Collaborative Study of 50 Qurʾanic Passages. Berlin – Boston: De Gruyter, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110445909
5. al-Bāqillānī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Ṭayyib. Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān. ed. al-Sayyid Aḥmad Ṣaqr. Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1997.
6. Barr, James. The Semantics of Biblical Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961.
7. Brown, Francis – Driver, S. R. – Briggs, Charles A. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
8. al-Dānī, Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd. al-Taysīr fī al-qirāʾāt al-sabʿ. ed. Otto Pretzl. Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1404/1984.

9. El-Badawi, Emran. “Condemnation in the Qurʾān and the Syriac Gospel of Matthew.” New Perspectives on the Qurʾān: The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context 2. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. London – New York: Routledge, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203813539
10. El-Badawi, Emran. “The Impact of Aramaic (especially Syriac) on the Qurʾān.” Religion Compass 8/7 (2014), 220–228. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12109
11. El-Badawi, Emran Iqbal. The Qurʾān and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions. Routledge Studies in the Qurʾān. London – New York: Routledge, 2014. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315855981
12. El Shamsy, Ahmed. Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691201245
13. Griffith, Sidney. “Al-Naṣārā in the Qurʾān: A Hermeneutical Reflection.” New Perspectives on the Qurʾān: The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context 2. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. 301–322. London – New York: Routledge, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203813539
14. Griffith, Sidney H. The Bible in Arabic: The Scriptures of the “People of the Book” in the Language of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400846580
15. Hayajneh, Hani. “The Usage of Ancient South Arabian and Other Arabian Languages as an Etymological Source for Qurʾānic Vocabulary.” New Perspectives on the Qurʾān: The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context 2. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. London – New York: Routledge, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203813539
16. Ibn al-Jawzī, Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Nawāsikh al-Qurʾān. ed. Muḥammad Ashraf ʿAlī al-Malībārī. 3 Vols. Medina: al-Jāmiʿa al-Islāmiyya, 1424/2003.
17. Ibn al-Jazarī, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad. al-Nashr fī al-qirāʾāt al-ʿashr. ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad al-Ḍabbāʿ. 2 Vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.
18. Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm. ed. Sāmī b. Muḥammad al-Salāma. 8 Vols. Riyadh: Dār Ṭayba, 1420/1999.
19. Ibn Taymiyya, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad. Muqaddima fī uṣūl al-tafsīr. ed. ʿAdnān Zarzūr. Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1392/1972.
20. al-Jawālīqī, Abū Manṣūr Mawhūb b. Aḥmad. al-Muʿarrab min al-kalām al-aʿjamī ʿalā ḥurūf al-muʿjam. ed. Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, 1361/1942.
21. Jeffery, Arthur. The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurʾān. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1938.
22. al-Jurjānī, ʿAbd al-Qāhir. Dalāʾil al-iʿjāz. ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1413/1992.
23. King, Daniel. “A Christian Qurʾān? A Study in the Syriac Background to the Language of the Qurʾān as Presented in the Work of Christoph Luxenberg.” Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture 3 (2009), 44–71. https://doi.org/10.18573/j.2009.10300
24. Kopf, Lothar. “Religious Influences on Medieval Arabic Philology.” Studia Islamica 5 (1956), 33–59.
25. Luxenberg, Christoph. The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran. Berlin: Verlag Hans Schiler, 2007.
26. Luxenberg, Christoph. “Al-Najm (Q 53), Chapter of the Star: A New Syro-Aramaic Reading of Verses 1 to 18.” New Perspectives on the Qurʾān: The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context 2. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. 279–297. London – New York: Routledge, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203813539
27. Mourad, Suleiman A. “From Hellenism to Christianity and Islam: The Origin of the Palm Tree Story concerning Mary and Jesus in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Qurʾān.” Oriens Christianus 86 (2002), 206–216.
28. Mourad, Suleiman A. “Mary in the Qurʾān: A Reexamination of Her Presentation.” The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. 163–174. London – New York: Routledge, 2008. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203939604-18
29. Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qurʾan and Late Antiquity: A Shared Heritage. trans. Samuel Wilder. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199928958.001.0001
30. al-Qurṭubī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad. al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān. ed. Aḥmad al-Bardūnī – Ibrāhīm Aṭfīsh. 20 Vols. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, 1384/1964.
31. al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad. al-Mufradāt fī gharīb al-Qurʾān. ed. Ṣafwān ʿAdnān al-Dāwūdī. Damascus: Dār al-Qalam – Beirut: al-Dār al-Shāmiyya, 1412/1992.
