Au cours des premiers siècles de l’Islam, le rôle du manuscrit est essentiel dans la transmission du texte coranique. Cependant, comment utiliser les manuscrits dans une perspective historique, alors qu’ils sont aujourd’hui réduits à l’état de fragments, dispersés dans les collections mondiales ? En soumettant les fragments à une étude pluridisciplinaire unissant l’approche formelle et l’analyse textuelle, nous parvenons à reconstituer les liens entre les manuscrits et à en évaluer la portée historique. Ces liens révèlent qu’au 2e/8e siècle, il existe plusieurs traditions manuscrites en cours de normalisation et de codification. En définitive, l’étude des manuscrits met à jour les détails d’un épisode effacé de l’histoire du Coran : celui de sa standardisation progressive, tant dans sa forme que dans son texte. / During the first centuries of Islam, the Qur’anic manuscript plays an essential role in the textual transmission of the Qur’an. However, how can we use these manuscripts, now preserved as fragments scattered all over the world, in the light of history? Through a multidisciplinary way, combining formal and textual analyses, we are able to reconstruct the links between the manuscripts and to evaluate their historical implication. These links reveal that the 2nd/8th century is a decisive stage for the Qur’anic normalization, where several Qur’anic traditions are concurrent. Thus, the study of the Qur’anic manuscript elucidates some details of a significant moment for the history of the Qur’an: the process of its codification and canonization, in its form and its text.

Au cours des premiers siècles de l’Islam, le rôle du manuscrit est essentiel dans la transmission du texte coranique. Cependant, comment utiliser les manuscrits dans une perspective historique, alors qu’ils sont aujourd’hui réduits à l’état de fragments, dispersés dans les collections mondiales ? En soumettant les fragments à une étude pluridisciplinaire unissant l’approche formelle et l’analyse textuelle, nous parvenons à reconstituer les liens entre les manuscrits et à en évaluer la portée historique. Ces liens révèlent qu’au 2e/8e siècle, il existe plusieurs traditions manuscrites en cours de normalisation et de codification. En définitive, l’étude des manuscrits met à jour les détails d’un épisode effacé de l’histoire du Coran : celui de sa standardisation progressive, tant dans sa forme que dans son texte. / During the first centuries of Islam, the Qur’anic manuscript plays an essential role in the textual transmission of the Qur’an. However, how can we use these manuscripts, now preserved as fragments scattered all over the world, in the light of history? Through a multidisciplinary way, combining formal and textual analyses, we are able to reconstruct the links between the manuscripts and to evaluate their historical implication. These links reveal that the 2nd/8th century is a decisive stage for the Qur’anic normalization, where several Qur’anic traditions are concurrent. Thus, the study of the Qur’anic manuscript elucidates some details of a significant moment for the history of the Qur’an: the process of its codification and canonization, in its form and its text.

Denna studie syftar till att öka förståelsen för islamiskt grundade värderingar om könsroller, genom att undersöka muslimska mäns kvinnosyn och förväntningar på kvinnan som framtida hustru. Intervjuer med åtta muslimska män besvarar frågeställningar kring förväntningar på kvinnan, könsroller och äktenskapet. I denna studie undersöks muslimska mäns syn på skillnaden mellan könen. Sekulär och muslimsk feministisk teori används för att analysera empirin. I studien framkommer hur praktiserande muslimer som vill leva efter Koranen, kan uppleva en viss social press kring att leva upp till sin könsroll som ofta framställs som medfödd. Det finns en syn bland informanterna i studien att man och kvinna kompletterar varandra i ett äktenskap. Det centrala kring mannens könsroll är försörjningsplikt. Det centrala kring kvinnan handlar snarare om kropp och klädsel. Studien visar också på den heterogenitet som finns inom religionen och hur viktigt det är att se muslimer som individer, snarare än tillhörande en homogen, muslimsk kategori. / This thesis aims to increase understanding of islamic values based on gender roles, examining Muslim men’s view of women and expectations of the woman as a future wife. Questions regarding expectations on the future wife, gender roles and marriage are answered through eight interviews with Muslim men. This thesis examines Muslim men’s view on differences between the sexes. Secular and Muslim feminist theory analyzes the empirical data. The result shows how some practicing Muslims who want to live according to the Qur’an may experience a certain social pressure when it comes to living up to the gender role that is often portrayed as essential. Men and women complement each other through marriage according to the informants of the study. Men are portrayed as the responsible one for the economy of the family and when it comes to women, focus is more on the body and her clothing. This thesis also demonstrates the heterogeneity that exists within islam and the importance of seeing Muslims as individuals, rather than belonging to a homogenous category.

