The dogmas of the divine origins of the Qur'an and the inimitable character of its language are firmly embedded in the Muslim faith - such that challenging them enters the realm of "unthinkable". However, the text has been variously interpreted and this book examines that interpretative tradition.

Contents: Introduction; Reflections on method in Qur’anic studies: The Qur’an as literature: perils, pitfalls and prospects; Literary analysis of Qur’an, Sira and Tafsir: the methodologies of John Wansbrough; RHMNN and the Hanifs; Reading the Qur’an with Richard Bell; Studying early tafsir texts; Qur’anic Studies, part IV: some methodological notes; Variants to the text of the Qur’an and their significance: Qur’an 21:95: A ban is upon any town; Qur’an 7.40: Until the camel passes through the eye of the needle; Qur’an 78.24: A study in Arabic lexicography; Muslim Reflections on the Qur’an: Tafsir; The present status of tafsir studies; Interpreting the Bible through the Qur’an; Ibn ’Abbas’s Al-lughat fi’l-Qur’an; Ibn ’Abbas’s Gharib al-Qur’an; Tafsir Ibn ’Abbas and criteria for dating early tafsir texts; Al-Zuhri, naskh al-Qur’an and the problem of early tafsir texts; The exegetical genre asbab al-nuzul: a bibliographical and terminological survey; Al-Zarkashi and al-Suyuti on the ’occasion of revelation’ material; The function of asbab al-nuzul in Qur’anic exegesis; Lexicographical texts and the Qur’an; Epigraphical South Arabian and Qur’anic exegesis; Indexes.