Обсуждение:Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān - История изменений

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			== Ссылки ==
			https://iais.org.my/icr/index.php/icr/article/view/414/389

	== Journal of the American Oriental Society ==		== Journal of the American Oriental Society ==
	A response to Andrew Rippin’s review of The Integrated Encyclopedia of Qurʾān, Volume I, published in Journal of the American Oriental Society 136.1 (2016), pp. 222-225.		A response to Andrew Rippin’s review of The Integrated Encyclopedia of Qurʾān, Volume I, published in Journal of the American Oriental Society 136.1 (2016), pp. 222-225.

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The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān-Volume 2: новая тема

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	Journal of the American Oriental Society , Vol. 136, No. 1 (January–March 2016), pp. 222-225		Journal of the American Oriental Society , Vol. 136, No. 1 (January–March 2016), pp. 222-225

			== The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān-Volume 2 ==

			The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (IEQ) is a seven-volume reference work that presents all concepts, places, persons, events, and things mentioned in the Qurʾān. Each entry of this work integrates fourteen centuries of Muslim reflection on the Qurʾān-a Book that remains central to the lives of one fourth of humanity. IEQ employs Islamic scholarship from diverse branches of knowledge including Tafsīr, Hadith, Arabic lexicons, Prophetic biographies, universal histories, specialized dictionaries, and treatises on spiritual and moral psychology to elucidate the Qurʾānic worldview through carefully chosen lemmata in language that strives to present the beauty, flavor, and certitude of the original texts. Every entry can be read as a summation of its topic, and simultaneously contributes to an integral whole that conveys the overall message of the Qurʾān.

			Held to a high standard of academic rigor, IEQ integrates source material at several levels: its conceptual framework is drawn from the three axial themes of the Qurʾān-the absolute singularity of the Creator (tawḥīd), prophethood (risāla), and the final Return of all creation to the Creator (maʿād)-; its entries are based on a wide range of primary sources; and its text is crossreferenced with a full citational apparatus that makes it at once contemporary and classical. Every entry is accompanied by a rich bibliography, drawing on many works which have never before been used in any Western-language work on the Qurʾān. Conceived as an authoritative contribution to contemporary Qurʾānic studies and situated within the Islamic scholarly tradition, this landmark publication presents a trove of knowledge on the Qurʾān through the prism of its exegetical tradition and allied sciences as an indispensable tool for academic scholars as well as serious readers of the Qurʾān who are interested in an in-depth understanding of the divine text.

			Comprising sixty-seven entries, Volume II begins with "Beauty" and ends with "Cushions". These entries are a typical example of how the three axial themes of the Qurʾān are condensed in each of its figures, concepts, and terms, and how they contribute to its singular quality of inimitability. Volume II also includes long entries on some of the major themes of the Qurʾān: Belief; Believer(s); Blessings, Bounties and Favors of Allah; Book(s); Christians and Christianity; Children of Isrāʾīl; Creation; Companions of the Prophet; Covenant; Contemplation; and Crucifixion.

			ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

			Over the course of the past decade, many persons have significantly contributed to the making of this second volume of the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān. Some volunteered for this project; others were employed to write its text, review and critique its entries, copyedit the text, and perform other administrative tasks. Certain entries went through a lengthy review process; all were revised multiple times. None of this would have been possible without the diligent efforts of a small team of scholars who understand the critical importance of this project. It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I mention some of these contributors, even though it is not possible to name everyone. Foremost among these efforts over the years are Gibril Fouad Haddad’s contributions to the project on multiple levels (text, conceptual framework, sources); Joseph Lumbard’s reviews, which always asked for more accessibility and clarity; text researched and written by Hasan Spiker in his special kinetic style; the expert language editing of Muhammad Isa Waley; patient copy-editing by Ilyas Ally; and the project organization and administration by Lina Saadi. I am also thankful for the thorough reading of several critical entries by Aasim Rashid; his work has enhanced
			clarity and precision.

			The contributions made by the two contributing editors—Csaba Okváth and Naseer Ahmad—brought many sources to the text which have not been employed in any other encyclopedic work on the Qurʾān in a Western language. Their involvement with the project has been long-term and it is a source of strength and encouragement. The work of Basit Kareem on the text of this second volume has often been constrained due to his own professional and family responsibilities, but he has read, reviewed, and copy-edited nearly every entry of this volume. The text has benefitted from his precision-oriented work.

			The decade between the publication of Volume 1 in 2013 and this volume witnessed many upheavals, not the least of which was a global pandemic which delayed its publication. Without the sustained presence and support of certain other individuals through changing circumstances, this volume may not have been possible: Waqas Ahmad, who witnessed the birth of the IEQ project in 2008 and who has remained one of its supportive pillars; Naeem Iqbal, whose generous contributions have made easier the printing of this Volume; Osman Kademoglu and Nadr Jomha, who remain committed to the completion of the project. Haroon Kalla in South Africa, who has been a great supporter since the first Volume was published in 2013; I am thankful for there kindness and support. To discuss various technological and electronic matters with Muhammad Osama is always a great joy; his expertise overcomes all technical difficulties. He initially developed the project website and remains a strong support for all
			things electronic.

			Then there are those who have helped in developing institutional and community support in North America, Pakistan, Malaysia, Syria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and other places around the world. These include: Sharafe Elladin, Majid Kazi, Taha Hassan, Muhammad Jaseemuddin, Hasan Kazi, and Fakhir Baig. I am also thankful to Jasmin Flaig, who expertly typeset the text of this volume. Athar Jatoi helped to make connections with Mega Printers in Istanbul; his sustained help in various printing-related matters is greatly appreciated. There are others whose presence in the project is a source of strength at a different plane: Abdalla Idris Ali, Yahya Rhodus, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Hamza Yusuf, Ovamir Anjum, Faraz Rabbani, and many others whose understanding of the critical importance of this project translates into prayers and spiritual involvement which nurture the Project’s connections with the magnificent realm of Divine succor; I am deeply thankful for their prayerful watch of this project.

			Even though one’s spouse is customarily mentioned at the end of acknowledgements, it is with a true sense of gratitude that I end this note by mentioning the diligent reading of the entire text, many times over, by Elma Ruth Harder, whose work often picked up finer points of articulation as well as missing references in entry bibliographies.
			Wa-Llāh al-Mustaʿān, wa mā tawfīqī illā bi-Llāh.

