E.

Rezvan, 2011
And when Abraham said, 'My Lord, make this land secure,
and turn me and my sons away Irom serving idols;
my Lord, they have led astray many men.
Then whoso Iollows me belongs to me;
and whoso rebels against me, surely Thou art All-Iorgiving,
All-compassionate.
Our Lord, I have made some oI my seed to dwell in a valley
where is no sown land by Thy Holy House;
Our Lord, let them perIorm the prayer,
and make hearts oI men yearn towards them,
and provide them with Iruits; haply they will be thankIul.
Our Lord, Thou knowest what we keep secret and what we pub-
lish;
Irom God nothing whatever is hidden in earth and heaven.
Praise be to God, who has given me, though I am old, Ishmael
and Isaac;
surely my Lord hears the petition.
My Lord, make me a perIormer oI the prayer, and oI my seed.
Our Lord, and receive my petition.
Our Lord, Iorgive Thou me and my parents, and the believers,
upon the day when the reckoning shall come to pass.
Qur`n, 14:3541
1
Keith E. Small. 1extual Criticism and Qur'n Manu!
"#$%&'". Lanham: Lexington Books, 2011. 209 pp.
It is well known that the Biblical criticism, which
has accumulated the achievements oI semitology, clas-
sical philology, and many other felds oI humanities,
infuenced greatly the development oI Qur`nic studies.
It was the success oI German Biblical studies that led
to the pre-eminence oI German scholars in the study oI
the Qur`n (G. Flgel, T. Nldeke, F. Schwally, G. Berg-
stresser, O. Pretzl and many others), a trend established
in the nineteenth century. Forces and resources that Bibli-
cal Studies have historically accumulated and continue to
accumulate are incomparable to that oI Qur`nic studies.
For many decades the latter has been able to use meth-
odological approaches and achievements Irom Biblical
Studies to address its own critical problems. An excellent
confrmation oI this is a capital work oI Rev. Dr. Keith
E. Small, Visiting Lecturer and Associate Research Fel-
low at London School oI Theology
2
, dedicated to the
least-studied period in the history oI the Qur`n.
Until now the history oI the Qur`n's textual estab-
lishment has not been studied and described properly.
The research and fndings oI recent years convincingly
demonstrate that the works oI medieval Muslim authori-
ties as well as works based on them by European scholars
reveal only a part oI a signifcantly more diverse and con-
tradictory history oI the Sacred text's fxation. A discus-
sion oI J. Wansbrough's 'Qur`nic Studies: Sources and
Methods oI Scriptural Interpretation by such specialists
as A. Rippin, J. van Ess, E. UllendorI, R. Paret, L. Nemoy,
W. A. Graham, R. Serjeant, G. H. A. Juynboll, I. J. Bou-
latta, E. Wagner, K. Rudolph, and others
3
have shown
123
1
Translation by A. J. Arberry.
2
Dr. Small has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Britain and internationally. In addition to his academic credentials
he has nearly twenty years oI ministry experience to Muslims in the UK.
3
A. Rippin, 'Literary Analysis oI Qur`n, TaIsr, and Sra: the Methodologies oI John Wansbrough, Approaches to Islam in Reli-
gious Studies, ed. by R. Martin (Phoenix, 1985), p. 228, n. 4.
())* ,-./-01 67
that research based on the Muslim tradition is no longer
capable at present oI providing unambiguous answers to
questions connected with the early history oI the Qur`nic
text
4
.
We have pointed out several times that the main prob-
lem, in this connection, is related to
the Iact that the study oI the Muslim tradition took place in
isolation Irom the description and study oI actual Qur`nic
manuscripts. This gap led, in large part, to the methodo-
logical crisis which Qur`nic studies experienced in the
late 1970s and early 1980s. Moreover, a substantial num-
ber oI the Qur`nic Iragments which have reached us con-
tain unique inIormation on the initial period oI the Sacred
text's existence. It is already clear today that this true history
preserved by early copies will diIIer signifcantly Irom the
history which rests on the Muslim tradition and which was
summarized above
5
.
The book, which draws Irom the author's 2008 doc-
toral dissertation, is devoted to the thorough textual analy-
sis oI the Iamous Ibrhm / Abraham prayer (14:3541)
as preserved in twenty-two manuscripts, nineteen oI
which were copied during the frst Iour Islamic centuries.
Dr. Small managed to situate the manuscript evidence
alongside the inIormation provided by Islamic tradition,
and attempted to recover the earliest Iorm oI text and trace
the development oI the text Irom the rise oI Islam until
the 10th century AD. This was evidently the important
period when older copies that contained a by then unac-
ceptable number oI variant readings were being actively
removed Irom circulation. In most cases, they made their
way to special repositories in large mosques where they
slowly decayed. They could also be 'buried with a spe-
cial ritual
6
. In our view, the widespread disappearance oI
early copies took place not under the caliph Uthmn (at
that time there were only a Iew Iull copies oI the Qur`n),
but at the turn oI the eighth ninth centuries. Addition-
ally, copies created at that time with a minimal number
oI variant readings were preserved by the community Ior
many centuries. Such was the Iate, Ior example, oI the two
'Uthmnic Qur`ns (Irom Katta-Langar / St. Peters-
burg and Tshkent).For the goals oI his study Dr. Small
applies a methodology widely used in New Testament
criticism. He dates the manuscripts and gives descriptions
oI each, paying special attention to:
orthographic variants involving long vowels;
copyist mistakes;diacritical mark variants and vari-
ants aIIecting grammar;
rasm variants;variant verse divisions;physical correc-
tions to manuscripts;
discerning intentionality / non-intentionality in vari-
ants;
eIIects oI orality upon written transmission.
