Arthur Jeffery (18 October 1892 in Melbourne,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

– 2 August 1959 in South Milford,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

) was a Protestant Australian

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

from 1921 at the School of Oriental Studies in Cairo, and from 1938 until his death jointly at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and Union Theological Seminary in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Jeffery was awarded a D.Litt. from Edinburgh University in 1938. He is the author of extensive historical studies of

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

ern manuscripts. His important works include ''Materials for the History of the Text of the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

: The Old Codices'', which catalogs all surviving documented variants of the orthodox Quran text; and ''The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an'', which traces the origins of 318 foreign (non-

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

) words found in the Qur'an. Some of Jeffery's studies are included in '' The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Book'', edited by Ibn Warraq. They are also discussed in Mohar Ali's ''The Qur'an and The Orientalists'':M. Mohar Ali, ''The Qur'an and The Orientalists'' p. 313 cited i
The Qur'an's Pure Arabic and the Presence of Foreign Words
by Ansar Al-'Adl

Books

Books by Arthur Jeffery include: *The Textual History of the Qur'an *The Mystic Letters of the Koran *A Variant Text of the Fatiha *The Orthography of the Samarqand Codex *Materials for the History of the Text of the Qur'an The old codices 1937. *The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an *A Reader on Islam

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffery, Arthur 1892 births 1959 deaths Australian Arabists History of Quran scholars Australian orientalists Quranic studies academics