Open Access Edition of Creating the Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Study with Insights from Biblical Studies, Linguistics, Memory Science, Anthropology, and Radiochemistry by Stephen Shoemaker

FAIN: DR-285227-22

University of California Press Foundation (Oakland, CA 94612-3764)
Eric Schmidt (Project Director: July 2021 to September 2022)
Erich van Rijn (Project Director: September 2022 to April 2023)

University of California Press will publish the book Creating the Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Study with Insights from Biblical Studies, Linguistics, Memory Science, Anthropology, and Radiochemistry, written by NEH Fellow Stephen Shoemaker (NEH grant number FEL-267830-20), in an electronic open access format under a Create Commons license, making it available for free download and distribution. The author will be paid a royalty of at least $500 upon release of the open access ebook.

Associated Products

Single Publication (Open Access eBook or Collection)
Publication Type: Single Publication
Title: Creating the Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Study
Year: 2022
ISBN: 9780520389038
Publisher: University of California Press
Author: Stephen Shoemaker
Editor: Eric Schmidt
Abstract: Creating the Qur’an presents the first systematic historical-critical study of the Qur’an’s origins, drawing on methods and perspectives commonly used to study other scriptural traditions. Demonstrating in detail that the Islamic tradition relates not a single attested account of the holy text’s formation, Stephen J. Shoemaker shows how the Qur’an preserves a surprisingly diverse array of memories regarding the text’s early history and its canonization. To this he adds perspectives from radiocarbon dating of manuscripts, the linguistic history of Arabic, the social and cultural history of late ancient Arabia, and the limitations of human memory and oral transmission, as well as various peculiarities of the Qur’anic text itself. Considering all the relevant data to present the most comprehensive and convincing examination of the origin and evolution of the Qur’an available, Shoemaker concludes that the canonical text of the Qur’an was most likely produced only around the turn of the eighth century.
Primary URL: https://luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1525/luminos.128/
Primary URL Description: University of California Press’s Luminos
Secondary URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2tbwqhq
Secondary URL Description: JSTOR
URL 3: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780520389045/html?lang=en
URL 3 Description: De Gruyter
URL 4: https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Quran-Historical-Critical-Stephen-Shoemaker-ebook/dp/B0B13YBB27/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
URL 4 Description: Kindle
Type: Single author monograph

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