Greyscale images oI the Iolios under discussion give
a reader the possibility to compare the results oI the au-
thor's analysis to that oI his own. The author traces a sig-
nifcant amount oI al-qirat and in many places indicates
their origin. Texts and manuscripts comparison proves
once more that until the end oI the seventh century when
the Qur`n existed in both written and oral form the text
remained fuid.
In general Dr. Small brings new insights to the history
oI the development oI a standardized text oI the Qur`n. To
his point oI view the early edited Iorm oI the consonantal
text which we have does not provide the possibility oI re-
covering 'the original Iorm. Dr. Small stressed once that
the primary task in New Testament textual criticism has been
to recover one text Irom among many to recover the frst
published text oI each New Testament book Irom among
the textual variants and text-types that have accumulated
throughout the history oI the transmission oI the text. The
primary task in Qur`nic textual criticism, as practiced his-
torically in Islam has been instead to justiIy one Iorm oI the
text against many others. These eIIorts to establish and justiIy
one text Irom among a group oI collections oI material, both
oral and written, has resulted in irreparable loss oI the earliest
authoritative Iorms oI the text. The entire shape oI the text oI
the Qur`n shows it to be an intentionally developed text
7
.
His book shows once more that only the joint eIIorts
oI palaeographers, linguists and historians, the careIul de-
scription and study oI extant manuscripts (in the frst place
the Qur`ns Irom an`, Or. 2165 Irom the British Library,
the Istanbul and Cairo collections, also Irom the St. Peters-
burg collections), the completion oI the Iantastic Sergio
Noja project
8
and the creation oI a data-base oI early copies
9
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4
H. Motzki analyzing Muslim tradition on Qur`nic text fxation with the help oI isnad-cum-matn approach was able to bring out
clearly groundlessness oI main Western methods oI criticizing basic elements oI Islamic tradition devoted to the history oI Sacred
text fxation (see: H. Motzki, 'The Collection oI the Qur`n: A Reconsideration oI Western Views in Light oI Recent Method-
ological Developments, Qurnic Studies on the Eve of the 21st Centurv (Indonesian-Netherlands Cooperation in Islamic Studies,
1020 June, 1998, Leiden), pp. 127). Thirty fIty years, the time passed since the events had taken place, constitute necessary
but enough period to transIer actual knowledge into historical one.
5
See Ior example: E. A. Rezvan, The Qurn of Uthmn (St. Petersburg, Katta-Langar, Bukhara, Tashkent) (St. Petersburg, 2004),
p. 108.
6
J. Sadan, 'Genizah and Genizah-Like Practices in Islamic and Jewish Traditions, Bibliotheca Orientalis XLIII/12 (1986),
pp. 3658
7
K. Small, Holv Books Have a Historv. Textual Histories of the New Testament & the Quran (USA, 2010), p. 78
8
Earlv Qurns. The Era of the Prophet, the Right Guided Caliphs and the Umavvades (Noseda Foundation, Italy).
9
See: E. A. Rezvan, 'The Qur`n: Between Textus Receptus` and Critical Edition`, Les problemes pose par ledition critique
des textes anciens et medievaux, ed. by J. Hamesse (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1992), pp. 291310. A similar database (SIar-data) oI dat- A similar database (SIar-data) oI dat-
ed Jewish manuscripts, emerging within the Iramework oI the Jewish Palaeographic Project under the direction oI ProI. Malachi
Beyt-Arie,has convincingly demonstrated that this is not merely an ordinary computer catalogue, but a powerIul tool Ior research.
68 !"#$%&'()*" ,'(-#*".(". VOL. 17 NO. 2 DECEMBER 2011
can provide us with objective material Ior reconstructing
the early history oI the Qur`n.
In the fnal analysis, it is only with such eIIorts that
we will succeed in drawing closer to reconstructing the
real history oI the Sacred text, a history which maniIested
itselI in the struggle and collision oI various opinions and
which ended with the aIfrmation oI the Muslim canon.
The work oI Keith Small seems to be an important step
to the goal.
This September I took a copy oI the book, kindly sent
to me by the author, in an expeditionary trip to Kazakh-
stan to the area oI the ex-Soviet nuclear test site. Here in
the Iormer exclusion zone one can fnd a cave, which Ior
centuries was revered as sacred at frst by local Buddhists
and then the Muslims. At the airport, in the hotel, on a halt
in the desert I was preparing notes Ior a review, which was
about to be published in the latest issue oI our journal Ior
the year. UnIortunately, the book copy as well as my notes
disappeared while returning along with part oI the expedi-
tion luggage. I ordered a new copy oI the book and next
year will supplement this brieI review with new observa-
tions and suggestions.
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