The History of the Qurn

The book under review was originally written in German under the title Geschichte des Qorans (The History of the Qur’an). It is the result of almost seventy years of high Orientalist scholarship on the Holy Qur’an. Geschichte des Qorans was originally Noldeke’s doctoral thesis, and in its revised form it won the prize of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres for studies presenting a critical history of the text of the Qur’an. Noldeke’s work was the first serious non-Muslim scholarly study of the Qur’an. By 1860,Geschichte des Qorans became a core text in Western universities for the study of the Qur’an. Its widespread fame meant that the publishers were keen to issue a second edition. But, in 1909, Noldeke’s eyesight deteriorated and he was no longer able to carry out extensive scholarly works. The baton was passed on to his student, Friedrich Schwally, who died not long after in 1919. The next to take on the task was Gotthelf Bergstraser, but he too died in a mountaineering accident in 1933. The much admired Otto Pretzl was the fourth scholar to take on this task and see to its completion. Although Pretzl saw the printed version of Geschichte des Qorans, he too was tragically killed in an aircraft accident.