32. Reynolds, Gabriel S. Allah: God in the Qurʾan. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvxkn7q4
33. Reynolds, Gabriel S. “Biblical Turns of Phrase in the Quran.” Light upon Light: Essays in Islamic Thought and History in Honor of Gerhard Bowering. ed. Jamal J. Elias – Bilal Orfali. 45–69. Leiden: Brill, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004410121_004
34. Reynolds, Gabriel S. Christianity and the Qurʾan: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.32448806
35. Reynolds, Gabriel S. The Emergence of Islam: Classical Traditions in Contemporary Perspective. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt22nm7qj
36. Reynolds, Gabriel S. “Introduction: Qurʾānic Studies and Its Controversies.” The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. 1–25. London – New York: Routledge, 2008. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203939604
37. Reynolds, Gabriel S. “Introduction: The Golden Age of Qurʾānic Studies?” New Perspectives on the Qurʾān: The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context 2. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. 1–22. London – New York: Routledge, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203813539
38. Reynolds, Gabriel S. “Le problème de la chronologie du Coran.” Arabica 58/6 (2011), 477–502. https://doi.org/10.1163/157005811X587903
39. Reynolds, Gabriel S. A Muslim Theologian in the Sectarian Milieu: ʿAbd al-Jabbār and the Critique of Christian Origins. Islamic History and Civilization 56. Leiden: Brill, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047405825
40. Reynolds, Gabriel S. “The Muslim Jesus: Dead or Alive?” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 72/2 (2009), 237–258. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X09000500
41. Reynolds, Gabriel S. “On the Presentation of Christianity in the Qurʾān and the Many Aspects of Qurʾānic Rhetoric.” Al-Bayān 12 (2014), 42–54.
42. Reynolds, Gabriel S. “On the Qurʾānic Accusation of Scriptural Falsification (taḥrīf) and Christian Anti-Jewish Polemic.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 130/2 (2010), 189–202.
43. Reynolds, Gabriel S. The Qurʾān and Its Biblical Subtext. Routledge Studies in the Qurʾān. London – New York: Routledge, 2010. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203856451
44. Reynolds, Gabriel S. The Qurʾān and the Bible: Text and Commentary. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300182224
45. Reynolds, Gabriel S. (ed.). The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context. London – New York: Routledge, 2008. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203939604
46. Reynolds, Gabriel S. “Reading the Qurʾān as Homily: The Case of Sarah’s Laughter.” The Qurʾān in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qurʾānic Milieu. ed. Angelika Neuwirth – Nicolai Sinai – Michael Marx. 585–592. Leiden: Brill, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004176881.i-864
47. Rippin, Andrew. “Studies in Qurʾānic Vocabulary: The Problem of the Dictionary.” New Perspectives on the Qurʾān: The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context 2. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. London – New York: Routledge, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203813539
48. Rippin, Andrew. “Syriac in the Qurʾān: Classical Muslim Theories.” The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. 249–261. London – New York: Routledge, 2008. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203939604-24
49. Saleh, Walid A. “The Etymological Fallacy and Qurʾanic Studies: Muhammad, Paradise, and Late Antiquity.” The Qurʾān in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qurʾānic Milieu. ed. Angelika Neuwirth – Nicolai Sinai – Michael Marx. 649–698. Leiden: Brill, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004176881.i-864
50. Saleh, Walid A. “A Piecemeal Qurʾān: Furqān and Its Meaning in Classical Islam and in Modern Qurʾānic Studies.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 42 (2015), 31–71.
51. al-Samīn al-Ḥalabī, Aḥmad b. Yūsuf. al-Durr al-maṣūn fī ʿulūm al-kitāb al-maknūn. ed. Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Kharrāṭ. 11 Vols. Damascus: Dār al-Qalam, n.d.
52. al-Shāfiʿī, Muḥammad b. Idrīs. al-Risāla. ed. Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir. Cairo: Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1358/1940.
53. Shoemaker, Stephen J. “Christmas in the Qurʾān: The Qurʾānic Account of Jesus’ Nativity and Palestinian Local Tradition.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 28 (2003), 11–39.
54. Sībawayh, Abū Bishr ʿAmr b. ʿUthmān. al-Kitāb. ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. 5 Vols. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1408/1988.
55. Sinai, Nicolai. The Qurʾan: A Historical-Critical Introduction. The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748695782
56. Stewart, Devin J. “Notes on Medieval and Modern Emendations of the Qurʾān.” The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. 225–248. London – New York: Routledge, 2008. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203939604-23
57. al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān. ed. Muḥammad Abū al-Faḍl Ibrāhīm. 4 Vols. Cairo: al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿĀmma li-l-Kitāb, 1394/1974.
58. al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Lubāb al-nuqūl fī asbāb al-nuzūl. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-ʿUlūm, 1422/2002.
59. al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. al-Muhadhdhab fīmā waqaʿa fī al-Qurʾān min al-muʿarrab. ed. Samīr Ḥusayn Ḥalabī. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1408/1988.
60. al-Ṭabarī, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr. Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān. ed. Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir. 24 Vols. Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1420/2000.
61. Toorawa, Shawkat M. “Hapaxes in the Qurʾān: Identifying and Cataloguing Lone Words (and Loanwords).” New Perspectives on the Qurʾān: The Qurʾan in Its Historical Context 2. ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds. 191–244. London – New York: Routledge, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203813539
62. al-Wāḥidī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Aḥmad. Asbāb nuzūl al-Qurʾān. ed. Kamāl Basyūnī Zaghlūl. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1411/1991.
63. al-Zamakhsharī, Abū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar. al-Kashshāf ʿan ḥaqāʾiq ghawāmiḍ al-tanzīl. 4 Vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1407/1986.