Work · Philosophy in the Islamic World
The Concept of the Text
A study of the classical Qur’anic sciences: the Qur’an is a message in the Arabic language and culture of its time, and the text and its culture shaped each other.
Introduction
The Concept of the Text appeared in Cairo in 1990. Abu Zayd re-examines the classical Qur’anic sciences (ʿulūm al-Qurʾān) – the occasions of revelation, abrogation, the distinction between Meccan and Medinan verses – and shows that they already took the historical context of revelation into account. The Qur’an, he argues, is a text in the Arabic language and culture of its time; it was shaped by that culture and in turn transformed it. The book was cited in the proceedings against him and became a central text of modern Qur’anic hermeneutics.
Connections
Taken up in
- Critique of Religious Discourse1992 · Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd
More works by Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made