			Muzaffar Iqbal

			Center for Islamic Sciences

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Andrew Rippin / Reviewed Work(s): IEQ, vol. 1 by Muzaffar Iqbal: новая тема

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	Islamic Studies , Winter 2008, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Winter 2008), pp. 537-543		Islamic Studies , Winter 2008, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Winter 2008), pp. 537-543

			== Andrew Rippin / Reviewed Work(s): IEQ, vol. 1 by Muzaffar Iqbal ==

			This sumptuous and carefully produced first volume of Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (IEQ) is an impressive beginning to an anticipated seven-tome compendium. The work is a considerable contribution to the study of the Quran, but it raises various issues regarding the way in which scholarship within the academy is defined. By no means can this work simply be dismissed as unscholarly although it does not participate in all the norms of academic work; establishing a clear sense of what those norms are—which is not always as obvious as many of us like to pretend—is a useful byproduct of reviewing this work.

			The first distinctive element is the word “integrated” in the title, which signifies IEQ’s aim to integrate its entries conceptually by basing them all on the Quran and the “internal coherence of its message” (p. xviii). Diversity within the Muslim community hampers this goal somewhat and the solution promoted by IEQ is to produce a work that will not emphasize or aggravate inner-Muslim divisions. Thus, the project is defined by the suggestion that in “producing a manageable encyclopedic text, IEQ needed to restrict its own scope to certain domains of Islamic tradition in order to be generally representative of one of its well-defined strands” (p. xviii). As a result, the encyclopedia is solidly Sunni: Ashʿarī-Māturīdī theology and the four legal schools monopolize the sources employed. Only very occasionally are Shiʿi sources, for example, mentioned. This construction of the Islamic tradition is central to IEQ’s aim of presenting the classical sources and their discussions. The contents of the encyclopedia rarely reflect any sense of historical development within the understanding of a unified “Islamic tradition”; an exception to this “integrated” sense of Muslim intellectual heritage is to be noted where the intrusion of modernity demands attention. For the most part, however, the Islamic tradition is presented as an undifferentiated, singular entity; when difference of opinion does need to be acknowledged, it is slotted into intellectual categories of later construction (Ashʿarī, Ḥanafī, etc). This perspective and conception of the Islamic tradition is clearly critical to the project of providing an “integrated” encyclopedia.

			IEQ’s goal is to address the needs of those who are unable to access the classical Arabic sources that are conceived to define this Islamic tradition. Particular knowledge based on the Quran and the Sunna is suggested to be needed in order to counter the sense of being confounded when confronted with the complexities of those classical sources and their sometimes mutually contradictory statements.
			The audience is not limited to Muslims. For non-Muslims, “most books about the Qurʾān written by non-Muslim writers” are not helpful, “for most of them are replete with an Orientalism that is often more invested in establishing its own canon than explicating the message of a Book in which the authors do not believe” (p. xiii). Works by Muslims, on the other hand, are often inaccessible
			to non-Muslims due to style, basic premises, language, format, and even content. Furthermore, academic works are problematic because they display an “agnostic detachment”; they fail to grapple with the central issue of the authorship of the Quran. While contemporary academic studies are acknowledged to have overcome the missionary impulse of earlier times, they are still seen to be working on the premise that the Quran is humanly produced, which perspective renders them of little use in understanding the truth of the scripture. Scholarly agnosticism is manifested in the constant expression of “perhaps” as opposed to the “strength of Muslim tradition” (p. xvii) that an integrated view conveys. Until recently, engaged scholarship has required that same agnosticism but a new Muslim academic tradition is emerging and it is within this trend that IEQ sees itself as both participating and helping to shape, all of which will be part of a “paradigmatic reconfiguration” of Quranic studies. The outcome is hoped to be an “academic discourse on the Qurʾān… no longer monopolized by those who do not affirm its divine origin” (p. xvii).

			IEQ has all the formal characteristics of an academic encyclopedia. It is lavishly produced; its diction is refined (“academic”) and at times even eloquent. It employs rigorous principles of documentation
			and citation. The volume under review contains forty-seven entries, starting, in traditional fashion, with “Allah, Most High” followed by “Aḥmad, upon him blessings and peace.” From there, entries range alphabetically from “Ability” to “Beautiful Names of God,” with numerous blind entries directing readers to material that will appear in future volumes. Most entries are four to six pages of double-columned text; the entries “Adultery,” “al-Anṣār,” and “Agriculture” run for about ten pages, “Angels” fourteen, “Animals” twenty, and “Allah, Most High” thirty. The entries are written by a small group, most credited with an editorial role in IEQ as well: twenty-two entries are written by Muzaffar Iqbal, the general editor, sometimes as co-author with Naseer Ahmad, an associate editor (their roles in this writing combination vary); fifteen entries are by Gibril Fouad Haddad, also an associate editor. The remaining ten entries are written by seven people (sometimes writing jointly). The scholarship presented in the volume is thus fairly limited in its authorial diversity.

			In terms of taxonomy, IEQ has taken the same approach as Brill’s Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, recognizing that if the encyclopedia is written in English, then English keywords are likely the best way to organize the material. A few exceptions are notable and make the structure of the volume somewhat unpredictable. There is an entry for “ʿAlaqa” (defined as “a thing that clings”) and Arabic forms are used for people’s names (“Ayyūb” and “Bābil” are notable in this volume in this regard). Some common Arabic words and phrases are given blind entries: asbāb al-nuzūl is listed as a cross-reference to an entry that will be called “Occasions of Revelation,” for example.

			Thus, while IEQ conforms to encyclopedic expectations, it also declares itself to be outside the Western encyclopedia tradition. As a principle, it is suggested, IEQ allows the sources to speak for themselves and to speak louder than the author of the entry. It “does not draw on non-Muslim works on the Qurʾān or Islam” (p. xviii), and there are very few citations of contemporary secondary literature from those writing in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, or Bahasa (who can be presumed to be Muslim for the most part). This is perhaps the most important aspect of the encyclopedia that separates it from mainstream academic scholarship: while IEQ’s discourse is academic, it does not partake of the cumulative nature of the academic enterprise. The impoverished overview of the entry “Acquisition”—a famously complex concept—is an example of IEQ’s not gaining from (or even acknowledging) what other scholars have learned from the sources. One of the few citations of “Western” scholarship relates to the idea of Muḥammad as the Paraclete (p. 36); other occasional mentions include references to Encyclopaedia Judaica on matters of ancient history related to the Ark (p. 262) and to William Chittick on Ibn ʿArabī related to the barzakh (p. 327).