Le présent travail se veut être une tentative pour dé-couvrir un canal de dialogue interculturel et interreligieux, en prenant comme plate-forme et terrain de discussion le jihad et une perspective inspirée de la psychanalyse freudienne et lacanienne qui discute du rapport entre le sujet-chercheur et l’objet de recherche. Pour cela, la présente recherche tente de désengager une compréhension du jihad qui serait subvertie par un héritage colonial dénoncé par Edward Said sous l’appellation d’ « orientalisme », et dont l’empreinte académique circonscrirait le jihad à « ce qu’on lui permet d’être ». Ceci amène donc la recherche à questionner le statut ontologique de l’objet jihad, statut que l’articulation linguistique du présent travail fait glisser de celui de concept vers celui de signifiant. Ce signifiant est alors conceptualisé par une opération de « retour à la lettre », qui fait réapparaitre « un signifiant arabe » longuement oublié se structurant à partir de la racine trilitère JHD ainsi que l’élaboration d’un nouvel outil conceptuel dit de « nuage sémantique ». Ce signifiant est ainsi réinséré dans son environnement naturel qu’est le Qur’ān en langue arabe et dont l’analyse est utilisée pour tester l’hypothèse : Il existe dans le Qur’ān un signifiant arabe se structurant à partir de la racine JHD, déterminé par l’article al- et qui prend la forme/structuration « al-jihād ». / This research is an attempt to unveil a channel for interreligious and intercultural dialogue by using the jihad as common ground for discussion using a perspective inspired by Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis which discusses the relation between the subject-researcher and the object of research. Thus, this scientific endeavour tries to disengage an understanding of jihad that would be subverted by a colonial legacy identified by Edward Said as “orientalism”, legacy that circumscribes the object jihad in “whatever is allowed it to be”. This leads the research to question the ontological status of the object jihad, and shifts this status from concept to signifier due to the linguistic nature of this work. Signifier which is conceptualised by a “retour à la lettre” from which emerges a long forgotten “Arabic signifier” constructed from the trilateral root JHD and the development of a new conceptual tool: the “semantic cloud”. This signifier is hence inserted in its natural environment which is defined as the Qur’an in the Arabic language and is analysed to test the hypothesis: There is in the Arabic Qur’an a signifier constructed from the root JHD determined by the definite article al- which takes the form “al-jihād”.

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Over the last fourteen-hundred years, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah (d. 632) has been depicted and portrayed in a variety of ways by numerous scholars, theologians, and polemicists. My dissertation offers a unique approach to the “historical Muhammad” as it develops a new method to examine extant primary sources related to his life. I include available sources that provide pertinent information on Muhammad’s life, including the Qur’an, hadith literature, sira-maghazi (biographies and expeditions), and non-Muslim accounts. My research is original because it adopts current historical Jesus scholarship, particularly modern cognitive studies of memory, and uses it on extant sources related to Muhammad’s life. More specifically, I explore how memory, oral tradition, and oral transmission play vital roles in understanding how Muslims remembered their Prophet and how the circumstances of later generations shaped and influenced their commemoration of his life. By adopting this scholarship, which will be contextualized to examine early Muslim literature, I offer a new perspective on surviving sources, the context of seventh-century Arabia, and the function of memory for the nascent Muslim community. I also apply my method on eight significant, polemical, or neglected events that are traditionally believed to have taken place during Muhammad’s life in Mecca and Medina. In sum, my dissertation offers a dynamic cross-disciplinary venture, encompassing the intersection of innovative, modern critical inquiry and early Islamic literature. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation examines the field of the “historical Muhammad” and applies a new method on extant primary sources related to Muhammad’s life. I conduct a literature review of scholars’ reconstructions of his life, beginning as early as the seventh century. I also explore numerous primary sources on Muhammad, pointing out their benefits and disadvantages. Next, I overview the quests for the historical Jesus and analyze methods that were established over the last hundred years. In my dissertation, I adopt historical Jesus scholarship, namely memory studies, to develop an original method that provides a unique understanding and fresh perspective of the historical Muhammad. Over the last two chapters, I conduct eight case studies employing my method on events from Muhammad’s life in Mecca and Medina. This dissertation demonstrates that we could reconstruct a reasonably coherent picture of events surrounding Muhammad’s life.

