Corpus Coranicum From Philology to Literary Analysis: Critical Vision

Abstract

Corpus Coranicum is a research project launched in 2007 by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. This project has been the subject of different interpretations with respect to its objectives and context. While certain involved parties have envisioned a scientific breakthrough that will end with a critical edition of the Quran, and ergo aggravate Muslim antagonism toward the West, other scholars have not perceived any breakthrough or originality either in approach or vision. This project seems to be a type of digital treasury of the Western contribution to Quranic studies since the 19th century. It amalgamates classical philological investigations, material history studies (i.e., inscriptions, paleography, genealogy) and modern literary analysis. By evaluating parts of its published data, this paper aims to scrutinize the method, the epistemological premises and the rigorousness of this digital corpus. Regretfully, the results of this examination reveal that the Quranic variances database is so faulty that no reliable historical critical analysis can based on it. The process of collecting the textual material of the religious and cultural milieu of the Quran does not attend to hermeneutical questions, translation problems or double interpretation (i.e., the Quranic text and its parallel sub-text).