			The absence of consideration of contemporary academic scholarship is noticeably detrimental to IEQ’s value even within the terms of its declared goals, because there are aspects of the Quran that could have been drawn out or reframed with the additional perspectives and insights that this scholarship provides. An example may be drawn from the extensive entry “Animals,” whose author (Haddad) did not interrogate the category “animals” (dawābb) before setting out to simply list all thirty-three animal names mentioned in the Quran. Such a treatment can be profitably compared to the work of Sarra Tlili (“The Meaning of the Qurʾanic Word ‘dābba’: ‘Animals’ or ‘Nonhuman Animals’?” Journal of Qurʾanic Studies 12 [2010]: 167–87), who raises well-reasoned objections to the speciesist reading of this word, unquestioningly adopted in the above IEQ entry. While it may well be that Tlili’s essay was not yet available to the author, the categorical rejection of the relevance of contemporary scholarly work means that critical questions regarding the relationship between (and the status of) human beings and other living creatures in the world would not have been confronted regardless.

			In terms of the presentation of the sources of the Muslim tradition, history is declared to be relevant only to the extent of using the earliest possible sources “to trace material and ideas back to their first appearance” (p. xviii). These sources “speak for themselves” and the encyclopedia presents them without “arrogating interpretive authority to itself” (p. xix). As a result, many of the entries consist primarily of quotations from the Quran and the Sunna. Some do include discussions based on classical sources, whether for exegetical comment (“Anonymous Mentions, mubhamāt”) or theological elaboration (e.g., “Astray, ḍāll,” “Atom, dharra,” “Avarice and Greed”). Many entries (e.g., “Ability,” “Abode”) adopt a linguistic approach by classifying Quranic senses of the Arabic words that underlie the entry’s name and then looking at related source material (especially in hadith) and relevant intellectual discussions in legal and theological texts.

			This approach—whether described as “integrated” or as the result of “spiritual humility”—has significant implications. Scholarly analysis involves complexity, that creative and imaginative process that searches data for new angles and formulations; complexity involves an understanding that any description of a phenomenon will never encompass all of its possible aspects. For IEQ, however, a recognition of complexity is absent and what analysis there is results in assertions of singular meanings. The entry “Ablution,” for example, makes no attempt to explain or understand such ritual within the multi-dimensional framework of purity as employed in the discipline of Religious Studies; rather, the entry deals with it strictly as a legal imposition, its meaning simply related to transitions in life that are thereby imbued with spiritual significance. There is no consideration of why ablutionary acts are isolated or what the implications might be for attitudes toward them and toward bodies in general (other than as a symbolic act of “inner purity”). In the entry “Abū Lahab,” the theological problems of the mention of a historical person in an eternal text receives no consideration. The topic of foreign vocabulary in the Quran is acknowledged—for example in the entry “Animal” under the subsection “Lion”—but there is no attempt to discuss its merits or to investigate it through contemporary philological considerations. Likewise in the entry “Arabic,” no effort is made to provide a historical perspective or employ modern linguistic knowledge to clarify the topic. In a different vein, but still reflecting IEQ’s principles, the entry “al-Aqsa Mosque” is devoid of any modern political perspectives, providing a model of restraint if, in fact, not an ironic example of scholarly agnosticism.

			Overall, it is clear that IEQ aspires to make a positive contribution. One might allow that by ignoring contemporary academic scholarship, no polemic is undertaken, to the benefit of the final product. In this way IEQ accomplishes its own aims and maintains admirable standards of integrity. The only time this approach is compromised is when descriptions of what are described as “heterodox views” are provided; in these cases, the particular perspectives of the authors tend to be apparent, especially in their critique of rational and/or scientific explanations of the Quran. Some entries employ language that is uncharacteristic of the rest of the work as they aim to debunk modern theories, which are declared to be “dubious” and as having “little or no bearing on the Qurʾān and its message” (as related to the history and identity of ʿAd, p. 98), influenced by “pseudo-Darwinian interpretations” (in the case of Ādam, p. 115), or “eager to promote Islam purely as a science-friendly rational ideology devoid of any supernatural elements” (in the discussion of Angels, p. 181). The entry “ʿAlaqa” is particularly critical of attempts to prove the Quran’s divine status by scientific means. The entry “Atom” is especially explicit (and informative) in providing an understanding of the complexities of the English term derived from Greek and its modern use as compared to the Quranic term dharra (“infinitesimal quantity”); this discussion leads to a scornful rejection of modern scientific interpretations of the latter term.

			The editors suggest that failing to affirm the Quran’s divine origin necessarily leads to scholarship that is at best irrelevant to Muslims since such undertakings avoid confronting the core of Muslim belief. On the basis of the contents of this volume it is difficult to see that this is always necessarily true. While the constraint of “letting the sources speak for themselves” certainly does result in a lack of analysis and critical, historical insights, there are entries that, to the extent they bring valuable data together and classify them, could easily appear in a work such as Encyclopaedia of Islam Three (EI3); this is especially true when the topic is one on which a Muslim consensus is not readily determined. The entry “Abrogation,” which I have chosen partially because I wrote the entry for EI3, provides a suitable example. Clearly, the IEQ author (again Haddad) was not on a mission to determine the “truth” of this often highly contentious issue, contrary to what one reads in many sophomoric essays. Rather, we are presented with an informative summary of classical discussions and analytic categories of the phenomenon as Muslims have understood it (granted, there is little sense of history here except when speaking of modern times). Particularly noticeable, however, is that the author’s voice, when it does appear, is not one of scholarly distance (or “agnosticism”)—it speaks to and within the Muslim community. For example, Haddad states, “Naskh is mostly (though not necessarily…) about ease and can be exemplified by the gradual lessening of the Divinely-imposed duty of 50 daily prayers to five in the account of the Prophet’s Heavenly Ascension…” (p. 58). Academic scholarship, it seems to me, aims for as broad an audience as possible, meaning that all readers should be able to feel addressed within the discourse. (Within the field of study there are certain presumptions about what the audience will know, but the language employed should not exclude anyone.) If one added “Most Muslims have understood that…” to the beginning of Haddad’s statement, then one would have created a statement of fact that presumably everyone can agree with because it can be substantiated through reference to sources. Academic writing is directed to a community of scholars defined by their sharing in an academic discourse, not by their membership in a religious community (or an ethnicity, or gender, or sexual orientation) which such absence of “agnosticism” conveys.

