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Corpus Coranicum (2007 - 2024) was a digital research project of the
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (), abbreviated BBAW, is the official academic society for the natural sciences and humanities for the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg. Housed in three locations in and around Ber ...
. The project made sources accessible that are relevant for the history of the
Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
. These primary texts include Jewish, Christian, and other textual remains from the world of Quran. To trace its oral and written transmission further, early
manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has c ...
of the Quran were catalogued and made available through the project’s
database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...
. A literary commentary on the Quranic text completes the project. Begun in 2007, the initial three-year database project was headed by two project leaders: Senior Professor of Arabic Studies
Angelika Neuwirth Angelika Neuwirth (born 4 November, 1943) is a German Islamic studies scholar and Professor of Qur’anic studies at the Free University of Berlin. Qur’anic education Born in Nienburg, Lower Saxony, she studied Islamic studies, Semitic studi ...
(Freie Universität Berlin) was responsible for the commentary. The research centre was managed by Michael Marx, who is
editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...
of the "environmental texts" and the text documentation. Since 2025, M. Marx has continued the adaptation, maintenance and digital publication of the databases under the roof of Corpus Coranicum e.V.


Research units and methodology

The project will document the Quran in its handwritten form and
oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...
, and include an extensive commentary interpreting the text in the context of its historical development.Corpus Coranicum
, retrieved 2010-02-07.


''Manuscripta Coranica''

In the M''anuscripta Coranica'', the earliest surviving handwritten witnesses to the text of the Quran are made available; in addition to images of the manuscripts preserved in
libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
and private collections worldwide, the database contains various
metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...
on the documents. This includes
palaeographic Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic discipline of historical writing systems. It encompasses the historicity of manuscripts and texts, subsuming deciphering and dati ...
and
codicological Codicology (; from French ''codicologie;'' from Latin , genitive , "notebook, book" and Greek , ''-logia'') is the study of codices or manuscript books. It is often referred to as "the archaeology of the book," a term coined by François Masai. ...
information,
provenance Provenance () is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including archaeology, p ...
, and current location (as far as known). Each entry displays the corresponding
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 ...
text of the 1924 Egyptian edition (Cairo) alongside the selected manuscript. Some 2000 pages are
transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...
in a markup system developed by the project. For date estimates of manuscripts, the project conducted
carbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was ...
analysis of more than 40 documents.


''Variae Lectiones Coranicae''

Since early Arabic texts are often ambiguous because the script contains no or few
diacritical marks A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...
(''
rasm ''Rasm'' ( ) is an Arabic writing script often used in the early centuries of Classical Arabic literature (7th centuryearly 11th century AD). It is the same as today's Arabic script except for the difference that the Arabic diacritics are omi ...
''), various interpretations of the Quranic text (variant readings) developed, some of which were subsequently treated as authoritative. These variants include consonantal mutations, and encompass the addition and removal of whole words. To follow the differences between the interpretations, the database ''Variae Lectiones Coranicae'' provides a synopsis of the readings used in different
exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (philosophy), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern us ...
traditions. Each word of a surah can be selected for this purpose and its variants displayed. Both catalogues together aim to serve the research of written and oral transmission of the Quran.


Cultural understanding

A database of diverse texts (including pre-Quranic, Jewish, and Christian texts) places the development of the Quran in the context of its spatial and temporal environment and intends to foster better understanding of the cultural and religious horizons at the time of advent of Islam. The chronological-topographical boundaries of the chosen texts can be linked to the
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
-centred concept of
Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...
. The project's research director, Michael Marx, told ''
Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' that the Quran did not arise in a vacuum, as for the sake of simplicity some western researchers had supposed. The Arabian peninsula in the 7th century was exposed to the great
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
and
Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the larg ...
s as well as the ideas of
Gnosticism Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: , Romanization of Ancient Greek, romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: Help:IPA/Greek, nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced ...
,
early Christianity Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the History of Christianity, historical era of the Christianity, Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Spread of Christianity, Christian ...
, the ideals of ancient
Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existe ...
and the ideas of
rabbinic Judaism Rabbinic Judaism (), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, Rabbanite Judaism, or Talmudic Judaism, is rooted in the many forms of Judaism that coexisted and together formed Second Temple Judaism in the land of Israel, giving birth to classical rabb ...
. Only in light of this world of ideas, Marx added, can the innovations of the Quran be clearly seen,Yassin Musharbash,
Die Klimaforscher des Korans
("Climate researchers of the Quran") in ''Der Spiegel'', 1 November 2007. Retrieved 2010-002-07.
and while parallels exist with non-Quranic texts, it is not a copy-and-paste job.Interview with Michael Marx
''Muslimische Stimmen'' (German, 440 kB) 14 May 2008. Retrieved 2010-02-08.


