The Qur'an's Self-Image: Writing and Authority in Islam's Scripture.

• Author: Cooper, Glen M.
• Position: Book Review

By DANIEL A. MADIGAN. Princeton: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2001. Pp. XV + 236. $45.00.

Islam calls itself a "religion of the Book," and its adherents "people of the Book" (ahl al-kitab), the book being of course the Qur'an. The Qur'an plays a central role in the religious life of the believer; so, it would be useful to know more precisely what the Qur'an means by kitab. This may also cast light on how the notion of a sacred "book" was conceived by other religious communities of that time--especially since the Qur'an so self-consciously asserts its own kinship with these traditions. Given the fact that kitab and qur'an ("recitations") are used almost synonymously in the Qur'an, and given the orality of the Muslim's experience of the Qur'an, Madigan warns us to be wary of approaching the word kitab using modern conceptions of "book." This includes setting aside the way the Islamic tradition has subsequently understood kitab. Accordingly, Madigan here examines the Qur'an's notion of a kitab, leaving behind as much as possible his own preconceptions--in his own words, he offers a "more attentive reading" than earlier scholars--thereby eliciting a larger and more flexible complex of meanings for kitab than a "bound, written codex."

According to Madigan, two influential theories about the kitab that must be rejected are those of G. Widengren and R. Bell. Madigan reminds us that in ancient Near Eastern mythologies writing was a well-established means of communication from God to man. Widengren went so far as to conjecture that Muhammad had produced an Arabic version of the "Heavenly Book," another ancient Near Eastern archetype, which he presented to his followers as "proof" of his prophethood. Unfortunately for this tidy thesis, there is no evidence that Muhammad ever produced anything resembling a "book." There is some evidence, however, that during his lifetime fragments of the Qur'an were recorded on various "at hand" materials, such as parchment, leather, wood, flat stones, and even animal shoulder blades, although it was not until two decades after his death that book as we understand it was compiled, and then it was known as a mushaf "codex, transcript" not a kitab. Madigan observes that Muhammad may have considered the precise form of the revelations as less important than their role in expressing God's will. Similarly, Bell's view must also be rejected, which claims that kitab refers to the Heavenly Book, or the complete record of...