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From the point of view of literary qualities, Prophetic Traditions stand out among Arabic literature. This study aims at selecting some unique words the Prophet used, and search for their presence or absence in the Arabic Although several sources were used, the reliance for the choice of words is mainly on An-Nihayah fi gharib al-Athar of Ibn al-Athir; and for comparison, several published works. literature. The objective is to find out how the Prophetic words affected the literature. An analysis is attempted to arrive at the meaning of these words as used in Hadith literature, literatures preceding or following it, and compare to find whether they have been used at all, and, if used, in the same meaning or not, or whether they are used in a unique sense. Thus, this study brings to light differences between Prophetic literature, and literatures other than it. / Arabic & Islamic Studies / M.A. (Islamic Studies)

The shari‘a, or the inherited legal tradition, has tended to dominate discussions of contemporary Islam. Relatively little attention has been given to the Qur’an, however, despite its importance both in terms of Muslim theology, in which it is understood as the actual Word of God, and of Islamic reformist thought. Far from being marginal, the Qur’an has emerged as a rich resource for theological reflection and sociopolitical action. Specifically, it has become a source of empowerment, speaking to contexts of oppression. This thesis examines the commentaries of four Muslim intellectuals who have expounded the Qur’an as a liberating text – namely, the South African Farid Esack (b. 1956), the Indian Asghar Ali Engineer (b. 1939), the American Amina Wadud (b. 1952) and the Pakistani Asma Barlas (b. 1950) – supplemented by in-depth interviews. In so doing, this study seeks (i) to fill a major gap in the literature by offering the first comprehensive survey and analysis of their readings and (ii) to challenge common portrayals of justice-based exegesis as being an obscure, fundamentalist scripturalism; as being rooted in North America; and as being focussed primarily, even exclusively, on gendered oppression. Indeed, the centring of the Qur’an in Islamic thought, I argue, is an increasingly mainstream practice – a global hermeneutic – as Muslims throughout the world seek answers in scripture to the pressing problems of the present. Furthermore, justice-based exegesis has been holistic, addressing (in addition to patriarchy) poverty and racism, communal violence and imperialism. Liberationist and women’s readings are significant, I conclude, for two reasons. Firstly, they shed new insights into the rise of ‘thematic commentary’ (tafsir mawdu‘i) in Qur’anic exegesis. Secondly, their expressly political character exposes the hegemony of Islamism over our understanding of ‘the political’ and ‘the radical’ in an Islamic context, thereby forcing us to redefine political and radical Islam.

From the point of view of literary qualities, Prophetic Traditions stand out among Arabic literature. This study aims at selecting some unique words the Prophet used, and search for their presence or absence in the Arabic Although several sources were used, the reliance for the choice of words is mainly on An-Nihayah fi gharib al-Athar of Ibn al-Athir; and for comparison, several published works. literature. The objective is to find out how the Prophetic words affected the literature. An analysis is attempted to arrive at the meaning of these words as used in Hadith literature, literatures preceding or following it, and compare to find whether they have been used at all, and, if used, in the same meaning or not, or whether they are used in a unique sense. Thus, this study brings to light differences between Prophetic literature, and literatures other than it. / Arabic and Islamic Studies / M.A. (Islamic Studies)