			Three points emerge from these considerations to portray IEQ’s distinctiveness. First, despite IEQ’s having all the basic elements of scholarship that must be assumed and are part of the overall discourse (linguistic register, source documentation, technical transliteration, absence of plagiarism, and so forth), academic writing engages an ongoing community of scholarship, not one that represents only the cultural heritage of the subject itself; this IEQ explicitly rejects. Second, academic scholarship is frequently, although not always exclusively, grounded in history in its approach; IEQ tends to take a monolithic view of the Islamic heritage (even while holding to the premise that “older is better” in terms of sources), which reduces complexity to the detriment of subsequent analysis. Third, academic scholarship is written for an audience of academic peers—that is understood to be the audience’s common factor; the language used, therefore, speaks not to other social categorizations. Although wishing to address, by its own declaration, both Muslim and non-Muslim readers, IEQ speaks from within the religious community in the expectation that its audience will share in the values and perspectives of the authors and editors.

			I offer two minor suggestions in the spirit of a constructive conclusion. The translation of the word nawʿ as “type” (e.g., p. 215) when used by al-Suyūṭī in al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān is correct technically in the sense that each “type” of ʿilm (i.e., Quranic science) is necessary to understand the Quran. But that translation is rather context-less for the average English reader, and it would be more meaningfully rendered as “topic” or even simply as “chapter,” as is frequently done elsewhere. Also, in “Animals” under the subsection “Land predators” (p. 202), sabuʿ in the Quranic verse al-Māʾida(5):3 is translated as “wild beast” and does not correspond to the text, which states “The Qurʾān mentions land predators or sabuʿ…”; this could result in some confusion for non-Arabic readers. While I did not observe this mismatch as a generalized concern, it is one that should receive careful editorial scrutiny.

			Journal of the American Oriental Society , Vol. 136, No. 1 (January–March 2016), pp. 222-225

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IEQ: Raison d'être and Project Summary / MUZAFFAR IQBAL: новая тема

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	Wuddistān, Dhūl-ḥijja 26, 1433/November 11, 2012		Wuddistān, Dhūl-ḥijja 26, 1433/November 11, 2012

			== IEQ: Raison d'être and Project Summary / MUZAFFAR IQBAL ==

			Conceived as a reference work based on fourteen centuries of Islamic scholarship, The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an (IEQ) strives to bring to the English-speaking world a unique blend of classical and contemporary Islamic scholarship on the Qur'an in an accessible and reader-friendly format. It is meant for both Muslim and non-Muslim general readers who are looking for an authentic source of in-depth and scholarly knowledge on the Qur'an and its message, as well as academic scholars, whether specializing in the field of Qur'anic studies or working more generally in other disciplines related to Islam.

			;The Qur'an, Muslims and IEQ

			Today only about 20 percent of all Muslims understand the language of the Qur'an. This inability to directly access the multi-layered linguistic richness of the original text of the Qur'an is often combined with a lack of sufficient training in reading the Qur'an — even in translation — especially for those who are schooled through a modern Western-style educational system. Since the Qur'an remains a fundamental part of their lives at so many levels of existence, millions of Muslims look for different translations, exegeses, dictionaries, and translations of classical texts on the Qur'an in order to engage with it at a deeper level. These sources are useful to some extent, but since classical texts were not intended to be used without guidance, those readers who lack training in reading these texts are more likely to be confused than enlightened. For instance, when one encounters thirteen different (and sometimes mutually conflicting) opinions on one verse in Jamic al-Bayan 'an Ta'wll Ayy al-Qur'an> Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari's (d. 310/923) monu mental tafslr, or when one finds seven different sayings of the Prophet H in reference to one verse in Isma'il b. 'Umar Ibn Kathlr's (d. 774/1373) Tafslr al Qur'an al-Azlm, one needs to have the requisite training in tafslr and hadlth methodology and scholarship to understand this wealth of material. Thus, The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an will be an invaluable source as a concise and authentic reference work which presents this vast repository of classical Islamic literature on the Qur'an in a language and manner that is accessible to modern readers. The Qur'an, non-Muslims and IEQ If the paths to the Qur'an have become restricted for Muslims due to barriers of language and education, they are almost completely blocked for a vast majority of non-Muslims. This exclusion is a dual calamity: countless men and women are never really able to come to encounter the Words of the Creator, and also, as a result, a fundamental divide separates those who believe in the Qur'an and those who do not. In a way, this divide has existed ever since the Qur'an was first revealed some fourteen centuries ago, but the contemporary situation is unlike the past; the rapid shrinking of the globe in so many realms of human existence — geographical, intellectual, political, social, economic — has made it impossible for any community to live in isolation. Thus those who believe in the final revelation of the Creator and those who do not now live in close proximity to one another in so many dimensions of space and time. This has generated a great deal of friction and simultaneously a rapid growth of interest in the Qur'an by non-Muslims. As a result, the number of non Muslims who have actually opened one of the many available translations of the Qur'an has increased exponentially in recent years. After reading the first few pages, however, a great many of these readers find it difficult to continue, for they encounter a text unlike any they have ever read.

			They find neither coherence nor logical connections of the kind most familiar to them. Moreover, the imagery of the Qur'an remains utterly foreign to them even in the best of translations, not to speak of its miraculous totum simul — the simultaneous totality (al-wahdat al-mawdii'iyyah)--that creates the whole in every part. In the multi-layered coherence of the Qur'an, all its themes emerge in short passages, creating an inimitable interplay between its imagery, oaths, parables, chronicles, warnings, and glad tidings. With so many elements of text coalescing, separating, reuniting, and reemphasizing each other at numerous levels, the result can be a total incomprehensibility and confusion.

			Often all that a sincere non-Muslim reader gains out of his or her first encounter with the Qur'an is an overall sense of alienation. Those who attempt to understand its message through other books find few representative works in Western languages. Books by non-Muslim scholars are rarely of help, for they often serve only to enlarge the canon of Orientalist writing. Neither has the burgeoning field of contemporary academic studies made a significant positive contribution in this regard. Most Muslim scholarship on the Qur'an, on the other hand, remains inaccessible to non-Muslims as well as to Westernized Muslims for reasons of language, style, basic premises, format, and content. The paucity of genuine resources available to such seekers looking for an authentic source to understand the message of the Qur'an will be somewhat alleviated by The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, which will provide scholarly material in a manner and format familiar to them.

