The historical development of the Qurán
This work does not profess to be the life of Muhammad. It is a history of the development of the Quran, showing how its gradual formation was determined by the events of the Prophet's life, Treated in this way, the Quran reveals his change of position towards the various classes of persons with whom he was brought into contact, and by the aptness of its injunctions, its apologies, its denunciations, we are enabled to see how admirably this ' piecemeal ' revelation was fitted to meet the requirements of Islam as they arose.
For the dates and the order of the Suras, or chapters of the Quran, I have followed Noldeke's Geschichte des Qurdns, which seems to me to be the best and most authoritative book on the subject. The following table shows the order in which Noldeke arranges the Siiras.
He divides the Meccan ones into three groups, the earlier-. middle and later periods, and places all the MaHma Siiras in a fourth group.
MECCAN SURAS. First Period. From the first to the fifth year of the Prophet's Mission. 612 17 A.D. 96, 74, 111, 106, 108, 104, 107, 102, 105, 92, 90, 94, 93, 97, 86, 91, 80, 68, 87, 95, 103, 85, 73, 101, 99, 82, 81, 53, 84, 100 ; 79, 77, 78, 88, 89, 75, 83, 69, 51, 52, 56, 70, 55, 112, 109, 113, 114, 1. Second Period. The fifth and sixth years of the Prophet's Mission. 61719 A.D. 54, 37, 71, 76, 44, 50, 20, 26, 15, 19, 38, 36, 43, 72, 67, 23, 21, 25, 17, 27, 18. Third Period. From the seventh year to the Hijra. 619 22 A.D. 32, 41, 45, 16, 30, 11, 14, 12, 40, 28, 39, 29, 31, 42, 10, 34, 35, 7, 46, 6, 13.
MADINA SURAS. From the Hijra to the end. 622 32 A.D, 2, 98, 64, 62, 8, 47, 3, 61, 57, 4, 65, 59, 33, 63, 24, 58, 22, 48, 66, 60, 110, 49, 9, 5.
In the quotations from the Quran, I have used the translations of Rodwell and of Palmer and occasionally that of Sale and that of Lane. I have also compared these with and made use of the Persian translations of Husain and of Shah Wali Ullah Muhaddas, and of the Urdu translation by 'Abdu'l-Qadir and that given in the Khulasatu't-TaMsir. I have consulted many commentaries in arriving at the interpretations I have given.
The commentaries, however, deal mainly with the elucidation of the meanings of words and phrases, and do not, as a rule, throw much light on the various readings of the text, or on the date of the Suras or their com. ponent parts. The spirit of the Higher Criticism has yet to be created amongst modern Muslim theologians. Their exegesis is traditional rather than scientific.
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