Commentary

The commentary focuses not only on individual problems but also includes form-critical analyses.


Research aids

A custom
font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...
was developed to correctly represent the languages in the digital publication: the "Coranica" Font. It is equipped with
glyph A glyph ( ) is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A ...
sets for Ancient South Arabian, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, etc (
Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...
).


Publication

The project publishes its findings digitally on their website, all content is made internationally available (
open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...
). Its databases use
SQL Structured Query Language (SQL) (pronounced ''S-Q-L''; or alternatively as "sequel") is a domain-specific language used to manage data, especially in a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is particularly useful in handling s ...
.


Project History

In many respects, the project integrates itself into the research tradition of the early 1900 German speaking
Oriental Studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studie ...
. Among other things, it uses the methods of
textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may rang ...
and engages with existing preliminary work, including that of
Abraham Geiger Abraham Geiger (Hebrew: ''ʼAvrāhām Gayger''; 24 May 181023 October 1874) was a German rabbi and scholar who is considered the founding father of Reform Judaism and the academic field of Quranic studies. Emphasizing Judaism's constant developm ...
, Theodor Nöldeke and Arthur Jeffrey. The point of reference remains the chronology as established by the inner-Islamic tradition.


Luxenberg debate

The preparatory phase of the project (2005-2007) coincided with the period of intensive discussions on the preserved Quranic text. In 2000, an author working under the pseudonym
Christoph Luxenberg ''The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran'' is an English-language edition (2007) of ''Die syro-aramäische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Koransprache'' (2000) ...
published a study on the Quran in which he re-interpreted various passages of the text using his own readings. His
hypotheses A hypothesis (: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific method, scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educ ...
, methodology and results met with widespread rejection in the research community, but the study was able to initiate a deeper discussion of the traditions of the Quranic text. Even before the project began in 2007, Neuwirth and Marx also commented on the assumptions postulated by Luxenberg.


Gotthelf-Bergsträsser Archive

A focal point of work in the area of text documentation is the digitisation and evaluation of the Gotthelf-Bergsträsser Archive. This source material consists of photographs of ancient Quran manuscripts collected before
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
by
Gotthelf Bergsträsser Gotthelf Bergsträsser (5 April 1886, in Oberlosa, Plauen – 16 August 1933, near Berchtesgaden) was a German linguist specializing in Semitic studies, generally considered to be one of the greatest of the twentieth century. Bergsträsser wa ...
and
Otto Pretzl Otto Pretzl (Ingolstadt, 20 April 1893 – Sevastopol, 28 October 1941) was a German Arabist- orientalist, who specialized in Koranic studies. From 1912 he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and in 1920 was ordained as a pries ...
. After the British RAF on 24 April 1944 bombarded the building where they were housed, Arabic studies scholar Anton Spitaler claimed the photograph collection had been destroyed. Towards the end of his life, however, he confessed to Neuwirth that he had hidden the photos for almost half a century, and Neuwirth assumed responsibility for the archive.Andrew Higgins and Almut Schoenfeld,
The Lost Archive: Missing for a half century, a cache of photos spurs sensitive research on Islam's holy text
, ''Wall Street Journal'', 12 January 2008. Retrieved 2010-02-07.
Although the photographs of the archive form an important part of the objects of study of the Corpus Coranicum, the research ambition of the project goes far beyond the
critical apparatus A critical apparatus () in textual criticism of primary source material, is an organized system of notations to represent, in a single text, the complex history of that text in a concise form useful to diligent readers and scholars. The apparatu ...
formerly envisaged by Bergsträsser. According to his paper on the matter, this was intended as a commentary on the Cairo edition (1924), in which traditional readings as well as manuscript variants were to be recorded in order to produce a secure text—in the sense of the historical-critical method. These plans never came to fruition.