			;The Qur'an, the Academy and IEQ

			Non-Muslim academic scholars have yet another dilemma when approaching the Qur'an. They cannot commit themselves to any position about the Divine origin of the Qur'an; their professional obligation is to maintain a certain detachment from the object of their study. Yet, in this case, the object itself makes it impossible to maintain such neutrality, for the Qur'an demands that one must settle the fundamental issue of its authorship before any further interaction can occur: one must either accept or reject the Qur'anic claim that it is a Divine Revelation. A corollary of whatever choice they make is their position regarding the Prophet ^. Acceptance of the Qur'an as a Divine Revelation simultaneously entails the acceptance of the Prophet Muhammad M as the final Messenger of Allah and the seal of prophecy. If they reject the Qur'anic claim, they simultaneously reject his prophethood and thereby find themselves in the difficult position of questioning his honesty and truthfulness — something that polemical writers have done for centuries. Such scholars, thus, find themselve in an irresolvable dilemma: if they commit to a position on the Qur'an, they sacrifice their 'impartiality'; if they do not, they cannot legitimately interact with the text they are studying. This dilemma has been recognized by a number of academic scholars, who further admit that no resolution is available.

			Against this historical background, IEQ brings to the academic world a unique reference work, sharing with its sources the premise that the Qur'an is a revealed text while simultaneously maintaining scholarly norms and standards. Academic scholars will, therefore, welcome a reference work on the Qur'an that presents, in concise form, fourteen centuries of Islamic scholarship, even though they might not fully agree with its basic premises. Those who work in the specialized field of Qur'anic studies and have the linguistic ability to directly access the vast corpus of Muslim scholarship produced over the last fourteen hundred years will also find IEQ appealing, for it makes available in one work materials and resources that are scattered over a vast body of sometimes inaccessible texts.

			IEQ will serve as a useful starting point for new dimensions of intensive research, for it brings to the academic world hundreds of well-referenced sources from the reservoir of Islamic scholarship on the Qur'an. Researchers in disciplines other than Qur'anic studies, especially those without the linguistic skills to directly access the formidable corpus of Qur'anic sciences in the original, will also appreciate IEQ because it fulfils one of their essential needs.

			;Key Features of IEQ

			* The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an draws its entries from the thematic structure of the Qur'an itself. The editors have striven to cover all themes of the Qur'an and have assigned proportionate space to articles in relation to their relative importance in the Qur'an. This feature of IEQ becomes apparent from the "Thematic List of Articles" (to be included in Volume 7), which presents an index of articles under Qur'anic themes such as Faith (al-Iman) and its various dimensions; Deeds (al-a'mal); Calling toward Allah (al-da'wah ila 'Hah); Jihad (al-Jihad); Economic Relations [aUaldqat al-maliyyah); Juridical Relations (al-'alaqat al qada'iyyah); Chronicles and History (alqasas wa 'l-ta'rikh); the Qur'an itself as a theme of the Qur'an (al-Qur'an); Other Religions (al-diyanat al ukhra); Sciences and Arts (al-'uliim wa %funuri)\ and the like. Muslim scholars have built a tradition of exacting scholarship over the past fourteen centuries which explicates each theme in detail, keeping in view its precise relationship with the overall message of the Qur'an. This internal thematic unity of the Qur'an, often overlooked in works produced by non-Muslim scholars, also provides a coherent schema for cross-references; it thereby facilitates a broader understanding of the message of the Qur'an.
			* IEQ assumes serious engagement, but no prior knowledge of Arabic or of the Qur'an. It employs English-language lemmata with certain modifications and its intensive cross-referencing makes article location easy.
			* IEQ integrates a large body of classical scholarship on the Qur'an and makes it available to contemporary readers. This integration takes place at several levels — from the conception of the overall framework to the individual entries — and results in a scholarly work that is simultaneously contemporary and classical.
			* The editors have identified approximately 650 entries and several hundred cross-references covering all concepts, places, and persons mentioned in the Qur'an. Entries have been divided into five categories: special, major, medium, minor, and short according to their word count and assigned to Muslim scholars specializing in various fields of Qur'anic studies.
			* IEQ will bring to the English-speaking world a breadth of knowledge on the Qur'an seldom found in any single work in a Western language. It draws its scholarly acumen from fourteen centuries of Qur'anic scholarship. It embraces a variety of perspectives present in the Islamic exegetical literature, and provides a much-needed alternative to works on the Qur'an by Orientalists as well as by contemporary non-Muslim academic scholars. Muslim and non-Muslim specialists focusing on Qur'anic studies, scholars and students in all disciplines in academic institutions, and serious readers will discover an illuminating breadth of knowledge in The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an.
			* Potential readership includes academic specialists in the field of Qur'anic studies, faculty in religious studies departments, researchers engaged with any aspect of Islam, graduate students, Muslims interested in an in-depth study of the Qur'an, and non-Muslims seeking specialized knowledge on concepts, places, and person mentioned in the Qur'an.

			;Editorial and Organizational Structure

			* The Project has a two-tiered editorial structure: (i) an International Advisory Board, consisting of senior scholars who are consulted and relied upon for general guidance and expertise; and (ii) an editorial board consisting of a General Editor, five Associate Editors, three Assistant Editors, and one Language Editor. Please see the project website for biographical notes < www.iequran.com >.
			* Originally conceived as a project of the Center for Islam and Science (CIS), Canada, IEQ now enjoys the support of many universities, academic and research institutions from around the world. This growing support is indicative of a broadly felt need for such a work. Please see the worldwide list of supporting institutions on the project website.
			* Established in 2000, Center for Islam and Science (CIS) is an independent research center dedicated to the promotion of research and diffusion of knowledge on all aspects of Islam. CIS operates under an international advisory board and a local executive committee. It is a registered not-for profit organization in the province of Alberta and a registered charity with revenue Canada (Charity no. 86447 2899 RR0001). For more details on the work of the Center, please visit < www.cis-ca.org>.
			* In 2008, the Society for Qur'anic Studies (SQS), Pakistan, was especially formed for collaborating with CIS on this project. Registered under the Societies Act XXI of 1860 (Registration no. KAR-0277 of 2008-09), SQS functions as an independent research organization with its own board of trustees.

