74857X1 University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill: 2011. 288 pages. Hardcover with dustjacket. Brand new book. How to Read the Qur'an offers a compact introduction and reader's guide for anyone, non-Muslim or Muslim, who wants to know how to approach, read, and understand the text of the Qur'an. Using a chronological reading of the text according to the conclusions of modern scholarship, Carl Ernst offers a nontheological approach that treats the Qur'an as a historical text that unfolded over time, in dialogue with its audience, during the career of the Prophet Muhammad. Ernst explores the history of the text and its development in the Meccan and Medinan periods; the Qur'an's important structural features, including symmetrical or ring composition; recent revisionist challenges to its textual integrity; and intertextual references in the Qur'an that relate to earlier works, such as the Bible. Featuring Ernst's illuminating new translations of 725 Qur'anic verses, close studies of numerous key passages, and appendices with tools to help readers work their way through the entire text, How to Read the Qur'an not only summarizes historical and literary issues but also engages with the religious and political context of understanding the Qur'an today. Carl W. Ernst is William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World, among other books. This will serve both as a fine teaching tool at the college or seminary level and as a useful resource for engaged nonspecialists, who will find it challenging but rewarding. - Library Journal Ernst offers this elegant guide on how to read and understand the text sacred to Muslims. - Publishers Weekly "This splendid introduction allows students to begin to understand and appreciate the role of the Qur'an for Muslims. Professor Ernst's unique approach provides a thorough overview of the scholarship--historical and contemporary, Muslim and non-Muslim--on the Qur'an." - Amir Hussain, editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This elegant book is a very useful guide to the study of the Quran. It represents a significant advance in making the Quran, as well as the scholarship on it, accessible to a broad readership." - Muhammad Qasim Zaman, author of The Ulama in Contemporary Islam $30.00USD
Click here to order or message the dealer