A linguistic, literary, and cultural analysis of selected chapters from the Qur'an.

In this course, students are introduced to the Qur’an, the foundational text of Islam. After a few background lectures dealing with its historical and linguistic context – including its unique orthographic features –, students undertake a careful, detailed, and analytic reading of selected chapters (suras), with special attention to language, style, and content. Students will become acquainted with fundamental secondary source materials that are essential to an adequate understanding of the Arabic text, drawing on both modern scholarly research and classical Islamic sources. In addition to increasing students’ mastery of Classical Arabic, this course will give students the ability to analyze critically the Qur’an’s original Arabic.