The Qur'an and Its Biblical Subtext.

• Author: Madigan, Daniel A.
• Position: Book review

The Qur'an and Its Biblical Subtext. By GABIUEL SAID REYNOLDS. Routledge Studies in the Qur'an, vol. 10. London: ROUTLEDGE, 2010. Pp. xi + 304. $130.

Although the title of this book might suggest to the unwary that it is yet another attempt to unearth a Qur'anic Urtext in the style of a Liiling or a "Luxenburg," the author's purpose is in fact quite different. Rather than trying to discredit the Qur'an as a pastiche of biblical themes and tropes only half understood, Reynolds credits the Qur'an both with a fuller appreciation of the biblical and post-biblical tradition within which it explicitly situates its discourse, and also with having more depth and skill in its engagement with that tradition than is usually acknowledged by non-Muslim scholars. He wants to consider the Qur'an as being in honest conversation with the biblical tradition rather than as simply drawing inexpertly from it--a conversation in which it has its own voice and point of view.

The bulk of the book consists of thirteen case studies of elements within the Qur'an text that have traditionally posed problems for the mufassiran and for contemporary translators, whether Muslim or not. The mufassirun he selects are Muqatil, al-Qummi, al-Tabari, al-Zamakhshari, and Ibn Kathir, representing respectively the approaches he characterizes as haggadic, sectarian, literalist, rationalist, and fundamentalist. The translations considered are those of Pickthall, Yusuf Ali, Blachere, Paret, Arberry, Fakhry, and Abdel Haleem. Some of the case studies are just on a single term, such as the name Muhammad, the epithet al-rajim applied to Satan, or the appellation hanif. Others deal with more extended narrative episodes, e.g., the nativity of Mary, the Companions of the Cave, the career of Jonah, or the laughter of Sara. The traditional commentators' frank reporting of multiple opinions of these matters, and their often inconclusive treatment of them, as well as the variations and necessary parenthetical clarifications common among the translations indicate that there is a subtext to these passages--and, the author would maintain, to the whole Qur'an--that very often eludes its readers.

Using a method that takes its inspiration from Franz Rosenthal and, before him, Heinrich Speyer, Reynolds divides each case study into three sections. First, he presents the Qur'anic account of a particular episode, or its usage of the term under consideration. Then he indicates the difficulties the mufassirun and the translators have found in dealing with it. The last part of each study is headed "subtext," by which Reynolds means "the collection of traditions...