Islam Before Muhammad

古兰经研究是一个对人文科学和当代文化至关重要的充满活力的研究领域，它的两极分化程度与过去两个世纪定义圣经研究的路线大致相同：一个阵营持有逐字揭示的古兰经，另一个阵营在注重起源和外部影响的历史化范式下运作。粗略地说，人们可以争辩说，传统方法的极端追随者不允许对文本的完整性提出任何挑战，而是将重点放在中世纪的评论上，而修正主义方法的极端追随者几乎没有赋予文本任何程度的凝聚力和自主性，而是将其视为对先前宗教运动的特定方面的勉强连贯的模仿。推进讨论的关键可能在中间立场上找到，一方面承认《古兰经》的连贯解释学和知识独立性，另一方面承认《古兰经》与以前的宗教运动保持着明显的持续的知识传统。《古兰经》明确肯定了自己的传统性质，这一事实允许采取这种温和的方法。作为一名在晚期古犹太教、基督教和早期伊斯兰教的历史和文学方面接受过广泛培训的学者，我为古兰经的研究带来了一个特定的视角，使我能够论证一个新的调查领域，重点是从古代晚期到古兰经的希伯来语、希腊语、阿拉姆语、叙利亚语和阿拉伯文学之间的“深层”连续性。我对《古兰经》的创新方法得到了对民族、仪式和基督学概念的同时重新审视，这些概念在晚期古董文献中处理过，如《圣经》。我在这一领域的研究始于2006年。我在2007年至2010年在伯克利共同组织的一系列讲座和一次专门讨论犹太和穆斯林文化交流主题的会议上介绍了初步成果。古兰经的主张，这是仅仅是“什么是在它之前的确认”(tasdiq alladhi Bayna yadayhi，Q.10：37，12：111)，确实可以通过仔细检查叙利亚的Didascalia和相关文件，一个四世纪的教会秩序广泛流传在整个晚期古代。在这份文献中，我们发现了许多古兰经短语的具体方面，以及广泛的仪式、伦理、法律和基督学概念，这些概念将古兰经牢牢地固定在以前的宗教传统中。我将在拟议的AHRC奖学金之前的一段时间内进行研究休假。我已经完成了所有的文本研究和对收集的数据的大部分分析，并已经部分起草了拟议专著的不到一半的章节。本提案旨在通过与欧美顶尖的学术和宗教学者合作，以跨学科的视角评估我的研究成果，并完成我的专著。我将在诺丁汉大学组织一个会议，并在加布里埃尔·赛义德·雷诺兹(Notre Dame)的指导下参加一个研讨会。此外，该项目将把宗教学者聚集在一起，与剑桥宗教间方案合作，以便将研究成果传递给实践者团体。

Quranic studies, a vibrant field of research essential to the humanities and to contemporary culture, is deeply polarized roughly along the same lines that defined biblical studies in the past two centuries: one camp holds the Quran to be revealed verbatim, while the other camp operates within a historicizing paradigm focusing on origins and external influence. Putting it crudely, one could argue that the extreme adherents to the traditional approach do not allow any challenges to the integrity of the text and instead focus on medieval commentaries, while the extreme adherents of the revisionist approach hardly grants the text any degree of cohesion and autonomy and instead sees it as the barely cohereing imitation of specific aspects of preceding religious movements.The key to moving the discussion forward may be found in a middle position which, on the one hand, recognizes the coherent hermeneutics and intellectual independence of the Quran, and on the other hand recognizes that the Quran stands in a demonstrable continuous intellectual tradition with previous religious movements. The fact that the Quran explicitly affirms its own traditional nature allows for such a moderate approach. As a scholar trained broadly in the history and literature of Late Antique Judaism, Christianity, and early Islam, I bring a specific perspective to the study of the Quran that allows me to argue for a new field of inquiry, focusing on "deep" continuities between Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Syriac and Arabic literature from Late Antiquity to the Quran. My innovative approach to the Quran is complemented by a simultaneous re-examination of the ethnic, ritual, and Christological concepts handled in Late Antique literature such as the Didascalia.My research in this field began in 2006. I have presented preliminary results in a series of lectures and a conference dedicated to the subject matter of Jewish and Muslim cultural exchange which I co-organized in Berkeley from 2007 to 2010. The Quran's claim that it is a mere "confirmation of what was before it" (tasdiq alladhi bayna yadayhi, Q. 10:37, 12:111) can indeed be justified by a close examination of the Syriac Didascalia and related documents, a fourth century church order which circulated widely throughout Late Antiquity. In this literature we find specific aspects of many Quranic phrases as well as a broad range of ritual, ethical, legal and Christological concepts which anchor the Quran securely in previous religious tradition.I will be on research leave in the period preceding the proposed AHRC fellowship. I have completed all textual studies and much of the analysis of the collected data already, and have already partially drafted just under half of the chapters of the proposed monograph. The present proposal seeks to evaluate my research results with a cross-disciplinary perspective, through collaboration with leading academic as well as religious scholars on Quranic and Late Antique studies in Europe and the US, and to complete my monograph. I will organize a conference at the University of Nottingham and participate in a seminar under the direction of Gabriel Said Reynolds (Notre Dame). In addition, the project will bring together religious scholars working together with the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme in order to transmit the research to practitioner groups.