The Ma‘ānī al-Qur’ān of al-Farrā’ or theology tempered by philology

What is it about?

The Ma‘ānī al-Qur’ān of al-Farrā’ (d. 207/822) are the masterpiece of what is called Koranphilologie in German. This philology is based on: 1) a careful examination of the Koranic ductus (rasm); 2) the readings (qirā’āt) of this ductus, both those which will be considered later on as canonical or non-canonical; 3) the possible recourse to other codices (maṣāḥif), those attributed by the Islamic tradition to ’Ubayy (d. between 19/640 and 35/656) and to Ibn Mas‘ūd (d. 32/652-3). As a result, this philology notes that the Koranic language often deviates from the classical norm and proposes explanations that deserve to be taken into consideration by the linguist of today. Four examples are given here: 1) Cor. 20, 63 ’inna hāḏāni la-sāḥirāni; Cor. 76, 31 wa-l-ẓālimīna ’a‘adda lahum ‘aḏāban ’alīman; 3) the question of ’alif appearing in words considered in classical Arabic as diptotic (salāsilā, qawārīrā, Ṯamūdā, Miṣrā) and 4) the question of the lack of hamza.

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