Two transmissions of the Qur'an can be found in printed copies today. One stems from Kufa and the other from Medina. They are more commonly called by the names of their respective second-century transmitters, Hafs and 'Wars. This thesis examines the relationship between these two transmissions, as exemplified in the first five suras. The Hafs transmission is found in printed Qur'an copies from all but West and North-West Africa, which employ the War transmission. The Hafs transmission is therefore the transmission found in the vast majority of printed copies of the Qur'an, and printed copies of the 'Wars transmission are rare in comparison. There is no doubt that copies according to other transmissions have existed as well, but none has apparently been printed. The Basrans al—Xalil and Sibawayhi, for instance, had texts that differed in places from both the Hafs and 'Wars transmissions. And the existence of manuscripts according to the Basran reading-system of abu 'Amr by way of al—Duri has been testified in the Sudan this century. The Qur'an according to this last transmission has in fact been printed at the head and side of the pages of editions of al—Zamaxari's commentary a1—Kaf, but these are not considered by Muslims as Qur'an copies proper. They are type-set and have occasional misprints, and at times do not tally with data on the reading-system of abu 'Amr given in works on Qur'an readings. Qur'an copies according to transmissions such as these or others might therefore still exist in manuscript, but would not readily be consultable. So it would be of use to document differences between those transmissions that actually are available in print. On a general level, this provides a step towards a critical apparatus of the Qur'an, and on a more specific one, it provides the data for this thesis.

Zugl.: Kopenhagen, Univ., Diss.

No description available.

~ajwid (Tajweed) - the tradition of the Holy Qur'an's recitation - is composed of about twenty-eight phonological patterns, which have an underlying semantidpragmatic meaning of sacredness. Nasal n assimilation patterns of 'idgh?im (gemination with & without nasalization), 'ikhfa' (nasal place assimilation), 'i+b (labial place assimilation) and %ihhiir (zero nasal assimilation) are taken as representative of Tajwid in this work. The central theme of this thesis is two fold. First, the twenty-eight sounds of the language of the Holy Qur'an (LHQ) as used in the four patterns of nasal n assimilation are distributed among the three natural sound classes of sonorants, obstruents and gutturals, the latter of which crosscuts the other two. Second, the realization of the meaning of sacredness in the LHQ is best accounted for by Kurisu's (2001) Realize Morpheme Theory set in Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). Kurisu's (2001) Realize Morpheme constraint is expanded herein to encompass a variety of meanings; i.e., morphosyntactic and non-morphosyntactic. Like Kurisu (2001), I contend that faith is relativized to the meaning expressed in that each pattern is determined by ranking a particular faithfulness constraint in relation to RM. However, the meaning expressed in the LHQ is non-morphosyntactic. This thesis is organized as follows. Chapter one introduces the reader to the Language of the Holy Qur'an through describing its genetic affiliation and geographical location in addition to past research done on it and the theoretical assumption adopted. Chapter two describes each patterniprocess of nasal n in the LHQ, whereas chapter three explores how the LHQ sounds are grouped into natural sound classes. Finally, chapter four analyses nasal n patterns in the LHQ using Kurisu's (2001) Theory of Realize Morpheme set in Optimality Theory.

This thesis is the first to study the English translations of the : Holy Qur'an, and is mainly concerned with the translators' approach in handling the linguistic (lexical & syntactic) , and extra-linguistic (variant readings & cultural ) problems of the text. The works that are the subject of the study are those of six English translators (Sale, Rodwell, Palmer, Pickthall, Bell, and Arberry), as well as one of a non-English Muslim translator from Pakistan (Maulana Muhammad Ali). The translators' renderings of the problematic instances are compared with) the expositions of the exegetes (whom the translators have been familiar with), in order to investigate the commentators' influence on the translators. The similarities between the translators' renderings are also checked to find out the degree of dependence between the translators. The translators are found to be heavily reliant on the exegetes. The degree of dependence between the translators is found to be considerable. Some problems have been resolved by means of- the context (i.e. the text as a whole); whereas others are left unresolved. The translations that have been studied are closer to commentaries than the text. The main conclusion is that the Holy Qur'an is untranslatable in the strict sense.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1986.

The title expresses the intent of this study. Against the background of the history of prophethood in the Islamic tradition and a consideration of scholarly studies of the phenomenon, this thesis investigates some fundamental issues from the perspective of the Qur'an, a source which has been slighted in previous studies.

The question of the important role played by Abraham in the Qur'an has rais d many controversies between the Orientalists. For some of them, such as Snouck-Hurgronje, Abraham holds in the Our'an a quasi-political role which gives some independance and some authenticity to Mohammed's Mission. For others, such as youakim Mubarak, Muhammad followed Abraham because he saw him as the perfect religious pattern, responding to his own ideal. As for us, our opinion is that Abraham is, the "universal Father of all the Believers" (Qùr'an II. 118). He is consequently a personage with a universalist character. We wonder then that Muhammad, who made of Islam an abrahamic religion, was not looking for an answer to his own oecumenical vocation; moreover, did not he try, through Islam to structure a religion with universal character? Our study consists of two parts. In the first one, we expose the principal thesis and the textual criticism about Abraham's role in the Qur'an. In the second part, we expose the different aspects which attract us to see in Islam a universal religion. And, while in our introduction, after a short analysis of the subject, we present Abraham such as he appears in the Qur'an, our conclusion calls for both judeo-christian religions to reconsider positively the messianic elements contained in the Mohammed's Message, in view of a final and oecumenical dialogue.

Risālat al-Duktūrāh -- Jāmiʻat al-Azhar.

Risālat al-Duktūrāh -- Jāmiʻat al-Azhar. / Cover title: Sons of Israel (Banou-Israel) as mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah, by Moh. Sayed Tantawi. Bibliography: v. 2, p. [481]-485.