By the Pen and What They Write - Angelika Neuwirth

Scripture, Revelation, and Writing: The Qur’an’s Epistemic Recast of Arabian Late Antiquity The Qur’an, essentially the founding text of the religion of Islam, is rarely perceived in its more secular manifestation: as the document of a major epistemic shift of paradigm within Arabian culture. Not only is the ubiquity of Qur’an manuscripts almost immediately after the closure of the text amazing, but the Qur’an itself attests to a rapid adoption of the concept of writing as a means to authenticate its message. An assessment of the references to writing in ancient Arabic poetry and – for a comparison - an historical overview of the Qur’anic heterogeneous reflections on writing will throw new light on the earliest Muslim polity’s transition from ritual to textual coherence. Highlighting the complex theological debates surrounding the Qur’anic discourse of writing, this paper is meant to invite a rethinking of the position of Arabia within the cultural space of Late Antiquity. ANGELIKA NEUWIR