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The Qur'an's Self-Image: Writing and Authority in Islam's Scripture | 
 enlarge | Author: Daniel Madigan
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $70.00
Buy New: $56.24
You Save: $13.76 (20%)
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 1553571
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0691059500
Dewey Decimal Number: 297.1221
EAN: 9780691059501
ASIN: 0691059500
Publication Date: June 1, 2001
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Product Description
Islam is frequently characterized as a "religion of the book," and yet Muslims take an almost entirely oral approach to their scripture. Qur'an means "recitation" and refers to the actual words Muslims believe were revealed to Muhammad by God. Many recite the entire sacred text from memory, and it was some years after the Prophet's death that it was first put in book form. Physical books play no part in Islamic ritual. What does the Qur'an mean, then, when it so often calls itself kitab, a term usually taken both by Muslims and by Western scholars to mean "book"? To answer this question, Daniel Madigan reevaluates this key term kitab in close readings of the Qur'an's own declarations about itself. More than any other canon of scripture the Qur'an is self-aware. It observes and discusses the process of its own revelation and reception; it asserts its own authority and claims its place within the history of revelation. Here Madigan presents a compelling semantic analysis of its self-awareness, arguing that the Qur'an understands itself not so much as a completed book, but as an ongoing process of divine "writing" and "re-writing," as God's authoritative response to actual people and circumstances. Grasping this dynamic, responsive dimension of the Qur'an is central to understanding Islamic religion and identity. Madigan's book will be invaluable not only to Islamicists but also to scholars who study revelation across religious boundaries.
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| Customer Reviews:
 What is the Quran according to itself? March 23, 2004
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Madigan's sweeping literary analysis of the term 'kitab' and its Arabic root "k-t-b" will prove to be immensely valuable for uncovering the earliest Quranic conception of the nature of Muhammad's recieved revelation. What results in Madigan's analysis is a picture of a uniquely Quranic conception of divine revelation and given to humanity--one that itself points to the transcendent supratextual nature of the Qur'an itself. What appears to me to make this work even more balanced and useful is the dialogue that Madigan often enters into with other classical Islamic sources while constructing his own independent position. The discussion of al-Shafi'i's reatment of the Quranic trope "al-kitab wa-l-hikma" is particularly notable. The text itself is beautifully printed and includes both Arabic texts and translations of the sources quoted. One could hope that the high quality exhibited here will quickly become the standard rather than the exception in the field.
 what "Kitab" means September 3, 2002
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Book is about the use of word Qur'an, kitab, mushaf in its various forms and in different context and locations. It is very interesting book for it pulls attention to very important details that you otherwise might have missed when you read the Qur'an or not recall how the same word was used in previous ayats.
Author also investigates the oral nature of the Qur'an and its written form and concludes that for Muslims the oral Qur'an was essential and therefore there was no push for written form.
Although it was more about if the Qur'an is the same as "kitab" or if it is part of it for author draws attention to both expressions used in Qur'an for me it was a reading lecture to catch the details.
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