Schirrmacher controversy

In 2007 journalist-publisher Frank Schirrmacher wrote an article for the
Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: , FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. The five-day annual event in mid-October is held at the Frankfurt Trade Fair grounds in Frankfurt am ...
suggesting that the Academy's preparation of a historically critical Quran edition had been motivated by Pope
Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, his resignation on 28 Februar ...
's ill-received
Regensburg lecture The Regensburg lecture or Regensburg address was delivered on 12 September 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg in Germany, which sparked international reactions and controversy. The lecture entitled "Faith and rationality#Vi ...
of 2006 and predicting that the Corpus Coranicum would spark similar outrage among Muslims, comparing it to the punishment of
Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titans, Titan. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking theft of fire, fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technol ...
for bringing fire to mankind. He was enthusiastic that the fruits of their research might even "overthrow rulers and topple kingdoms".Frank Schirrmacher
"Bücher können Berge versetzen"
("Books can move mountains"), ''
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...
'' Bücher, 10 October 2007. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
Marx promptly called the
Al-Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pr ...
television network to deny any attempt to attack Islamic tenets. Angelika Neuwirth demurred: "It would be quite wrong to claim triumphantly that we had found the key to the Quran and that Muslims for 14 long centuries had not." Instead, she and her colleagues have chosen a nonconfrontational approach that includes regular dialogue with the Islamic world and aims "to give the Quran the same attention as the
Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
." Michael Marx, Neuwirth and
Nicolai Sinai Nicolai Sinai (born 1976) is a German scholar of Quranic studies. He is a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Oxford as well as a Fellow of Pembroke College and the British Academy. Sinai's work explores the historical, literary, ...
spiritedly defended the project, writing that negative reaction to the papal speech should not be equated with
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic hostility towards a historical-textual or
philological Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...
approach to the Quran.Michael Marx, Angelika Neuwirth and Nicolai Sinai
"Koran, aber in Kontext — Eine Replik"
("The Quran, but in context — a reply"), ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', 6 November 2007.
In discussions with Iranian, Arab and Turkish scholars in
Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...
,
Qom Qom (; ) is a city in the Central District of Qom County, Qom province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. The city is ...
,
Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, Fez,
Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...
,
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
and
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
Marx, Neuwirth and Sinai had contended that even if one considered the Quran as the literal words of God, a contextual reading as a legitimate subject of historical inquiry could create a climate of healthy inquiry and debate among Islamic and non-Islamic researchers alike. The trio's letter also pointed out that the Corpus Coranicum project was in any case not directed to
Islamic fundamentalist Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a revivalist and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. The term has been used interchangeably with similar terms such as Islamism, Islamic revivalism, Qut ...
s, but to Germans and other Europeans.


Collaborations and public outreach


Student Humanities Laboratory

In April 2008 the project "Academy and School" announced that the academy's "Student Humanities Laboratory" had created a teaching unit on Quranic research. Through the example of one of the shorter ''
surah A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into ayah, verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' (al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while ...
s'', teenagers would explore the text through the tools of modern
philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
while experiencing it orally and through
calligraphy Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...
as well, with the aim of increasing the students' curiosity and scientific interest in the humanities during their transition to university.


References

{{Reflist


Further reading


Koranic Research: The Reader Maketh the Book

Bridging the Gap between Orthodox Interpretation and New Research

Corpus Coranicum: A digital landscape for the study of the Qu’ran


External links


Corpus Coranicum website
Works about the Quran Textual criticism Corpora Digital library projects German digital libraries