Arthur Jeffery (18 October 1892 in Melbourne, Australia – 2 August 1959 in South Milford,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

) was a Protestant Australian

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

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant a ...

from 1921 at the

School of Oriental Studies in Cairo The American University in Cairo (AUC; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة, Al-Jāmi‘a al-’Amrīkiyya bi-l-Qāhira) is a private research university in Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs ...

, and from 1938 until his death jointly at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

and Union Theological Seminary in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. He is the author of extensive historical studies of

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

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

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...

: 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 Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

) 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 Muhammad Mohar Ali ( bn, মোহাম্মদ মোহার আলী); 1929–2007) was a British Bangladeshi Islamic scholar, historian and barrister. He is the only Bengali to have received the King Faisal International Prize. A ...

'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 The Samarkand Kufic Quran (also known as the Uthman Quran, Samarkand codex, Samarkand manuscript and Tashkent Quran) is an 8th or 9th century manuscript Quran written in the territory of modern Iraq in the Kufic script. Today it is kept in the ...

'' *''Materials for the History of the Text of the Qur'an'' *''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