The Qur’an has been transmitted as both a written text and an oral recital. This has led to the development of a reading tradition that permits numerous different vocalisations to be made upon the basic skeletal text of the established ʿUthmānī codex. Ibn al-Jazarī chose ten early readers whom he felt were most representative of this tradition and whose readings are treated as canonical up until this day. One of these, the Kufan linguist al-Kisāʾī has been characterised in the literature (...) as more focused on the grammar of the Qur’an than his reader peers. This article explores al-Kisāʾī’s process of ikhtiyār when deciding between various possible readings. The sample for analysis consists of Kisāʾī’s tafarrudāt, the approximately fifty cases in which his reading differs from the other nine readers. By comparing his reading with the comments of early scholars of Qur’anic linguistics, especially his near-contemporary al-Farrāʾ, it is possible to construct a typology of the suspected principal reasons for al-Kisāʾī’s tafarrudāt. Not only are many of these based on grammatical preferences, but they demonstrate a significant degree of consistency. Furthermore, analysis of a cluster of readings with implications for the interpretation of the sharīʿa provides evidence for a subtle exegetical dimension to al-Kisāʾī’s work as a reader-grammarian. (shrink)

Prácticamente ningún estudioso duda de que la llamada historia deuteronomista o “de la segunda Ley”, incluida en el corpus bíblico para configurar algunos de los principales libros que lo componen, fue redactada durante el exilio babilónico y revisada posteriormente. Y no se produce esa duda porque el estudio histórico-crítico del texto bíblico, así como el análisis histórico del periodo correspondiente, han venido a mostrar, que la compilación y definitiva puesta por escrito de los libros históricos de la Biblia tuvo lugar (...) en una época mucho más tardía de lo dogmáticamente establecido. Pues bien, similar método histórico-crítico se aplica hoy en día también al estudio del texto coránico, si bien con mucho menor seguimiento y aún rodeado de una serie de estereotipos narrativos asociados al dogma islámico pero que entre numerosos estudiosos no es menos dogmático. (shrink)