			;Competing Works

			IEQ will directly compete with Brill's Encyclopedia of the Qur'an (EQ), which is by far the only other extensive reference work on the Qur'an in English. IEQ, however, differs substantially from EQ in its conception, organization of material, as well as sources. As noted above, IEQ will bring to the English speaking world a substantial amount of source material that is currently unavailable to non-specialists, much of which was not used in EQ. Since IEQ will be written from the perspective of Muslim scholars who affirm the divine origin of the Qur'an, it will provide a much-needed counterbalance to the existing non-Muslim scholarship on the Qur'an. From a non-Muslim perspective, IEQ will be valuable because it will provide unique and valuable insights into Muslim understandings of the Qur'an as well as a richness of source material largely inaccessible to people who do not know Arabic and other languages spoken in the Muslim world.

			;Various Editions of IEQ and Translations

			Initially published by Al-Qalam Publishing <www.alqalam.org>, Canada, in English, IEQ will also be printed and distributed in various parts of the Muslim world in partnership with local publishers; this will ensure its easy and affordable availability throughout the Muslim world. Each of its seven volumes will be approximately 550 pages each. We hope to have German, French, Spanish, and Italian translations as well. We are already exploring ways to produce its Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, FarsI, Malay, and Bahasa Indonesian versions. IEQ will also be launched as an online work.

			Islamic Studies , Winter 2008, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Winter 2008), pp. 537-543

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	<p class="quoted-text">Verse, bāb, and consonantal root references respectively suffice in lieu of page numbers for Qurʾān commentaries, hadith collections, and lexicons, given the multiple editions (and hence conflicting paginations) often available. All other in-line references provide volume and page numbers—for example, “Ibn <strong>ʿ</strong>Abd al-Barr, al-Istīʿāb 2:747-748” and, for single-volume works, “Ibn Jubayr, <em>Riḥla</em> p. 127.”</p>		<p class="quoted-text">Verse, bāb, and consonantal root references respectively suffice in lieu of page numbers for Qurʾān commentaries, hadith collections, and lexicons, given the multiple editions (and hence conflicting paginations) often available. All other in-line references provide volume and page numbers—for example, “Ibn <strong>ʿ</strong>Abd al-Barr, al-Istīʿāb 2:747-748” and, for single-volume works, “Ibn Jubayr, <em>Riḥla</em> p. 127.”</p>

			== Overview ==

			Conceived as an authoritative scholarly work based on fourteen centuries of Islamic scholarship, the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (IEQ) is the first English language reference work on the Qurʾān based entirely on primary sources. Held to a high standard of academic rigor, IEQ draws on a wide range of traditional Muslim sources, including exegeses, Hadith collections and commentaries, classical lexicons, biographical dictionaries, universal histories, works of jurisprudence, Prophetic biographies, and treatises on spiritual and moral psychology--some of which have never before been presented in any encyclopedic work in a Western language. IEQ integrates source material at several levels: its conceptual structure presents an integrated view of the overall message of the Qur’an; it incorporates and integrates various strands of Islamic scholarly tradition on the Divine text; and it presents a cohesive, cross-referenced text that is at once contemporary and classical.

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	Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies		Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies

			== A Note about the IEQ Project ==

			<p><em>The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an</em> (IEQ) is the first English language encyclopedia of the Qur’an that presents all concepts, persons, events, places, and things mentioned in the Qur’an from within the Muslim tradition of Qur’an interpretationon over the last 1400 years. The project was launched by the [https://cis-ca.org/#/ Center for Islamic Sciences (CIS)], Canada, in 2009. The first volume was published in 2013 and it received wide-ranging recognition as a [https://iequran.com/pdf/Endorsements.pdf superb work of scholarship]. In 2020, IEQ was reconfigured as an open-access online work. Imitation leather print version of Volume 1 is [https://iequran.com/shop/index.php available for purchase at IEQ website].</p>

			<p>IEQ employs English-language titles for most of its entries and its extensive cross-referencing facilitates a fuller understanding of the message of the Qur’an. It draws its entries from the thematic structure of the Qur’an, integrates fourteen centuries of scholarship, and presents a breadth of authoritative knowledge on the Qur'an. With almost one fifth of its anticipated 515 entries completed, IEQ is an unmatched source of fully documented explanation of all concepts, persons, places, events and things mentioned in the Qurʾān.</p>

			;Conventions

			The <em>Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān</em> devotes individual entries to most concepts, persons, places, events, and things mentioned in the Qurʾān, but in some cases these may be subsumed under another entry or combined into a single entry. For instance, discussion of abortion is found under Child-Bearing; the pre-Islamic chieftain Abraha is not mentioned in the Qurʾān by name but appears in the exegetical and biographical literature in reference to Q 105 (<em>al-Fīl</em>, “the Elephant”), and so is discussed under the entry People of the Elephant. Blind entries direct readers to the appropriate title (e.g., “Anti-Christ, see Dajjāl”; “Apocalypse, see Resurrection”). In some cases, individual mentions are collectively presented: for example, the entry on Animals includes all thirty-two animals and categories of animals mentioned in the Qurʾān in a single entry.</p>

			<p>IEQ employs English-language lemmata for most of its entries, but certain Qurʾānic terms as well as all Qurʾānic proper names have been retained in original Arabic form because of their distinct semantic associations. Recognizing that this may pose difficulties to readers unfamiliar with the original names or terms, all such entries are extensively cross-referenced and internally related. Thus the entry for the Prophet ʿĪsā, upon him peace, is found alphabetically under “I”, with cross-references under “C” (“Christ, see ʿĪsā”) and “J” (“Jesus, see ʿĪsa”); the entry for the distinctive Islamic term <em>iḥsān</em> is listed alphabetically, its approximate translations, such as “Excellence” and “Perfection”, are cross-referenced to the entry title. Likewise, the entry for Laylat al-qadr is listed under Night of Qadr and cross-referenced at the common approximations (“Night of Destiny”, “Night of Power”).</p>

			<p>In certain cases, this convention may not appear straightforward. For instance, Hijra, Anṣār, and Muhājirūn are respectively translated as “Emigration”, “Helpers”, and “Emigrants”; but their distinctive Islamic usage is lost in such generalizing translations because these Qurʾānic terms refer to a specific event and specific groups of people. These terms are, therefore, transliterated, not translated, while their approximate English renditions provide cross-references. IEQ entries often provide both translations and transliterations of key terms or turns of phrase, in order to at once facilitate search and accessibility. Arabic words which have become part of the English language and are found in major dictionaries are not italicized, including such words as Hajj, Hijra, Ramadan, Sunna, and sura.</p>

			<p>Finally, cross-references within each entry indicated by (<em>q.v.</em>)—<em>quod vide</em>—direct readers to additional entries pertaining to the topic under discussion. For example:</p>

			<p class="quoted-text">They had lived in Yathrib (q.v.) for many generations before the Hijra (q.v.) of the Prophet to their city in 622 CE. They were two distinct parts of the first Islamic polity in Madina (q.v.) which came into existence through the fusion of these two communities, establishing a high level of spiritual kinship, mutual support, and friendship.</p>

			<p><strong>Bibliographic References</strong></p>

			<p>A key feature of IEQ is its extensive documentation; it has brought a large number of classical and traditional sources in the contemporary discourse on the Qurʾān. References to the Qurʾān provide sura and verse numbers, and all translations from the Qurʾān are italicized without being bound by quotation marks. Thus Q 2:6 refers to the sixth verse of Sūrat al-Baqara: <em>As for the disbelievers, it is the same for them whether you warn them or warn them not: they do not believe</em>.</p>

			[https://online.iequran.com/abbrevations/ Frequently cited sources] are abbreviated. Where a publication does not contain the Common Era date, only the Hijri date is given.</p>

			<p>In-line references to Qurʾān commentaries provide the author name and title followed by reference to the Qurʾānic verse commented upon, unless it is implicit from the context. For example:</p>

			<p class="quoted-text">The calligraphy of the basmala developed into an ornate genre in its own right, partly due to its merits and ritual significance. The Umayyad caliph ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (ca.62-101/682-720; r. 98-101/717-720), an eminent scholar in his own right and great-grandson of ʿUmar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb, used to tell his calligraphers: “Honoring the speech of Allah Most High, lengthen the bāʾ, write the sīn distinctively, keep a distance between [the two letters], and make the mīm circular” (Thaʿlabī, Kashf, fī faḍl al-tasmiya, sub Q 1:1; Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf, sub Q 1:1). Abū Khālid b. Yazīd al-Murādī comments that the reason why the bāʾ is lengthened is that the alif is elided, its length being incorporated into the bāʾ (Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf).</p>

			<p>In-line references to Hadith collections and commentaries similarly provide the author name, title of the book, and bāb. The titles of the following hadith collections are often presumed (and only seldom listed when needed for additional clarity): the <em>Muwaṭṭāʾ</em> of Imam Mālik, <em>Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim</em>, the <em>Sunans</em> of Ibn Mājah, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasāʾī, and the <em>Musnad</em> of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal. For example:</p>

			<p class="quoted-text">ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb saw a similar dream (Tirmidhī, Ṣalāt, mā jāʾa fī badʾ al-adhān; Ibn Ḥajar, <em>Fatḥ al-bārī</em>, qawluhu bāb badʾ al-adhān; Aḥmad, Musnad Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq 1:218 §45).</p>

			<p>In-line references to lexicons note the consonantal root, unless it is implicit from the context. For example:</p>

			<p class="quoted-text">The Qurʾānic collective noun for birds, al-ṭayr, is mentioned twenty times (singular ṭāʾir, plural ṭayr, ṭuyūr, and aṭyār). Lexically, al-ṭayr refers to “two-winged animals that fly,” though the category includes flightless birds (Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān, sub ṭ-y-r).</p>

			<p class="quoted-text">Animals, dawābb, singular dābba, often used specifically for mounts, from the root d-b-b, contracted verbal form dabba, “to tread the earth,” aortive yadibbu, infinitive noun dabīb (Jawharī, Ṣiḥāḥ).</p>

			<p class="quoted-text">Verse, bāb, and consonantal root references respectively suffice in lieu of page numbers for Qurʾān commentaries, hadith collections, and lexicons, given the multiple editions (and hence conflicting paginations) often available. All other in-line references provide volume and page numbers—for example, “Ibn <strong>ʿ</strong>Abd al-Barr, al-Istīʿāb 2:747-748” and, for single-volume works, “Ibn Jubayr, <em>Riḥla</em> p. 127.”</p>

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Новая страница: «== Journal of the American Oriental Society == A response to Andrew Rippin’s review of The Integrated Encyclopedia of Qurʾān, Volume I, published in Journal o...»

Новая страница

== Journal of the American Oriental Society ==
A response to Andrew Rippin’s review of The Integrated Encyclopedia of Qurʾān, Volume I, published in Journal of the American Oriental Society 136.1 (2016), pp. 222-225.

University of Victoria Professor Emeritus of Islamic History and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London Andrew Rippin’s review of the first volume of the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (IEQ) describes it as “sumptuous and carefully produced,” “an impressive beginning”, and “a considerable contribution to the study of the Quran” (p. 222 par. 1). His review goes downhill from there. In the process he appeals to a purported shared understanding of the nature of academic scholarship on Islam and makes serious charges that give pause and warrant scrutiny, which this response is meant to be.

Rippin asserts that IEQ “does not participate in all the norms of academic work” (p. 222 par. 1) and “does not partake of the cumulative nature of the academic enterprise” (p. 223 par. 4). This critique is alarming because of the assumption on which it is based: that serious scholarship on Islam is defined by Orientalism sine qua non. That is, the historical tradition of knowledgeproduction is primarily vested in the culture of Western institutions of higher education. Such a bias shows lack of awareness of another view that considers Orientalism an elaborate syllabus of errors in which are occasionally found pearls. There is unquestionably another, independent and older scholarly tradition on Islam that is arguably more authoritative, and that it should have been the focus of every academe to study and convey with utmost transparency, because it has its own unexplored trove of insights. However, while Orientalism has vastly capitalized on that tradition, it has also actively occulted it in order to pass itself off as original knowledge; worse, it has distorted it in order to make it say the opposite of what it actually says, for a variety of reasons. This is what projects like IEQ are good at debunking and this is why the tightly held industry is expected to chafe.

Rippin’s presumptions about academic neo-Orientalism being the guardian of serious scholarship on Islam also emerge from the penultimate paragraph of the review: “Academic scholarship… aims for as broad an audience as possible, meaning that all readers should be able to feel addressed within the discourse… the language employed should not exclude anyone…. Academic writing is directed to a community of scholars defined by their sharing in an academic discourse [emphasis added], not by their membership in a religious community… which such absence of ‘agnosticism’ conveys” (p. 225 par. 1). I have italicized the lapalissade in the last sentence as a classic example of a circular platitude (“we are agnostic writers because we all agree to write agnostic writings”) where the endogamy of the Orientalist industry is proudly displayed right under the reader’s nose. It also escaped the reviewer that he had claimed, only five lines before, that academic scholarship was neither elitist nor clannish (this is the nearest he comes to admitting a universal ethical and moral role to scholarship). As for scholarly agnosticism and all readers feeling included, it is as if he had no idea that Orientalism had specialized in excluding countless generations of readers from its discourse, and leaving plenty feeling violated as well. From Ludovico Marracci’s (d. 1700) pan- European summa of anti-Qur’an commentary to Helmut Gätje’s (d. 1986) The Qur’an and Its Exegesis with its identical brazen suggestions that the Prophet was a master Biblical plagiarist and docetic syncretist, to the first statement about Hadith and its transmission chains I ever heard from my former teacher at Columbia the late Jeanette Wakin (d. 1998) as being “all made up from the bottom up,” nothing has changed. Think also of the historical responsibility of Orientalism in helping to shape policies and agendas that were detrimental to one specific religious community.

Rippin accuses IEQ of lacking complexity again and again (p. 222 par. 3, p. 223 par. 4, p. 224 par. 2, p. 225 par. 2). He objects that “the contents… rarely reflect any sense of historical development within the understanding of a unified ‘Islamic tradition’ [his quotes]… for the most part… presented as an undifferentiated, singular entity” (p. 222 par. 2) instead of addressing the “complexities,” the “sometimes mutually contradictory statements” (p. 222 par. 3). “IEQ tends to take a monolithic view of the Islamic heritage” (p. 225 par. 2). These are sweeping accusations that are hardly substantiated by the examples he gives, which show resistance to IEQ methodology, a poor reading of the text under review and a selective understanding of Qurʾānic concepts as the next paragraph illustrates.

Rippin views the fact that IEQ did not include human beings in its discussion of animals in the Qurʾān as a “speciesist” offence (p. 223 par. 5) However, no commentator or lexicographer has argued, on the basis of the ḥaqīqa lughawiyya of the Qurʾānic term dābba (“earth-crawler”), for a subitemization of human beings, jinns and angels under the category of dawābb in the sense of animals. Furthermore, a qualified speciesism is certainly found in the Qurʾānic concepts of taskhīr and khilāfa among others; linguistic commentators pointed out that ʿālamīn in the Fātiḥa is a personalized plural (instead of the expected ʿawālim) for that very reason. He faults IEQ for not contextualizing the relationship of ablutionary acts in attitudes towards bodies (p. 224 par. 2), but such notions of historical subjectivism are peripheral to, and arguably outside Islamic scholarship proper; the entry “Ablution” is certainly complete without indulging them. He states, “In the entry ‘Abu Lahab’ the theological problems of the mention of a historical person in an eternal text receives [sic] no consideration” (p. 224, par. 2) but it appears he overlooked the entry “Ability” 50 pages up, which does discuss Abu Lahab and similar cases within the Ashʿarī and Māturīdī codification of the concept of istiṭāʿa in precisely the terms he brings up. He continues, “The topic of foreign vocabulary in the Quran is acknowledged—for example in the entry ‘Animal’ [sic] under the subsection ‘Lion’—but there is no attempt to discuss its merits or to investigate it through contemporary philological considerations.” This criticism is also out of place, because the already oversized entry “Animals” would not be the right place to treat the muʿarrab of the Qurʾān, which surely warrants its own category, especially given its extensive considerations in actual Qurʾānic scholarship long before we turn to contemporary considerations. All in good time.

Rippin refuses to accept the main tenet of the raison d’être of IEQ, which he finds to be exclusionary of readers who do not hold Muslim beliefs. His proposed solution is to alter the style of IEQ: he suggests that all its main statements be subordinated to the premise “Most Muslims have understood that....” (p. 225 par. 1); but his whole review up to that point is an acknowledgment that the introduction to IEQ has already made this point abundantly clear. The critical mass of mainstream cumulative scholarship known as ʿilm more than amply justifies IEQ’s sourcing methodology and the organization (and hierarchy) of its scholarship. Yet for Rippin, what is not acceptable as the philosophical premise underlying the entire work becomes acceptable as a stylistic caveat emptor using the most dubious distancing quotation marks possible. He raises the astonishing complaint that “Particular knowledge based on the Quran and the Sunna is suggested to be needed in order to counter the sense of being confounded when confronted with the complexities of those classical sources and their sometimes mutually contradictory statements” (p. 222 par. 3). It is as if IEQ’s axiomatic view of the necessity of solid knowledge of and prerequisite grounding in the Islamic disciplines for any Qurʾānic scholarship worthy of the name must be problematized as some unscholarly subterfuge designed to evade complexity. Alternately, IEQ is being reprimanded for too cohesive and straightforward a picture of the Islamic knowledge tradition and its contents: it should have indulged the market’s demand for peripheral themes, disharmony, absurdity. In the review’s penultimate paragraph he scoffs at IEQ’s sourcing methodology as a case of “the older the better” (p. 225 par. 2) after having previously made light of IEQ’s madhhab-bound sourcing as “slott[ing] into intellectual categories of later construction (Ashʿarī, Ḥanafī etc.)” (p. 222 par. 2): here IEQ is either antiquated or newfangled. The same paragraph shows his lack of understanding of scholarly khilāf as khilāf muʿtabar, not just any wild dissent and bizarrerie in the history of Islam.

Biased as it is, Rippin’s review is nevertheless helpful. He critiques from the very perspective that IEQ is warning against and which he insists is the only valid one. The pulpit of an Orientalism born out of medieval heresiography, morphing into missionarism then colonial littérature de surveillance then area studies still has its preachers to the choir; but from the perspective IEQ has defined as its own, such fault-finding is a confirmation that IEQ is on the right track. There is an Orientalist EI, an Orientalist EQ, now even a syncretist “Study Quran;” let there be a ʿUlematic IEQ as a work that keeps faith with the field’s oldest standards, a work that refuses to put everything on a par and in which there is a qualitative and epistemological differentiation between Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and 1,001 Nights! It is not all literature and intertextuality. Such is only one of many unsound doctrines of which it is hoped IEQ shall serve as the antidote of choice in our time.

Gibril Fouad Haddad

University Brunei Darussalam

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies